I don’t know about you, but I am a sucker for a good ad campaign and Alitalia has a tremendous one. Influenced by Etihad and trying to battle a fiercely competitive market, the carrier is selling style, and it has successfully hooked me into wanting to fly it. Here are three reasons I want to fly Alitalia in the near future.
1. Good Food, Good Seat, for a Good Price on Alitalia
In all honesty, a big reason I want to fly Alitalia is because I hear the food is great. Not all airplane food is “just airplane food” and a nice pasta course before the main course is something you don’t often get on an airplane. Heidi has me on a low-carb diet so I never see pasta at home!
Another reason I want to check out Alitalia is because it is actually pretty reasonable if you can transfer points to its own MilleMiglia program. 80,000 miles for round-trip business class is a steal, even if fuel surcharges will set you back $800. Both American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest are transfer partners.
Alitalia Transfer Bonus
Though 12/31/16, AMEX is offering a 40% transfer bonus on Alitalia transfers, creating an even better deal–only 58K miles r/t for business class! One-way is 60% of round-trip so that would require 48K Alitalia miles or 35K AMEX points during this promo to go between the USA and Europe in business class.
WARNING: Award space is not great. It used to be — not anymore. We may see it return in a big spurt, but for now there is just a trickle of premium cabin award inventory, primarily on the Mexico City and Chicago routes. I see nothing to LA, New York, Boston, Toronto, or Miami. That doesn’t mean it will not reappear in the weeks ahead. But be warned. I am still going to transfer points without a specific booking in mind.
The Alitalia Look
But the real reason I want to fly Alitalia is because the carrier has done so well in making it look glamorous. Seriously, are these print ads not classy? No comment as to whether Alitalia FAs actually look like this: my point is not to objectify women, only commend beauty. I love these uniforms, smiles, and cannot wait to fly Alitalia next year!
Will you take advantage of the 40% Alitalia transfer bonus?
I saw and still see so a lot of business class availability to Spain or Italy for October so I had transferred preemptively to get the 40% bonus. But as more November dates open up their are absolutely no business class saver seats with Alitalia planes available period. Makes me worry for when I have to book my December 2017 Italy/Spain trip.
maybe you should add a few research lines about availability of award seats on Alitalia and how consistent are they releasing those seats, lets not mesmerized with uniforms and fall into another transfer dead end like that of Garuda.
I’m happy too — I see space out of ORD and MEX.
LAX to Spain was rough.. so I did ORD to Spain and that’s when I saw so many open spaces for OCT. Now, still nothing for November.
That is a great ad campaign. I am also looking to go to Italy within the next year and a half or so. Might have to give this a try if there is another transfer bonus in the future.
$800 in fuel surcharges?!? Eeek!!! I’m on the fence. I flew Alitalia in J when they had $1400 r/t fares from USA to Madrid back in late 2014 for travel in summer 2015. Earlier this year I recall $1500-$1600 J fares on skyteam flights from USA to Europe roundtrip though I’m not sure if Alitalia was part of that promo. I might just wait until there’s another business class sale… though the 40% MR bonus transfer is quite tempting. 😉
$800 is tough to swallow. I will try to do just a one-way redemption and try something different in the other direction.
Never fly Alitalia economy. Also keep in mind FCO is a leader in losing luggage.
I would not dare transferring any miles into their program.
They might be bankrupt by lunch tomorrow.