Air Berlin
 

Am not familiar with this airline at all. Trying to get to Florence from JFK which requires
at least 1 stop & Air Berlin keeps popping up. Should I buy a ticket or look elsewhere?
thanks in advance for any advice.

I've never flown them, but comments posted here on Fodors tend to be generally ok about Air Berlin. One complaint seems to be about legroom.

You can fly non-stop Pisa to JFK on Delta. Pisa airport is an easy 1hr direct train ride from Florence.

Thanks J62

airberlin is the 2nd largest German carrier, after Lufthansa.
Don't expect any spectacular, but also not much drama.
But I often find their legroom slightly more cramped as others. Probably a non-issue for people less than 6'2" tall.
You can check Seatguru before you chose a specific seat.
The connections via Düsseldorf are quite convenient as it is an easy to handle airport without any rocket science involved to change planes.

As others have said, Airberlin is a fine airline though I have only flown them short haul in Europe. Connecting in DUS couldnt be simpler, if that is an option take it. Otherwise connecting in TXL (berlin) is fairly easy and short distances, just not a very nice terminal.

Legroom can be tight but service safety and pleasantness of flight the same as any major carrier

Flew them VCE to TXL and onward; first flight delayed; missed connection, next flight out was full, waited 5 hours in, as said above, not the most interesting terminal. They also lost my bright blue plaid Bric bag. Got it a few days later.

Had I only known it would be 5 hours I would have loved to go into Berlin and look around and come back.

That said, the actual flights were adequate.

We flew Air Berlin LAX-DUS-MXP and returned Milan-Berlin-Los Angeles. Seats a bit cramped but the flight was no better or worse than "name" brands. We saved at least $400.00 pp. Would fly them again. No issues, flights were on time.

Thanks all!