Rants and raves: a long story about the airlines
Hello there! We are back in the States, arriving back yesterday early thanks to KLM Roy@l Dutch/NW International. I have to say, I didn't think we would make it because of a certain incredibly shitty state-owned Italian airline that you should never, ever give your money to under any circumstances. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked!
We got to the Rome airport 2 hours before our flight to Amsterdam. We were flying Alitalia to Amsterdam, then KLM/NW to Seattle. We go to check in and we're not sitting together. I ask the agent (mind you, there are no lines, and she speaks perfect English) if we can sit next to each other. She dismisses me rudely, waves her hand, and says, "try at the gate." Um, okay. I'm going to chalk that up to, it's the morning. Or something like that.
We get to the gate, and we're rushed through, where they are simply taking tickets (no computer) and put on a bus to the plane. We get on the plane, and there's no one sitting next to me. The flight attendant goes by (who's been speaking in English to a man two rows ahead of me) ignores me when I ask her if everyone's on the plane. I then ask for her attention in Italian, and she waves Scott over to the seat next to me. Ah, so you did hear me in English.
Then, we sit on the tarmac for an hour. No explanation, no announcements, until about 10 minutes before we leave. Finally, we leave for Amsterdam, and it's the longest flight ever. What should be a 2 hour flight up turns into a 2 hr 45 min flight. WTF? I ask a different flight attendant (who I've heard speaking in French and English during the flight) about our connection. She pretends she doesn't speak English. Nice. I switch to Italian to ask her what time we'll land in Amsterdam. She asks me if I had listened to the announcements saying they'll be late. I say yes, and she says, "late." I switch to French to tell her that I'm concerned I'm missing my plane to Seattle. She looks at me and replies in perfect English, "I'll add you to the list for the ground crew." Really? Was it that hard? Why the hell do I have to linguistically wrestle with flight attendants to do what flight attendants on other airlines do automatically? I remember the service on Alitalia sucking back in 1998, but this was a new low. Also, for extra bonus, the plane was dirty and old, with a non-working toilet for economy. Lovely.
The BEST part was yet to come, however. We get to Amsterdam (waaaay late) and we're going to have to run to make our connection, along with a lady in front of us going to LA (she's Italian, and tells me that when she saw Alitalia on her ticket she wept). The pilot goes to turn into the gate (fast), pops a wheelie, and the whole plane shudders and stops. Done. We're short of the jet way, and all of a sudden we start smelling rubber burning. I see Dutch firemen outside of our window. Then the pilot comes on to tell us that the brake engaged too early on one side of the aircraft (uh, you engaged it too early) and caused pressure on a tire, which is now flat. Why the emergency response crews? Well, as you can remember from physics class, anything under high pressure can blow, and there are 2 tires on each side of an airplane, and the second one was still intact at that point.
Scott and I are now looking at each other incredulously. They ended up pushing a manual jet way up to the plane and getting us off the plane onto the tarmac past the fireman, then we climbed into the jet way, and ran across Schiphol airport to make our connection. We were supposed to have a 2 1/2 hour layover; we had even joked about spending out some of our euros at the casino in the airport. At least we toured the airport location of the Rijksmuseum during our layover last week.
We ran through the airport, and then realized, oh shit, we have to clear immigration. Luckily we managed to get into a line that moved quickly, we threw our passports at them, and continued running through the airport at breakneck speed. We arrived at the gate, answered the security questions, went through the metal detector, and collapsed on the plane.
KLM/NW, by the way, is awesome. We got tons of water, two meals, one snack, personal entertainment centers, and they still do free alcoholic bevvies in economy on international flights. The flight attendants were totally sweet, helped us get settled in, and even got me a glass of water since I was totally winded after running through the airport at breakneck speed carrying all my crap.
In the end, we got to Seattle, but our bags didn't. We went to the baggage counter and KLM had already sent a report over to Seattle (love the Dutch!), so our names were on the wall when we got there. Stupid fricking Alitalia sent one bag over in time to get here in the middle of the night, but couldn't find the next bag. The other bag should be arriving sometime today.
So, that's the story kids. Fly KLM/NW, Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, or an American carrier to Italy if you ever go, and then take the train elsewhere within Italy. Avoid Alitalia like the plague, unless you have a thing for poorly maintained, dirty planes, rude staff, lost luggage, running late, and getting a chance to see emergency personnel on the tarmac.
