Alitalia

MIA-MXP. Plane delayed 9 hours in Miami. Departure at 3.15am! Old plane with scotch tape on the seats. The worse was to come. 12 hours instead of 8 hours flight as one radio was not working . Instead of the direct route over Bermuda we flew west of Goose Bay in Canada over Greenland Iceland and Scotland. We had to be always 3 hours maximum from an airfield. In total 11 hours delay in Milan.

AZ 681/680 from/to Buenos Aires to Rome in Magnifica Class. Fantastic seat configuration 1+2+1. Flight on time nice Aerolineas (Skyteam) Business lounge in new terminal C of EZE. Captain at the door welcoming all J pax. The Chief Purser introduced herself personally to all pax in J. Very nice Bulgari amenity kit. Lunch was served with individual placemat. Flight attendants move with a trolley and prepare the dishes for you upon request. Interesting Italian regional menus. Top Italian wines. 3 pastas and 2 main courses of meat and fish. Nespresso coffee (finally on board) pastries cheeses and fruit salads. Dish presentation can probably be improved but the quality of the food was impressive. Entertainment good but not extraordinary. The TV monitors are not last generation and quality of image is not state of the art. Too few blockbusters too many retro movies. Night open buffet with everything you need. Breakfast prior to arrival very good but not 5 star. Cabin attendants attentive and smiley. Good communication from the cockpit. Landed on time in Rome. Baggage came out 45 minutes after but this is not AZ fault. Same thing and the coming back flight apart from a minor communication from the cockpit.

MIA-FCO (seat 4L) and FCO-MIA (seat 4A) in late Nov 2012. Seat was very comfortable liked the way the table works and the large video screens are nice. I had a window seat and it had very good privacy. I thought the seat could have been a little longer for sleeping but it was comfortable enough. The centre section seats do not have air vents though those on the window sides of aisles (both the aisle and window) do have air vents. Video (movies etc.) were OK. The seat in general was the best I've been in out of Delta Air France KLM and Continental/United. However I'd have to say the service especially on the FCO-MIA leg left a good bit to be desired. Food wasn't properly heated on either leg though was good. On FCO-MIA (all daylight flight) the crew did a lunch service and then disappeared until they served the pre-landing meal. Other than the actual meal service they disappeared. This crew had some ice and a few drinks they put out self-service but then never showed up again. This aircraft actually has the seats split into two business sections - the forward section where most Magnifica seats are located (Rows 1-5) and then small section behind the doors with rows 6-7. Upon arrival in MIA my checked bag did not appear up on the carousel. I had a connection to make but needed to pick up clear customs and recheck my bag but that's hard to do with no bag. An agent got me through customs and sent me on to my flight all the while assuring me that my bag would make it. After boarding my Delta connecting flight the Delta agent came onboard to my seat and gave the me the bag check slip and my bag did indeed make the connecting flight.

I was on a return flight from Rome to Istanbul. I had booked a ticket on the website with an approximate 1% discount for EU citizens 25 or under for which I am a British EU citizen who was 25 at the time. On my flight to Istanbul I had to wait for quite a while at the counter to get my boarding pass. I do not speak Italian and the staff spoke among themselves in Italian for a long while without telling me what the problem was in fact not admitting there was a problem. There wasn't a big line so this didn't delay other passengers. Eventually they issued me my boarding pass. Ok a bit of a pain but not such a big deal. The flight was without incident. On my return flight Istanbul to Rome I got to the counter to collect my boarding pass and there was another holdup. The staff spoke amongst themselves for much longer than the first flight approximately 30-45 minutes. Again they wouldn't admit there was a problem and I asked several times what the supposedly non existent problem was with no luck. Again they spoke in their own language to each other and on the phone so I couldn't eavesdrop. They also made several phone calls. I was getting pretty anxious because I thought there was a serious problem. As there were only a small number of counters in operation for Alitalia in Istanbul at the time the line ballooned out as a result of the holdup and I wonder if some passengers missed their flights. Eventually the counter staff asked me if I was a student. I said no. They then told me to go and buy a new ticket without explaining why. When I pried them they told me it was because I had purchased a discount ticket without the right to do so. I then explained to them that Alitalia had offered an approximate 1% discount on their website for EU citizens 25 and under and the discount had nothing to do with being a student. The lady at the counter then made another call then issued me my boarding pass without apologising. I am not sure if it was the same problem on the outbound flight but It does seem rather odd that the staff appeared not aware of their own policy regarding the 25 and under discount for EU citizens (maybe the policy changed?) which is quite a common discount that many companies and organisations offer in the EU. Also if they had have admitted what the problem was from the beginning I could have resolved the whole thing right away. It also appeared to me to be a poor use of judgement to hold up the line for such a considerable amount of time over the question of a discount of approximately 1 euro. This upset me greatly. Otherwise the flight itself was without incident.

Economy JFK-FCO-MAD-MXP-JFK. They were on time aircraft appeared well maintained. Cabin staff was professional and responded to one's needs. I will definitely fly with them again.

We flew Toronto to Rome and back and I was pleasantly surprised with how good this airline was. The to flight was in an older plane but he staff was friendly and accommodating and our return flight was in a newer plane with interactive LCD's in each seat. I'm 5'6" and the seating was not cramped at all. The in flight food was decent as far as airplane food goes. Based on the reviews of Alitalia I was expecting a terrible experience - but that was not the case at all.

We flew recently in Magnifica (business) to Caracas (July 16th and August 27th 2012) and in Classica Plus (premium economy) to New York (November 4th and 19th). Not a terrible experience but sorry to say that our national airline is poor in terms of comfort service and quality of food. In Magnifica the service is not adequate at all (why are the flight attendants with some exceptions so rude?) and the food is very far from the Italian excellent international reputation. In Classica Plus we experienced seats not much more comfortable than in Economy very poor food light and headphones malfunctions. Extremely sad.

FCO-BRU and return (departure on 17-11-2012 return on 18-11-2012). Both flights on a clean A320 which was quite comfortable. Departures and arrivals on time efficient and polite flight crew and an appropriate food service for a 2 hours flight.

Toronto to Rome and back again. Couldn't get proper seat assignments due to inconsistent information at booking and then at check in. Spent in total 18+ hours in cramped miserable seats. Check in staff in Rome were extremely rude. There are no words for how bad the food was - they would be better off telling passengers to buy food at the airport prior to boarding because it was horrible. Boarding is basically a free for all with no queuing or filling the plane from rear to front - so it ends up with people racing for overhead bins. No assistance for families or elderly passengers. Basically they got us to Italy and back. But it was just an awful experience all around.

Flew American Airlines from US to Paris and back travelled by train to Rome then flew Alitalia from Rome to Tel Aviv then from Tel Aviv back to Paris connecting in Rome. The tickets purchased several months ahead were an excellent price. The ticket counter staff in both Tel Aviv and Rome as well as the staff on the plane were friendly helpful and professional. We had no trouble getting desired seats. We ordered vegetarian food which was excellent (fruit two salads fresh bread and butter cheese free wine) on both flights. The food on our Air France code share flight from Rome to Paris was a poor tuna sandwich but the staff and service were excellent.