Review of Alitalia flight from Tokyo to Rome in Business

AZA

AZ - Alitalia

Flight taken on 29 July 2014
AZ 785
13:29 12h 16m 18:45
Class Business
Seat 1A
manureva744
10,757 · 120 · 10 · 2

I spent 1 night in Narita after my inbound flight from Papeete on Air Tahiti Nui. I had left you in the ANA Crowne Plaza and it is now time to leave the hotel for Narita Airport to catch my Alitalia flight to Italy and on to France.
I go downstairs to check out and Austrian Airlines crew are also getting ready to depart for their return flight home to Vienna.

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Jump on the bus and within a short time we are reaching the check patrol before entering the airport grounds.

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We drive around and spot a few planes…

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I am dropped off in front of the terminal and I make my way to the check in area. There are ground agents helping people check-in on the kiosks before they go to the counter.

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The process for me will take a few minutes as I am travelling in Magnifica and I used the Sky Priority lane. Bag was dropped off, ground agent wished me a good flight and sent me to the lounge.
I walked around and found this memorabilia shop, with a lot of stuff with the Pan Am logo, they were a bit pricey though…

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After walking around the land-side area, I make my way to the Sky Priority departure area with separate security checks which expedites the whole process.

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There again the whole process took only a few minutes and I was airside and ready to explore the terminal before reaching the Delta SkyClub. This part of the terminal is dedicated to SkyTeam and friends and I will meet a lot of the regulars…

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I then went up to the lounge to wait for my flight to Rome Fiumicino.

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I was greeted by Delta staff, they scanned my boarding pass and went back to their computers… Not the warmest welcome…
I turned left and chose a seat in the very uncrowded lounge. I checked the view and a Delta 757 was being pushed back from the gate I was going to depart from.

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Next to my gate a Garuda 777-300ER to Jakarta was waiting its departure. I always have a little laugh when I see Garuda, the ugly duckling everyone, and I really mean everyone, was making fun of, the airline everyone loved to hate… Bad reputation, bad service etc… Look at them now, they are a force to reckon with and a service that is second to none !

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Now let's visit the lounge and buffet area !

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My first selection…

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…and the second one

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From time to time look outside to see the traffic and I notice this Alitalia 777 taxiing towards us… Is this the Milan or the Rome flight ?!

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Well from the look of it, it will be my aircraft for Rome EI-DDH named Tropea ! Lucky !!!

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Blocked !

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Soon after the Alitalia planed blocked, the Aeroflot A330 to Moscow pushed back in front of a Malaysia Airlines A330

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And Garuda departed soon after.

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Everyone is busy on the Alitalia 777, getting is ready for its flight home.

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This was a new one for me, and after some search, it is a new Thai charter airline, on its way back to Bangkok.

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Closer to the boarding time I made my way downstairs to board the aircraft, the crew was finishing their checks and soon after they boarded two UM passengers, a couple of people on wheelchairs and then started boarding with Magnifica Class passengers and SkyTeam Elite Plus.

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Being in Magnifica, I'm amongst the first to board the aircraft. I turn left here !

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We are being greeted at the door by the Chief Purser and a Japanese cabin attendant.

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My seat, 1A

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Lets discover the seat, its controls and features and its surroundings.

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I am then offered a pair of headphones.

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Boarding is over and we are pushed back on time. The Chief Purser introduces herself in Italian and english and then a Japanese cabin attendant makes the same announcements in Japanese.
While we are taxiing the safety demonstration for this aircraft are shown.

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Good Bye Narita !

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We are turning and entering the runway 16R for our take off.

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Our plane is speeding down the runway to lift off and start its journey home.

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Views of Narita traffic

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We are crossing the coast before we turn and continue our climb over Japan.

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The crew hands out the travel kit.

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Quick glance at the airshow

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Now it is time to explore the inflight entertainment which is showing its age… it's bad, it needs a change an quick !

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But first lets start the dinner service ! Alitalia has good reviews about the food and it will keep its promise on this flight !
The crew will start by setting the table.

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The cabin is empty, only 10 of us in Magnifica today. The crew will start the service on the right side.

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First antipasti.

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Than the second one.

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Then comes the pasta service, they were to die for !!! And quite honestly, I could have asked to eat just that !

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The crew will then come with the main dish, choice of a fish or chicken, I'll go for the latter.

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Then comes dessert, I'll ask for a selection from the cart. Tiramisu, Green tea cake and chocolate éclair.

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To finish my meal I will ask for an espresso and a taste of the limoncello and the amaretto.

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After the tables are cleared, the crew will offer a bottle of water to each passenger. The plastic glass on top is not needed really… and not too classy.

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A little full after the meal, I go for a walk and pay a visit to the restrooms. Not a lot to report about…

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I will watch a movie and have a short nap. It's a little hot in the cabin, like on most flights to and from Japan, so I decided to walk around again and go check the self-service bar area between doors 2.

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Nothing fresh, plastic glasses… Not very Business Class like.
My small selection of snacks.

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This is what the seat pocket contains as reading material.

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I will make a purchase from the duty-free boutique, a selection a truffle paste and truffle oils for my best friend who loves this stuff !
Some 2 hours before we arrive, we are served a snack. Tasty and effective.

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I will once again finish it with an espresso.

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I have a little bit of time to watch some more TV before we reach Italy.

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Quick glance at the airshow, we are over Austria but still far from Rome…

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Let's have a look at the Ulisse Magazine now.
Network first

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Than fleet

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Our route today.

