Flight Review: ITA Airways A321neo on Premium Economy and Economy Class
Flight#: AZ856 / AZ856
From: Rome-Fiumicino (FCO)
To: Dubai International (DXB)
And return
Flight time: 5h 30min
Aircraft: Airbus A321neo
This is the second part of an ITA Airways flight review series following a recent trip from Barcelona to Dubai, via Rome, and back. You can find the first instalment here, covering the business class journey from Barcelona (BCN) to Rome-Fiumicino (FCO).
This time we are going to cover the longer segment of the itinerary, the flights between Rome and Dubai, which offered me the chance to try out two more of ITA Airways’ products: premium economy and economy.
Full disclosure: I paid the economy class fare, the upgrade to premium economy and lounge access was courtesy of ITA Airways. Opinions are all my own.
Pre-Flight: Piazza di Spagna Lounge at Rome-Fiumicino
Let’s start by saying ITA Airways has two lounges at Fiumicino airport, one for destinations outside the Schengen free movement area (basically all long haul flights) and one for intra-Schengen flights.
I already reviewed the Schengen Hangar Lounge at FCO in my previous flight report, so this time we are going to have a look at ITA Airways’ Piazza di Spagna lounge, which is located past passport control for travelers flying outside the Schengen area.
The general decor of this lounge is a bit more conventional than at the Hangar one, but it is definitely much larger.
When I visited, early in the morning , there was plenty of space to sit down comfortably in one of the large leather armchairs and I was able to have a very nice breakfast before my flight to Dubai.
The lounge has a central buffet area where you can get different types of sweet and savoury foods, as well as water.
The breakfast options were pretty good. There is also an open kitchen area on one of the side of the main lounge area where, at the time of my visit, it looked like they were starting to prepare pizza, although I had to leave for my flight before being able to check that.
Wine and other alcoholic drinks, as well as some excellent coffee (there are also self-dispensing coffee machines) are served from a manned bar on one of the sides of the room.
The bathrooms were impeccably clean and modern. Top marks for this.
The Cabin: an A321neo with 3 classes
At nearly 6h, Rome to Dubai is a relatively long journey for a narrow body aircraft (although I have done some longer ones, such as my 8h trip to and from Kazakhstan on Air Astana’s A321LR), but one of the things that make it extra interesting is the opportunity to fly on a 3-class A321neo!
Yes, you read it well: three classes. Some people wrote to me (including the colleagues at CNN) after I went to see Iberia’s new two-class cabin A321XLR, to ask my impressions about that product. Well, I would say, ITA Airways has done a pretty impressive job in getting all three product classes (a “proper” business class with lie flat seats, a premium economy and an economy class) in a single aisle aircraft like the A321neo.
In fact, ITA Airways has opted for a rather low density cabin configuration, with 165 seats (12 business, 12 premium economy and 141 economy class seats).
Here above you can get a glimpse of ITA Airways A321neo business class section. Pretty nice, but, the front cabin was full and I had to content myself with Premium Economy, which, as we shall soon see, really exceeded my expectations.
Part 1 of the Flight Review: ITA Airways’ Premium Economy Class
I must say I was quite curious to try Premium Economy, since it is a type of product I don’t get to try often (in fact, as far as I remember, I think before this trip I had only done it on a couple of occasions, once on Air France (sorry no flight report available on this one!) and one on Delta’s Comfort Plus, which is more like a glorified economy class and has little to do with what we will see next.
So, let’s see how ITA Airways Premium Economy cabin is like…
The first impression is that this is more like a Business- than an Economy+. In fact, I would go as far as saying it resembles some business class products, such as Icelandair’s Saga Premium (an airline, btw, which flies mostly medium-range segments) or Premium Class on Norse Atlantic.
In addition to the wide and spacious Safran Z600 hard-shell seats, the whole cabin (on all three classes) had a really modern and elegant feel. I really liked the clean and light aesthetics.
You can also see the massive armrests, which means that, even if the layout is 2-2, you always get plenty of personal space. The double “ears” both, the soft, adjustable ones and the outer, hard ones that envelop you, add add to this sense of personal space.
The seat has also a very decent angle of recline, which, together with the generous pitch in front, allows for a very good stretch.
Each seat is fitted with a large seatback screen, which provides access to ITA Airways’ content platform. This can also be accessed through your own personal devices, but the large (15.6") 4K touchscreen makes for a much better viewing (more on IFE further on!).
Look down to the feet and you will see there is also a foot rest, that you can use if you wish to have your feet slightly elevated, which can be comfortable at times (the only if of this is that if you have long legs and want to change posture, it kind of gets in the way, but it is a minor thing, in my opinion)
A few more details I liked: each seat is fitted with in-seat power (C-type socket and USB port). In addition to the screen, you can also control the display through a console located under the right side armrest and, also, there is a hanger for suits on the back of the seat in front.
