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Member since:09.06.2004
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There was once a time where Alitalia’s name was an amusing acronym for those who were truly cynical about its performance record (Always Late in Takeoff and in Arrival). I’m happy to report that half that slogan is now false, because they seem to have employed a genius plan wherein they declare an arrival time later than they will actually be landing, and therefore, when they land 20 minutes ahead of schedule every single time, they can boast that their arrival is early. Unfortunately though, that’s about the only good (if you can really call it that) part about this airline and its service.
I fly regularly with my parents, and this is the first time we’ve flown Alitalia, because they recently opened a route from Mumbai to Milan and Milan to Washington, which happened to suit our travel plans perfectly. As an added bonus, their normally cheap fares were even lower to celebrate the opening of the new route. Because the plane stopped off in Milan’s Malpensaairport for transfer, it allowed us to fly to Washington, and then stop in Milan on the way back to India for a week’s vacation
in northern Italy, and then return to Milan for the flight to Mumbai.
Now, living in India, I fly Indian Airlines fairly frequently, and anybody who is Indian knows that one of the things we disparage most are our national carriers, Indian Airlines and Air India. The food is generally sub-par, the service reasonable but not fantastic, and some of the airlines in bad need of refurbishment. I thought that was bad. Alitalia makes these two look like first class airlines.
First, there is the design of the airplanes. We flew B767s on all routes, which have a formation of 2-3-2 seats per row. The seats are tiny and uncomfortable, and there are minimal amounts of space between the seats. If you bend down to put something under the seat in front, you will bang your head, and if the person in front of you has their seat back, forget about it. Woe unto you if you happen to have long legs or are reasonably overweight, because you’re going to be miserable for the rest of the flight. When the food carts come around, there’s not even an inch of wriggle room, and if you should have an appendage sticking out into the aisle, the stewardesses will not hesitate to unapologetically bump it. And don’t even think of getting work done or listening to music – laptops and CD players are strictly forbidden on this type of aircraft as per Alitalia regulations, so unless you own an iPod or ReALLY like to read, you’re going to be rather stuck.
On the subject of the cabin crew, they have to be the worst trained, most ill-mannered and lazy bunch I’ve ever come across, and this was true on all four legs of my flight with four different crews. They delayed the start of the drinks service to coincide with the start of the meal, didn’t come around for refills, and once they were done serving the meal and clearing up, they vanished to the back of the galley and shut the curtain. If you wanted another drink, you had to get up and help yourself from the available drinks cart (minus wine) left out in the back near the bathrooms.
In regards to the meal that was served just prior to landing, the crew would wait until we’d already begun our descent, saving everything to the utmost last minute. On the flight into Bombay from Milan, they were actually still cleaning up and putting away their own baggage as we approached the runway, with less than 10 minutes of flight time left. I don’t think anyone would have dared use the call button with this lot, and certainly those poor fools who did try were ignored the entire flight. One man, a Muslim or a Jew, had the audacity to question two separate stewardesses as to whether or not the meal had pork in it. The original stewardess found out what he’d done and proceeded to argue with the man, asking if he didn’t trust or believe her, and refused to remove the meal from in front of him despite repeated requests. Finally, in a bout of sarcasm, she asked if he were allergic to the meal, to which he replied yes, and she was forced to take it away. My mother and brother were on a special meal as was I, but they switched seats. When mealtime came, the stewardess made no effort to find out where they were sitting, and rather just kept the meals in the cart.
The food was some of the worst I’ve had to eat, and members of my family have eaten airline food that’s resulted in three days of diarrhea during a track meet, and even that member agreed on the lousiness of the food. I was given a special meal, so I can’t comment on the food that everyone had to eat, but from my brother and my mother’s accounts (and my mom used to fly for BA, who aren’t exactly known for world-class cuisine), it was marginally better. One meal turned out to only be jambon cru with melon, and another was some type of meat that was overcooked and grey, with no taste that I could distinguish as being like food.
Ok, so I’m stuck on an 8-hour flight, the seats are uncomfortable, the stewardesses are rude, my meal is terrible – surely there will be salvation in the form of a movie. Wrong again. I slept through the movies on two flights and completely ignored it on a third, but I did sit through watching “The Cat in the Hat,” an experience so psychologically devastating I hope I never have to see that movie again. Once the English movie was finished, an Italian flick with subtitles would play, but since the airplane was only equipped with tv screens down the aisle, I couldn’t see anything and quickly gave up. To boot, the sound system on my chair was malfunctioning, so I kept getting the dialogue chopped up. There goes that plan.
I managed to finish entire books (yes, that’s right) in the plural or sleep on all of my flights simply so that I wouldn’t have to contend with being awake. The flight experience on all legs was appalling, and given the free choice, I wouldn’t ever go near this airline again. However, as I do need to start looking for bargain air fares, chances are I may have to suffer through using this airline again in the future, but that’s out of necessity, not choice. If you can possibly find a way to avoid flying Airitalia, take my advice and do.
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I have flown with them once and I am trying to avoid flying with them again!!! I thought the inside of the plane was going to fall apart.
mi_ke 31.05.2006 16:10
Sounds awful, although I do find it extremely rude of a customer to ask me a question and ask another staff member after I have given them a perfectly true answer...I'd proceed to argue with them too! Nice review
Mike x
AimeeLouise18 12.08.2004 09:53
Well I'll definitely never fly with this airline if I have the choice! Thanky ou for the warning :)
Aimee xxx
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Advantages: Hmm suppose a chance to stop in Italy Disadvantages: Lazy, Unpolite, Unfriendly, Pricey, Bad Food (very bad for Italy flagship), Damaged Luggade, Somebody stop me
Nick_Endeavour 30.08.2006 (30.08.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Alitalia - AZA
Aug 3rd, 2004
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