ekscrunchy

Having to cancel Sicily for the third time (Alitalia is out of business and other airlines require at least two stops to get to Catania---Delta is charging now $14,000 per bus tix. EACH. The new airline( ITA) does not fly to Catania, I do not believe...

I know Turkish is good but do not want to layover so long....

Last time out layover at Fiumicino town was GREAT due to great restaurant...but now cannot even get to Catania from FCO, os so this is how I read it. Plan was to fly into Catania and south to Ragusa for a few days then along southeern coast and hoe from Palermo......this is all supposed to be in two weeks......I feel terrible letting the B&B owners wait so long....

Even looked at a direct flight to Stockholm...no luck....

Sorry for the spelling errors

Christina

Your post is really confusing as you don't say where you want to go from that I can see. If you really mean two weeks from today, ITA Airlines appears to have about five flights a day from FCO nonstop to CTA, so I do not understand why you don't think they do. So does Ryanair actually (has nonstops from FCO to CTA).

I don't understand your comment about Delta either or why you want to use that airline. If you are flying from NYC, why not use United or Lufthansa (Partner), as they have lots of nonstop flights to FRA or MUC and they fly nonstop from Germany to CTA

Swissair also flies nonstop to CTA from ZRH, you can usually get a nonstop from the US to ZRH from some east coast cities..

ekscrunchy

Christina thanks. I thought it was clear that we wanted to fly into Catania, rent a car, go to ragusa and a few other towns on the southern coast, andd finish up with Trapani and Castellamare, then back to NYC from Palermo.

Delta and Alitalia give me points but I am open tony airline with few stops and doable layover times..let's say less than 4-5 hours.

I saw nothing about Catania flights on ITA, perhaps you could send me a link. Traveling through Munich would be great, and then on to Catania but I have to hurry!!


Thanks for all your help--have you taken a peek at the ITA site??? VERY confusing to me!!!

I am not interested in flying a budget airline like RyanAir

Gardyloo

If you find ITA confusing, just go to Expedia and put in your dates, specify business class, and push the button. Use the "multi-city" option and try for a range of dates. Not knowing your specific dates and assuming you're traveling from the NYC area, I tried a few dates around Nov. 8 - 10 outbound and Nov. 22 - 24 returning, and got business class prices ranging from around $2900 to over $7K depending on the specific dates of travel (midweek seems cheapest.) Most were via Amsterdam on KLM. Note most of the flights into Catania don't carry business class, so you'd have to ride in coach for the last leg.

Also pay attention to the total flight time. While some are in the sub-20 hour range (end to end) there are a number of alternatives that would force an overnight someplace in Europe; i.e. the transatlantic flight arrives after the intra-Europe flight has left, or without enough time to allow clearing immigration and bag transfers between the planes.

You might also look at round trip options to both cities. You might save a lot if you're prepared to return to where you arrived, roughly 4 hours apart.

annhig

Eks - would you consider using a budget airline? You could get a much cheaper roundtrip ticket to Rome, say, then take Ryanair to Catania [several fights a day] and back from Palermo [ditto] Flights are very cheap and take just over an hour.

oh dear - i just saw that you won't fly with Ryanair. So I looked at the ITA website and though I'm not familiar with it it didn't look too bad. The biggest problem was finding the website! Can I ask what you found so confusing about it? I did a dummy booking for 8/11 and found 5 fights a day, from Rome Fiumicino, picking the 13.10 to Catania one way and the classic ticket which allows a change to another flight for a fee of €65. Then they want the normal info and you're away. Happy to help if you would find that useful.

Hope you can manage to get to Sicily - one of my favourite destinations.

ekscrunchy

Ciao, Ann was that in business? I today found Lufthansa via
Frankfurt to CAT with small layovers and home from Palermo to NY on
swiss via
zurich..price is half what
delta asked......still sky high (ha ha)
sorry I am almost asleep...more tomorrow..mille grazie!

annhig

<<Ciao, Ann was that in business?>>

Ciao Ek - not sure I get the question but never mind. The most important thing is that you have found a solution that works for you. So pleased you are going to Ragusa - such an amazing place. Do you plan to go to go to the ristorante Duomo? We were staying in a very nice BnB just opposite there but try as I might I couldn't get Bill to go for it. Though it must be said that we had a couple of amazing meals in Ragusa nonetheless. A dopo.

mrwunrfl

ITA has nonstops from FCO to CTA in economy. 35 euros
You could go in business class, but 1 stop, cost of 557 euros

ekscrunchy

Ok, thanks to all.. Not sure why I could not find NYC to CAT for a decent price. I do not care about business class on flights within Italy.

