gregs317

Hi, I've been researching fares for travel to Florence, Italy next June. So far, the best fare I found is about $1300 R/T, Philadelphia-Florence and return Zurich-Philadelphia (using Orbitz). Is this the best I can expect to find - I realize mid-June is the start of peak season going to Europe. Or is it possible that fares might drop by December or January?

I'd like to fly USAirways if possible to get FF miles, but if I find a better fare, I might grab it. Appreciate any advice. Thanks, Greg

kybourbon

Are you looking at Florence only? Try adding Pisa (PSA) as it's only an hour by train (5-6€)or shuttle bus (about 8€)from Florence. Another airport option is Milan (MXP) as Trenialia has added new high speed trains between Milan and Florence (1:45 minutes). They are also adding a train connection between Milan's airport Malpensa and Milan Centrale which should be fully operational by summer. This would allow you to get on the train to Florence at MXP. Current cost for that train is listed as 57€ with a travel time of 2:39, no train change involved.

trafaelwyr

You may want to wait a bit to see if prices come down, but that's a big "if". Also, if you want to see something outrageous in terms of airfare, go to kayak.com and put your starting destination as Florence (FLR) with your desitination as Philadelphia (PHL) and you'll be surprised to see that the air far is $500 less than what you've seen! With about 1 to 2 stops, the airfare is only $833 while with one stop it's $890.

gregs317

Thanks for the replies. Kybourbon, I will try to include Pisa and Milan, to see what fares come up. I'd be interested in Pisa, so I could visit the Leaning Tower, and then head to Florence - or maybe even stay first night in Pisa.

trafaelwyr, I'm not ready to buy tickets quite yet. I might hold off till sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and see how fares look by then. That's crazy though - about fares from Florence to Philadelphia. I wonder why it would be cheaper, starting in Europe and coming to USA. Greg

trafaelwyr

gregs317 - I'm feeling your pain with the ticket prices. I'm currently trying to price either going to London, Paris, Zurich or Tokyo (yeah, not in Europe, but it's one place I haven't been) and the only cheap one there, believe it or not, is to Zurich. As for the pricing irregularity, I think I had read something concerning "antitrust" or something like that. But still, why are we paying so much more than the Europeans?

Dayenu

I'm looking at flights to Venice in May, and they look like horror movies to me

kybourbon

There are no non-stop flights from the US to Florence so you would have to change planes in either US or Europe. Since Florence is a smaller airport, you usually won't find deals there. You might want to add Bologna (BLQ) as at times I've found cheaper flights to there than to some surrounding cities (1 hour by train from Bologna to Florence).

Zurich is usually cheapest, but you can sometimes find similar prices to Basel and Geneva. The train ride between Basel/Geneva/Zurich and Milan is about 4 hours (perhaps a bit longer from Basel) so you have to decide if the savings is worth the extra travel time and price of train ticket (about 60chf regular price). I bought tickets online (sbb.ch) at a discount for 30chf this summer.

Some of the Pisa flights (Delta non-stop JFK/PSA) are seasonal and might not be loaded for several months yet.

Faina - Add Milan to your search as you can catch a train from there to Venice (about 30€).

DalaiLlama

The huge discrepancy between fares Europe>US (cheap) and US>Europe (expensive) is a whole n'other discussion, going on elsewhere on this and other boards.

That discussion helps in now way to answer the question put by OP.

I suggest that it is far too early to bring the hammer down, but sign up now for emails from airfarewatchdog, kayak, all airlines that have that feature, and keep following developments.

After Christmas the Spring season will be rolled out, soon you will get a handle on things.

Keep all options open - flukes do happen, a special promotional fare might pop up into any or all of the above (Pisa, Milan, Bologna, Florence, Genova, Venezia, Roma FCO) - your trains from those are at www.ferroviedellostato.it where there will be specials but not further out than 60 days or so.

If it gets really grim, look at far-flung options and consider budget airlines from there, but your luggage will have to be minimal and your willingness to be flexible considerable.

Maybe a multi-city ticket with a flight into Brussels or Amsterdam or Zürich (all three are airports that do not hit you with a departure tax while you change planes; avoid the UK and Germany for just that reason), and a flight home from Florence or one of the nearby airports.

But for now, just wait and observe.

iamq

This is timely. I am cringing at the fares I am seeing during my time frame (June 20 - July 2) from SFO-FCO. The cheapeast, most convienent schedule that is going to work for me is around $1550 on kayak.

I am also looking at all the options mentioned above...still cringing. I remember last year there was a short window where Swiss was offering low fares to Italian destinations for summer travel. I think this was in February.

jan47ete

We went to Italy Oct/Nov 2009. I started searching one year before and bought in April 2009. Austin to Rome, $565 on Vayama. Basically always looking, when a cheap one came up, I bought it immediately only because I knew what was out there. I agree June is prime tourist season, but if you get a sense of the cost, you'll be ready to grab a deal.

In a couple of weeks we're going to Portugal, into Lisbon, out of Barcelona and the best deal was on Continental. I wouldn't have expected that, and we had a last minute change and they were extremely agreeable to the change without a fee. Good luck.

sharie

Vayama comes out with some good deals. I've seen Tokyo priced at $600. I'm waiting for that to happen again for June/2011 so I can pounce on it.

dutyfree

Delta has a nonstop flight from JFK to Pisa but I believe that it is seasonal only.