Alitalia news: auction collapses, government mulls options

[Kolleen]

No, we are coming home after a two night stay in Rome. I wanted non-stops, and the early flight was our only choice.

[Kolleen]

Latest news:

 

http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/news-detailed.asp?newsid=10283

[lovinthesea123]

Flying Alitalia on Monday from LAX-FCO and from FCO-GOA (Genoa) in order to depart on the Splendor!

 

If I remember I'll come back here and share my experiences with y'all.

 

Ok well I guess I remembered :)

 

 

Took the flight from LAX - FCO nonstop. The flight inbound from FCO was 86 minutes late leaving there (FCO), so in turn our flight there was delayed. Which also in turn made our connection impossible to make :rolleyes:. The nice LAX agent rebooked that for us quick and easy. Bags checked all the way through to GOA from LAX. Pretty much standard flight...plane was OK (777...not too well taken care of, considering AZ's are not that old), nothing spectacular. IFE was A/V on demand, but very slow. Cramped legroom. Food was bleh airline food, although the glass dishes and cups were a nice touch. Flight landed on time (well the resheculed time.) Customs/immigration at FCO was very smooth. Had to wait 4 hours at FCO (where the air conditioning was either broken or set to 90 degrees, along with all the stinky Italians :(). Flight from FCO-GOA was 100% full, very cramped and hot as well. Old plane (MD-82). Oh well at least it was only 45 minutes.

 

Overall: I would consider the flights with Alitalia again, only if they were as signifigantly cheaper as they were this time. Otherwise, I probably woudl have liked to have flown nonstop from LAX-LHR/CDG and then to GOA from there.

 

PS...flew Virgin Atlantic from LHR-LAX on the way back....VERY VERY NICE! Large plane, very well taken care of, GREAT IFE, sucky food though:p

[Kolleen]

Thanks for the report. With all the changes to the US airlines happening, I am starting to be relieved we are on Alitalia. Amazing. Here I was starting to freak out in May and now it is almost August and I am reasonably happy I am on Alitalia. Who would have thought?

[Kolleen]

Oh yeah, we flew Virgin Air in 2005 Lax/Lhr and loved it.

[lb0103]

For those of you recently back, what are the weight restrictions and cost per bag. Extra bag?

 

Also I tried to get from their website but did not find a clear answer on carryons.

 

My DH has a CPAP is that all he is allowed as carryon or can he bring a carryon in addition. what is the weight allowance of the carryon?

 

We have flights in Oct and any info would be appreciated.

[Clairescurtains]

From what I have found out talking to a rep you are allowed two checked bags weighing 50 lbs each and a carryon weighing 11 lbs plus a "personal item". This is for overseas travel form the US to Italy. Their domestic service restrictions are different.

I have heard of a Cpap machine but don't know what one looks like but I figure it could be your husband's "personal item".

[lb0103]

Thanks so much for the info. If we are allowed 2 "free" checked bags that is more than we need so that is WONDERFUL!

 

A CPAP is a machine used at night for sleep apnea and DH has it really bad so it is critical we bring it.

 

You have made my packing SO much easier and taken a lot of worry about the bags.

 

We were taking all we need but we need to budget for it. What you have told us is great news, if they don't change it before Oct.

 

Thanks again!

[tada]

Does Alitalia do assigned seating?

[Kolleen]

yes. I called them and made my seat assignments.

[lovinthesea123]

We called and assigned seats, but got to the airport and were ticketed for different seats. Granted, they were still what he wanted (a window, middle, and 2 aisles), but on the opposite side of the plane and a few rows back.

 

Also, they won't do bulkheads or exit rows until you get to the airport.

[tada]

I contacted them and got the seats desired (aisle), but they would not assign the row number until I check in at the airport.

[Kolleen]

They gave us the exact seats we wanted. I don't know why it was so easy for us.

 

However, today I am happy because I leave a week from tomorrow and Alitalia is still flying! Yay! and they are feeding us, not charging for pillows and blankets, they still have their inflight entertainment screens at your seat and they are charging for the 1st or 2nd bag. Life is good.

[lb0103]

Do you know how much they are charging for the first and second bag?

 

I hope you post when you return, our flight is in Oct. We would like to know how it all goes.

[lovinthesea123]

Do you know how much they are charging for the first and second bag?

 

I hope you post when you return, our flight is in Oct. We would like to know how it all goes.

They aren't charging for bags (yet, at least)...I think she made a typo :D

[mom&me_cruising]

I was telling my French collegues that I'd be flying Alitalia in October for my cruise, and they all think I am nuts -- taking a chance that it would not be running and I'd miss the ship. :eek:

 

Please keep posting updates!

[Globaliser]

Latest round of news/reports/rumours to emerge in the last day or so:-

• Alitalia's board meeting and announcement of its H1 results have been postponed from tomorrow (Friday 8 August) to Friday 29 August.
• The company (Alitalia SpA) will be restructured in the last weekend of August by being put into liquidation. Its main assets will be transferred to a new company, creating a new airline in which a group of businessmen is expected to invest €1 billion. The new Alitalia will have Roberto Colaninno as chairman and Rocco Sabelli as chief executive. The airline is also due to take over its Italian peer AirOne for €300 million.
• Lufthansa is now being seen as a preferred partner for a new salvaged Alitalia instead of Air France-KLM, because it intends to focus more on a Milan airport, which Alitalia snubbed as a hub for Rome. (Interest: The north-south battle being re-fought. Consequence: Alitalia could leave SkyTeam for Star Alliance.)
• The delay in announcing this is to leave it until after the August recess to try to avoid angering the unions during the holiday period, "to avoid the risk of huge repercussions for Italian and foreign travellers".
• Alitalia is expected to report that it has sunk even deeper into the red at the end of the month, as high oil prices and a drop in bookings tear a hole through its already shaky finances.
• Silvio Berlusconi will apologise sincerely to Italy, Europe, and the entire world for perpetuating a fiasco of a company that should long ago have been laid to rest for good so as to let other, better companies get a fair crack of the whip, and for wasting oceans of precious money that could have been spent on far better things.

