_Alitalia:_ We don't care. Really.
Written: Oct 28 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Not a one. Get an American airline instead.
Cons: General air of filth. Rude staff. Bring your own meals if possible.
The Bottom Line: Never again will I fly with this airline willingly. It's not worth it.
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| telynor's Full Review: Alitalia |
It used to be that traveling by air meant a certain measure of comfort. The plane would be clean, the seat reasonably comfortable, and certain amenities would be there. Toss in the feature that the airline is that of Italy, a country famous for a certain flair and elegance (after all they gave us the Renaissance), and you would think that one was going to have a comfortable flight across the Atlantic.
But now corporate bean-counters have taken over, and the airline industry has turned into something rather hideous for the everyday passenger. Flight economy, and you encounter conditions that make a prison seem nearly preferable. Seats are cramped, meals are slop, and even the shortest flight will take years off your karmic debt in a hurry.
Such was the adventure I faced when traveling to Italy recently, to board a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea. My travel agent had booked me the most direct flight to Rome, and had wisely booked the flight through Delta airlines (who has acquired Alitalia as part of their SkyTeam franchise), and I had simply shrugged and said fine, do it. After all, I had flown a national airline before and had found it tolerable and figured that there was a standard out there, and that Alitalia had enough pride in their service to keep it up.
Oh, what a fool I was!
Departing from JFK International in New York City, I endured the rigmarole of checking in at the main counter, which involved quite a wait with all of my luggage, and then a very confusing rabbit warren of barriers to get my checked bag to where it would be transferred to the plane. And when I returned to the Alitalia counter for wheelchair assistance -? I am as they say these days, mobility challenged, a limp expression for being a cripple -? I had to wait a bit for the wheelchair. Finally one arrived, and off I was whisked to the gate to wait. I sighed, and took a seat, with my carry-ons beside me, and a copy of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park in my hands to pass the time. Other passengers arrived, and waited, and it was only at the last forty-five minutes before departure that an Alitalia official showed up and started the process of getting all of us herded ?- I mean, boarded ?- onto the plane.
I was fortunate that I was able to get on early; this is a standard practice for the wheelchair bound, handicapped and those with very small children. Yes, I know that many passengers resent it, but in the long run, it does save time and hassle by getting us out of the way first so that those a bit more mobile can hurry along. I ended up near a bulkhead in the economy seating, had my carry-ons stowed away, and waited for the flight. The down side was that there was some sort of delay, and it took about an extra half-hour before the boarding started, and another hour before we finally got off the runway and on our way to Rome's Fiumicino/Leonardo da Vinci airport.
General announcements were made in English and Italian, and it was here that I started to have some uneasy feelings. The PA system tended to be garbled, and the pilot?s voice low, so it was hard to have anything other than 'garble, garble, Italian, static, garble, turbluence.' Too, there was a general feeling of dilapidation to the aircraft, with the material feeling thin on the seats, and a constant rattling sound from various locations, despite this being a reasonably new aircraft, a Boeing 767-400.
Still, by the time that we reached cruising altitude, I was just happy that we had gotten off the tarmac without losing anything and we were on the way to Rome. But as we went along, I noticed something that made my heart sink. While the flight attendants were nattily turned out in navy and green uniforms, and most of them were fluent in both English and Italian, there was something a bit off. Dinner finally rolled around for us about an hour into the sky, with wine, water or soda being offered ? I stayed with water, knowing all too well that alcohol will leave a killer migraine for me later. And eventually, I made the trip to the back of the plane to find the lavatory.
And that's when I reached the limits of my endurance. For upon entering, I discovered some unsavory smells, a complete lack of paper products, and a general air of shall we say, 'filth,' much more appropriate for a rest stop out on I-80 somewhere between Wendover and Reno. Unfortunately, there aren't many alternatives at 35,000 feet, so I did what I had to do, thanked god for the hand sanitizer that I tend to carry with me, and got out of there. And went to find a flight attendant. They were all huddled in the back galley of the plane, having a heated conversation in Italian, and I interrupted them politely to mention that there wasn?t any paper in the toilet. This was met with an indifferent look, and the phrase, That's not our job in heavily accented English.
Ahem. I can put up with many things in traveling, but having to get primitive on an airplane isn't one of them. But I would think that a service organization that is providing basic needs for several hundred passengers would have at least thought of providing some extra rolls of bathroom tissue and a packet or two of hand towels? When I'm coughing up a sizeable chunk of cash for a flight to Rome, and being trapped for eight hours on a plane, I expect a certain level of accommodation. At the very least, a clean spot to rest my bum if necessary.
As to the meals, they were swill, giving the term airline food a new low in quality. The dinner portion was pretty awful, the beef being several slivers of god only knew what in a gluey glob of brown, the vegetables cold, and I deferred on everything except the roll and butter ? that's rather hard to mess up. The so-called breakfast was a plastic attempt at a breakfast sandwich, one bite of which convinced me to set it aside. At least there was orange juice and water, even though refills were long and far between. However, the annoucements for buying duty-free products were many and often.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend Alitalia to anyone, unless you were really, really desperate to get to Rome. The service was lousy, the facilities barbaric and the staff indifferent and uncaring. Two stars overall, and I think that Delta Airlines made a huge mistake in acquiring a share of this company. They've got a long way to go to bring it up to a more acceptable standard.
Not Recommended.
Recommended:
No
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telynor
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Member: Rebecca Huston
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