Alitalia

Rome to Nice and return. We took off 10 mins early and landed on time the flight was quite full and operated by an airbus A319. The flight attendants treated us very kindly offering snacks and drinks. The return was the same pleasant. We have nothing to complain will fly them again.

My parents and I were returning from a lovely vacation in Italy to Toronto on June 1st 2014 when we discovered our flight AZ650 from Rome was delayed over 3 hours. We were not offered any advice or meals and only found out from talking with other passengers that we could get a meal provided to us for our long wait. We were not allowed to choose the food we felt like but were limited to very limited selection of very bland overcooked pasta. When we finally got on the plane we were shocked at its condition and that it felt very uncomfortable. The upholstery was all worn the seats were cramped and my mothers seat even had her arm rest duct taped! When the television screens came down (unfortunately not on the backs of seats) our screen was flickering and full of static so we could not see the safety video at all. When the movies came on we discovered that both my mothers seat and my seat did not have working sound systems so we could not hear any movies. The screen continued to flicker so much that not only could we not hear the movie but we could even see the movie. A flight attendant came and folded the screen back up and said it was not working. For 10 hours my parents and I were crammed in a middle seat row with no sound or movies to watch. This was unacceptable. Our row of seats was in the middle (unfortunately) and had bathroom doors at either side so we continually heard the slamming of doors. The food was awful so surprising from an Italian airline. Our seats were also the most cramped I have experienced and I am a small person. It was a disappointing end to our vacation.

Linate - Trieste LIN-TRS. Now this flight is handled by Air Mistral basically the Italian Post Office airline that during the day carries passengers and switches to mail cargo in the night hours. Not kidding. And you pay full fare. The plane is a ATR 72 if you get it in the morning still smells from the night activity. Seats incredibly uncomfortable and small no hand luggage allowed unless very small and therefore you have to wait your trolley back beside the plane (even under the rain). Horrible unacceptable below any civilized standards.

June 15 ORD-FCO was scheduled to take off at 8.40 pm. At around 8.30 it was announced flight was delayed then announced that it was mechanical issues. At around 11pm people were told to go pick up their luggage (which was never loaded onto plane) and those passengers who lived in Chicago were told to go home the rest of us were told to go to Alitalia check in where we would be given a hotel room for the night. The process of getting a room and getting to the hotel took 2 hours. People in wheelchairs and families with small kids were standing waiting for shuttle buses to their hotels. We were told to return to airport at 10am next day to check in for a flight to depart at 2pm. One look at the line told me that 2pm was fantasy it actually took off around 4pm. We stood in line for 4 hours to get seats sorted. The plane we flew on was old grubby no entertainment and terrible food. During the 4 hours waiting on Monday passengers were given no information from Alitalia no refreshments were offered no consideration given to those traveling with babies or elderly.

LHR-FCO-TLV-FCO-LCY - This airline is worse than any European Budget Airline. 3 out of 4 of the flights were delayed and no one seemed to care. If you are above 175cm doing not fly with this airline otherwise your knees will be pressed against the seat in front of you. Make sure you have a meal before you get on the flight as the food is limited to a very small packet of dried snacks. All of the aircraft's are very old and do not have any screens showing you the flight information. Also do not transfer at FCO unless you have more than 3 hours between flights as the additional security checks are chaotic. Terrible experience.

London City to Rome and back to London Heathrow. We got to and from Italy safely the crews were friendly but don't expect anything other than a tiny packet of breadsticks and a juice water coke or wine on the flights. Rome airport is the worst I have experienced as it is disorganised and crowded. All in all nothing special but they got us to our destination relatively comfortably.

My wife and I booked this as a Delta flight but had to completely recheck in when changing planes in Chicago. They re-assigned our confirmed seats in row 18 to separate middle seats in rows 36 and 48 in the back of the airplane. We were told that Delta confirmed seats meant nothing. After much fuss we were finally given seats together in the middle section of row 48 (next to last row). My seat had no cushioning at all it was like sitting on the metal frame. The people in front of us promptly shoved their seats all the way back into our faces for the whole trip. But worse was the urine smell in our area which was apparently from a window seat in the row ahead of us all they did was spray the seats and areas with a lemon scent which quickly dissipated. This airline is now at the bottom of my list as the worst international carrier I have ever flown and will never fly again.

Abu Dhabi to Malaga on 13th/June. I was shocked with their onboard service. The first flight was 6.5 hours from Abu Dhabi to Rome. They only served a single drink and breakfast. In fact they should have also served a meal. The second flight from Rome to Malaga. The flight is 2.45 hours. I was shocked. they only served a drink and a packet of Pretzels. We were all waiting for a meal. Nothing came. Alitalia is worse than a budget airline. Never again.

FCO-GRU-FCO 15/2 - 8/3. This was second time I took this flight. Very cheap and comfortable no delays. Good food and crew. Nothing to complain about. These flights especially to GRU or GIG (Rio) are always full.

Flight was from Amsterdam to Rio de Janeiro with a transit in Rome. Before that I have a connection by KLM. There are several transfer counters in Rome airport but all pointing me to the other for the boarding pass. I thought any transfer counter can issue the boarding pass? When I purchased the ticket back in November 2013 I personally called the Italian call centre to request my special meal on board. I did this on all other legs of my trip on other airlines. However during the flight my special meal was not available and not booked. The cabin crew did not even try to solve the problem. On my other legs on other airlines I did get my requests. This shows that Alitalia is terrible with customer service and also inflight services.