OK, well, maybe I made the last one up.

[Kolleen]

OOps. It should be they are not charging for our first or second bag. My bad. Sorry. They basically aren't charging for things some of the american carriers are charging for.

[lb0103]

Thanks for the info, it is a pleasant surprise that there is NO charge for bags, but that is today, I just hope I get to Rome in Oct for our cruise.

 

I guess it is still a day to day thing.

 

Thanks for the updates.

[dutchclogs]

Can anyone give us an informed answer as to how Alitalia operates their internet checking in?

We were recently scheduled for a 600am flight ex LHR to FCO. DH tried all the previous day to check in online. Finally he called Alitalia and was told that we could not as one of our family party of four was a child (age 8). OK, we have known some airlines to preallocate child seats, so we turn up at Heathrow at 0430 am on day of flight (when check in opened), stand in line for over an hour and are then told two of us are on standby!! What was even more frustrating was the next flight was also fully booked and the third flight would arrive too late to make the cruise.

Perhaps we were lucky that we had the RCI air package. After intervention from the RCI rep all four of us flew on the second flight and were offered --without asking-- what we thought was a good level of compensation. Still, I am curious if we were misinformed about internet check in. I cannot think why one cannot check in a child?

All tips welcome for future reference...

[Clairescurtains]

I would love to know how to check in on line at all. I have searched their website and can't find the appropriate place to click to check in. I am not very computer savvy but I thought I was better than that.:o I would like to be able to check in the afternoon before our Sat morning flight.

[lovinthesea123]

Online check in for international flights isn't available for Alitalia (per their phone rep). Only for intra-Italy flights.

 

 

 

It also wasn't available when we flew Delta internationally last year, so it might be for all international flights, or just SkyTeam, or something weird like that.

[Globaliser]

It'll no doubt all be academic in a couple of weeks when we see what the restructuring proposal actually is, but FWIW the Independent has unearthed an insider's blog:-

Confessions of an air steward too shocking for ailing Alitalia

 

By Peter Popham in Rome

Friday, 15 August 2008

 

Broken toilets, missing meals in first class, partitions held together with sticky tape, uniforms with gaping holes: these are just some of the delights awaiting passengers and crew on Alitalia, according to an insider's blog written by a steward on the near-bankrupt Italian airline.

 

"We are coming apart at the seams in every sense," the blogger wrote on 29 June. Having waited "nearly two months to have a pair of trousers mended, which had been torn by a not-completely screwed down screw on a jump seat. Meanwhile Alitalia is back in the news with plans of new cuts they want to make... but I have already made my cuts."

 

Alitalia has been in dire financial trouble for years, and is now losing around €1m (£800,000) a day. It continues to stagger on, but as the "AviatorAZ" blog reveals, both staff morale and standards are on a slippery slope.

 

"At the perfect moment, the fridge breaks down," the blogger records on 16 July. On 10 July he writes: "Once again we are short of cutlery ... so I am hard at work washing, re-washing and drying" the knives and forks available. But sometimes it is the food itself that is missing. "In Magnifica class" – Alitalia's most luxurious – "there is a meal missing. Either it wasn't loaded or there are more passengers than we had booked." The blogger and his colleagues take a deep breath and improvise.

 

The steward has been quietly documenting an airline in decline for the past three years. But when his complaints were splashed all over the Italian newspapers this week the company reacted furiously. AviatorAZ really hit a nerve with an observation that the wheels of one plane in which he was flying lacked mudguards. "The undercarriage is nude, without mudguards, the plane can only fly if it doesn't rain, we are fine until the end of September, but only in the south. Nothing to put security at risk," AviatorAZ was careful to point out. "If one is not in line with the norms and dictates, Alitalia does not take off."

 

...

(Rest of story via link.)

 

I couldn't find the blog itself, though ... maybe it's been taken offline entirely.

[lovinthesea123]

 

az_adjs(6,'4b57bd9');

MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Alitalia SpA (News) will be restructured in the last weekend of August, leading to the creation of a new airline in which a group of businessmen is expected to invest 1 billion euros, the daily MF said without giving a source.

Between Aug. 29 and Sept. 1, Alitalia will be put into liquidation and its main assets will be transferred to a new company, it said.

The new Alitalia will have Roberto Colaninno as chairman and Rocco Sabelli as chief executive, it added.

The airline is also due to take over its Italian peer AirOne for 300 million euros, the daily said.

link: http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2008-08/artikel-11466820.asp

 

intersting read / more facts: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/4098202/1/#1

 

[Clairescurtains]

Check this out regarding strikes in Sept.

 

http://www.avionews.com/index.php?corpo=see_news_home.php&news_id=1093323&pagina_chiamante=index.php

 

I would guess this is the flight attendants and is Italian time. What a bummer since this is the day we are scheduled to fly, however, it might give us four hours more time between our Delta flight into LGA and our Alitalia flight out of JFK.