Apr 15, 2003 02:39 AM
13482 Views
(Updated Apr 15, 2003 02:41 AM)
Over the past several years, I have only flown into Bombay once, with most of my relatives in North India flying into New Delhi is generally more convenient. However, on the one trip that I made from Chicago to Bombay, I chose Alitalia, mostly for their excellent fares to India. I had a very mixed experience with them, which I will try to summarize below:
Schedules:
Alitalia flies from the US to Milan, Italy, and from there provides a connecting flight from Milan to Bombay. Flying out of Chicago their schedules were very convenient, with stopovers of only 3-3.5 hours each way. Alitalia has 6 flights per week from Milan to Bombay, but offers no service to New Delhi, which is a bit of a nuisance. However, this past February, Alitalia announced that they will be starting daily Milan-New Delhi flights this winter.
Checkin:
With only one flight per day leaving Chicago, Alitalia had only 4 counters available for checkin. For economy class passengers, the wait was OK, no more that 15-20 minutes in line.
Fleet:
On both the Chicago-Milan and the Milan-Bombay flight, Alitalia uses the B767, a smaller intercontinental plane. The planes all seemed to be relatively new, and in good condition. I personally have always hated flying on B747's (I always feel cramped in them), so this was a welcome change for me. Seats were about average for an intercontinental flight, and were reasonably comfortable.
Promptness:
Though I have heard plenty of Alitalia horror stories about 12 hour delays in Milan with no hotels or meals for the stranded passenges, I personally experienced no such thing. All of my flights departed within 20 minutes of the scheduled times. And yes, all my luggage arrived safely with no pieces missing or damaged.
In-flight Service:
Alitalia has the best dressed flight attendants in the air today. Their uniforms were until recently designed by Armani himself, and are truly beautiful. That said, Alitalia's FA's are also far more interested in looking good than in actually helping passengers. Though they do get the job done, they only do the bare minimum possible and are quite cold and indifferent.
Meals:
Meals were OK, not particularly good, but not that bad either. Standard airline vegetarian fare. All my special meal requests were honored by the airline and I never once had to complain about not getting the kind of meal I wanted.
Entertainment:
On its B767 aircraft, Alitalia offers no personal TV screens in economy class. Most other European and Asian airlines now offer them on all flights. The movies shown on the main screen werent too bad, I actually watched some of them. Alitalia will offer personal TV's in all classes on its new B777 aircraft. I hope that they will be making this upgrade on their entire intercontinental fleet soon.
Fares:
Alitalia is very competitively priced, with Chicago-Bombay fares as low as $900 + taxes during special fare sales. Generally, their fares are about the same as Air India's...and I choose to fly Alitalia over Air India any day.
When all is said and done, Alitalia flew me from Chicago to Bombay and back in one piece with all my luggage, and did so at an excellent fare. They didnt provide spectacular service, but they did a competent job none the less, and I will consider flying with them again. I would suggest Alitalia to anyone looking to sacrifice a few amenities to save some money...otherwise stick with Swiss.
