Alitalia Magnifica Business Class Review – New York to Milan

In early December of 2013, Mr. and Mrs. Jeffsetter took a three night trip to Milan, Italy. Part mileage run, part weekend getaway, part desire to see another Christmas Market in Europe. Put it all together and we had an excellent time in Milan. What follows is a series posts over the next few weeks about the Milan trip, including: Booking Business Class Tickets to Milan, Alitalia Business Class Lounge at JFK, Alitalia Magnifica Business Class from New York to Milan, The Park Hyatt Milan Hotel, Christmas in Milan, Skyteam Lounge at Milan MXP Airport, Delta International Business Class Milan to New York.

We waited in the JFK Alitalia lounge until boarding for our flight is announced. Even with our gate assignment at the other side of the terminal, it was only a 5 minute walk to the boarding area. The boarding process was painless and we found ourselves checking out the business class section of the plane in no time. Since we were among the first people on the plane, I took the liberty to snap some photos of the seats before others were settled in.

Business class on the Alitalia A330-200 was made up of 7 rows with 4 lie-flat seats across each row in a 1-2-1 configuration. It was possible to get seats that were close together in the middle of the plane, so Mrs. Jeffsetter and I asked to be seated in row 5. The seats were comfortable and fully lie-flat, and I was looking forward to using them to get some rest on the 8 hour flight.

As is customary on most international flights, we were offered a pre-departure beverage while we waited for the rest of the plane to board. As is customary for me, I chose to have a glass of the sparkling wine.

While enjoying the bubbly, I checked out the amenity kit that was included inside of our bedding and pillow package. It was a bunch of toiletries wrapped in see-through plastic. Not exactly a collectors item.

Fortunately a few minutes later the flight attendants came through and handed out the real amenity kits for the flight. These were Bulgari kits that actually had a very nice presentation. The kit contained lotions, lip balm and fragrances, and I am giving away two of them if you enter by December 21st, 2013!

Each seat had a fairly large monitor that could be used for watching movies, tracking the flight, etc. Of the many In Flight Entertainment options (IFE), I chose to watch Iron Man 3 for the night portion of my flight.

But before getting too into the movie, I decided to look at the route info and even check out the views from the camera in the front of the plane.

After lifting off, it was all about alternating between Iron Man and fine Italian dining.

Eating in Alitalia Magnifica Business Class

As soon as we were in the air, the crew handed out food and drink menus. As a fan of Italian cuisine, I was excited to see what options were available.

There were two appetizers, one with cured meats and the other was fish. I thought that the meats were good, but did not particularly enjoy the fish.

Next up was some sort of spinach and olive pie that had good flavor, but was also quite bitter. The most surprising part of my dining experience was that there were so many bitter flavors to start off the meal. While I like bitter in certain doses, the first courses of the meal were just too much bitterness.

Next was the pasta course. The choices were a spiral pasta with red sauce or a ribbon pasta with salted cod and white sauce. I asked to try a little of both. To my surprise, I actually liked the ribbon pasta with salted cod the best.

The main course was meat and potatoes. I can honestly say that I don’t remember exactly how this tasted. I either had too much wine or the food was just unremarkable.

There was also a salad, which I’m sure you are very excited to see pictured below.

Last there was a dessert of Ricotta cheese cake with golden raisins. By this point I was too full to really eat much of the dessert, but I would give it a rating of “decent”.

Sleeping in Alitalia Magnifica Business Class

After dinner I got ready for bed and put my seat into the lie flat position. The cabin was very warm, so I used the blanket as a mattress pad and slept on top of it. I probably slept for 4 of the 8 hours I was on the flight.

With the two seats joined together in the middle, I had a small area to put my feet. I wish that this were a little bigger, but the size did not have a major impact on my ability to sleep.

After waking up, Breakfast was served in the cabin. I was not very hungry at the time, so I simply nibbled on the carb-laden options until they took my tray away. In retrospect, I probably should have eaten more, because it would be a long time before I’d have my next meal in Milan. But that’s another story.

Overall Thoughts on Alitalia Magnifica Business Class

I enjoyed my experience on Alitalia. The staff were courteous, the food was decent, the beds were comfortable and I arrived in Milan better rested than I would have been had I came over in economy class.

I have another flight coming up on Alitalia in January of 2014 (from JFK to Rome), so I am looking forward to comparing the two experiences in a future post.