jacketwatch

I have heard this airline is in financial trouble. Any opinions on this and their service and reliability would be appreciated. Larry

almesq

do a search here and in the airlines forum and you'll find plenty of remarks. As for their financial problems, the recent deal in which they were bailed out by the government will keep them going. It's likely they'll be around for a while. You'll see both good and bad remkarks about their service. I'm taking them next month so I'll post back. Got a good price, they fly new 777's between NY and Italy, with personal video at each seat, so I chose them.

Eloise

It's true that the financial deal with the government will keep Alitalia flying for the foreseeable future, but since the airline must cut costs drastically, I think it is likely that the unions will use work stoppages and slowdowns to protest against possible layoffs.

nonnafelice

We flew Alitalia twice because we booked their package vacations, which can offer some good deals. The first time everything went fine. However, after our last experience, I've decided never to fly them again. We lost a whole day of our vacation in Venice due to an Alitalia strike -- and believe me, you do NOT want to spend a day at the Malpensa airport in Milan. Then we spent the whole week worrying about whether we would get home again because the strike schedule was so nebulous, with on-again off-again reports for the day we were due to leave. (Fortunately the scheduled strike was called off at the last minute.)

I can't help wondering if the Alitalia financial problems don't bear some relation to the Italian tradition of "sciopero" -- that they must be losing bookings from people like me. Even though Alitalia is the only airline I can fly nonstop from Boston to Italy, I won't ever book on them again.

Shanna

Hi - as of last week, the companies that sell travel insurance don't have Alitalia listed as an airline likely to go belly-up so I think they're safe for a while. It is however on the list that delays or cancellations because of strikes won't be insured. It isn't just now - it's always. I was told all gov't run airlines are on that list. So, here's hoping they don't strike - I'm scheduled to fly them in October. We shouldn't criticize unions for striking - if we don't mind our Ps & Qs, Americans will all have to join unions just to survive.

nonnafelice

I'm not at all anti-union, but strikes in Italy are very different from the kind of strikes we see in America. As far as I can tell, the Italian sciopero is sort of an extra vacation day for many workers. They don't even seem to be tied to demands, or if they are, they don't really expect to get whatever it is they are nominally asking for. It's just part of the culture. Every so often they decide to strike. The strikes are scheduled some time in advance, and are set for a definite time. So the week we had such a bad experience was the "black week for travelers" -- all the travel workers were going on strike in a staggered fashion.

One day the airline crews would strike for some predetermined number of hours. Then, no matter what happened, they would go back to work, and the next day it would be the trains, then the buses, etc. But at the end of the preset time the specific strike would end. So what is the point of a strike if people know it will end after X number of hours? It doesn't seem to me that anyone has any expectation that it will change things -- it's just part of the Italian way of life.

And I don't really mean this as a putdown of the Italians. I love most aspects of the Italian lifestyle. I suppose if you live in Italy you learn to roll with the punches and just deal with the strikes. But I don't want to let them ruin my vacation if I can possibly avoid it! That's why I said I won't fly Alitalia.

There is a web site where you can check the schedule for strikes. I don't have it bookmarked on this computer, but someone can probably post it.

jacketwatch

Iway its a crapshoot. You can catch a good airline on a bad day and it seems to reflect on it as a whole. We took BA once and all 4 legs of the flight were at least 3-4 hrs. late but yet overall BA is well regarded. I looked into airlineequality and actually Alitalia is rated 4 * overall( the only 5 * airlines are Air Quatar, Singapore and Cathay Pacific) and has many positive comments by former passengers. As they seem to be financially secure for awhile perhaps we'll check them out. I look for other info and thanks to all who replied to my ?. Larry