We got to the Rome airport 2 hours before our flight to Amsterdam. We were flying Alitalia to Amsterdam, then KLM/NW to Seattle. We go to check in and we're not sitting together. I ask the agent (mind you, there are no lines, and she speaks perfect English) if we can sit next to each other. She dismisses me rudely, waves her hand, and says, "try at the gate." Um, okay. I'm going to chalk that up to, it's the morning. Or something like that.
We get to the gate, and we're rushed through, where they are simply taking tickets (no computer) and put on a bus to the plane. We get on the plane, and there's no one sitting next to me. The flight attendant goes by (who's been speaking in English to a man two rows ahead of me) ignores me when I ask her if everyone's on the plane. I then ask for her attention in Italian, and she waves Scott over to the seat next to me. Ah, so you did hear me in English.
Then, we sit on the tarmac for an hour. No explanation, no announcements, until about 10 minutes before we leave. Finally, we leave for Amsterdam, and it's the longest flight ever. What should be a 2 hour flight up turns into a 2 hr 45 min flight. WTF? I ask a different flight attendant (who I've heard speaking in French and English during the flight) about our connection. She pretends she doesn't speak English. Nice. I switch to Italian to ask her what time we'll land in Amsterdam. She asks me if I had listened to the announcements saying they'll be late. I say yes, and she says, "late." I switch to French to tell her that I'm concerned I'm missing my plane to Seattle. She looks at me and replies in perfect English, "I'll add you to the list for the ground crew." Really? Was it that hard? Why the hell do I have to linguistically wrestle with flight attendants to do what flight attendants on other airlines do automatically? I remember the service on Alitalia sucking back in 1998, but this was a new low. Also, for extra bonus, the plane was dirty and old, with a non-working toilet for economy. Lovely.
The BEST part was yet to come, however. We get to Amsterdam (waaaay late) and we're going to have to run to make our connection, along with a lady in front of us going to LA (she's Italian, and tells me that when she saw Alitalia on her ticket she wept). The pilot goes to turn into the gate (fast), pops a wheelie, and the whole plane shudders and stops. Done. We're short of the jet way, and all of a sudden we start smelling rubber burning. I see Dutch firemen outside of our window. Then the pilot comes on to tell us that the brake engaged too early on one side of the aircraft (uh, you engaged it too early) and caused pressure on a tire, which is now flat. Why the emergency response crews? Well, as you can remember from physics class, anything under high pressure can blow, and there are 2 tires on each side of an airplane, and the second one was still intact at that point.
Scott and I are now looking at each other incredulously. They ended up pushing a manual jet way up to the plane and getting us off the plane onto the tarmac past the fireman, then we climbed into the jet way, and ran across Schiphol airport to make our connection. We were supposed to have a 2 1/2 hour layover; we had even joked about spending out some of our euros at the casino in the airport. At least we toured the airport location of the Rijksmuseum during our layover last week.
We ran through the airport, and then realized, oh shit, we have to clear immigration. Luckily we managed to get into a line that moved quickly, we threw our passports at them, and continued running through the airport at breakneck speed. We arrived at the gate, answered the security questions, went through the metal detector, and collapsed on the plane.
KLM/NW, by the way, is awesome. We got tons of water, two meals, one snack, personal entertainment centers, and they still do free alcoholic bevvies in economy on international flights. The flight attendants were totally sweet, helped us get settled in, and even got me a glass of water since I was totally winded after running through the airport at breakneck speed carrying all my crap.
In the end, we got to Seattle, but our bags didn't. We went to the baggage counter and KLM had already sent a report over to Seattle (love the Dutch!), so our names were on the wall when we got there. Stupid fricking Alitalia sent one bag over in time to get here in the middle of the night, but couldn't find the next bag. The other bag should be arriving sometime today.
So, that's the story kids. Fly KLM/NW, Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, or an American carrier to Italy if you ever go, and then take the train elsewhere within Italy. Avoid Alitalia like the plague, unless you have a thing for poorly maintained, dirty planes, rude staff, lost luggage, running late, and getting a chance to see emergency personnel on the tarmac.
4 Comments:
Oof, yikes. That airport in Amsterdam isn't small, either... I had a close connection there when I came back from Vienna last spring, and I felt like I was running the Boston Marathon across that the huge shiny expanses of lovely polished Dutch floors.
Glad you made it safely home, and I will remember to skip AItalia for my future Italian travels.
Poop on crummy airlines! I'll remember this whenever we finally book a trip to Italy...maybe next 5 years. I hope...
And this (the running through airports part)is why old people should not travel!
Alitalia must be italian for Air Canada!Another airline to avoid like the plague......thank God "Westjet" is flying to Yellowknife from Vancouver this summer!
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