travelfan1

Have flown from Philly to Italy several times, however never in the summer. Prices for non-stop with USAir, Philly - Rome and non-stop home from Venice-Philly in June is currently $1600. I'm paying for 7 tickets so I would certainly like to pay less than $1600 but I have no idea what tickets normally cost in the summer. Prior trip was around $1000.

Just looking for input.

Thanks.

And if you ask...yes, I'm definitely going non-stop with USAir - I always opt for non-stop if I can, and more importantly, 2 members of our party already have a connection to meet us in Philly.

bvlenci

I used to fly fairly often from Italy (where I live) to Philly, because I had friends and family there, all of whom have left the area in the past year.

I almost always found that it was much cheaper to fly into and out of Newark (EWR) and to take an Amtrak train between there and Philly. The Amtrak train stops right at Newark airport, where there is monorail shuttle to take you to the terminal. The train takes only 45 minutes, and runs fairly often. There are direct flights between Newark and various cities in Italy, and not only by USAir.

In fact, the airport train from central Philly to Philadelphia International Airport takes as much as half an hour, so the Amtrak train to Newark doesn't take that much longer. Taking the train to the airport also saves you money on airport parking.

bvlenci

Also, I wouldn't buy the tickets this early. There are often fare sales about two to three months before the travel date. The Wall St. Journal once did some research and found the lowest prices on average two months before travel. I usually start watching three months before, but I often don't buy my tickets until about 6 weeks in advance. (I buy earlier for very peak times, like Christmas.)

DeborahAnn

travelfan, I feel your pain when searching summer airfares . Unfortunately 1600 seems to be the going rate for summer travel.

We fly through PHL from Baltimore on USAir on most international flights. We are taking a trip in June to France and our tickets were just under 1600. We also are paying for 7 tickets but fortunately our son was able to use ff miles for one ticket which is why we booked early.

We flew to Venice and Paris in 2013, May and September on USAir and all international flights were full and this was not high season. Demand is up and the number of seats available is down so on popular routes like you are taking the airlines may find it unnecessary to offer incentives like lower fares. We paid about 1200 per person flying into Venice and out of Milan, I bought my tickets for our May flight at the end of January.

In recent years I haven't seen the seat prices fall much especially at a high demand time like summer. You don't say where in Italy you are flying but I notice that flights to FCO will have blocks of seats taken by groups heading to the Vatican through PHL. If you want to wait to see if the price drops I would check the seat availability often on the flights you are considering. We watch how many of the double seats along the windows are still available and book before they disappear.

As our family trip planner I would be a bundle of anxiety waiting as long as just two months before my travel date to buy plane tickets I might do it for two people who can be flexible on dates and having cancellable ground reservations but not with a group of 7 depending on me to get them to their destination. Good luck, Deborah

WeisserTee

I second the Newark option. Our friends in the Lehigh Valley have consistently found that flights to Europe are more competitively priced from Newark than from Phila.

trvlgirlmq

We are still playing the waiting game as well for June travel. We have 5 traveling and then 2 more joining us a week later for Paris. I'll keep monitoring and wait for the sales to be announced.

I have fare alerts set up on Kayak and AirfareWatchdog. I also have never paid more than about $1100 for summer travel to Europe so wait it is.

flpab

I paid 1400 last May to Italy from Orlando to Philly to Italy. Check out the Newark connection, the train is right there at the airport.

mokka4

I use matrixitasoftware.com to follow prices.
Input your data left side and compare a month at a time.

ira

Hi tf,

Since you want to fly NS, you are going to be paying a higher price than have been quoted.

In past years I have found that prices do go down some, but the probability of getting the flight you want goes down even more.

For example, for a trip in 2013 I booked tickets almost 1 year out for about $1200. 3 mos out there was a sale. The price was only $1000 for a nonstop, but it was for a flight that left at 9:00 PM outbound and 07:00 inbound.

ira

PS,

Are there more than one RT NS flights each day?

www.kayak.com shows only one.

txtravelmom

Jumping in...for June, to Italy how long should I wait? Our price now is $1700 for four, flying from Austin, Tx to Rome, and leaving from Bologna, with great connections. This is more than I planned on spending but haven't flown to Europe in years. We don't want more than 1 stop.

Christina

YOu don't really mean $1700 total for four people do you? If so, that is the bargain of the year for any time of year, let alone June. I can't believe that is more than you planned to spend on airfare for four people!

txtravelmom

$1700 per person

txtravelmom

$1700 per person