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Still not in Italy…

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We'll soon fly over the Adriatic sea

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2 minutes short of an hour to go before we land in Fiumicino.

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Soon !

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We then get a message about the connecting flights upon arrival, mine is the first Paris flight.

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We have now started our descent towards Roma Fiumicino Airport.

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We continue to descend as the altitude is showing on the airshow

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The graphics are so early 1990's…

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We are now lined up for landing and flying over the Roman countryside suburbs.

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Our airplane's shadow.

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And we've landed !!! and taxiing.

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SkyTeam Partner, China Airlines has just arrived from Taipei.

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The China Airlines A330 goes park near another Alitalia Boeing 777 and a Turkish Airlines A321

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It is now out time to reach our gate.

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Seat belts signs are off and I am waiting for the door to open and change terminals for my flight to Paris.

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First off the aircraft !

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See you for the next flight to Paris now !

Display all

Product ratings

Airline

Alitalia 8.4

  • Cabin9.5 / 10
  • Cabin crew9.0 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi6.0 / 10
  • Meal/catering9.0 / 10
Lounge

Delta Air Lines Sky Club 7.6

  • Comfort8.5 / 10
  • Meal/catering7.0 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi8.0 / 10
  • Services7.0 / 10
Departure airport

Tokyo - NRT8.0

  • Efficiency9.5 / 10
  • Access5.0 / 10
  • Services8.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness9.5 / 10
Arrival Airport

Rome - FCO7.1

  • Efficiency9.0 / 10
  • Access5.0 / 10
  • Services7.5 / 10
  • Cleanliness7.0 / 10

Conclusion

This was my first time on Alitalia and I was rather impressed with the performance of the airline.

Excellent and comfortable seat, the crew was really nice but one steward who didn't smile much and did his job just like a robot, no soul, no smiles...
The food was also really nice.

Points Alitalia has to work on are the inflight entertainment and the snacks and self serve bar.

Otherwise, an excellent job well done.

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Comments (10)

  • Thanks for sharing with us this great FR .

    It confirms that Alitalia is really a good option on long haul , with a very comfortable cabin and a great catering. I don't know how they do it but their pasta is fabulous ( ok they are italians but in flight it's a challenge)

    Good that the majority of the crew was professional and nice. For the steward that did not smile and did the minimum without pleasure , it seems that each airline has his own . For Air France on FR we gave them a nickname Monique so yours was a male Monique !

  • Thanks for this report. Great tarmac shots at NRT.

    The SkyClub, much better than domestic SkyClubs; definitely not up to the same standards as JL and NH's lounge offerings at NRT, but can you really expect more from a US airline? (It's still much better than KAL Lounge at NRT)

    It's a shame that the foot cubby on the window seats is closed off; it's a waste of a couple of inches between the seat and the wall. I wish they would do more with the cabin, it's just too gray, they should have added some red or green accents here or there.

    I think AZ is one of those airlines that has really done a 180 in recent years, their long-haul hard product overhaul was much needed post-Air One merger and I've only heard good things about their catering (definitely confirmed by your meal pictures). I really want to try AZ one day to try the Magnifica catering.

    I'm not too surprised your cabin is empty, I think the fact that NH doesn't even touch the Italian market speaks volumes about demand ex-Japan (JL only does chartered flights into FCO/MXP out of HND during peak Japanese tourist seasons). AZ will be axing their service to KIX next month. Japan is a tough market for SkyTeam airlines since there are no code-share partners for domestic transfers, I think KE has to handle most of that traffic from ICN.

  • Great pictures of AZ moving map / geovision, although that IFE looks a little out of date....

    I have posted your pics on the dedicated FLICKR page

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/129399630@N06/

    Thank you.

  • Tanks for this pictures about planes ! Narite is really spotter-friendly for that ! Thanks very much for this Flight-report ;)

  • I really find Alitalia's got the best table ware in business class. I find it better than some first class cutlery. The food looks great! I like the way they keep the Italian food culture of antipast-pasta-entree instead of doing the same as all other airlines. Well done Alitalia, we'll see how it goes as Ethan takes over 75% of their capital...

    Thanks for a great report

  • Hopefully with Etihad on board they might upgrade the moving map IFE system !

  • Beautiful report as always! I like the Delta Sky Club at Narita, actually, it's the only Sky Club I really like, lol. It has actual food, which is nice and is large with great views of the tarmac. That's great that you got a 777 in SkyTeam livery...such a beautiful livery! Alitalia is really impressive in Magnifica class. The seats are top notch and the catering looks really good. Plate service with no trays is becoming more and more rare in J these days. I'm surprised that there isn't more positive buzz about Alitalia's Business class because it really is a great product.

  • Thanks for sharing this great report.

    AZ has a very nice J product with top amenity kit and catering. The variety of courses is amazing and it's nice to see that it follows the Italian tradition. The red ribbon around the utensils is a classy touch and the salt/pepper shakers bring a contemporary feel to the tableware. Just genial.

  • thanks for nice pictures and comment. food seems high quality and viewing this pasta dish made me hungry!!!! note that boarding sign showing way to each class uses , in italian, usual AZ terms but not in japanese as they are translated into japanese using international and basic business premium and economy . but this way, they are sure that japanese pax will understand.

  • My husband and I leave on this flight on Wednesday. Thanks so much for the detailed report. It will be a wonderful flight. I live in Tokyo and this upcoming trip to Rome is a dream that is coming true for me. Appreciate the photos making it even more of a reality to me.

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