All Awful Talia!!!!!. Review on Alitalia

I had flown Alitalia many years ago and had a fantastic portal like Mouthshut been in existence then I surely would have opined much earlier! Anyway better late than never!

This was on a return flight from Rome to Bombay via Dubai (In those days many flew Alitalia due to the lure of duty free shopping at Dubai airport). On boarding the aircraft one was immediately struck by a sense of chaos prevalent amongst the passengers. The reason for this was very simple-the entire cabin crew was extremely friendly oh no not to the passengers to each other! They were so engrossed in exchanging friendly notes that not one of them could be bothered about the passengers.

Also unfortunately for us and them the flight was choc-a-bloc which disturbed their chatting and the passengers confused! After take off the crew of the entire economy class kept on showing annoyance at any request from passengers and were talking so loudly(typically Italian style) that two Japanese passengers seated next to me had words with them regarding disturbing the peace in the aircraft.

Shortly afterwards during meal service the passenger across the aisle from me was a pure vegetarian and was made to wait at least 15 minutes after everyone else was served. Finally he called the hostess and enquired about his meal. Believe it or not he was told sorry all vegetarian meals were over! He did not leave it at that and asked for chief hostess. The chief hostess repeatedly told him sorry all meals were over and that he had not requested a vegetarian meal.

This really upset the passenger and he dug out his long itinerary and told her that he had requested a veg meal on all those Alitalia flights and that he had definitely requested one for this flight too. By now he was seeking support from his co-passengers including me! All I could advise him was to ask for the vegetarian part of all the other meals still available on board. He did that and to his and my utter shock a steward came and dumped a non-vegetarian tray in front of him and told him rudely to eat whatever he found suitable from that tray.

As he had seen me trying to eat the non-veg food he asked me if it was all right and I strongly advised him against opening the tray as it contained steak! That really got him raving mad and he called the chief hostess and informed her that the matter would be taken up with the higher authorities. Till date I have always wondered and wished that he did take action against that rude attitude of the crew.

As the flight was choc-a-block my husband and son were seated in a different section of the economy class and I had to keep going across to them if my 5year old was doing fine. He was except for the meal which was most unpalatable. About 2 hours prior to reaching Dubai my son started fretting feeling major hunger pangs. It had been close to 12hours since his last meal and he was famished.

So my husband asked the hostess to give my son some chips to munch which she curtly refused saying she had none. The situation now was getting tiresome for my husband so he called another crew member and asked for biscuits which were also denied saying we have no such provisions for your son. Then my husband suggested some bread and butter at which point a highly annoyed hostess told him that you should have ensured your son ate the meal when it had been served and then none of them would have been troubled in this manner!

She then told him that he had no choice but to appease my 5year old somehow till Dubai and then disembark at Dubai and instead of shopping go and feed him! At that point my normally cool husband had a major exchange of words with the hostess and asked her to keep the fancy advice for herself! Of course my being seated far was also not helping matters.

Anyway as soon as we reached Dubai we were a family charging down the duty free asking in all the fancy shops where we could buy a packet of chips or chocolates. By the time we did locate something for my son to eat it was time to embark the flight back for Bombay. Of course after this awful experience I have never flown Alitalia ever again and have not recommended it to anyone either. But most importantly I have never been able to forget or forgive Alitalia for having denied me my shopping at Dubai airport!