AirItalia-is it bad?
 

I have read some negative things about this airline. What are your recent experiences?
Thanks.

I was pretty nervous about my first experience with Alitalia before my departure last fall. But I was pleasantly surprised. Overall, I give them a thumbs up. They certainly are not any worse than any of the other carriers.

The worst thing about flying with Alitalia is that you can't seem to select your seats beforehand. You may very well wind up separated from your travel companion, as I was.

But the planes that depart from JFK are new, with personal video screens. The staff (which I had read would be rude beyond belief) were all pleasant and nice. The food was pretty good; head and leg space average. No luggage was lost, ground personnel were nice.

Personally, I spent a lot of time reading horror stories about Alitalia before I flew with them. Then I noticed horror stories about every other airline as well - the bad experiences are out there for most carriers, if you are looking for them.

I'll second faredolce's review of AirItalia. We flew from New York to Rome in 11/04 with them and found it no better or worse than most airlines now days.

Any time you fly in cattle class (like us)legroom is going to be in short supply and if your lucky the food will be edible. But just remember the reason your on that plane, hopefully your going somewhere to enjoy. Just keep telling yourself - "It's not the transportation, it's the destination that's important."

Have a great trip.

Karl

They are as fine as any other arline in economy. You cannot select your seats if you are on an Alitalia flight operated by Delta...at least that is what they tell you at first. If that is the case, call Delta and see if they can assign seats to you bforehand.

I'm kinda surprised all those "we almost died on Alitalia" Fodorites haven't swamped this post. The last time I flew them I would agree that they were no better or worse overall in Economy than any other airline I've flown on recently.

I honestly think if you search far enough you'll find someone who has had a "bad" experience on almost every airline.

And now it is <b>your</b> turn: your post will get a lot more credibility if you tell us just what those &quot;negative things&quot; you have heard actually were.

I travelled from London to Naples two years ago. The departure was late. Our bags didn't arrive when we did. They caught up with us two days later. Everything inside was soaking wet. We suspected they had been left standing on the tarmac in a heavy rainstorm. We got nowhere with claims for compensation.

I flew Alitalia JFK-FCO 2 yrs ago and thought it was fine. Two thumbs up for the personal video screens with movie choice; I can't sleep on planes hardly at all, and so enjoyed the opportunity to watch a classic James Bond film. :-)

My checked bag did miss my connection, but that was Delta's fault (Delta operated the ATL-JFK flight) not Alitalia's. Alitalia did everything they could to get my bag to me asap, sending it right to my hotel in Bologna once it arrived.

Do you know what air - hostess say
A L I T A L I A means... Always Late In Transit, Always Late In Arrival, and thats their staff!!!!

Flew Alitalia 11/05 Chicago/Milan/Venice and return. Was also worried after hearing so many negative comments.
Was pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the planes and the pleasant staff! Better all-around than American.
I too was concerned that I could not chose seats online, so I called the 800 number and they were more than helpful in helping me with seats.

ducks53...take a look for yourself
http://www.alitaliasucks.com/

BeachBoi,

I not an apoligist for AirItalia, only used them once, but there could be a similar website for every airline. Really don't think they are any better or worse.

ducks53
If your still looking at this post I would really advise finding the best schedule for the price and using that airline (assuming your not trying to build up frequent flyer miles on some carrier).

Wow! I have to say I am surprised that Alitalia has such a bad rap (or does it?). We flew Alitalia from JFK to Europe last summer (we were in Business class however) and it was great. Now, I've never flown business (or first) class before, so maybe I was just impressed by that. No problems. Now...AirFrance? That's a whole other story!!! I'll never fly on them again!

hello...

just got back actually from Alitalia trip from Rome about three hours ago. We had absolutely no problems with them. I have to admit I was so worried because of all the previous posts on lost baggage, bad service, etc. etc. that I purchased a better travel insurance.

However, everything went very smoothly for our flights into Milan and out of Rome (from and to NYC). I do have to say that our first airplane was very standard without amenities such as a tv. It was an older plane and very cramped. On our return trip, the plane was new and had much more legroom and it also had a multimedia tv set with a lot of different entertainment options.

I would say that they are no better or worse than any other airline out there. Happy travels...

No better and no worse than anyone else - except when, as happens fairly often, they go on strike.

This web page &lt;http://www.seekitaly.com/news/from_r...ml#strikes&gt; is usually up to date, so if you book a flight which looks as if it's going to be affected by a strike, you could try to rebook...

best regards,
Deirdr&eacute; Straughan

beginningwithi.com

We've flown Alitalia a couple of times. With no problems. I thought that it was fun to have a little foreshadowing of Italy on the plane - the flight attendants, food, etc.

There are lots of postings about strikes, though I don't have any personal information about that.

Okay, goody I get to be the dissenting voice today. Good natured me had a bad experience last summer flying Airitalia from Washington DC to Milan. First, there was a young man who was bumped from another flight and was told to stand in line for our flight. He was behind us, we witnessed the whole thing. They were unbelievably rude to him. At one point they started talking in Italian. Little did they know he was bilingual and understood it when they said they didn't want to put him in first class, LOL! They made him wait and wait till the end and never apologized to him. We stood in line thinking we might miss our flight while nobody checked about 10 of us in.They finally packed us in shuttles and made us wait out there forever for no reason. On the plane, they ran out of chicken and only had fish. Fine for me, not everybody else. Food was awful. No TV screens in our seats. Loud people, got no sleep, attendants also loud and interrupting us several times. Rudest airline workers I've ever experienced. In Milan, got rudely treated at the train station- we were sure glad to get out of Italy and in Switzerland. I won't fly them again if I don't have to.

Alitalia has ceased to be a real option on the long haul flights from Europe to Australia via Asia. Competition from excellent airlines such as Singapore and Emirates, as well as Thai, Cathay and Qantas was too much for their quite casual level of service.

I flew Alitalia from Dublin to Rome in Oct 2004. Both flights were fine. No problems at all--except the security line at the airport in Rome, which has nothing to do with the airline.

And employees at the train station in Milan have nothing to do with Alitalia either.

A few people I know have not enjoyed Italy or Italians, but very few. So it appears Italy is not suitable for everyone.

Alitalia is not the airline it once was, and they no longer fly out of SFO. Lots of problems financially with Alitalia, the employees are stressed and worried. But that is true with most (not all of course) airlines in this day and age.

When was Alitalia ever an option for Europe-Australia flights? @-)

But it's true that AZ has basically pulled out of Asia. I remember seeing their planes at HKG when I grew up in Hong Kong. But they've stopped flying there for a while.