Alitalia - Where the food is another voyage of discovery
Written: Jul 09 '03 (Updated Jul 28 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Reasonable price, no major hickups.
Cons: Strange food, surly staff.
The Bottom Line: If you can cope with the indifferent seats and the strange food offerings then Alitalia is fine assuming you get a good price.
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| cr01's Full Review: Alitalia |
Reading some of the reviews on Alitalia on this site can make the thought of a flight aboard Italy’s finest airline a little daunting – tales of poor safety standards, rude staff and huge flight delays abound.
When considering the options for my recent flight to and from Milan Malpensa, it was clear that the most civilised flight times and cheapest prices were to be found aboard Alitalia. Given that the flight time to Milan is a mere hour and a half from London Heathrow, we decided that we could cope with whatever the airline chose to throw at us in that limited time span.
Price and Tickets
Having undertaken an extensive search of the options available to us, I found the cheapest flights at £84 ($120) return with Alitalia, and from London. From my nearest airports, Manchester or Leeds/Bradford the so called budget airlines charged almost twice as much, and so we figured that the four hour car drive down to London was well worth the £320 ($480) that we four adults would save by flying from the south of England! British Airways offered flights for £90 ($135) from London, but the 6:30AM take off time was beyond a joke for people about to go on holiday!
Of course, at these prices there is an exclusion clause as long as your arm – in short, there are no amendments to the flights possible before departure – miss your flight, lose your money! Again as the full scheduled price is over £400 ($600 - I kid you not!), this was a price worth risking.
Surprisingly, the cheapest prices to be had were from Alitalia’s own website, and the purchase qualified us for “Miles” on their loyalty bonus scheme. The purchase incurred no additional booking fee, although I did find the purchasing process on the web site to be very confusing and time consuming. If you log into the web site as a member then you are presented with a poorer flight search engine than if you sign in as a non member, so I kept on flitting from being a member to not!
During the purchase process, I also ordered a vegetarian meal for my partner who because of her feeling about the factory farming of pigs, and in deference to her Jewish heritage, boycotts pork products.
Check In
Check in was very straightforward – I simply needed to provide my credit card as evidence of purchase, and away we went. We also were given tickets for our return flight on our first check in.
Sadly, the power and influence of Epinions has not reached Alitalia staff – my deliberate wearing of my Epinions baseball cap during check in did nothing to help secure an upgrade! Oh well, the cheap seats again!
Flight Delays
The week prior to our journey, my newspaper published the last quarter stats for airlines and flight delays – out of the list of the European carriers Alitalia was about the worst. Thus, it was to be no surprise that our flight out of London was delayed, but fortunately for only 25 minutes or so. Alitalia actually allow a generous two hours between London and Milan on its flight schedules, so despite our late take off, we arrived at Malpensa a cracking seven minutes ahead of schedule. Perhaps it was simply the pilot having that famed Italian spirit and lust for speed, but our flight took around 90 minutes each way.
On the plane
Our plane was an Airbus A321 with seating for 187; I would guess we had about 140 passengers on board. As both my partner and I are 6 foot tall, and she with legs up to her armpits, we appreciated the generous legroom between the seat rows. Rather less appreciated was the hard and lumpy seat that she was offered (mine was simply rather uncomfortable), but she was able to move to the aisle seat as it was vacant.
The interior of the plane was clean, and the bright green seats and carpets (think Kermit!) contrasted well with the white fittings.
Entertainment
A newspaper stand with both broadsheet and tabloid newspapers in Italian and English were available. On our outbound flight, I actually found a newspaper that did not spew out right-wing garbage, to complement the one I had purchased earlier so I was a satisfied and happy bunny. On our return from Italy quite late in the afternoon, I was a little disappointed to see that the British newspapers offered were from the previous day although again a full choice was on offer.
The in flight magazine is called Ulisse, and is a duel Italian/English language publication. The edition I had covered the town of Bari so extensively that it took over half of the magazine. Great if you are going to Bari….
