Hi

I actually booked the flights through thomas cook's website. Just eat well before you board and you will be fine and leave plenty of time, I mean be at check in 3 hours minimum before flight time so they can't bump you.

Enjoy your trip.

Hi,
Thanks for your help!
We fly from Heathrow- Rome then to Tunis
returning we fly Tunis- Milan then to Heathrow.

We have paid £634.50 for 3 ads, 1 kids in August school holidays!

I have printed the e-ticket reciept from their website with the ticket numbers on, what happens about tickets or is this it?

Yours,
BRAD

that's it, it's all electronic. Just show them the print-out, they swipe your passport at check in and then print out your boarding passes.

Don't know why most of the popular airlines don't do away with paper tickets and go for the e-ticket option.

You are doing the same flight plan as I had, you will be fine.

Hi,

Thatnks for helping your have been great!

I have printed out the 4 e-ticket invoices, so I take these? and the print-out of the comfirmation e-mail to be sure.

I pressume its Heathrow T2 as it doesnt say!

Hi Brad

Yes take the e-ticket invoices with the enumbers and your passports, that's all you'll need. As long as you have the reference numbers for your e-tickets that's all they need.

Yes, it's Terminal 2 that you will be departing from. Just remember, get there at least 3 hours before departure time for check-in.

Has anyone flown with Alitalia recently. Off to Rome for Easter and worrying about check in. Were planning to check in only 2 hours before as the flight is at 7.40am and didn't want to be leaving home too early but now I am worried that we may loose our flight. Also can anyone tell me what the leg room is like. As it is a scheduled airline is the seat pitch like BA etc at least 32"?

Many thanks in advance.

Trish

Hi Trish

I can't get technical with you about inches in room size for seats, but I can tell you that there is plenty of space on the aircraft. The seating was 3-3 on the plane and you had enough room infront of your legs to put your hand luggage by your feet and still have more room.

I would also suggest checking in at least 3 hours before flight time minimum, because don't think for a second they wont sell your tickets to standby passengers and then re-route you at some silly time, say 7 hours later with Lufthansa or some other airline, I am talking from experience.

I can't remember there being any inflight entertainment on the plane, but the pilot gives you all the entertainment you need for take off, turning the plane and landing, brilliant, I want to get back on one of their planes, just for the flight ride.

Terminal 2 Trish, check in 3-4 hours before flight time and eat well and bring a pack lunch, snacks and entertainment for the kids other than that you will be fine.

Hi roundasapound

Thank you for the detailed reply. Will make sure we are at the airport in plenty of time. Won't be getting much sleep that night.

Trish

I was meant to be flying to Cairo, via Milan, on Friady 27th Jan, with Alitalia - the transfer time between the two flights was meant to be just over an hour, and the flight cost was reasonable low.

However, the flight was cancelled due to Milan airport being closed because of bad weather (we later found out about the strike, but no-one would confirm this at the time). We found the communication of the staff particularly unsatisfactory, and 12 hours later, we were still clueless as to what was happening. Eventually I sorted a replacement flight with Egypt Air and managed to get Alitalia to exchange my ticket, after 15 hours at Heathrow. The return flight yesterday was fine, but I will definitely think twice about booking with them again because of the total lack of customer care and communication skills displayed by the Alitalia staff.

totally agree Charlie regarding the lack of customer service. I had to wait around for 3 hours not knowing what was happening and queue for 2 hours to get a refund.. less £30.00.

The flight ride is nice, the plane is ok, but the customer service is bad, so is the inflight meal

Anyone have any thought as to whether Alitalia will still be around by the spring.
Yes, I've read reports about Prodi saying bankruptcy is a risk by 31 Jan 2007, the CEO doesn't seem to know what to do next, Air France-KLM don't want to take over a near-bankrupt company, and that the EU is stressing restructuring rather than aid. Oh yeah - and the no-frills carriers are desperately trying to devote new planes to Italy believing that a wounded animal might soon provide a big meal for them.

Is a Sabena type resturcturing on the cards ? In other words, let a bankruptcy ruling take place in the courts, slash the staff number and significantly cut the nmber of routes, then create a new company with a similiar name, do a whip round through the big corporates of Milan and Rome to raise some additional capital, and go back to flying again ?
Or does anyone have any other ideas as to what might happen ?

Thoughts welcome

I understand now that the plan is to rationalise domestic and international operations to try and pull the airline back to profitability.

Long haul services may be concentrated from Rome only. Milan may lose services however the shuttle service between Rome and Milan will increase to every 20 to 30 minutes!

Replacements of the MD80's (ageing) likely to be AIRBUS 319's and 320's.

5 options on B777's have been converted and a slightly modified colour scheme will be slowly introduced - guess they have the money for that!!.

Will be interesting to see how they stand by next spring.

Nivsy

Alitalia is unable to guarantee its service from tomorrow onwards:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7614336.stm

luci

It is certainly not looking good for Alitalia. The clocks ticking....

Alitalia is now unable to guarantee the operation of its services from tomorrow onwards:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/13/theairlineindustry.italy1

David

It has just been announced - on Euronews - that Alitalia will be grounding all aircraft on Monday indefinitely because they don't have the money to buy enough fuel to guarantee the safety of their aircraft in flight. There has also been a strike by Alitalia employees this afternoon at Rome's Fiumincino Airport.

I think we should all start singing the Queen song.........

Another one bites the dust

Alitalia 'on edge of abyss'

Alitalia remains on the ‘edge of an abyss' after an investor group walked away from a rescue bid.

Key unions representing pilots ands cabin crew vetoed plans by investor group CAI which would have led to around 3,000 job cuts.

The Italian cabinet is to debate the crisis at Alitalia today. The airline is reportedly losing $3 million a day and may run out of funds by the end of the month. It has been operating under government bankruptcy protection for three weeks.

Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said: "We may be on the edge of the abyss" after CAI withdrew its offer.

With permission from Travelmole

The quicker they cull this poor standards/quality/service airline the better. I'm sure someone else will step in quickly and replace their route network.