My husband and I are traveling to Italy for 9 or 10 days this Nov. & are finding the flights to be very expensive. About $1200 pp. and many long stops. The cheaper flights ($900 pp) turn a 10hr. flight into 30 hrs.!! *** I heard that it is cheaper to book on a Wed. or Thurs.? Is that true?
Also, should we wait until the week of to book flight? Will that be cheaper? We've already booked hotels.
We will be in Rome for 3 days, then Venice for 2, then 2 days we don't know where to go, then 2 more days in Rome. Suggestions?
****Why is a one way ticket the same price as a round trip? H E L P!

What dates, from where?

Nov. 17- 26, from Los Angeles or Orange County area.

Lily83, I guess you have to decide between time & money. If it were me I'd pay extra for a shorter flight. If you can leave on the 16th Air France out of LAX has a fare of $945 PP with a one hour stop at CDG.

I am not sure about international flights but to answer your original question, I believe mid week is the best time to book fares. I seem to recall reading that at some point in time. They figure weekends people usually do search, the web. There was also some info on your computer and leaving "cookies" so they all ready know you were there on various sites. It was an interesting article.

Many airlines are offering fares for about $950 for those dates, besides AF.

It's getting very late to find cheap fares, and Italy is never as cheap as European destinations.

If you really want to save money and don't mind the hassle of an extra stop and switching airlines, you can fly USAirways to Dublin (via Philly) for $452. Then fly Ryanair DUB-CIA roundtrip (Rome Ciampino (which is actually closer to town than FCO) for about €150 ($210). So, total fare under $700.

Or save another 40€ or more if you fly out of Pisa on 11/25 back to DUB. Pisa is an hour from Florence with direct train to airport.

So, your total airfare for USAirways LAX-PHL-DUB 11/17-11/26, and Ryanair DUB -CIA 11/18, and Ryanair PSA-DUB 11/25 is only about $600.

You do have to fly out of Italy a day early and overnight in Dublin.

To answer some of your other questions...

1. No, I haven't found much pattern with airfare. They can go up and down anytime. Start early, check often, be patient, be flexible. But you're going in 4 weeks with hotels all booked. You need to decide very soon, and none of the above applies to you anymore.

2. Waiting until the week to book your flight will be pretty crazy. Best rate I can get for a week from today is over $1,200 on USAirways. Others are higher.

3. If you haven't been, then Florence will be the apparent choice for your days between Venice and Rome.

4. The type of <$2,000 fares we're seeing are discount coach fares. They have various restrictions, and are targeted for leisure travelers. One-way tickets are targeted for business travelers, and they don't discount those. That's the short answer.

But most airlines let you book open-jaw with no penalty. So, you can book LAX-FCO, VCE-LAX in discount coach prices. Fares will be calculated based on each way in discount fares, and usually isn't that far from a LAX-FCO or LAX-VCE roundtrip.

Wow! Thanks everyone. This is incredibly helpful.
**What is an "open-jaw" flight?

Yes, we are booked to check into St. Regis Rome on 11/18 & check out 11/21, the evening of the 21st, 22, 23, 24th we are on our own. Then we return to St. Regis Rome for nights of 11/25 & 26 and fly out the 27th. We receive 5 free St. Regis nights per year through my work and they could only do them broken up & 1 month in advance, which makes our trip interesting.
Thanks for all of your help. We've never been to Europe.
Thanks again for everyone's help.

"Open jaw" means you fly into one city and return from another. If you'd plot the flight routes on a map, it would look like a jaw that's open. It can save you from backtracking to your arrival airport. Such fares are usually more expensive than a simple round-trip fare, but as rkkwan indicates, not always that much more.

I think the Wed/Thu thing might be more about those being the best days to travel, for a low fare, not nec. the day to book.

Hi lily "open jaw" can also be referred to as "multi-city". But since you will be in Rome at the beginning of your trip and at the end you won't need to book an "open jaw" flight this trip. Have fun!!

MaxJet, an all-business class carrier, has announced fares good from November through February - LAX to Stansted (London) for $599 one way ($621 with taxes) and a little higher coming back due to UK airport fees. www.maxjet.com

From Stansted you can get on Easyjet or Ryanair to and fly quite cheaply to many places in Italy. www.whichbudget.com

Then repeat the process in reverse when you get back.

Not the cheapest route to Europe, but for the money by far the most comfortable.

You're going away for Thanksgiving and you expect cheap airfare just four weeks out???????

It's only going to get worse. I'd buy your tickets asap.

Keep in mind, if you buy separate tickets from different airlines (not booked as a single ticket) and you miss your connection, you will likely have to pay HUGE change fees.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

I have booked my flight finally, through mobissimo.com which took me to vayama.com where I booked 2 RT's 11/17 - 11/27 w/ 2 stops each way for $1364.40 total (w/ taxes & fees)!! We are flying United & Lufthanasa each way. (17 hrs. there and 18 hrs. back)Great price and times though, so we are happy.

I will let everyone know how the vayama.com experience is. So far downfall was, they cannot confirm your price & flight for 72hrs. after you place your purchase and so you could not get it & lose opportunities for other great fares in the mean time. I found this out after I bought it, glad it went through!!

Thanks again!!

If you depart on Thursday, you cna get a cheaper deal. For instance,
start your journey on Nov 15 instead of 17, and from SNA Airport instead of LAX.

Since LAX is a major airport and Nov 17 is a Saturday, chances are that fares will be higher.

So, searching fares from SNA to ROM on dates Nov 15-26, I found $687 on US Airways to the be the cheapest fare. However, it's a long flight: SNA-PHX-PHL-FCO

$687 RT (incl taxes) is a great deal I suppose, if you
ready for a grueling 14 and a half hour flight from John Wayne to Rome Fiumicino. It's a "sale fare" on Cheapoair. I dun know what's this "sale fare" is. Are other fares not up for sale

OMG!!!! You already booked that flight, that too at double of the price that I found!

Happy Travels!

Lily--
I really would like to know how your experience was with vayama.com? We are considering them for our trip to Paris.
My email is [email protected] if you could email me that would be great. If anyone else has used them, please give me some feedback.