maitaitom

In trying to book a flight from L.A. to Rome this winter, it seems the only fares that won't cost me an arm and a leg involve a leg (no arm) or two on Alitalia. I recently saw one post that the flight from JFK (where I hate to change planes, but where my cheapest fare takes me first) to Rome was pleasant. Have any others flown Alitalia lately? Thanks.

susanna

We fly from SF and always switch at JFK, I think it's a piece of cake, especially on the way home, great quick customs.

I've had such a bad experience with Alitalia that I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, not matter how cheap the fare is, and I'm all about cheap fares! My bad experience included Alitalia flying with the cock pit door OPEN, after 911, and when it was brought to their attention they pulled the curtain so we couldn't see. I won't even mention that for that one trip, two legs each way, they switched our itinerary at least a bazillion times.

Maybe someone has more current info for you.

LoveItaly

I haven't flown on Alitalia for ages. A long time ago they were a wonderful airline.

None of my Italian friends in Italy will fly on Alitalia if they have any choice in the matter mait. Some of them do not have a choice if they are flying on company business.

Marianna

I'll let you know how it is next week.

galelstorm

maitaitom-we leave on Monday from SF on Alitalia so I'll let you know in a few weeks. I have read the horror stories here but it wasn't until AFTER I booked my cheap flight. Yes, they have changed our itinerary a gazillion times and yes, we stop in JFK too. We got the tics for under $1000 each and since my son's cost us around $1400 last year I went for it. I booked way back in January because I wanted to plan our lodgings etc.

maitaitom

Marianna and gale,

Thanks. I wish you well and look forward to your Alitalia reviews.

CarolA

Have you headed over to www.flyertalk.com and scanned the Alitalia board there? Might be useful!

mamawood2000

Our experience with Alitalia was a very positive one. No frills, but they were very nice, roomy seats.

maitaitom

Thanks mamawood for giving me some hope if I have to fly them. Welcome to Fodor's.

Marianna

Well, we are in Rome now and wanted to report back to you, maitaitom. All went well with Alitalia! The seats we were assigned to about 3 months ago were not changed (they were changed once in April and again in June) at the last minute as my husband said they would. The flight left almost on time, food was okay and seats were fine with plenty of legroom. It was a comfortable flight!

Have a great trip!

LoveItaly

Hello Marianna, it is good to read that your Alitalia flight went well! It sounds like Alitalia has perhaps improved which if so is good news. Enjoy every precious moment of your time in Italy.

maitaitom

Thanks Marianna!!

Marianna

Just flew back home on Alitalia and the flight was fine. I had confimred our flight and seat assignments 2 days before leaving. We again had our selected seats when we checked in.

It was a slightly different Boeing 767 than the one we had going to Italy. That one was named Amerigo Vespucci and seemed slightly roomier and newer. However, it was a good flight with decent food - salmon appetizer, cheese and crackers, a very good dinner roll and beef stew. Later they served a rosemary foccacia cheese sandwich with a delcious slice of cake with a pear filling. They frequently came by offering drinks including red and white wine.

The only thing that wasn't pleasant was that a bathroom went out of order which caused an over use of the others. Also attendants do not check bathrooms for toilet paper or clean up if they notice that passengers did not dispose of used paper towels or were just plain slobs in the bathrooms. It always surprises me how people do not care how they leave the bathrooms - do people do the same things at home?

All in all, Alitalia was fine.

maitaitom

Thanks for he info Marianna. Hope you had a great trip!

Marianna

It was wonderful! Hope you enjoy yours as well.

Ann1

AirOne took over Alitalia. AirOne is an excellent airline BUT I have had so many really bad experiences on Alitalia that I will still never fly them again. If you're flight is good, then you're fine. If they lose your suitcase or an airport closes for renovation(yes, literally, Perugia closed) or if they decide not to fly out of an airport like Dulles, don't expect to have any and I mean ANY customer service from Alitalia. No they won't notify you of any cancellations. They won't answer phones, etc, etc. We were on one of the last flights out of Dulles. We had a mess of a time changing tickets for our return. We met passengers on our flight when we were changing in Milan. They were going to Venice. They didn't know they didn't have a flight home until we told them!!! No one told them when they checked in. When they went to a desk in Milan they confirmed they didn't have a flight home but refused to do anything.....They had the consierge at the hotel take care of it. I can't step on Alitalia planes again.

travelgourmet

<i>AirOne took over Alitalia.</i>

Not really. What happened is that a holding company was created that bought out the assets of Alitalia and also bought Air One.

This did nothing to correct the real problems that Alitalia faced: belligerent, entitled employees; old fleet; weak route network; an albatross for a brand; etc. More importantly, the "sale" process was a sham, with the government constantly sticking its nose in where it didn't belong. The "new" Alitalia will be just as bad as the "old" Alitalia - designed to be a jobs program and government sinkhole, not a top-quality airline.

All that being said, Alitalia does have some things to recommend it. The most important is that their reputation is so bad that nobody wants to fly them. As a result, their planes are maybe 20% more empty than the competition. For me, a bad empty plane is better than a good full one.

Marianna

Ann1, sounds like your Alitalia experience was awful. We had some not so good experiences (like no one answering the phone) in years past on Alitalia so we were happy that this one went so smoothly for us. I even contacted Alitalia quite a few times during the months since we made our reservation and, although there may have been a wait, someone always answered the phone and my questions so I have no complaints about that. The flight attendants onboard were all polite, patient, happy and helpful.

We did notice two female gate agents, one at Logan Airport and one in Rome, who were rude and bossy to the people waiting to board. Some people were trying to board before being called so that made the Logan person upset so she spoke to them in a loud voice. In Rome the agent yelled out for the 200 passengers to "make a line" because a lot of people were trying to get closer to the door to board the bus.

As for no one wanting to fly Alitalia, our flights were totally filled - not an empty seat on either flight.

I know Alitalia has lots of problems so maybe we were just lucky that it went so well for us.

merckxxx

I personally don't know how service personell who deal with "modern" people every day, day after day, ever remain polite as so many manage to do so well. I happen to go to a gym where most of the young(ish) men are Italian (2nd Gen.) and they need their mommies to follow them around and pick up behind them - cannot return weights to shelves even right in front of them, cannot turn off the shower after use or even flush the urinals (at all- seems to be out of style) and leave garbage wherever it happens to fall. The funniest thing is that when their cel phones ring in the locker room, it is nearly always Mama - even when they are 30 yrs. No wonder Alitalia has problems.

jantorome_1

Can anyone advice me on the carry on requirements on Alitalia airlines. I booked before I read all the horrible reviews of Alitalia. We were planning on taking just a carry on size (45 inches total for height, width and length)pretty standard. But Alitalia's website says that you can only have 5 kilograms of weight which would be about 11 pounds. Sounds unresonable. So we will have to check our luggage and everyone says that Alitalia losses your luggage! If anyone has flown this airline recently can you let me know what you can take with you on board. Thank you.