NewHere

When is usually best time to get good airfare price for Boston to Rome route? How much is consider a good deal? Thanks.

djkbooks

When are you planning to travel?

In my experience, you may as well book as soon as you know you're going. The closer to your dates, many airlines add seat selection charges to their fares which may increase the longer you wait.

Kayak is a good place to start. But, you cannot rely on that to check fares from time to time. You should click through to ensure those fares are actually available on the resources listed. Sometimes, "sorry that fare has changed since your search", and so on.

I used to prefer non-stop flights from Logan, but Air France, Delta, etc., have changed their schedules. So, lately, my preferred airline from Logan is Aer Lingus. Competitive fares and convenient times. The connection in Dublin goes smoothly, especially on the way home when you can usually go through USA Pre-Clearance there and skip all that on arrival at Logan.

isabel

I second what djkbooks just said. We have flown aerlingus for the past several years. By far the cheapest of the big carriers, the time is good (leaves BOS around 6pm, gets to Dublin around 5 am and the second flight - to Paris, or Rome or Milan or where ever you are going leaves around 7am). So you still get to your destination mid morning.

Iceland Air can be good too. They are considered 'economy' (no dinner) but they leave BOS around 9 pm and change in Rekjavik. (and you can add a few night stopover to see Iceland if you like for no added cost).

But just booked Norwegian from BOS to London for next summer for $285 (one way) (coming home a month later its $545). But they have limited destinations. I have plenty of time and love London so I'm stopping for a couple days and then flying easyjet to my next destination. That only works if you have time for two (or more) nights cause I wouldn't book the second flight the same day (and it could be a different airport) in case of delays. If you have a limited number of days for your trip, or don't love London this could be more trouble than it's worth but for me it works great. My husband who is meeting me in Italy for the second half of my vacation is flying aerlingus cause he doesn't have the extra couple days to 'waste'. Butit's costing a lot more.

isabel

Should have also added that I haven't seen prices drop/sales on air fare in years. Used to be if you waited till mid spring you might find a lower fare but I'm not seeing that lately for the cross Atlantic flights. And for the intra-European carriers like easyjet and RyanAir the price starts amazingly low but just goes up and up till closer to your dates.

Ackislander

Look into a Boston-based organization called "Show of the Month Club".

On one of our trips to Rome, we got flights, airport transfers, and five nights in a hotel for less than the flights alone had we booked them ourselves.

tom_mn

Icelandair does not fly to Rome, and the flights to Milan are often expensive code shares.

If Providence works, Condor offers cheap flights via Frankfurt with meals.

Anything under $1000 for high season is a good deal.

greg

Are you interested more in "usual" as opposed to "actual"?
The latter can only be obtained by searching the web periodically to find itineraries and departure/return dates offering fluctuating market based prices.

NewHere

Thank you all for all of your advices. There are super helpful. Couple days ago, I saw a round trip direct Boston to Rome flight leaving on mid-April and it was a little $900. By the time I check with my husband to see if I can book it, it was back to the $1500.

Great knowing that there are other airlines that offer better deals.

Thanks again.

clarkgriswold

Careful, some of those lower priced deals put you on 20 hour flight itineraries rather than direct/8 hours.

For instance on March 5th I see a $650 offer from Turkish airlines, but you'd have 5 hour layovers in Istanbul.

NewHere

Thank you for the reminder. I'll make sure i'll pay attention to the duration of the flight.

Has anyone seen airfare below close to $1k for travels in mid-April for direct flight? I thought i might have seen it around Jan this yr, but i could be wrong. I'm wondering if airfare are in general more expensive when book around this time of the year vs in Jan or Feb for the same travel dates.

Thanks.

tom_mn

When you buy your ticket from a US website you always have a 24 hour cancellation window. So lock in the deal first then ask hubby.