OTP-FCO-BCN si retur cu Alitalia

Trip report-ul este scris in engleza, scuzati va rog



My latest trip report from Bucuresti to Barcelona via Rome, with Alitalia.

So 4 flights, all Airbus equipment. I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about Barcelona, so I’ve decided along with with my best friends to check it out. The best option was with Alitalia, some 185 eur for the tickets. Managed to check-in online one day before the flight using Alitalia’s website, printed the boarding passes at home and left for Bucuresti some 6 hours before the flight. I live inConstanta, that’s some 250 km from OTP so we left around midnight. We parked the car in the long term parking, dropped the only bag at the drop-off desk and then headed for security. And it was one of the most serious checks ever. The guy there was really trying to earn his money so he patted me for some 3 minutes…. After security we headed for passport control which took less then 5 seconds and then into the terminal. It was still early so we’ve had some coffee and just hanged out, but it was still dark too so we couldn’t see the planes. I knew already that our ride will be EI-DTG which came from Rome as AZ502 about the time we left Constanta, thanks to flightradar24.com. Boarding was a bit delayed but it went on very smooth afterwards. The last 3 rows were completely empty but we decided to sit down at our designated places 28 A, B and C. We moved around during the flight in order to enjoy the view.

Otopeni at 4:15AM



Waiting for boarding



The first leg.
OTP-FCO
AZ503
A320-216 EI-DTG
ETD 6h25 ATD 6h25 (WOW)
ETA 7h35 ATA 7h25

The plane was quite nice, first flight in may 2009, slim seats and individual IFE. They even gave us free headphones when we boarded. The quality of those screens is quite terrible but still it’s better then nothing. Cabin crew didn’t smile too much but I guess it was early for them too. Safety briefing on the screens and also performed by cabin crew and we start our push back from the gate.

Decent leg room


Taxi to the active, RWY08L.














The new Departures building, almost finished


And off we go….


https://youtu.be/LGVpHVHbPB0

The Bucuresti-Ploiesti motorway which is not finished yet.







Then it got cloudy.






And it stayed that way for more than one hour, untill we were flying over Bosnia.

Cabin shot


Close-up on the wingtip



After some 40 minutes from take-off , cabin crew started the service.
Not a lot to choose from. Sweet (dolce-some cookies which tasted good) or sour (salato- some salty snack ) along with water and some coffee which was quite good actually. No beer which I must say it’s disappointing. Really.


The moving map and my phone GPS which works perfect


Lovely mountains over Bosnia.








From the right side






Croatia and the city of Split




The lovely landscape near Split


The Adriatic Sea


Pescara and we are over Italy now




Italy from FL380




Some more mountains












L’Aquila is somewhere to the right


And we begin the descent for FCO



Sppeedbrakes…



Sunny weather








We land quite smoothly on 16L
and taxi to the gate.
https://youtu.be/VQCcJvRVVt4












A bus gate, this time


The green CFM engine


Ludovico Ariosto, our plane even has a name (googled him, 15th century Italian poet)


Under wing shot


And quite a long drive to the T3 terminal.
A lot of Panda’s


Fiat’s everywhere (does FIAT really stands for Fix It Again Tony?)



Although the security check queue was very very long thing went smoothly (well not for one of my friends who had to take out his shoes) and after some 10 minutes we headed for pass control since we were coming from a Non Schengen country.






Activity at Fiumicino




We passed into T1 terminal, airside and headed for D gates. Fiumicino looks old and outdated (some of the displays with flight information were made in the early 80 judging by the look) and all the windows were really, really dirty.
Like I’ve said…




X-Ray Delta waiting for us.


A smart livery next to our ride. (through the dirty window)


Not much to do here so after smoking one cigarette in a very poorly ventilated “smoking lounge” we just sat down and waited for boarding to begin.




And down the stairs to the plane.


FCO to BCN
AZ74
A321-112 EI-IXD named Piazza Pretoria - Palermo
ETD 9h05 ATD 9h15
ETA 10h55 ATA 10h55 (WOW again)

Again the cabin crew was not terribly friendly but they weren’t rude or anything. Guess they should smile more. No headphones this time (I found out why once I got seated). And absolutely no empty seats.

This plane was quite old (first flight in 1995) and it looked old too. Old interior, dirty seats and less leg room. And 100% load factor.


No IFE this time and no infos from the cockpit as well. And just my luck a very scratched window. Yey!


D gates area Terminal 1


Pushback and taxi to RWY25.


Take off and here’s the sea (I always forget that Fiumicino is so close to the sea).
https://youtu.be/BrV_N9W8h0w


Unfortunately the sky was cloudy during the entire flight but with my scratched window it wasn’t such a big problem.




Since the crew didn’t bother to say anything about the flight route I’ve decided to check for my self..


I love Alitalia’s way of writing on the wings.


Same food and beverages as in the first flight(guess the salty snacks were a bit different), again no beer or alcohol in economy class.


We flew over northern Sardinia and some90 minutes later we were descending for BCN.













Stormy weather with grey clouds and some rain. We’ve landed from the south on 07L and then taxied to the gate. This time no bus ride.






727, quite a rare sight these days.


Jet2


Ryanair at Terminal 2


Vueling everywhere.






Time to unload the bags and cargo.


Farewell to X-Ray Delta




BCN’s Terminal 1 looks great, the best looking terminal I’ve seen so far but also look kindda under used.








Delta at the gate


Terminal 2


We had to walk a bit in order to get our bag, which was damaged quite badly (broken handle, broken wheel some cuts to the side and I’m still trying to get some compensation from AZ)

Huge parking.


