FLIGHT REVIEW: ITA Business Class – London City to Rome – Almost Kicked Off for Taking a Photo!

• Airline – ITA
• Cabin – Business Class
• Flight Number – AZ213/ITY213
• Travel Date – February 2025
• Aircraft Reg – EI-MVC
• Aircraft Type – Airbus A220-100
• Aircraft Age – 7 Months

Booking

ITA (pronounced EE-tah) have some cracking business class flight deals that I wanted to take advantage of, but more specifically for the second flight (review to follow next week).

I booked London City to Dubai via Rome for just £1200 per person, return. The only thing is, to get this fare we had to do an overnight stopover in Rome, which was ok with us because it meant we had a day flight to Dubai, that is always my preference.

We also paid about £25 each to reserve our seats on this flight.

I booked this before I status matched with Flying Blue, that matched my BA Gold to their Platinum. Once this was logged in the ITA website, it then allowed me to select seats on other legs for free, but only for me and not my friend who has no status.

ITA are in a little grey area at the minute as Lufthansa Group recently purchased a large stake of the airline. This means they will move from SkyTeam to Star Alliance in the coming months ahead.

London City Airport

Getting to London City isn’t the easiest for me as I live in Surrey, which meant a 40-minute train to London Waterloo, a 15-minute tube ride and 30 minutes on the DLR straight into the airport. (Some of these fares have popped up from Gatwick since Katrina wrote about here).

For sure, If you live in central London, I can see this being a really convenient option with an ever growing list of routes.

Being in Surrey I am spoilt that I live just 25 minutes from Heathrow and 35 minutes from Gatwick, so anything longer feels like a bit of a trek.

Shamefully, this is my first time flying from City which I have been keen to try for some time now.

Check-in & Security

Through the front doors, and we were immediately into the check-in area with the ITA area being one of the closest, so it was spotted easily.

We used the Business Class/Sky Priority queue, but it really didn’t matter as it was very quiet anyway.

Once our bags were dropped, we headed for security, which again was quite quiet, so we had little waiting time.

City has the new scanners so we didn’t have to take anything out of our bags, which is always great and removes the inevitable stress that comes with emptying everything.

Soon through and we were into the terminal and to our surprise it was much busier than check-in and security had suggested. Everywhere we looked to sit was full with people lingering in groups, waiting for their flight.

We took a little stroll and, like many, found an unused gate a little further away to base ourselves whilst waiting for our flight. We had a fantastic view of the runway so for a geek like me, it was perfect.

For those that have kids, City Airport has a cool little soft play section. More airports need this in my opinion.

Boarding

Gate 24 popped up on the screen and we were just about as far away as we could possibly be, so we turned around and headed there.

Once we arrived, it was very disorganised with no door open to actually enter the gate, along with dozens of people coming through the small corridor to locate the gate. Eventually it was opened and we all funnelled down like cattle to another small waiting area (pen) by the apron.

Boarding is the beauty of London City. Walking along the tarmac to the aircraft is always a highlight, especially on a nice day like we had.

A Shocking Experience

Travelling specifically for the purpose of reviewing the flight, I made sure we were at the gate as early as possible to give us the best chance to board first in order to get uncluttered photos.

Luckily for us, we were first to board, so I managed to grab a couple of great external images and was able to photograph the cabin without any passengers or crew being in shot.

As I entered with my phone poised to take a couple of pics, one of the crew muttered about not taking a photo of him, which I would never do without his permission and in any case, I didn’t want a photo of him, just the cabin. Once he passed by me, I took a single photo of a totally empty cabin whilst I was finding my seat in row 2.

Happy with the photo I had taken, which I took whilst still walking to my seat, as to not hold up boarding, I then sat down. At this point, the man approached me whilst the lady stopped boarding other passengers. I was in my seat with him specifically aiming an angry attack at me for taking a photo.

He shouted something at the female crew member in Italian, then they both started a very public shouting spree at me. I was in absolute shock!

At this point I was shaking at what was happening and really didn’t know what to do, I hadn’t done anything wrong in my eyes.

The male member leaned into my seat area and got his head way too close to mine for comfort and in a very intimidating way insisted I unlock my phone to show him what photos I had taken. At first, I refused, but again boarding was stopped because of this, and as I was the only passenger on the plane, it was all very awkward, so I unlocked my phone and showed him. He was satisfied and walked away to recommence boarding

At this point I was deeply embarrassed by what had just happened and really didn’t know what to do. Welcome to ITA! 

I reached out to ITA quite a few weeks ago to find out what their official policy on photographs was and to share my experience but I am still yet to hear back. 

Seat & Departure

The A220 is a smaller aircraft and one that can fly out of City, which is configured in a 3+2 seat layout.

You’ll notice the windows on this aircraft are fantastically large.

As we were in business class, I selected row 2 but on the 3-seat side knowing the middle seat would be empty, allowing us to share more space. Whereas on the two-seat side, passengers occupy both seats.

I think the interior of ITA aircraft is a bit like marmite. You either love it or hate it. Personally, I really like it.

I do have some concerns over the choice of light colours on the seats and seat belts, and given this aircraft is only 7 months old, it’s already starting to confirm my worries. I’m really not sure how these will hold up in the long-term.

The seat back has a nice tablet holder which locked it into place and trust me, when locked in, it’s going absolutely nowhere.

Each seat also has a 60W USB C charging point, and a USB A point too.

Pre-departure we were offered a cup of water or orange juice.

I just love Italian design, it’s always so classy with great attention to detail.

Frustratingly, we departed 35 minutes late.

Food and Drink

During the two-hour flight we were offered the choice of just one meal. We were not offered a food or drinks menu, but given it’s only a short flight with only 3 rows of business class, I can understand this.

The meal offered was a salmon salad to start, mini pizza for the main and a chocolate cake for dessert.

The starter was a little odd if I’m honest and the pizza was cold and tough, but the dessert made up for it. One of the best chocolate cakes I have eaten on a plane.

Food was served first, which is a bugbear of mine as by the time the sole flight attendant started the drinks round, we were done with our food.

Service overall wasn’t too bad. The crew member handled the few of us in business class pretty efficiently given she was on her own. 

On offer was simply white wine, red wine or water… I had the white wine which was nice. I can’t tell you what it was because I wasn’t told, even when asked.

We were eating during a beautiful sunset which was made all the better for those big windows.

I popped to the loo before landing and was happily surprised I could stand up without kinking my neck. The space was a really nice size.

Arrival and Bags

After what felt like a very quick flight, we were down, 40 minutes late, but we made it to our first stop. Rome!

Buses were waiting for us, annoyingly, but it did give me an opportunity to see the stunning blue aircraft in all its glory once again.

Given only about 6 of us from the whole flight were waiting for bags, they took an age. Circa 30 minutes to come out even though the airport was dead so I’m not sure what took so long.

Summary

ITA Airways’ business class fares are tempting, and the A220 offers a stylish, well-designed cabin. However, the experience was mixed. Boarding a little chaotic, and the aggressive confrontation from the crew over a simple cabin photo was shocking.

Service needs improvement. There were no menus along with fairly underwhelming food and a slow drinks service. With ITA joining Star Alliance under Lufthansa, I hope things improve. Would I fly them again? Sure!