Alitalia

Roundtrip Rome to Buenos Aires with Alitalia. Cabin crew very friendly and efficient (on the return flight a lady felt unwell, the pilot asked if there was a doctor onboard and fortunately there was, and the crew managed the situation). In forward flight (night) they served snacks, hot dinner with two choices, breakfast. In return flight, hot lunch with two choices, dinner, snacks and breakfast. Plane was clean and seats comfortable. Personal entertainment at each seat. Both flights departed and landed on time, in return we arrived 30 minutes early.

Madrid to Sofia via Rome with Alitalia was a mixed bag. MAD to SOF the usual indifferent service by Alitalia's surly flight assistants, and a delay of about 40 minutes. When asked whether I will be able to make the connection was told "you will, all of our flights are late today". Rome airport is a complete nightmare and that alone is a reason for not flying Alitalia again. On the way back however it was a different story. Flight assistants were very friendly and helpful and the food while nothing to write home about was much better. Flights departed on time and landed earlier than expected. I give it a rating of 6 because of the second helpings of pasta, the constant drink offerings and the competitive business class fares

Rome to Toronto. We paid for Premium Economy but Alitalia changed to a plane which did not include the Premium Economy option. They promised our travel agent to refund $134 per person after we traveled. Two months later they still have not refunded the money. Alitalia don't take calls about the matter and have not contacted us or agent, despite repeated emails and calls.

I have recently flown with Alitalia from Venice to Abu Dhabi with an Etihad ticket (the entire trip was VCE-BKK via AUH). But on this review I want to focus on the VCE-AUH route operated by Alitalia. The aircraft was a new A330, very nice and elegant cabin interior. The seat was confortable and aircraft was clean and tidy. In flight entertainment was good with a great selection of movies. What really disappointed me was the food and bevarage service and the crew. Staff onboard was not friendly. During boarding they were too busy to talk each other to have the chance to greet customers. Meal service began 1h 40 minutes after take off (on a 5h 50 minutes night flight!) Food was not good at all - I would say disgusting. The last service was a breakfast served 40 minutes before landing. Cabin crew rushed with their trolley through the cabin in order to finish the service on time prior to landing not giving the customers even the chance to realise that breakfast was being served. It goes without saying that between these two services cabin crew disappeared completely! Toilets after 5 hours flight were in a mess and very dirty.

London to Tokyo via Rome with Alitalia, and I was pleasantly surprised. The cabin crew were friendly, and seen a lot during the flight. The seats weren't very comfortable (especially with the headrest pushing your head forward) and the planes were rather old, but the inflight entertainment worked fine and they had a wide selection of films to choose from. The food service was plentiful but not very nice (pasta was hard and chewy) and drinks were left at the back of the plane so passengers could help themselves during the flight. Just make sure you don't sit in a window seat or either of the middle seats in the middle block, as the entertainment systems are stored at your feet which severely impacts your legroom. We paid £400 for return flights from London to Tokyo, which was remarkable value for money and if it meant paying so little, I would travel with Alitalia again.

Alitalia has antiquated rules on personal electronics and headsets. They need to keep up with the times. And for the price they charge for tickets (not the price of low cost carriers), they really should provide competive beverages (ie. Wine, they are Italian after all!). Not competitive as an airline at all. And the toilets could use a good clean.

Leaving from Paris 15 min delay we arrived in Rome on time with full access to the finger. The departure gate for the connecting Alitalia flight to Palermo was reached in 5 minutes. Flight to Palermo also ok and arrival only 5 minutes late, which is a very good average for the last flight of the day. Staff great and and new livery planes.

I had the worst customer service experience ever. Beware of Alitalia online booking because they hide lots of onerous conditions in some small print behind the main screen. I accidentally confirmed a london-milan return flight and realised the wrong departure date. I called the customer service immediately and they ignored it saying it was my fault to chose a tariff that does not allow changes and morover if you do not use one leg the other leg becomes void. None of these conditions were clearly spelled out but of course are scripted somewhere to give them legal safety. I lost £250 they just put the phone down on me. I tried then to call the Italian call centre and to add to the mistreatment they said that if I would have made the tickets via the Italian website they could have helped - but unfortunately I did in the uk website. As a customer you can only lose. Avoid if you can.

I flew twice with Alitalia from Bologna to Tokyo Narita (NRT) via Rome, and I recommend the airline. The service was good, staff very friendly and food also quite good. You could choose Italian or Japanese with sushi. The aircraft, a Boeing 777 was quite new and the seat was comfortable. Alitalia is improved quite a lot in the last years.

Budapest to Los Angeles via Rome. First and last time flying Alitalia. Initially I could not access the reservation online to choose seats (I wanted to get seats near the front as I was concerned about a tight connection in Rome), and when I called customer service was told there was an issue with the website, but not to worry the seats were arranged and our connection time was fine. Not allowed to check in online the day prior to the flight, and found the check in in Budapest to be a little disorganized, but the check in service was friendly. Flight from Budapest to Rome was okay, but took off 20 minutes late and was 40 minutes late to the gate. This left 20 minutes to get to our connecting flight to Los Angeles. We arrived in Terminal B, and were directed to the end of B to go through passport control and catch a shuttle to Terminal G. The shuttle service was highly disorganized and stressful, but we finally crammed into one. Raced through G to our gate to find a long line of people boarding a shuttle back to the side of the airport from which we had first been shuttled. Once we boarded and made our way to our seats, we discovered the most uncomfortable seats I have ever experienced. The headrests force your head forward at an awkward angle, there was a metal box under the front of one of our seats (entertainment system?) that prevented moving your feet at all, the pitch was the worst I have seen, and one of the seat trays was broken. Worse still, the plane clearly had not been cleaned between flights and in addition to sticky trays and armrests, there was a mass of long black hair stuck to the window. We were resolved to a miserable 13+ hour flight, but it just continued to get worse; no alcohol, even for purchase, beer and wine only. No choice of wine other that red or white, both bad. Truly awful food (how does Alitalia manage to screw up lasagna?), bathrooms that reeked of urine and surly flight attendants. To be fair, I was feeling surly myself being stuck on such a miserable craft. Arrived in LA only 30 minutes late, but spent an extra 30 minutes after the other passengers at baggage claim hoping against hope our luggage would show. Of course not. It seems from looking at some of the other reviews that it might be a decent choice for short flights, but if you are doing a transatlantic route, avoid this airline at any cost.