Also on offer was the “duty free” magazine with one of the largest ranges of products that I have ever seen in flight – perfumes, alcohol, cigarettes and luxury goods. I wasn’t interested in buying anything, but I was curious about the proportion of goods on offer that they actually had in stock.
I am one of those sad individuals who like to see a map when I am travelling, so that I can work out what I am seeing beneath me (it helps keep my mind from going into panic mode). I was disappointed that our flights didn’t offer this. Instead, we were “treated” to silent Tom and Jerry cartoons, some women dancing around in floaty chiffon numbers, and an offensive episode of some kind of “Candid Camera” rip-off that featured a very camp traffic cop doing “hilarious” things with his wrist, blowing kisses at other men and walking “funny”. I could well live without stereotypical garbage like this thrust in my face but ever grateful for small mercies, I was pleased that we were without sound.
Food, Glorious Food…!
Well not quite, but we were particularly impressed that as soon as we had sat down then the flight attendant came down to confirm that my partner had ordered the vegetarian meal. With computer technology this should be a simple process of elimination for the staff, but on so many flights you are obliged to make yourself known to the flight attendants if you have ordered a special diet meal.
I honestly don’t know why in these budget conscious days that carriers still offer free food on a ninety minute flight, however my partners vegetarian meal arrived – a fresh bowl of fruit – melon, strawberries, orange and grapes together with orange juice, marmalade and crackers. A strawberry soya drink topped off this obviously vegan fruit fest.
My non-vegetarian breakfast consisted of a cheese bread bun, another bread bun with marmalade, strawberry yoghurt and a cinnamon pastry. I spent the rest of my flight deep in thought; intrigued about the part of my meal that was not vegetarian!
On our return flight, the vegetarian option turned out to be cold cooked vegetables (carrot and asparagus), raw tomatoes with a bread roll and a small cute bottle of virgin olive oil, together with another fruit fest and a vanilla Soya drink! Strange was the word.
My meal was an Italian cheese sandwich made with the spongiest bread known to humanity, a lump of cheese and a smoked pressed chicken slice with another bread bun, some cold cooked potatoes and courgettes, a small fruit salad and a sponge sweet with custard and nut. The phrase clearing out the larder came to mind.
At least no one could claim that we hadn’t been served a full meal.
As our return was during late afternoon, we chose a complimentary bottle of a 2002 Sangiovese and a 2001 Bianco Gorganega – the red was pretty robust and drinkable, the white dry and crisp, but served too warm.
Polite Staff…Yeah, right!
On our outbound flight, the flight attendants were efficient but rather unfriendly; eye contact and smiles were hard to find. Apart from the welcome and the safety instructions, we had very little information about our flight over the intercom.
On our return flight, as we levelled off, the captain of the aircraft made a few announcements about the flight and estimated arrival time. A minute or so later, one of the passengers just in front attempted to leave her seat to go to the toilet. As we were near the back of the aircraft, we heard a loud exasperated voice:
“Wait!
Can’t you wait!
Can’t you people wait just five minutes?
Please go back to your seat!”
The woman returned red faced and unrelieved to her seat.
A few minutes later, the attendant came down to apologise and explain that the seat belt signs were still on. A few minutes later still and with the seat belt signs still on, the attendant came to explain that the passenger could now use the toilet! Throughout the remainder of the flight the seatbelt sign remained lit, and yet the flight was as smooth as could be and passengers and attendants wandered freely up and down aisles.
Apart from this incident, staff efficiently whizzed through the meal and drinks campaign before zipping down the aisle with the duty free and immigration cards for non- European Union passengers. Considering they had to fit all these tasks in during 90 minutes, they actually worked very hard and very well together.
Conclusions
Outward bound – four stars – my only major complaint was that the seats were not particularly comfortable!
Return flight – 2 stars – my major complaint related to the strange food and the rude flight attendant.
I would choose to fly with Alitalia again, assuming they are competitively priced or if not quite the cheapest option then the flight times were substantially more convenient.
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cr01 asserts his rights to be associated with this review – 2003 -
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cr01
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Member: Chris
Location: Yorkshire, England
Reviews written: 440
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In snowy Yorkshire. Dusting down the Sledge.
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