Alitalia

Madrid to Rome with Alitalia. Complimentary sandwiches, chips and biscuits apart from beverage, wine/beer. Warm Purser and FA in charge and a lady Captain. 5 flight attendants in total for 186 seats. A 25 minutes delay in take off (landed on time) and the A321 interior dated. No inflight entertainment or wi-fi. Lavatories need an update and the seats are the original ones with just a recent leather cover. Many of the problems of Alitalia resides in Rome FCO Airport structure and hub. Often times planes (especially EU flights) are parked quite remotely due to lack of bridges. The airport looks more like a bus terminal, with hundreds of vehicles/buses travelling in and out and only one runaway for take offs. Minimum (if you are lucky) luggage recollection time is 30 minutes after landing. Baggage belts are a mess, with the same belt serving 6 flight at the same time.

Paris to Cagliari via Rome. A new aircraft I believe with nice seats and very clean. Staff nice and smiling. Service has changed with a small sandwich and choice of drinks. Arrival at Rome and bus to the terminal, however faster than before. Gate for connecting flight to CAG reached in 5 minutes. Flight from Rome to Cagliari was pleasant, no snack only drinks.

My flight Rome to New York JFK with Alitalia was an unsatisfactory experience. I upgraded to premium economy which provided me with an aisle bulkhead seat. The legroom was great, but I have never had such a narrow airline seat in my life. I am not a huge person, but the seat was uncomfortable, worn, and too narrow. The flight left about an hour late. The food (dinner and a snack) was inedible. The dinner claimed to be lasagne and the snack was a roll up with indeterminate ingredients as a filler. I ate neither of them, nor did anyone else I saw. They were not forthcoming with water or drinks in general, but did leave some out at the rear of the plane so one could help themselves. Upon arrival at JFK, when my husband and I tried to recheck our bags through to our home city, their companion airline (Delta) told us that the flight we had booked had been cancelled for over 2 months. We were never notified (they admitted this). Our new flight was to be 5 hours later than the first, however, Alitalia had neglected to check us into the flight when we checked in in Rome, so our seats had been given away. This necessitated a desperate taxi ride across the Van Wyck in Brooklyn trying to catch a flight at LaGuardia. Alitalia provided a taxi voucher - that was all. I have learned my lesson and will never fly with them again.

Athens to Brussels via Rome, and Alitalia service was adequate. We faced no delays, no baggage problem, some hand luggage problem was dealt professionally on board. Inflight meals were medium. But with the price of tickets you pay, you can't expect anything more. Generally, if you are ready to lower down your inflight demands, it's no problem to fly Alitalia, at least on short haul flights.

Flew Alitalia from Rome-Buenos Aires and back. Check in was easy and fast and I had the chance to change flights for free, while with some companies you have to pay a fee. Both flights were on time and pleasant. Very good food and cabin staff always available. I was pleasantly surprised.

I had to get a last minute flight from Rome to Cairo from Rome and my only option to fly direct was Alitalia. Plane and staff were fine. The food included only one option - cheese and veggie sandwich unless you'd indicated other while booking (i.e. seafood), no later than 2 hrs before the flight. Like a friend of mine later told me "You don't eat with Alitalia."

I was originally booked on Alitalia premium economy but was downgraded to economy because of a five hour strike, which delayed my trip by one day. Also, I had to pay 30 euros for the luggage since I was downgraded. The Alitalia staff were very unhelpful and didn't seem to care I was delayed one extra day and they made me feel if they were doing me a favor. Of course, no compensation, hotel, food, or anything. They did offer a partial refund with a seven week wait time. The airplane was dirty, old, with terrible seats. The inflight service was average and coffee stale.

Toronto to Rome, check-in went smoothly. Then staff told me that I would have to check my rolling carryon, because the flight was full and space would be limited for the overhead bins (and I had a backpack and a laptop sleeve so they wagered I would take up too much space; understandable). I was afraid that I would never see my bag, again, but I left it as instructed. It was one of the first bags on the carousel and I even got a smiley-faced greeting on the back of the tag that Alitalia had placed on the bag after checking it, through. We left half-an-hour earlier than planned, and the flight was smooth. The plane was clean, with pillow, headphones and blanket supplied. Being economy class, it was pretty cramped and uncomfortable with moving/reclining. We were given a meal during the first two hours of the flight (rather delicious) and a danish with coffee, juice etc towards the end of the flight. The crew were helpful and while they weren't as smiley as I am used to flight attendants being, they were not rude and inconsiderate, nor did they neglect passengers. My experience with this airline went against every single negative note I've read about them.

Tel Aviv to Miami via Rome with Alitalia was one of the worst flights I've had on a major international carrier in a long time. I had checked in online. When arriving at the airport the line for people who had done this moved significantly slower than the one for people who hadn't. Checked luggage - they made me check a very small carry on bag with sensitive photography equipment against my will because it was slightly over their carry on bag weight limit. The case would have fit under my seat and contained very nice equipment which I wanted to safeguard. I explained this to no avail. This cost $100. Service on board - flight attendants were extremely rude. It felt like they were doing the passengers a favor by serving food and drinks. Seats are very uncomfortable at best. The meals are 0 Star, the worst airline food I have ever had. Most people around me couldn't stomach the potato salad they served for lunch. I have been better treated and served on European low cost airlines than on this flight. I will not fly Alitalia again

Brussels to Cairo via Rome with Alitalia. Boarding at Brussels Airport was smooth. I had done check in online and I went straight to the baggage drop off counter. Flight to Rome departed on time, airplane was clean and staff nice. They served a sandwich and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Only drawback was the transfer to another gate at Rome Airport which was very painful and stressful. The flight to Cairo also departed on time. Staff was attentive and kind. They served a cold dinner, flight was smooth and arrived in Cairo on time.