isabel

Has any one flown the Italian airline AirOne (flyairone.it) from the US to Europe? I flew with them within Italy a few years ago and they were fine but now I see they have flights from the US, and in fact they have had the lowest price for a flight I'm looking at for next summer (Boston to Athens). And that price just dropped $300 (down to $1175). I'm just wondering how they are for a transatlantic flight, and how secure the airline is in general (given the economy, etc and the fact that the flight isn't till next summer). Thanks

kerouac

All I know is that about six months ago, they were the ones who were supposed to buy Alitalia, but now they appear to be out of the loop for that deal.

zeppole

http://current.newsweek.com/budgettr...es_fly_to.html

Weekender

AirOne is a Star Alliance partner.

amyb

I was booked on AirOne Bos-Rome in October and 3 weeks before I was leaving I found out through an internet forum (not the airline) that they had dropped the Boston routes, so in the end, no Roman vacation for me!

I am sure they are a great, solid airline with a long-standing positive history within Europe (which is why I booked with them) but I would use caution with the Boston routes since they don't seem to have much confidence in them...

DalaiLlama

It's a moot point now, the route map for international flights on www.flyairone.com shows no transatlantic flights.

Weekender

DalaiLlama:

Check your website again. AirOne flies ORD/MXP. Flight #20/21. Airbus 330 service.

dfr4848

Dalai - then why does the home page of their web site offer non-stop flights from Chicago to Milan with continuing service to other cities?

kerouac

They are probably in a codeshare agreement with another Star Alliance member.

rogeruktm

lima is often confused IMO

dfr4848

kerouac - that thought occurred to me. But schedule says its an AP flight (#21) on A330, and no mention of code share. And I know of no other Star Alliance airlines that fly non-stop ORD-MLP.

Weekender

Flights are operated by Air One:



United 9458
Operated by: Air One Depart: ORD 4:55 PM
Arrive: MXP 8:35 AM
Arrives next day
Nov 23 Non-stop
8h 40m
Airbus A330
4,523 miles traveled Fare basis code:
HEENR
Booking class: H
Economy
Award miles
Dinner, Breakfast Seats:N/A
Select seats

Flight details
--% On-time
4523 miles traveled
[Dinner, Breakfast]
Economy
0 Award miles
Availability
Wed, Dec 10, 2008 - Milan, Italy (MXP) to Chicago, IL (ORD)
United 9457
Operated by: Air One Depart: MXP 12:00 PM
Arrive: ORD 2:55 PM Non-stop
9h 55m
Airbus A330
4,523 miles traveled Fare basis code:
HEENR
Booking class: H
Economy
Award miles
Lunch, Refreshments Seats

yk

isabel - Can you tell us what kind of routing you are seeing on the flight you're considering?

Boston to Athens?

DalaiLlama

No Air One flights from the US - not really, in name only, the few that still are listed as Air One are United or US Airways flights and planes. So what's the point? Just fly with those under their real names and code numbers, or with any other "real" airlines that you know, and use Air One in Europe if it happens to be convenient.
Check out the Air One website and read up on the partner airine arrangements.

isabel

Thanks for all the replies. I've been searching using Kayak since the summer and AirOne has consistently been the cheapest, but as I said, it was running about $1450 until this morning when it showed up at $1175. It includes a change of planes at MXP (Milan).

When I first started searching when I went directly to the the AirOne site it showed the flights from Boston to Athens (via Milan) and listed the price in euro. At the time, with the exchange rate it did turn out to be about $1450. When the exchange rate got better a few weeks ago, I went to their site again (since it was still $1450 on Kayak) but now I couldn't get the transatlantic flights. That's still the case.

But as of a few minutes ago on Kayak, and on Orbitz, and CheapTickets - they all list a flight from Boston to Ath via Milan for approximately $1175. All on AirOne. No other carrier is even close. USAir and most of the others are well over $1600.

So clearly the AirOne deal(I guess I don't care who actually flies the plane) is the best. But I want to be reasonably sure that they will actually fly the flight.

amyb - what happened in your case? Did they offer you any alternatives? Did they give a reason? Did you at least get a refund? Your story obviously has me quite concerned.

DalaiLlama

I strongly suggest to give up on this AirOne idea. Untied gets you there for $1138.70, with one connection in each direction.

Not knowing your exact dates I can't seem to find the Milan connection both ways, only on the way back.

I pic at random 7/7 and 7/23 and on Kayak I see AirOne BOS-IAD-FCO - really 2 United flights, 6412 and 6400, then FCO-ATH with Aegean Airlines, and on the way back ATH-MXP with Air One and - after a night's stay-over in Milan, MXP-BOS listed as flight 18 of AirONe - but the AIrOne website has no such flight.

i other words - too many question marks, too risky by half, and it costs you a night in a hotel in Milan (unless I'm not seeing what you're seeing).

Why don't you book the entire trip with United and its partner Lufthansa? You can do it for $1184.0, with two connections outbound and homebound, at convenient times, with enough transfer time, and without the need for an overnight stay anywhere:

(Again - on my randomly chosen dates of 7/7 and 7/23):

2:36PM BOS-IAD (United 823), 5:50PM IAD-FRA (8826-LH) ar. 7:30AM, 9:15AM FRA-ATH (3380-LH).

1:55PM ATH-FRA (LH3381) arr 4PM, 5PM FRA-IAD (United 933) arr 8:05PM, 10:12PM IAD-BOS (United 898)

You can do it even cheaper, like $1138.70, but the transfer times get a bit short for my comfort.

isabel

I have no idea how you are getting those prices. The dates I was searching were June 27 and return July 18, but for the sake of comparison I put in the dates you used of July 7 and 23. I get AirOne as cheapest with fare of $1162 on kayak. United doesn't show up at all. So I went to United's site and got a fare of $1753. Then I thought maybe you mean book flight to Rome and separate flight to ATH, so I tried Bos to FCO and get prices of $1195 on AirOne (on Kayak), nothing on United.

Believe me, if I could find flights from Boston to Athens for $1184 on United and Lufthansa I'd do it (even though I usually try not to do two connections, I would to save that amount of money). But I can't make those fares come up. How are you doing it?

amyb

isabel, I got a full refund, no questions asked. I was meant to fly Bos to Milan to Rome and back, all on AirOne, and they refunded all of it. They just stopped flying Bos to Milan in early October. I am not sure if it is a seasonal stoppage or not and whether it will pick up again next spring/summer.

I was surprised they didn't offer me a similar flight on a code share partner, but that was not even an option. It was basically "here's your money" and that was it.

I just wish they'd cancelled it in time for me to still find another decent fare.

yk

isabel - Are you sure the Air One flights you saw on Kayak are bookable? when I click on it (the $1175 one you saw), it sends me to AirOne's website, and there's no way I can select BOS-ATH on the pull-down menu.

Weekender

In spite of what Dalai says, Air One flies out of Chicago to MXP using it's own A330 aircraft. I saw a routing from Boston-Milan via Chicago which doesn't make much sense.