ALITALIA    Passenger Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

ALITALIA customer review :  20 November 2009 by Sean Redmond   (Malta)

A dreadful airline. Barcelona-Rome-Palermo - that was the plan! Flight from Barcelona cancelled because of strike in Rome. In fairness they did put us up in a hotel. However on arrival on Palermo, no suitcases. Not just me but about 30 other passengers! Two days later still waiting! Never again.

ALITALIA customer review :  11 November 2009 by S Van den Berghe   (Belgium)

BOS-FCO-BRU: easily one of the worst flights I've had in years. First leg of the trip was 2h45 late (no reason, weather was excellent), so instead of connecting with the 9am flight to Brussels, I ended up arriving in Brussels at 6pm. Service was pretty much non-existent throughout the trip: after distributing the "food" (which was even to airline standards poor), the cabin crew disappeared. I ended up looking for a drink four hours later and was directed towards a cart to "get my own drink, we're busy chatting". Poorly maintained and dirty planes. One good thing though: the atmosphere was pretty good, as most passengers thought the service was so poor it was almost funny.

ALITALIA customer review :  28 October 2009 by P Dawkins   (USA)

Do not plan on getting anywhere on time with Alitalia. I was scheduled to fly Geneva-Rome- JFK. The Geneva-Rome flight was 1.5 hours late. Hence missed the Rome-JFK connection. Was put up overnight as a consequence and sent to Milan from Rome to pick up a JFK connection there. That flight was late, but they held back the JFK flight for us (about 1 hour delay on that flight as a consequence). Felt sorry for all the passengers on that flight who had been waiting without any air conditioning turned on. Looked like some of them might pass out at a moments notice. Of course my bags were lost. The phone number for Alitalia is on a permanent message. It all seems pretty hopeless. If you have a direct flight with Alitalia then it will probably be OK although expect to be late. If you have connections through Italy then make sure you have at least 3-4 hours between connections as I have gathered from my own experience and that of other travellers that their flights are usually an hour or more late.

ALITALIA customer review :  26 October 2009 by Emile Bernard   (France)

FCO-JFK-FCO B777-200. Staff friendly and helpful, aircraft clean, inflight entertainment efficient and relaxing, one screen for each seat. Food not bad for an economy class. In the return flight the crew gave us further pillows. Departures and arrivals on time.

ALITALIA customer review :  21 October 2009 by B Raat   (Netherlands)

AMS-FCO-GRU. B777 which is only 7 years old, looked like it is never maintained. Seat does not recline. All D and G seats have a video unit under the seat, this means you cannot stretch both legs. The B777 is used for long haul flights, which means twisted legs on arrival. A lot of entertainment units did not work. My entertainment joystick, that of all the three in my row, were joined together with ducktape. All crew members seemed not to like there work and were very unfriendly. The food I dont even want to talk about. Concluding as a platinum member of Skyteam, (80+ flights a year) but never, never have I had experienced such a poor airline.

ALITALIA customer review :  19 October 2009 by R Czepukojc   (UK)

AMS-LIN-LHR in Y. Which airline in their right mind still flies the MD Super-80? Claustrophobic, uncomfortable, rickety and brutally noisy, these were flights back to the old days when you knew you were on a plane. I know Alitalia is suffering, like the rest of the airlines, but paying full-fare Y for this service was truly awful.

ALITALIA customer review :  14 October 2009 by D Lee   (Canada)

YYZ-FCO and return. Excellent counter service at YYZ. Aircraft old, tired and poorly maintained. Onboard service was poor - crew served what they had to and then said (in effect) "we are done, you can get your own drinks from now on". Bathrooms were not maintained and disgusting. FCO facilities and service are extremely poor. No jetway - had to disembark via stairs and bus to terminal. FCO is a joke - 2 passport control officers for 3 international flights all landing at the same time.

ALITALIA customer review :  14 October 2009 by Gordon Kynaston   (UK)

Business class Milan to Sao Paulo overnight in a 777 with cradle seats. The plane was old and shabby (an overhead locker was held together with duck tape). The food was poor (although well presented) and wine was dreadful. Staff friendly and helpful, although they did all disappear during the night. Flight departed on time and arrived early. The less said about the two-hour wait in line at immigration the better.

ALITALIA customer review :  13 October 2009 by I Feinstein   (USA)

JFK-MXP-JFK in Y class. Ground staff sufficiently friendly and helpful. Cabin crew friendly and drink and food service was timely. JFK- MXP was on a B777 which has seen better days- in seat entertainment system did not work, seemingly for half of the plane and the plane seemed poorly maintained in general, though it was decently clean and the seats were relatively comfortable. MXP-JFK on a B767 - my seat did not recline, with the button missing- I asked to be re-seated and was promptly moved by an FA to another seat. Food on both legs was above average and subjectively better than some other airlines. Overall, a decent value for the money- flights arrived on time, baggage was not lost and the staff were decently friendly. Would fly again.

ALITALIA customer review :  30 September 2009 by Kevin Werner   (USA)

NYC to Milan and Rome to Chicago this month. We booked our tickets four months ago. On both flights, our seats were reassigned and our group of four was seated apart from each other. The customer service was completely missing. There was no agent at the gate in Rome until 5 minutes before boarding was to begin. When they did show up, they couldn't care less about anything any customer had to say.

ALITALIA customer review :  9 September 2009 by M Toesl   (Israel)

Tel Aviv-Miami. Plane old and shabby, upholstery didn't fit seat, sat on the seam with a headphone connection that had been pulled out of seatrest and never fixed. Food poor, stingy portions and fairly tasty at best. Blankets thin, bathrooms not cleaned, cabin crew friendly enough but overworked and as the trip wore on, they becAme a bit grumpy. Seat very uncomfortable. Baggage arrived on time. On return from JFK, the screens in the entire row I was in didn't work - so once again, no inflight entertainment. Cabin was very hot and when we complained, the stewardess said that someone was cold so "What can I do?" even though everyone around me was literally sweating. The same dirty bathrooms and old planes. First and last time my family and I will fly Alitalia.

ALITALIA customer review :  9 September 2009 by A Tavsanoglu   (UK)

For €584 Istanbul - Catania return we received a small pack of biscuits and small can of coke. I have never experienced receiving a duplicate boarding pass of an existing passenger on the same flight. In short, two people had the same seat and same name on the boarding pass. How is this possible?

ALITALIA customer review :  8 September 2009 by Gino Baldassarini   (Venezuela)

CCS-FCO-Palermo return. No problems with luggage, staff friendly and helpful with my two children. In the long range flight the food was acceptable, and service good.

ALITALIA customer review :  4 September 2009 by Cindy Kiselak   (USA)

JFK to FCO to Catania economy and Catania to MXP to JFK business. My departing flight left 2 hours late from JFK due to bad weather. I had to sit in the plane during this delay with no air conditioner. Requested indian vegetarian meal which given to me and it was edible. Good selection of movies and nice crew. Missed the connecting flight to Catania. Once I entered the terminal there was an Alitalia staff member there waiting for people who had the connecting flight to Catania, and we were rebooked us for a later flight. This flight left an hour late. My return flight from Catania to MXP left on time. Given a drink and snack. MXP to JFK was excellent. Nice FA's hand out reading material, drinks, headset and toiletry set before take off. Given a snack of mixed nuts and choice of drinks before meal. Meal consisted of 2 types of pasta, meat, fish, selection of warm breads, cheeses, fruit and dessert. Hot towels also passed out. Snack before landing. Luggage wasn't lost either.