I just wrapped up a Delta SkyMiles business class award to Europe, as I've spent the beginning of the year in Edinburgh and Prague. As some of you may recall on the outbound I flew Virgin Atlantic Upper Class from New York to London, and had an especially fun time at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse…
Continue reading: Alitalia A330 Magnifica Class (Business Class) From Rome to Boston
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I do hope you said trousers and not pants—especially if they learned english from the English.
I flew AZ business class on two intra-European segments this fall and found the catering to be classy and delicious, the service businesslike and professional, and the soft product to be as good as its partner carriers, AF and KL.
Alitalia's finances and business prospects may be a joke, but I found it operationally to be a very credible first world carrier.
cant help but think... your pants are with the italian mofia now. hope you didnt leave credit cards or cash. seriously though. WTH.
Yeah, I don't think that qualifies as "lost." More like you're the victim of a horrid crime. Check eBay - maybe they knew who you were and plan to sell them as travel celebrity clothing.
I'm sure that their in-flight protocol requires alternative financing arrangements to improve their economic outlook, including reselling used pants. Maybe look in a vintage shop in Rome?
As an Italian descendant I almost choked when I read you consider Olive Garden, Buca di Beppo or Maggiano's italian food 🙁 I would say they are better than getting a Big Mac but call that italian food is an insult.
Were you wearing a pair of expensive italian desgner jeans? If yes, that explains why they disappeared. If not, that worries me. Have you looked on eBay to see if there are any Lucky's jeans being sold there? 🙂
nice report, and I want to try Alitalia soon, but I don't think "Olive Garden" and "connoisseur of Italian food" belong in the same sentence 😉
Glad to see you cover this product. I too was quite impressed with both the seat and the food on my LAX-Rome flight in Magnifica class last summer. It far exceeded my Paris-LAX return on Air France's A380 in Affaires class.
I like that hard product. I think it's the same as IB is working into their long-haul fleet, which makes them more attractive to me, despite the fact that IB can be a frustrating airline.
Ben, it was the italian fashion police that confiscated them. They weren't Dolce&Gabbana I guess.
Uhm, guize...I think the comment about Olive Garden and Buca di Beppo was a joke. I actually audibly laughed in my office.
(If it wasn't a joke I don't mean to be an asshole i sweeear)
hahahahaha
...can't recall where you're based, but if you're into Italian and you have some time in Los Angeles, check out Angelini Osteria. That's some fantastic food. It's been open for over 10 years I think, and you still need a reservation well over a week out to get in at a decent time (any day of the week).
I use to use the "I lost my pants" line all the time when I was dating in college...very effective.
It's also like the BC offered on Eithad and Dubai. Be interesting to have you try their business class as well, just to compare them to the other staggered BC seats, and see who wins out overall in terms of seat, service, food, etc.
Come to think of it, it would be cool to have you do every once in a while a ranking of different first and business class services, say, a list of FC suites, non-suite FC, staggered BC, reverse herringbone BC, etc. Would be interesting how different styles of premium services compare to each other...
I flew Alitalia a few years ago, steerage from FRA-Catania RT. IIRC we changed planes in Milan.
Really have nothing bad to say about them. Food was decent. Bags arrived when we did. No delays.
My Italian neighbor was shocked when I told her everything went well.
@Santastico, pretty sure the Olive Garden/Buca di Beppo reference was tounge in cheek...
I laughed at the olive garden joke as well.
Curious what you think of Swiss business class, I noticed your trip reports only include Swiss first, which I don't think has much availability now (if any). My wife and I have NRT-ZRH and ZRH-PEK booked in I this summer and I've heard mixed reviews.
It's funny when sarcasm isn't evident to some folks but obvious to others, must be cultural. I still love Olive Garden to this day even though I've since graduated to 'Restaurant Week' establishments.
Nice review, i'd not say no to redeeming 125k Skymiles to fly them LAX-FCO.
Around Thanksgiving Delta had LAX-JFK-MXP RT for $3000. That's a pretty good price in my book. Booked it to meet a friend and her family there, but found they would be in Rome and I would have only stayed 3 days anyway.
@ Joe -- I haven't done Swiss longhaul business class, though in general am not dying to try it since it's a similar hard product to what Austrian and Brussels have. On the whole seems to be a fairly solid product, though.
@DBest: of course I got it was sarcasm from Lucky when he mentioned about his italian experience at Olive Garden, etc... However, there are many people in this country that truly believe those places serve real italian cuisine. Same as getting a Domino's or Pizza Hut and saying those are italian pizza. I come from an italian family where italian food was sacred and always home made from scratch. Miss that time!!!!
Always the sign of "special" humans when someone clepto's your pants. Maybe someone else just thought it was a new Alitalia amenity: denim pajama bottoms!
As a one-time EU-based DL elite, I came to prefer AZ intra-Europe to AF/KL. Yes, FCO is not a great place to change planes, but AZ's fleet is much newer and in better shape than AF's for short/medium-haul flying. I also found the service much more personable even in Y than with AF. Glad to hear that the long-haul product gets a reasonable review from lucky!
As someone who was also extremely impressed flying FCO-JFK in AZ business class (admittedly because of very low expectations), I cannot believe you did not mention the wine/spirits selection. Both the reds were above par, the sweet wine was great... helped enjoying the flat seats later
Someone was probably hoping you left your wallet or some cash in your pants pocket...