Alitalia

London to Milan in economy. Comfortable seats and nice refurbished plane. We were given a drink and some savoury snacks. The cabin crew the friendliest I have seen on Alitalia in years. We were given two free tickets to EXPO and one of the hostesses gave us her personal ticket for our daughter. Extremely good value.

Venice to Abu Dhabi. I had not flown with Alitalia since they became an Etihad Airways partner and decided to give them a try two weeks ago. Alitalia remains an average airline. I was lucky enough to get one of the ex-Etihad Airways A330 aircraft with the new Alitalia livery. This plane also featured the new Alitalia interiors and seats which are really elegant and do bring the colors of the Italian flag. The new IFE has now a wider screen, the selection of movies was good for this 5.5 hours flight. Cabin crew seemed to be nice but not to care that much of passengers. Their level of English has to be improved. Their uniforms look outdated now. Food was quite terrible, and the selection of drinks should be extended. No amenity kit distributed. Wifi connectivity was available on this flight but I personally did not test it. My baggage made its way to Abu Dhabi without any problems. Flight left Venice perfectly on-time and did land in Abu Dhabi 15 minutes ahead of schedule. It was not a bad experience all in all, but, in my opinion, there is still a lot to be done for Alitalia to become a premium airline.

Alitalia from New York to Rome. I understand that in a effort to cut costs, airlines have made the aisles very small and the leg room almost nonexistent. This makes for a very uncomfortable experience. The walkways are so small that you must turn to allow another passenger to walk by and usually rub body parts when doing so. On a long 9 hour flight, it is necessary and healthy to walk around the plane from time to time. This is virtually impossible to do without inconveniencing another passenger or the staff. Speaking of the staff, they don't seem incredibly happy with the tight quarters either. They are made to pass the cart through the small walkway, the cart is the only thing that fits in the tight space making it impossible for a passenger to go by and if you have your hand on the armrest or your foot out slightly they are sure to get crushed. When did passenger comfort become so unimportant?

Flight attendants were miserable and rude. Food was bland and cold and delays on every leg of the round trip. On arrival from Rome to Tel Aviv, my bag did not arrive – even though the departure was delayed by nearly an hour. Staff said "maybe" it would come on the next flight or "hopefully" it could be delivered the next day. On arrival from Rome to JFK, the flight was an hour late, causing missed connections. No entertainment on 3-hour medium haul flights. Rome FCO airport is a mess. Shuttle bus from plane to airport, then another bus from airport to plane – all when moving between gates in the same terminal.

My wife and I were coming back from our 1 year anniversary and we booked our Alitalia tickets from 6 months ago. We reserved our seats online and we even paid 140 euros more for the comfort seats. We get to the airport and check in and they say we are on standby. I asked why and he said they overbooked the plane. There was about 30 people that were not able to get on the plane because they overbooked the plane. We had to stay another night despite the fact I had work the next day. Then they delay our flight the next day because they have technical difficulties. The food was horrible and the staff was extremely rude. Worst experience and worst airline ever.

Alitalia from Bologna to Catania via Roma. The flights were on time, the cabin crew was friendly even if the service has been very poor. But these are only short flights. Tidy and clean planes.

Alitalia from Rome to Abu Dhabi, and it's not often one is called a d**k by cabin crew, rarer still by a female member of the crew. I a tall man, sitting in an aisle seat (41C?) had my legs crossed and shoe of the upper foot sticking out into the corridor, maybe 2cm. My fault. The hostess bangs against my foot, a frequent occurrence on a flight, and she then gives me this filthy stare and says 'Cazzo'. Maybe Italians use this like the Spanish use 'conjo,, it's lost its potency, it just means gosh darn, but the accompanying death stare suggested otherwise. They're a dreadful crew. The service was haughty, the crew out of sight after the meal service. Rome Airport was a nightmare, absolutely not up to the job of being a major airport. A rubbish experience. I give them a 1 for their nice terracotta red blankets.

Generally a pleasant experience. Cabin crew provided good service and check in at Rome was reasonably quick, our baggage arrived with no problems. The inflight entertainment was only average. Overall better than we expected.

Both Alitalia flights were late departing but the Friday evening from Cagliari was shambolic coupled with the Italian description and quantity of Hand Luggage. When you arrive at Rome the aircraft stops a long way from the terminal, this then gives the opportunity for some cramming whilst fighting for space with Hand Luggage. In we go to the terminal and then straight out again on to another bus back to possibly the same aircraft. Tried to buy a bottle of water, but the queue to pay had over 100 people waiting to hand their money over at the till! Should I have a need to go to Rome, it is most likely to be with a budget airline.

Our Alitalia flight from Rome to Boston was the most hideous plane trip I have ever taken. First we paid for Premium Economy and were sent an email 2 weeks before the flight to say we were being down graded and to call a # for assistance. We don't carry a cell when traveling and we tried to email the airline to no avail. We arrived in Rome via Barcelona and were seated in the rear of the plane in the middle. The bathrooms were disgusting, not cleaned, the seats were stained, the floor was not vacuumed and there was no in flight entertainment or updates to flight status. The food and service deplorable as well. The reading light over my seat was burned out. I had no way to read my book in the dark. Luckily I was sitting next to my husband who changed seats with me. If I had been sitting next to a stranger I might not have been able to read at all and 9 hours of sitting there with nothing to do; no inflight entertainment to speak of. The crew needs to check all the lights in the cabin so passengers who like to read on the plane are able to do so. A simple maintenance issue. We will never fly Alitalia again. We now have to try to get a refund for the money spent on premium economy which was not offered on the flight. The worst trip overseas ever! And we fly to Europe every year.