Pros & Cons of flying Swissair & Alitalia

[FSUFan1k]

We are looking at a cruise Venice to Rome, Italy. We have never flown on Swiss/Delta or Alitalia/Delta. Would appreciate your input. This is a special trip for us as I missed traveling for 2 years due to acute pain and diminished mobility. BUT I'm back world and have places to go! FSULady

[Astro Flyer]

We are looking at a cruise Venice to Rome, Italy. We have never flown on Swiss/Delta or Alitalia/Delta. Would appreciate your input. This is a special trip for us as I missed traveling for 2 years due to acute pain and diminished mobility. BUT I'm back world and have places to go! FSULady

We flew SWISS via Zurich to Rome & were very happy with our flight and service. :)

[FSUFan1k]

Many thanx for your thoughts. FSULady

[VibeGuy]

I would choose SWISS. Alitalia is safe and the service is OK, but SWISS is more likely to operate a given flight, which is important in your case.

[Coral]

I flew Swiss Air from Moscow to Zurich a few years ago and also was impressed.

[NorbertsNiece]

Have travelled Swiss many times in Europe with no issues whatsoever.

[njmason]

I never flew on Swissair, but I can tell you I had a very terrible experince with Alitalia. DO NOT USE ALITALIA!!!!!

[rickdeni]

On September 21st we flew Swiss from Venice to Zurich and Zurich to Chicago. The planes were nice and the service excellent. The dinner food was the usual chicken or pasta but the snack was delicious. They served a hot pizza sandwich with ice cream, a cookie and Swiss chocolate. The only downside was the Zurich airport. It seemed like we walked for miles before we hit Homeland Security which had at least several hundred in line. They did hold the plane for about an hour to accomodate us and many others who were caught in the line. Loved Swiss but did not like the Zurich airport - it made O'Hare look fantastic.

[scottbee]

The biggest downside to Swissair is that they went out of business in 2002. Swiss International Airlines (who are owned by Lufthansa) gets very good reviews

[CruisinChris]

Swiss is part of the Star Alliance (United) and Alitalia is associated with Delta. Swiss is by far better and have pretty decent food (for an airline). Alitalia is notoriously bad. Avoid.

[headhunterke]

If you have the choice between Swiss and Alitallia, there's only 1 reasonable option: Swiss.

First of all, Swiss has a far more superior product and is seriously underestimated in world wide aviation. Imho, they are one of the top (if not the best) carrier from Europe.

Alitallia, while not bad either is one big mess. Seen a chaotic herd of Italians (no offense to our Italian CC friends) on TV. That's exactly how Alitalia is as well. Disorganised. And as for customer service when something goes wrong, no need to tell you you're better of with Swiss as well.

Alitalia is ok if you go from point A to B. But I wouldn't on earth want to risk handing over my bags to Alitalia on a connecting flight.

[FlyerTalker]

A couple of thoughts that haven't been mentioned.

 

1) You mention both Alitalia/Delta and Swiss/Delta. Does that mean taking one airline in one direction and Delta in the other? If so, I wonder about the Swiss/Delta combination. They are not part of the same alliance and do not codeshare. Any R/T ticket using the two is likely to be a bulk ticket pieced together. You don't mention who you would be buying from, but this is a red-flag to me deserving of further investigation as to just what kind of ticket you buy.

 

2) You also need to figure in the value of the FF miles you would be earning. This is a "rebate" back to you, and if the miles get orphaned in an account you would not be able to cash in (not enough for an award), then you have lost the value of the miles. At a 2 cent metric, you are looking at over $150 in value on TATL flights. Swiss would credit to any Star Alliance account while Alitalia and Delta would credit to any SkyTeam account.

 

3) Many Alitalia coded flights across the Atlantic are actually operated by Delta, KLM or Air France. You might want to give us some more details on just what you are considering, including cities and flight details.

[msk1]

We've used SwissAir multiple times and concur with the positive comments on their food, service, scheduling. Top choice!

 

msk1

[saneil]

We are looking at a cruise Venice to Rome, Italy. We have never flown on Swiss/Delta or Alitalia/Delta. Would appreciate your input. This is a special trip for us as I missed traveling for 2 years due to acute pain and diminished mobility. BUT I'm back world and have places to go! FSULady

We flew Swiss Air last year from San Francisco to Venice, the service was good food was good no delays, and of course the swiss chocolate they gave out was fantastic.

[zlato]

Wife and I flew business class on Swiss air in August; i.e., Chicago to Zurich, Zurich to Amsterdam, Bucharest to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Chicago. Although the airport is a best confusing in Zurich, the main business class lounge (for international flights) is acceptable but not outstanding. We did enjoy our experiences on Swiss Air long haul flights. Specially, (a) flat bed seats with ample space, (b) friendly and acommodating staff, © good food and amenities. The short haul flights in business class basically only had an abreviated curtain separating the two business class rows from economy. Food and service was okay, however. All flights were "on time."

[scottbee]

We've used SwissAir multiple times and concur with the positive comments on their food, service, scheduling. Top choice!

 

msk1

 

Unless you're talking about 10+ years ago, you probably flew "Swiss International Airlines".

 

 

• Swissair went bankrupt, and completely out of business in 2002
  
• Swiss International Airlines was formed by a previous regional carrier called Crossair, and purchased some of Swissair's aircraft out of Bankruptcy
  

Likewise, Alitalia, is actually a purchase of the old Alitalia, by Air One's investors in 2008.

[UKBayern]

Swiss is actually on of my favorite European airlines. On time, efficient friendly staff, modern flights, and I LOVE Zurich. Cannot understand what people find difficult, large or confusing about ZRH. It is a compact airport which is not too big, multilangual friendly and helpful staff, nice shops, decent eats.

[brazilgirl]

Swiss is my favorite airline ... Just flew to Lyon ( via Zurich) last month. My last flight on them had previously been in 2008 and they have maintained all that impressed me last time.

 

Punctual , corteous , organized and comfortable. And I love the little tin cases provided in business class , very charming. Very nice wine selection.

 

Great AVOD.

 

Zurich is crazy expensive! But nice.have a great trip.

[FSUFan1k]

I thank everyone for their time and input. I was concerned re Alitalia because of timeliness & disorganization issues that have been posted. Swiss wins my vote. I can certainly vouch that Costa ships are totally disorganized and didn't want that again. Their crew was great but on board management and embarkation was abominable! We were on 16 day from Italy to Carribean to FLL. at any rate, happy sailing for all of us! FSU LADY

[UKBayern]

I can certainly vouch that Costa ships are totally disorganized and didn't want that again.

 

The call centre and the usesless website that loses all the data you enter already give us a disorganized impression, and we haven't even been on their cruise yet....

[zoncom]

A caveat about small Swiss seats in coach. I am 5'3, 115 lbs, and was very uncomfortable on the TA flite.Hard to sleep. Consider Lufthansa, more comfortable.Star Alliance miles. No Alitalia.

[D4]

We've had great experiences on Alitalia and their coach food was fabulous. But they do strike more than others which could be a real hassle.