Chris Lalor Flew From: Brussels, Belgium To: Newark, New Jersey in April/2006 in Economy Class
I flew in economy BRU-FCO-EWR and back. The flight from Brussels to Rome was on an MD-80, aircraft well turned out, on time, good snack, a nine out of ten for this segment of the trip. Within an hour of landing we were boarding a 767-300ER to Newark, the plane was about 60% full, and I managed to get the centre row all to my self. The flight was about 30 minutes late in departing but the journey was very relaxed, food good, no skimping on the alcohol and 2 films to watch.
On the return leg the ticket stated a 17.45pm take off while the TV monitor and check in desk said a 17.25pm departure, I know 20 minutes isn’t much but if you get held up for any reason this could have been a missed flight. We boarded on time onto a 95% full 777-200ER. The seat given was 15D, an isle with the entertainment box taking more than half the leg room and at 6ft 3 inches this isn’t funny. After take off I got a bulkhead seat unfortunately it was the one next to the emergency exit with the inflatable slide so there was a big plastic bubble taking up the leg room, in the end I fixed it myself by finding one of the few seat rows with only one passenger. Take off was delayed by about 50 minutes due to air traffic congestion. The cabin staff were pretty off hand and disinterested and could use some training in customer service and motivation, I guess being government employees with jobs for life this is impossibility. The precarious state of the Airlines finances probably tells it all.
We landed at Rome and again within 60 minutes I could board the Brussels bound flight, this was a repeat of the 1st flight so pretty good all round, once again with an MD-80.
To summarise, Alitalia have good aircraft, efficient check in staff, are competitively priced and the short haul flights lack in nothing. On the longer haul flights however there is a lot of work to do before they can hope to compete with Continental, BA or Lufthansa, let alone the likes of Qatar, Singapore or Emirates. Being in business myself I find it hard to understand that if you know that there are very successful competitors out there why you don’t just copy them, with the stricter EEU rulings on state aid for airlines Alitalia won’t last in its present state in a “real” open market. |
david katzen Flew From: istanbul -Rome To: miami in May/2008 in Business Class
Lost my luggage. They promised to deliver it to my home the next day. They did not call . They did not deliver my luggage. I called the lost luggage department in Miami. They did not answer and their message box was full so I could nort leave a message. I called reservations who did answer but refused to track my luggage. I still have not receive it. Antiquated plane. Movie/music sound garbled.Everything dubbed into Italian. Business class Ist-Rome a joke. Worse seats than most airline's economy. Rediculously bad food in business |
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