planes/airlines to Italy
 

I'm about to book a flight for Italy later this spring. I've found comparable deals on nonstop flights to Rome with American (767s both ways) and Alitalia (777s). The impression I get is that service is better on American. What I'm particularly curious about is whether there's much difference in the types of planes. Can I assume that both will be relatively new? Does one model have a better safety record than the other? Is one more comfortable? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

With the rumors flying around the precarious financial position of Alitalia, you can choose (what might be a) greater risk of their cancelling your(? all?) flight(s) - - versus fearful perceptions of other potential customers, which could result in more empty seats (thus, more room to spread out; less cramped feeling - - I assume that your comparable deals are both in economy).

Best wishes,

Rex

I thought I read something yesterday (in the NY times online?) that Alitalia needed help from the government or would be out of business in a month. But hey half the US airlines have all sorts of financial woes.

AA's 767 has a little more legroom than most airlines in coach, throughout the cabin. However, there's no individual screens on AA's 767.

Not sure if Alitalia's 777 has personal video monitor or not, but most airlines' 777 do.

Another consideration is frequent flyer miles. You may be able to earn miles on AZ towards DL or CO's FF program (depending on the fare class you're paying); and of course AAdvanatage miles on AA.

The 767 is smaller, and assuming that you will be flying coach, no individual screens on AA 767. I'm not sure if Alitalia 777 has individual screens, but I will assume they do. Both models are very safe. Either one is fine in that respect. AA has "more room throughout coach", which will give you about 2-3" more space. For me, this feature is a deal maker or breaker, considering the trip takes 8-10 hours. Service will be about equal, so will the food. I'm not sure about Alitalia, but AA wlll charge you for alcoholic drinks in coach.

One important factor to consider. Alitalia is going through some rough times. I don't think they will go into bankruptcy, but there is a possibility. They are also famous for having frequent labor strikes. Especially now that the airline is trying to cut back wages, the strikes may become even more frequesnt.

Whatever you decide, sign up for the airlines frequent flyer program. With AA you could become the lowest elite with one European trip. Do a search with my name as I recently explained how to go about it to somebody else. I will try to link the thread with a follow up post.

Have a great trip!

Corrections to previous postings: Alitalia 777s do have individual TV screens. You can no longer receive any frequent flier milage on Continental by flying Alitalia. Delta awards milage for flying Alitalia.

Here is the link to the thread I talked about. If you choose AA read my post on that thread explaining how to achieve status on AA with this one trip.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgTopFr...=2&start=0

The post is about half way down.

Nothing came up when I clicked on that link. Can you copy and paste?

sera,

That's weird. Anyway here is the post:

Ok class, have a seat and listen :-)

Challenges are based ONLY on actual flown miles, no other miles are applied towards a challenge.

Just to confuse you a bit, challenges are based on points, NOT miles. It's not as bad as it sounds.

Here is how you get points:


Deep Discount economy- .5 point/per mile (Fares booked in G, L, N, and S)
Discount economy class - 1 point/per mile (Fares booked in H, K, M, Q (except American Airlines transatlantic fares booked in Q), W, and V)
Full Fare economy, business and first class get 1.5 points/ per mile

Remember - only the class purchased counts, not the actual class flown (if you got an upgrade for example), So if you purchased economy and got upgraded to business you still get economy points.

Ok, here are the requirements for challenges:
Gold - You need 5000 points in a 3 month period
Platinum - You need 10,000 points in a 3 month eriod.

So basically if you fly economy, you would need 10,000 miles for Gold and 20,000 miles for Platinum in a 3 month period. Obviously if you were purchasing higher fares it will require less miles.

So, for example, marcy could possibly do the challenge for Gold in one trip to Europe if she is able to squeeze out 10,000 miles (creative routing sometimes helps ). If she did IND-ORD-FCO, I believe it should be just right on the dot.

You have to call AA Customer Service, be AAdvantage member and ask for the challenge you want to do. You will have to pick a start date (either the 1st or 15th of any month) and you will have 3 months to complete it. Do NOT sign up for Platinum thinking that Gold will be automatic if you don't make Platinum. There were reports that you could sign up for both at the same time, but more than not you can't.

One very important fact. If you do the challenge during the first 1/2 of the year, your new status will only be good till end of Feb of the following year. If you complete the challenge during the second 1/2 of the year (you actually have to start no earlier than 7/15 to qualify for this) your status will be good till the end of Feb of the year after the following.
The thinking is, that if you completed the challenge early, the miles sill count towards regularly obtained status, so you have plenty of time to renew your status before the end of the year.

The perks:

Gold - check-in at business desk wherever possible, regardless of class of service.
1.25 miles per each mile flown
Ability to pick exit row seats during reservation.
24 hour upgrade clearance if available
Few other things.

Platinum - Check-in at the First class desk wherever possible.
2 miles per each mile flown.
Free access to Admirals Clubs and other partners clubs when traveling interntionally.
Same seating perk as Golds.
72 hour upgrad clearance if available.
Few other thing.

Ok, class, dismissed.

Hope this helps and if you have any questions just ask.

Soomewhat moot now, since the entire lesson has been repeated here, but the thread (URL) that AAFF was trying to cite is: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34488098

That "other" URL is simply the Europe forum.

Best wishes,

Rex

AA Frequent Flyer: Thanks for posting that information!

Not sure about Alitalia's financial situation - but I certainy wouldn;t fly American for its service. I can't imagine that there's an airline anywhere in the known universe that has worse service than American.

After reading these posts about Alitalia and the possible financial shutdown and I scared. I have a flight from Dulles to Rome and back entirely on Alitalia at the beginning of May. Having never flown a foreign carrier before, I was wondering if I should be freaking out about this? Should I cancel my plane tickets and buy something slightly more expensive on a different airline? I am fast running out of time.

elena - Don't worry. Alitalia is not shutting down in May. You will get there and come back safely.

I just saw that the European Commission had okayed a continued alliance with Alitalia and AirFrance.

Yes, I read that AF/AZ story as well. Beyond that (and maybe less important now?), see my update on http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34489333

A story on the denial of the "month deadline"... here is its first sentence...

"The chairman of Italy's state-controlled airline Alitalia on Monday denied saying that the airline had no more than one month of life left unless the government intervened."