The Premium Economy cabin is, in fact, the smallest of all three, so there is a rather intimate vibe. Here below you can see how is it like during the flight, at a time when it was already getting dark.
The only inconvenience, perhaps, is that the closest accessible restroom (the business cabin has its own at the front) is all the way at the back of the economy class cabin.
Food and Drink
We got two meals during our flight, in addition to a welcome drink and a bottle of water upon boarding.
The first and main one was shortly after take off. There was a choice of three dishes: meat, fish and vegetarian lasagna with cheese and tomato filling (I opted for the latter). This was served together with a salad of ruccola and salmon, a focaccia-style bread and tiramisu.
Also worth noting is the small, yellow wrapped candy you can see on the tray in the pic below. This contained a sort of small cracking sweet which was delicious!
Lunch was also served with a choice of drinks, including wines and non-alcoholic drinks (including pear juice, which I love and it is quite unusual to find on planes!)
Story of a tiramisu: before and after…
Nice detail: the seat has a retractable glass holder which you can use if you wish to keep your drink but don’t want to leave the sliding table in place.
Also worth noting is that ITA Airways serves real expresso in a proper coffee cup! (btw, they also have “regular” airline coffee if you prefer that other sort).
The second meal, served shortly before landing, was this sort of hybrid between a calzone pizza and a sandwhich (I am sure Italians have a name for this), together with a little cake and another round of drinks.
All of this was pretty tasty. Good marks for food, ITA Airways! (the expectation was there, truth be said)
Inflight Entertainment and Amenities
Quite a few things to say on this front too and pretty much all of them positive.
First, Premium Economy passengers get the higher-end headphones. Also, the tray table, which is retractable and slides from the side, has a device holder, which can be practical if you are using your own electronic device.
Next: the screen is pretty good, both in its dimensions and in its responsiveness.
There are three ways you can get digital content during your flight on ITA Airways (and this applies to all three cabins). One of them, perhaps the most straightforward, is via the airline’s content platform and the seatback screen.
There is a pretty good catalogue of international and Italian movies and series, plus information about the airline and flight information (interestingly, while very accurate details about the flight’s progress such as speed and distance to destination were available, not so the moving map, which, for some reasons, did not work on any of the flights).
The other way to access all this content is via your own electronic device, which can sync with the aircraft’s own network via wifi without having to connect to the internet.
The third way to access digital content is to connect to the internet. All passengers can access 30 minutes of messaging for free (you can use, for example, whatsapp or the messaging function of other social media apps), there is a fee after that. I have posted here snapshots of the different data plans, with prices and performance.
One last word about the aircraft, which is amazingly quiet and contributed also to a super smooth and comfortable flight to Dubai. It is not an exaggeration to say that time really flew by without noticing.
Part 2 of the flight review: Economy Class
The flight on my return flight was pretty much full, so no upgrade available this time. On the plus side, I got to try Economy Class to share my impressions with you here!
The aircraft was again an Airbus A321neo, although way towards the back of the cabin. Also, this was a night flight, departing Dubai at 1.50am, so this type of schedule, obviously conditions the type of service onboard (you usually don’t offer a full meal in the middle of the night) as well as what you do (mostly sleep!)
I must say that the economy class cabin on ITA Airways’ A321neo is also pretty cool. It’s got the same ambient lighting and we got a blanket, a pillow, a set of headphones (much more basic than on Premium Economy!) and a bottle of water upon boarding.
As you can see, the Safran Z400 economy class seats are also equipped with a pretty large seatback touchscreen (smaller than in Premium Economy, but still a pretty respectable 13.3") and access to the ITA Airways content platform (which you can also access via personal devices).
The seats recline a little bit (although the mechanism in mine was pretty hard to activate and for a few minutes. Hadn’t it seen other people reclining their around me, I might even have been misled to think it didn’t recline, but after a few attempts it finally did!)
Internet access is also available, on the same terms as in business class or premium economy: first 30 minutes of messaging are free and after that you must choose a paid data plan in order to remain connected.
You can get here a general impression of the cabin during the nocturnal hours.
The first thing we got to eat shortly after boarding was a choice between a sandwich and a muffin, plus something to drink.
Since this was a night flight, the main meal was breakfast, shortly before arrival in Rome. Here you can see what it was like. I didn’t eat the omelette (there was no other choice), but the rest was pretty good and I’d say, overall, pretty substantious.
Our Take
I really liked the Premium Economy product and I think it is great for this type of medium-range segments in which you possibly won’t be sleeping much. I found the levels of comfort and service (including the food) on a par with even some business class products.
After the experience with Premium Economy, obviously it is harder to rate plain Economy, but I would say, overall, in its category it is also a pretty solid product. The cabin feels nice and modern, there is a a good inflight entertainment system and the food is pretty decent for an economy class product.
So, good marks overall!
PS: you can also check out my ITA Airways Business Class flight review for the A320neo