HOWEVER: My partner seems to think that the weather in mid-late November will not be ideal and I have so much on my (personal plate) that I ended up postponing once again (thhird time) and we will go in May 2022.


We do have a trip booked to Chile in late December that requires not one, not twwo, but three COVID tests. Not a problem..we have to qurantine inside the hotel (no sneakiing at all) even though we have both had the two shots and I had the booster yesterday (boy, did that ruin my night!!)....so I am very lucky I have that, and soon I can pester you all once again about the Sicily trip for May, beginning in Catania, driv ing south to Ragusa and across southern coast and up to Trapani (then maybe Scopello or Castellamare) Suggestions taken with many thanks. Home from Palermo.

Who has been to Scala dei Turchii and is it "worth" making a special overnight to go there, in May?????


Not only that, but I have an inn booked for a week in March near Vejer in Spain, so will return for advice..this would be solo and I am TERRIFIED of driving alone but as another wiser than myself have advised to just DO what you fear if it is not dangerous. So look for many questions to come and a spcial thanks too Gardyloo, Ann and Mr. WunrFL and, of course, Cristina. Sorry if I've left out anyone here...

mrwunrfl

The ITA Airways nonstop is only operating 3 days a week right now. It will be daily in May.

I did a few searches for May 18-31 and your itinerary, NYC-CTA, PMO-NYC gives a best fare of $3272. It is on ITA. The problem, besides the price, is that the return durations are very long, over 25 hours. It would cost another $500 for a better connection.

Meanwhile NYC-CTA, FCO-NYC on Turkish is $2718 with good travel durations each way. A one-way PMO-FCO is $56. That does make it a two-stop return, but you could just plan in a stopover in Rome, so it would be on different days.

CTA is the airport code you want, CAT is in Portugal; also, you should use NYC as your home airport so that you get searches for both JFK and EWR (and LGA).

This is the Air Travel forum. Your other - destination - questions would be better to post in the Europe forum, but you knew that.

ekscrunchy

Thanks, all!! Looks like success. We changed the trip until May.. They have business class now for 1400 euro and up....sounds great! And they arre Skyteam!

ekscrunchy

Well it all looked greeat, but I've gone through the process on the ITA site 5 times and when I get to the end, they ttell me something went wrong and I have to try again....

I want to go to CTA from JFK, and home from PAlermo..around 9 May to 27 May. Business.

Also, the price I quoted above was for one-waay only.

Also, the website is only in Italian, although they say they have an English possibbility. But I can read it so that part is ok.

Can anyone make sense of this site (ITA)??

annhig

ok, it's not easy, but using the dates you gave me, I clicked on the "multitratti" [multi leg/city] button in the middle of the screen and that enabled me to put in both legs as a multi leg journey. Total on PE €1500 odd but you could pick business if you wanted to. I stopped at the screen where I had to enter my personal details.

Is that what you did?

ekscrunchy

No, I never got that far..all was fine with dates and flights and then they btold me (inn Italian) that I needed to begin again, that something went wrong.

annhig

I suggest trying my way!

mrwunrfl

I got through to the payment page every time. The search result shows the three fares for each flight option under Andata and Ritorno. Choose the red Business Class for Andata. See an option for Business Classic or Business Flex. Choose the Classic. Then you see a popup warning about the non-refundability of the fare. Click the green Continua button and you see summary. Click the green proceed button.

I am going to guess that the trouble will happen at the popup after you select Business Classic. That would probably be due to a popup blocker. If that happens then look for an option to allow popups from that site.

On the passenger info page you can just make a name. Use 12/12/1980 for birth date, that will always work. Then I just entered the phone number for the Hilton Rome Airport but you can use any Italian phone number.

scrb11

In case the OP hasn't booked, this search seems okay, though I don't know if Google Flights does better for booking ITA flights.

https://www.google.com/travel/flight...__8BQAFIA5gBAw


As for Scala dei Turchi, I haven't been, though about stopping by when visiting Agrigento but parking along that coastal road doesn't seem great. It was recently vandalized, the white limestone, with red dye of some kind.

Seems like it would be good for a day trip if you're staying in Agrigento but not as a destination in itself.

ekscrunchy

Thanks to all...trip seems likely in mid-fall...will be back for more advice..did not want you all to think I slipped out of the Fodor's core, or banished!!! (Joke!)

Speaking of this, where is IRA these days? So used to seeing his input and now have noticed nothing....could be me....but I hope he is ok, wifey, too!

annhig

Hi, eck - nice to see you back and to read that your trip is still on, albeit rather delayed.

Sadly I've not seen Ira recently - I wonder if a DM would find him. like you I hope that he and his DW are well.

HappyTrvlr

Ira is on Cruise Critic as he is now cruising .