blackjack44

Alitalia used to fly out of Melbourne a few years ago but I think now it only code shares. We flew business in the late nineties Melbourne to Rome and it was a very ordinary experience.

sage2k6

my experiences with alitalia is that if you're connecting to alitalia, it's a bit iffy. my friends were supposed to meet me in rome with a connection in frankfurt, they were scheduled to arrive 2 hrs before me, but ended up getting there 4 hrs after because they were late getting to the connection. I flew luftansa, and had no problems getting into rome.

Neil_Oz

I'm surprised that nobody's noticed that a poster calling herself 'tribi' has posted a query with the identical wording about Air France. Also that 'ducks53' didn't refer to Alitalia but to Airitalia. ducks53/tribi appears to be a troll, albeit a relatively harmless example of the breed.

GSteed

AirItalia or Alitalia? Air travel experiences can be quantified using a simple equation. Ticket Price equals Customer Comfort. We flew with Alitalia from Warszawa to Milan and then to Chicago. We had seats in the back of the plane. We had booked late and for a low price. Service was sufficient, and we stayed on time. I called Alitalia in the US and they gave us seating in the front of the ecomomy/tourist section. We left Chicago on schedule and our luggage (at limits) awaited us in Warszawa. We had mileage credited to our Delta accounts. It was posted without incident.

DeirdreStraughan

Troll or not, the replies are useful.

I might add that, on one of my trips from Italy to India a few years ago, I had an option to take Lufthansa through Frankfurt or, for a lot more money, a direct Alitalia flight. I took Lufthansa.

On the return, waiting in Delhi airport for my Lufthansa flight, I noticed that the Alitalia flight was six hours late!

best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

beginningwithi.com

faredolce

I am bringing this back up to the top to report that I am flying with Alitalia at the end of the month.

I called them to see if I could select my seat in advance, and they were very nice and helpful, got myself and my companion exactly the seats we wanted, and I am very pleased.

I will report back as to how my flight goes!

Midnightsun

Last summer we flew Alitalia from Chicago to Milan, then Milan to Rome. We were using their business class; we had many Continental points which we were unable to redeem on Continental, but we could redeem them on Alitalia. I was a bit concerned by all the negative reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised, and I don't think it was just because we were in business class that we got good service because the folks in the terminals were quite helpful as well. The plane was a bit old (no individual screens even in business class), but the seats were quite comfortable. The food was excellent, and the service was very attentive. Since we'd had a long wait in Chicago (no fault of Alitalia, we'd had to come to Chicago from North Carolina and didn't want to risk what would have been a very tight connection), my wife had checked on our bags before we boarded the flight to Milan. Maybe this was because the last time we'd flown to Italy our bags had been lost for about 36 hours, although that was thanks to Delta and Air France. Anyway, one of the gate attendants couldn't find one of the pieces in the system. She made many calls, took down our hotel information, and told us who to contact in Rome. As it turned out, the bag had been mislabeled but was still on our flight, so the worries were for naught. On the return journey, when we had a very tight connection in Milan, we got some help in getting through a few slowdowns by another attentive gate attendant. Who knows, maybe when you're number 222, you try harder, but I had no unkind words for Alitalia in the summer of 2005

LoveItaly

It is nice to read some good comments about Alitalia because I use to love their airline. And then it got rather bad wherein even my friends in Italy did not like flying with them.

So maybe things are looking up..I hope so.

mcnyc

I had 1 great experience with Alitalia, and one not-so-great experience.

The good: they were very attentive to my mother's needs as she has a hard time walking. They felt like they couldn't do enough for her. We loved their food, their individual in-flight entertainment screens, etc. When they went on strike on our return flight, the nice Alitalia agents sent us on the first flight out...on Air France. This was back in 2003.

The not-so-good: July 2005, our luggage was lost during a long layover in Milan, hanging out there for over a day which resulted in us not seeing 1 luggage for over a week (we were on a cruise), and the remainder after we returned home. Their service was still otherwise very good. Lost luggage, when they finally answered their calls, were extremely helpful. The flight attendants were very nice in aiding my elderly family with their needs. The food was good, the service was a little lacking as we got on the flight a day AFTER their strike. My only request at this point is that they return my phone calls regarding my reimbursements for items we necessarily had to purchase when our luggage was lost.

Overall, I would fly them again. My dad's a little gun-shy at this point, and my mother refuses to fly them until they answer our letters (with which I agree). They certainly aren't any worse than other carriers. In fact I would say their customer service is better overall.

Then again, the same can be said of all European carriers in my experience.

nospam

1. I have used Alitalia for three return trips from North America to Italy in the last 6 months.
2. In terms of service, Alitalia is quite average -- not significantly better nor significantly worse than others. I did witness one screaming match between a passenger and a flight attendant. Apparently the passenger was trying to get his cold dinner warmed up, and the flight attendant, in his big booming voice, advised the entire cabin that since he (the attendant) was Italian, he knew food and that the dinner was warm enough and he could either eat it or go hungry. I also recall asking for a cup of coffee and being told that their machine was broken, only to see the flight attendants sitting in the back having coffee 20 minutes later. Finally, I recall an above head compartment NOT being closed properly and getting hit on the head with a heavy piece of luggage during takeoff. My surrounding passengers were quite alarmed and yelled for a flight attendant, and no one came. Thankfully, I have a hard head and when it was safe, I actually had to get up and close the overhead compartment to prevent more stuff from falling on me. During this, one of my fellow passengers went and got a flight crew attendant and told her what happened. She only shrugged, and picked up the luggage and threw it in an empty toilet (thus blocking the toilet for the rest of the trip). Sigh.
3. The service, of course, depends if you actually GET the flight off the ground. I have had my flight outright cancelled without warning (unknown reasons), and delayed for two days due to a strike. So, I left and arrived on time only once out of three flights.
4. I won't fly with them again. Good luck if you do...