Airline Review: Alitalia regional Business Class
In this airline review I’ll explain what you can expect of flying in the Alitalia regional Business Class, which I found to be quite nice overall. However, there was some major incident, which left me a little bitter about my experience.
My flight in the Alitalia regional Business Class started quite rough … or maybe harsh is a better word. I was the first to board the flight and took two pictures of the cabin, when I was screamed at by the purser who lectured me about picture-taking on-board. Well, I stopped for the moment. Yet, it was about to get weirder later on. I happened to be the only passenger in Business Class and the purser was the person taking care of me. When he realized that I was actually flying Business he switched to the “nice mode”, excused his earlier behavior and said that picture-taking was just fine. So weird.
Seating in the Alitalia regional Business Class
As you’d expect, the seating in the Alitalia regional Business Class was not on-par with the long haul experience, but instead the typical experience on intra-European flights.
There were three seats on both sides with the middle seats being blocked (there’s a small table here, too).
As I happened to be along in Business Class, there were just two rows in total. While nothing special compared to Lufthansa, Swiss, Air France or other airlines in Europe, I found the Alitalia cabin to be at least the nicest one when it comes to the design.
The finishes looked sleek and stylish and made the cabin feel more “luxurious”. The seats were slimline though and thus not very comfortable.
The seat pitch in the bulkhead and the second row (I tried both in my “own” cabin) was decent enough.
Something remarkable is the window between the galley in the first row, which I haven’t seen very often so far.
All in all, Alitalia doesn’t offer any special seating in regional Business Class, but rather what basically all airlines in Europe are offering.
Catering in the Alitalia regional Business Class
The Alitalia regional Business Class comes with the typical catering for flights within Europe. There’s a single meal, which is served on one tray. Beforehand, I was offered a welcome drink (on the ground) and two packages of nuts upon reaching cruising height.
On my flight, breakfast was offered. Even though my flight wasn’t particularly long (Rome to Munich), I found the quantity a little disappointing. I was offered some cut fruits, a pastry and a casserole.
The latter two things were served warm and on a single plate, which I found a little strange. The fruits were very good, so was the pastry. The casserole was a little stale and didn’t taste that great.
When it comes to drinks, there’s a wide range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and I was asked for a refill three times during this flight. All in all, a decent catering.
Entertainment in the Alitalia regional Business Class
The entertainment in the Alitalia regional Business Class is a little lacking. On the positive side, I was offered a newspaper after boarding (one English option).
On the negative side, there’s hardly anything else. Alitalia doesn’t offer WiFi or an entertainment system. The only other entertainment is the boarding magazine.
Sadly, there are no power ports in Business Class either.
Overall impressions of the Alitalia regional Business Class
The Alitalia regional Business Class didn’t exactly leave a mark on me. The major plus is the beautiful cabin, everything else is basically mediocre. The seats are the standard for flights within Europe with hardly comfortable seats, a blocked middle seat and a decent legroom. The entertainment selection is lacking and the quantity of food could be better. The quality was mainly good though and apart from the incident at boarding the service experience was good enough. All in all, I wouldn’t hesitate to fly Alitalia again.