Travelocity and other sites in the internet are supposed to find you cheap airfares, but when looking to book a flight to Italy for two adults and an 8-yr.-old, I get rates of between $1,200 to 1,800 per person! Surely I can find better rates. And this is booking two months in advance. I notice that if I book a couple weeks in advance, it's cheaper. Help!! Need to go to Italy in July or August. The rates were also high for March, so it's not that.

Depending on what part of the country you are from I'm not sure you will find better rates than that, especially for the summer season.

I think a lot of people are experiencing sticker shock when pricing airfare this year. You must keep in mind that jet fuel prices are at an all-time high due to the cost of crude oil, therefore the airlines have no choice but to pass that cost on to us. I think your idea for booking just a couple of weeks in advance is certainly NOT a good one, as most flights will be full by then.

I don't know what part of the country you are coming from, but a co-worker of mine traveled in April from Texas to Italy for $1100. Of course, April is the shoulder season, so I would expect prices to be considerably higher in the summer.

If you would care to share with us your home city, we might be able to do some checking for you.

VM--I just booked our flights to Italy in August a few days ago. My fare was $1174. [Daughter's was $1834. She's coming back in Dec.; the best fares for her were on different airlines; we had to pay so we could fly together.]

Here's a link to another Fodor's thread that lists about 70 sites that help you find flights and flight info.
http://tinyurl.com/znvdl

My cheapest fare was still to go directly through airline, but doesn't hurt to search.

Travelocity and the other sites will, in most cases, find the lowest fares, but the fares have to be available first.

This years summer travel to Europe from North America and especially to Italy will be expensive. I would not expect anything under $1000 at this point.

Welcome to the world of summer travel to Europe!!! Mike

There are some (very few and not the most direct ways) to get a better fare.
For example, check www.euroflyusa.com, a new airline that flies to Italy, but only from JFK. If you do live in the NYC/Boston area, you may want to check American Airlines sale going on at the moment for mid-July travel from either city to Manchester, UK. It's under $500 all in. From there you can get to Rome with one of the low budget airlines for under $300. www.whichbudget.com

So there are still some possibilities, but if you have to leave from mid-America or from the west coast, expect to pay.......

Good luck!

I was shocked to have to pay $1,038 for August travel between New York and Rome. Ouch.

We travelled to Rome and back in April for about $600 per person through Air Canada. We researched a lot and found they had the best rates. We purchased our tickets about 2 months in advance. Granted, the summer will be higher. Tavelocity and other travel cites don't always have the best prices.

I should add, we travelled from Houston to Toronto to Rome, and then from Rome to Frankfurt, to Toronto to Houston.

My gosh. I just re-checked the $1038 fare I purchased about a month ago and it is up to $1250! These fares are getting really out of control.

They really are getting out of control. Good you got your ticket before they went up.

There have been some cheap fares to Manchester lately. If your plans are adaptable, consider flying to Manchester (if this fare is still available), and then take a budget airline from Manchester, Liverpool, or even London, and then back. It's not for everyone, but could save a lot for three people.

In general the most competitive fares are into the UK. You can probably do better booking into London/Manchester/Glasgow and the booking an inexpensive carrier to Italy.

The inconvenience of possibly having to change airports in London or having bad connections might make this a real hassle. But I'd still definitely look into this sort of routing.

vmtz2001
I had the same dilemma a few months ago. I was looking for rt from Dallas to Rome for June. At the time(Feb.) rates were $1100+. I checked every discount website posted here on a daily basis. Found a $950 rate on hotwire.com and jumped on it. It was back to $1158 the next day. It's now at $1578(Continental). I am so glad I listened to all the advice.
Good Luck

We watched and waited for several months--no way we were going to pay $800 plus to mainland Europe from the East Coast USA when we could get to Japan/Korea for the same price (a lot longer flight) or Alaska (which is a bit longer flight) for around $550.

Finally caught United sale a couple of weeks ago, non-stop Washington DC to Amsterdam and back for around $650 in late June.

Actually, Asia is a wonderful solution to the high cost of summer travel to Europe. There is just a LOT for the money by comparison in terms of airfares, hotels and on-the-ground expenses. And it isn't just places off the beaten path or third world situations. Even a very modern, comfortable, cosmolitan place like Hong Kong is a relative bargain.