This was a trip that went… let's say a little extraordinary.
The main purpose of it was to get sufficient XP into Flying Blue and this played the most into our cards. ITA offers the cheapest Skyteam business class in Europe so we hopped on their blue planes to maintain Flying Blue Platinum levels and visit the last area we were not to in Spain.
Zurich Kloten (ZRH)
It was a smooth journey at the airport, Zurich is always nice with security working with no lines, effective, and smile.
We then headed to Aspire Lounge which was a little worse than expected.
It is divided into two spaces and you can choose. One of them has more daylight and that is the one we chose. Toilets are located outside of the area at the reception so this was annoying to go out every time.
The food was simple with some hot vegetarian options. Wine selection is also basic but sufficient.
We spent more time in the lounge because our flight was delayed by more than 2 hours. That meant we would miss our connecting flight at FCO. Well, we will see…
The Flight
Our flight was operated by Airbus A320neo which was intended for S7 Arlines and that is exactly how the cabin looked like. The seats were modern but quite uncomfortable and cheap with just limited legroom.
The food was served soon after take off and we were offered the usual AZ pasta. Nothing exciting, mostly inedible. The salad was definitely not fresh, all in all, nothing to talk about.
AZ Transfer Nightmare
This is the point where it all goes interesting. We arrived more than two hours behind schedule. At that time, we ran to our
connecting gate as in the ADR official airport app it still showed as boarding. Typical situation when the plane is still standing at the gate but they don't let you board it. Nice. So we headed to the first Transfer desk.
First of all, we have to know that even though FCO is an AZ hub, they do not have their staff here. It is all handled by Swissport. And these people can do nothing.
We stood in the line where in SkyPriority, there were so many other people than SkyPriority for at least 30 minutes. When I directed many of them to the right economy class line where it would take them forever to get the support, I was able to reach the desk in less than an hour. The agent issued us new boarding passes for tomorrow and we were able to choose from 8 AM and 2.30 PM departure. No rebooking for Skyteam partners is possible. Ok. And what about the hotel? "You have to go downstairs to another Transfer desk, sir." Well, we definitely did not know what was ahead of us.
We arrived at another never-ending line where there was no SkyPriority, all four agents were occupied and what is most important - they were able to solve nothing on their own.
We spent at least 3 hours here, we arrived well before 11 PM, and by 2 AM we were still waiting. Unbelievable!
At some point, they ran out of hotels and had to call supervisors to clear all decisions they made. But the phone was not working. Nobody was answering. For at least 20 minutes all agents under crowd pressure tried to reach the back office…where they were probably "mangare" as somebody commented.
When it was our turn, we were given our hotel and codes for taxi and directed to the pickup point. Even this procedure took more than 20 minutes.
Outside I have to call in Italian the taxi, tell them the code, and wait for another 15 minutes for pick up.
All in all, we were in the bed at 3 AM. With no drinks, food, support. Nothing. This is a huge failure of ITA Airways! The best part? I asked the agents if this was extraordinary. No, it is not. This is just another usual night…
