Alitalia

Flew Heathrow to Rome and back as part of a package that included flight. The toilets on the outbound journey were disgusting. On the return journey the experience was the worst I have experienced. As others have said when the flight was called there was no orderly boarding of the plane. People pushed and shoved me out of the way to get on first even though seats had been allocated. Once onboard I could see why. Having spent ages finding the correct size bag to fit in the overhead lockers when I finally got onboard space was limited. Passengers were cramming bags in where they could. Whilst we were still climbing and with the seat belt sign still illuminated passengers started to walk around the plane the stewardesses said nothing. The carpet was threadbare throughout. This is clearly a budget airline with a disregard to rules.

I flew from NY to Rome. It was a long flight with a rude flight crew poor quality food and a dirty plane. It was a mad house from the ticket counter to the boarding gate. A real lack of organization and even less concern for their customers. Plane arrived on time but the 9 hour + trip was not enjoyable given the conditions.

LAX-FCO-PMO. FCO-LAX. All flights left thirty or more minutes late but we didn't miss any connections. The food was good and flight attendants were generally friendly. We liked the bottomless wine and self-service snacks. Check-in process in Rome was bad waited in line for almost 90 minutes to check in which was frustrating. At the gate no organization at all. They just open the gate and it's a cattle call to squeeze onto the plane. Experience was better that expected.

BOS-FCO FCO-BOS - Outbound we were assigned vegetarian meals (whether through our error or theirs I can't say). I didn't eat the dinner but for breakfast we were served a single rice cake and a few pieces of cut fruit! On the return flight they messed up our seat reservations (made 5 months in advance) not once but twice for the same flight. The crew's passenger list showed no seat assignments for us so we got two middle seats next to the loos. On both trips the planes were dirty. The carpets were filthy. The loos looked clapped- out with bits of paper stuck around the walls. Do they ever clean these planes? Pros: The crew were polite.

Heathrow to Bari via Linate return. The Alitalia experience within Europe has been improving consistently. Sad to see the end of the MD80s but the new fleet is good and clean service is fine and all flights were on time or early. Online booking is easy as is online check in though this is not yet available when with under 12s from Italy.

YYZ-FCO 09/09/2012. Pros: great flight crew. Strangely it was an all-boys crew however they did their best to accommodate passengers’ needs. Level of attentiveness was very good and they were ready to smile and to answer any question. Pros: thinking AZ was a Star Alliance member I would have expected better standards. B763 was truly worn out even if it sported Star Alliance’ s logo. No PTV (almost acceptable) but the monitor close to my seat was shut off. The trim of the overhead bins across from my aisle was missing leaving a “raw” piece of airplane in plain sight. Throughout the night when the cabin lights were shut off the reading lights of my row were going off at once giving a sort of flashing / disco effect to the cabin. Although it was 09/09 the in-flight magazines were the ones of the previous month. The light brown economy seat I was in showed large dark spots although it felt slightly wider than regular economy seats and (a little bit) softer.

We flew to Rome from Toronto. The seats were very uncomfortable. The television monitors were the old style down the centre and far apart and showing a movie with English subtitles. Our return flight was no better I'd say it was worse. The boarding was a free for all no help for seniors or folks with little ones. They started to load from the front then opened the back doors so you had folks trying to squeeze past each other in the aisles with luggage while others were stowing belongings - it was chaos. Our seats were dirty stained and torn fabric pockets were ripped. The meal - dried out and cold pasta that they called a lasagne. Needless to say never again.

I fly to MXP or LIN often from London and have to say Alitalia have one of the youngest fleets in Europe. Planes are spotless (unlike UK counterparts) and the service is always top class including the food. It's such a refreshing change from 5/6 years ago!

Milan-NY JFK - I recently flew A330 from Milan to New York JFK in economy class and the flight was extremely good. The plane was clean and brand new the seats very spacious and comfortable. Most importantly the in-flight entertainment was the best I have ever had in economy on any airline. The screen is very large and the selection of movies is very impressive. Food was better than most economy flights as well. They even gave us ice cream mid-flight and plenty of drinks. Very nice touches. Overall this was the best economy class flight I have ever taken. Alitalia has improved so much they deserve a new reputation now.

JFK-Rome FCO. A330 New York to Rome in Premium Economy a new class Alitalia just launched. The flight was amazing. Plane was new and clean and the Premium Economy has a separate cabin that is spacious and very nice. We received a welcome glass of Prosecco and snacks which was a very nice touch. The seats were very comfortable and the entertainment system was amazing. The screen is very large by any standards (bigger than in most business class seats) and the choice of movies was impressive in many languages. The food could be improved for sure and the service still has some way to go but overall the new Alitalia is much better than before.