Alitalia Launching Flights To Washington Dulles

A hyperlink to your review would be cool in that last sentence

Also involving Washington Dulles, there are rumors that TAP Portugal will launch flights to Dulles from Lisbon. While I did reach out to them and they said they couldn't confirm or deny that rumor, if they do start that route, I would assume that they would use the Airbus A321LR or Airbus A330neos which they have on order now.

It took Alitalia two and half years to refund my 700 Euro business class error fare tix. So yeah, nah, I will pass...

I'd maybe book with them for cash in some protected fashion where I could dispute the charges but I don't think I'd gamble miles on this unless there was a way to get the miles back if they default. I would assume if I used AF miles or whatever and they defaulted the airline I booked through would have to come up with a solution. Or if I had a flight coming up soon and didn't have to wait several months to find out.

I wouldn't worry about booking on them if doing so with miles through Delta or AF/KL. Even if Alitalia goes belly up, I'm sure they would re-accommodate on their own metal. This has happened to me several times in past when partner airlines have had schedule changes that ruined award tickets I had booked.

The flight time are inconvenient. I don’t like overnights leaving so early in the afternoon.

I had a recent similar experience with a flight on Ethiopian Airlines from LAX to Dublin using UA miles. When our flight in May '19 was canceled, I contacted UA, and now have a UA flight to Dublin using the same 70,000 mile Biz ticket we had booked on Ethiopian. It did require me talking to a supervisor for them to honor my chosen flight AT THE SAME MILEAGE as the Ethiopian flight.

How can such a joke of an airline remain in business? For years, there have been rumors that it was about to go bankrupt?

Slightly off topic, but didn’t Alitalia fly to IAD during the mid aughts? I seem to recall seeing a MD-11 parked there at a remote stand while I was disembarking an arriving LH flight.

Then again I could be hallucinating or lying...

As the flag carrier, Alitalia is not a joke of an airline. It provides pretty good service, especially in business class where the food is terrific. It is one of the world's oldest operating air carriers. Financially it has had issues for decades and, yes, under any other circumstance it should have gone out of business based on that alone. That said there's pride, unions and economics involved. The government of Italy keeps the airline afloat financially. Any partnering, buy outs of Alitalia would certainly involve what happened with Swiss, Austrian, Iberia, Aer Lingus. The Lufthansa Group and IAG got the OK based on, among many aspects of closing the deals, that the acquired carrier name continues, that separate CEOs be maintained, that operational headquarters (jobs) be based in the original country. Italy would be no different. So, Alitalia will be around for some time to come.

Awful timing. 9:30am departure in Rome makes it difficult to connect from anywhere else in Europe, while 4:15pm departure from the US makes it impossible to get a full day's work in. Why do airlines do this? That's the only time they could get gates at both ends? Doubtful given how empty IAD is, although I know FCO can be busy. I would much rather see a 12:30pm departure from Rome and a 7:15pm departure from DC.

@ejg239
I understand your point, but it may have just been a matter of aircraft availability. Besides, where in Europe would you be from that would make FCO a convenient connection point? If this was BA or KL I could see, but this is Italy we're talking about.

@MLM not to be the party crasher but if I read it correctly UA should have not charged you 70k miles for their own metal, at least not at the saver level, it should be only 57.5k. If they had to force it, then I may understand.

@TravelnWilly Could it have been Varig before they went under? I flew a lot out of IAD back then, and the MD-11s were KLM, Northwest, and Varig as I recall.

@Trev: Here's the most recent Alitalia Business Class review.

https://onemileatatime.com/review-alitalia-a330-magnifica-class-business-class-rome-boston/

"ejg239 says:
November 5, 2018 at 8:46 pm
Awful timing. 9:30am departure in Rome makes it difficult to connect from anywhere else in Europe, "

Now I know what 7:10am arrival from Kiev was intended for ...

@Jim - I found it, it wasn't Varig (though Varig did fly to IAD as well).

https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416271

It seems Alitalia flew for ~two years before ending the route from/to Milan, so I'm not going crazy (I hope).