Review Superior class flight with ITA Airways, new business class is a joke

ITA Airways As of December 26, he reinstated, or it would be better to say activated, The business class cabin on domestic flights.

This service had been eliminated by Alitalia, which, unlike other European airlines, had decided not to differentiate seats on board its planes on Italian routes.

The announcement was made a few days ago, so I decided to try this "novelty," and lo and behold, today, Dec. 27, 2021, I made a quick round trip from the city of the Lantern to the Capital: only, and solely, to test this new product waiting to peel off the first ticket For a long-haul flight with Italy's new national airline.

A small premise

It is obvious that this service is designed primarily for onward flights to and from ITA's international and intercontinental network.

The problem with Alitalia, in fact, was that a passenger flying business to a medium- or long-haul destination, on the route to or from Fiumicino, sat in a different class than the rest of the itinerary.

While as for domestic flights, especially considering the cost, this service makes less sense to be used.

Reservation

Currently, the only way to book a ticket with ITA Airways is to pay for it, the Volare loyalty program still not operational and it is therefore impossible to redeem a flight, also using points with other SkyTeam partner airlines.

In any case, this ticket allowed me to take three birds with one stone:

1. I needed to fly two routes By the end of the year for trigger the bonus of 10 thousand points Volare offered at the launch of the AZ loyalty program.
2. Just in the past few days a promo has been made official that, with only 4 routes flown with ITA by March 31, 2022, will allow me to redeem two tickets to an intercontinental network destination (almost) for free.
3. It was precisely the opportunity to experience the return of business class

The ticket cost €165, more than double that of economy (about 75€). For a 50-minute flight this is definitely high, but it is still in line with the prices charged on similar routes by Air France or Lufthansa.

Also Having no idea how many points you accumulate with a flight in Superior than one in economy, it is currently also impossible to tell whether this strategy might be attractive for obtaining/renewing status in the Volare Club

At the airport

At Fiumicino all flights are operated from terminal 3, the one that before the pandemic was dedicated solely to non-Schengen and long-haul flights. Check-in for ITA flights, however, is done from T1. Specifically, if you have luggage to check in, you have to go through Terminal 1, but if you are traveling with hand luggage only, you can go through security directly from T3.

Being my first flight with ITA And being a greedy Collector of flight-related junk I decided to stop by T1 to get my boarding pass printed and take a look at the new check-in area with the new ITA marks.

Needless to say, the area was almost deserted. So I went to the counters dedicated to SkyPriority customers, where the attendant asked me what level I had. Curious fact because, as of today, there is no active Flying loyalty program And I didn't expect such a question.

After seeing that I was traveling business class, he checked my SGP and handed me my boarding pass and a voucher in lieu of lounges.

The sore point for both those with elite status with ITA Airways and those traveling in business is that the carrier does not currently have any operational lounges let alone have arrangements with the lounges on Pier E to provide access for their customers.

The voucher was valid at Kimbo Cafe, which is then in fact an Autogrill. Since the flight was at lunchtime, snack service, i.e., a sandwich and a drink, had been initialed.

I just have a little doubt. If I had gone straight through without printing the boarding pass, I wouldn't have known about the voucher and couldn't have used it.

Before reaching the food court I had to go through security, via fast track being one of the SkyPriority privileges, although I must say the wait was not much longer in the regular line.

I thus had the opportunity to transit through the T1 area that had been completely renovated during this pandemic period and reach Pier E from which my flight to Genoa departed.

Of course, after taking advantage of ITA's voucher, I popped over to Eat something more substantial in the Plaza Premium Lounge, access is free of charge thanks to my Platinum American Express. It is unfortunate that in this time of lounge shortage, ITA offers a sandwich to its customers instead of access in this lounge.

I also stopped by to see if there were any signs of reopening from the old Casa Alitalia - Piazza di Spagna, but here time stood still in March 2020.

When the departure gate number appeared, the number 8, I understood that my flight would depart from a parking area that was not connected to the terminal and therefore boarding would be via bus.

So I was curious to see how priority boarding would be handled, which is not impossible since it is also respected by Ryanair and other low-cost airlines., but not from ITA now, as from Alitalia before. At boarding in fact boarding has not even been announced for passengers with SkyPriority Or for those traveling in business class.

To my question to one of the two gate attendants, the answer was "I am an Alitalia employee, you have to ask ITA because there is no SkyPriority."

As I had written on the occasion of one of my last trips with the "old Alitalia", one of the problems has always been staff also, the demonstration at the gate is a prime example of how easy it is to say in words "we are a different thing, we are new..." and then when you go from words to actions nothing changes. 

On board

If everything went as planned on the ground, minus the voucher surprise, the real curiosity was to find out How the treatment changes from economy to Superior. They are elites of many loyalty programs and I like to note the small details such as the much touted "personalized boarding" for elite passengers.

Of course everything on board is still "branded" Alitalia, sure now. Is flying the first plane with the new livery, but everything else is still Alitalia. The headrests, the plastic cups, the napkins. Only the cardboard with the safety measures is marked ITA.

Not to mention no different treatment other than the courtesy "Welcome" at boarding, but no one came to greet me either as a biz passenger (the only one on board) let alone as a passenger elite Flying. Which is the case on Lufthansa, Air France and BA and many other airlines.

The cabin layout is the classic one with the center seat converted into a coffee table And curtain dividing the two cabins. Nothing special. Of course, I would have expected to at least find the seat clean. Not so much for anti Covid regulations, but for normal cleanliness.

The flight was at lunchtime, and I was equally curious to see the quality of the proposed catering, since the press release of Launch of the Superior class talked about a special care of the product.

And here's the kicker, the offer is in no way different from what is offered to non Superior passengers. Perhaps, but I'm not sure, the only difference is that those traveling in the front rows are given two 25gr bags each of taralli.

Okay, the flight is 50 minutes, but in light of what all the other airlines today also offer economy passengers I was expecting something decidedly different. There was not even a chance to have a beer or a glass of wine, let alone buy something more nutritious.

Again to return to the topic of "standard" service, immediately after the snack, a gianduiotto was distributed with a small greeting card, accompanied by an announcement from the crew. Which was not the case this morning on the flight from Genoa to Rome.

However, praise must be given to ITA regarding the disembarkation procedure, which is done by row, the cabin crew asks passengers to obey directions, one of those things that I hoped would remain in the post-pandemic world and instead many companies have already gone back to free everyone.

In conclusion

The price is not worth the expense. No lounges, little chaos at the airport so even perks like fast track (which by the way is a benefit included in American Express Platinum) make less sense than before. It is a different matter if it is an approach flight on a medium- to long-haul route that will be flown in the old Magnifica class. In this case it is definitely a necessary service; the customer who has paid for a premium ticket should be able to enjoy the benefits throughout the entire itinerary.

No priority boarding if you use the bus, like the old Alitalia. Catering consists of a bag of taralli, certainly not a gourmet product much less synonymous with Italian food and wine.

I will definitely not repeat the experience and would not recommend it to anyone, not even to the worst frequent flyer. The only consolation is that with this flight. I earned more than 10 thousand points Flying And they are only two flights away by two free tickets for an ITA Airways intercontinental destination.

This is just one of many reviews you can read on our site, covid and restrictions permitting Every Wednesday we publish a review of a lounge airport, while every Friday you can read the review of one of our flights or a hotel where we stayed.

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