Flights with ITA

[Lorac]

Has anyone flown from the US to Italy using ITA Airways? The company, formerly Alitalia, has become a private enterprise with Lufthansa's financial investment taking it over in full this coming January. ITA has an excellent safety record. I am wondering about on time performance and personal comfort.

Carol

 

[GAC]

The on-time performance of ITA out of LAX has been very good recently, with only a handful of departures late more than 15-20 minutes, and many arrivals into FCO ahead of schedule.

It's useful to fly ITA across the Atlantic if you are connecting in FCO to an ITA domestic flight, such as to PMO or CTA. You are guaranteed to be placed on the next departing flight should you miss your scheduled connection and are on a single ticket. (The same is true if you fly LH via Frankfurt or Munich with a connection to Italy). ITA will be code sharing with LH and, I believe, United Airlines on selected routes.

In terms of personal comfort, I can't say, other than to note that the aircraft used on transatlantic flights are very modern planes, either the Airbus 330-900 Neo or the very slightly larger Airbus 350-900. They have business, premium economy, extra leg room economy and standard economy seats. Seat charts can be found online.

ITA's narrowbody fleet is also very modern.

 

[California Go Girl]

I flew ITA SFO-FCO-BLQ round-trip in September. Premium Economy on the transpacific leg. Th seat was comfortable, flight crew was pleasant, and the food was ok. I chose them because they offered non stop service SFO to Rome, and then I decided it would be simpler to use them to connect to Bologna as well, so I booked my ticket that way.
The day before my flight I received an email that my connecting flight to Bologna had been cancelled, and I had been rebooked on a later connecting flight. I no longer had to worry about the tight 1 hr 25 minute connection at FCO, but at the same time the new 5 hr 10 min layover was uncomfortably long after the long red eye flight. I would have just taken the train from Rome to Bologna had I known what my final schedule would be. I think this is a risk for all airlines, though.
They also changed my seat on the first flight from window to aisle the day before, and when I called to have it changed back the premium cabin was full and they were unable to switch me back.
I would still recommend them.
(On the return flight, I got a little teary eyed at the end of my tear jerker of a movie. A flight attendant noticed that I seemed sad and came back to ask me if I was OK, and to let her know if there was anything ahe could do for me. Embarrassing, but so kind.)

 

[GAC]

In my opinion, connecting to an Italian domestic flight at FCO or MXP should be avoided unless the travel time by train to that final destination is over 4 hours. Hence, if connecting at FCO and going to Florence, Bologna, Pisa, Naples and possibly also Milan and Verona you MAY be better off proceeding by train, in view of the possibility that your connecting flight could be cancelled (or you might miss it) and you might end up with a very long layover at FCO waiting for the new connecting flight. A lot depends on the frequency of connecting flights and the time gaps between those flights. By contrast, if you are connecting at FCO to reach Sicily or Sardinia, Lamezia Terme (Calabria) or Reggio di Calabria, Bari, Brindisi, Venice, Genoa, Turin or Trieste, you're usually better off flying.

 

[Lorac]

Thank you all for your comments about ITA. They are informative and useful.

Carol

 

[Alpinista]

Son and his wife booked economy on ITA with me planning an upgrade to business for them. Found out ITA will not let you do that. They did, however, successfully bid for a business upgrade on both outbound and inbound flights, which ended up costing less that booking in business to start with. Not sure what kind of a corporate model this is, but they had no issues with the comfort our service.

 

[Lorac]

Son and his wife booked economy on ITA with me planning an upgrade to business for them. Found out ITA will not let you do that. They did, however, successfully bid for a business upgrade on both outbound and inbound flights, which ended up costing less that booking in business to start with. Not sure what kind of a corporate model this is, but they had no issues with the comfort our service.

Hmmm...I have often wondered about that. We are now booked with ITA, business class outbound but premium economy returning. A daytime flight doesn't necessitate a bed and the seats look pretty good. Perhaps we'll inquire about an upgrade.
Carol