Then the free shuttle bus to Terminal 2 and from there another long walk to the train station. Next, the train to Barcelona. Finally!

More to follow.

Ce diferente intre avioanele folosite pe cele doau zboruri... Vad ca pe primul zbor ai putut sa pozezi pe ambele parti. Ma distreaza cum verifici starea zborului

La primul zbor ultimele 3 randuri erau goale, asa cam avut spatiu de...manevra:D

Thxs for sharing

Frumos tripul RWO!
Totusi parca era vorba ca nu se mai urca poze mai mici de 1024 latime.... Vad ca in ultimul timp nimeni nu mai respecta Regulamentul asta!

Second part.
First some pictures from Barcelona. I was really impressed I must say. I’ve heard a lot of nice things about this city but I wasn’t expecting this. Lovely city, a great place to visit and surely a great place where to live. The only thing I don’t really like about Barcelona is that almost nobody seems to speak english.












































The way back.
21.05.2012
BCN to FCO
AZ77
A320-214 I-BIKA named Johann Sebastian Bach
ETD 11h45 ATD 12h05
ETA 13h30 ATA 13h45

We left quite early for the airport, by metro , train and then the free shuttle bus from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1. We were already checked-in, again using AZA’s website but we had to go to pick up the boarding passes, which we did get at the bagge drop-off desk. So no waiting in line here. Security next, and quite weird nobody speaks english in a major european airport. Anyway….Still had plenty of time before boarding so we went to the duty free shops, bought some sweets, went to a lovely terrace for a smoke and then walked the entire length of the terminal to our gate. Boarding again via airbridge.

Very crowded rail station


Terminal 1


Again huge parkings which were almost empty


Departures from Terminal 1


Long line at check-in for THY and AZA




The ATC tower


Smoking terrace


I really love this photo (must be the lovely KLM livery)


Vueling…at home


Kilo Alfa getting ready

Fire truck


Air Berlin unloading bags (and I must say I really prefer the ULD used in the A320 family over the bulk system used in the 737)


The plane was full again, quite worn out, old airbus interior, no individual IFE but some drop-down screens , 1 for every 3 rows. This time we got seated in front, Row 6 in order to get off the plane faster at FCO to spend more time in Rome.
CFM-56 engine


Taxi to the active 25L





And a long line of planes waiting for departure


Take-off
https://youtu.be/smg6xm6C1K0
and then a sharp turn to the left, guess it was a SID








A ship below us (dooh)


Clouds al the way so no en route photos.

Alitalia’s snack and this time they had beer. Bad beer, but still better than nothing.


IFE



Northern Sardinia


Finally, some 10 minutes before landing the IFE started showing some flight data (the F/O also mentioned something about the route and altitude, but he has a very very thick napoletano accent so I was unable to understand anything, neither in english nor in italian).

Approaching FCO














And we land on 16L
https://youtu.be/jt01mRkTADA

ATC tower


Germans and norvegians (spot the Armani sign)


Alitalia, at home


Our neighbour


No airbridge, but a bus ride.
Terminal 3 seen from a walkway


And AZ maintenance senn from the train on our way to Rome. Yep, Rome, cause since we had some 8 hours lay-over we decided to visit old Rome.


Fiumicino airport once again looks ugly, old and not very clean. And the railway station looks worse than many station in Romania, and that’s not really a compliment.

Here are some pictures from Rome
























After a quick tour to Colosseo, Fontana di Trevi Piazza Navona, we’ve had some pizza and gelato and now back to the airport. One more thing. Guess how long it takes for 3 people standing in a line to buy train tickets at Roma Ostiense station? 30 minutes! Yep. The guy behind the counter, could barely type, smoked inside and chitchated with everyone who bought tickets, or asked for informations, cause it was the same desk. At Bucuresti Nord rail station in 30 minutes a sngle clerk could serve some 50 customers. In Rome, only 3. Finally we managed to get in front of the line, after telling everyone that we’ll miss the train and the plane, eventually, and the sprinted a bit to catch the train to the aiport. A very dirty train. (I was in Rome some 4 years ago and things were much better then. Not sure what happened)
Another funny thing. After passng security and pass check, we went to our gate, Terminal 3, boarding area H, but since there was plenty of time left, decided to go for a smoke. The smoking lounge was at G gates, the satelite terminal. We had to take a automated train in order to get there, and when we came back, had to go through security again. When I tried to tell the guys there that we already went through security once, he said that Fiumicino is a strange airport. Guess he’s right.

Boarding was delayed for some 30 minutes, due to thunderstorm and then another bus ride to the plane.

21.05.2012
FCO to OTP
AZ502
A320-216 EI-DSV
ETD 21h30 ATD 22h10
ETA 00h35 ATA 00h55

The plane was in Air One livery but it was “operated by Alitalia” Airline management these days is quite complicated. We taxied to the active 25, then took off towards the sea, then a 180 turn (same SID as my last FCO-OTP flight, that time with the gorgeous MD-82). Route was overPescara, Split, Sarajevo and Belgrade, or that’s my best guess cause the pilots didn’t mentioned a word about it. They did say something abouta tail wind tough.
Only a few pictures, taken with my phone.

Our ride




Waiting for departure


Decent leg room again and individual IFE (but the screens were never turned on)


Snack time again and 2 (bad) beers this time.


Landed on 08R at OTP, which was quite empty at that time, got our damaged bag (this time nothing happened to it), payed for the parking and left for Bucharest to have a decent beer ( beer without alcohool for my friend who was driving:p) in Centrul Vechi, then around 3AM finally left for Constanta. That’s it.