I am looking to go to Rome in June 2009 with my family (2 adults, 4 children (2 of the children are over 18). When should I purchase airfare? I recently searched, and tickets are around $1600 per person. That is too high for us--do you think they will come down? Thanks for your help!

You're leaving from... Savannah? Sacramento? Santa Fe? Skaneateles?

My hunch is that they may come down if you're willing to wait until this winter to book. Or, they may not.

Where are you flying from,, kind of hard to know if 1600 is a good price is we don't know length of flight! LOL

Oh...sorry! We live in Dayton, Ohio, so can fly out of Dayton, Columbus, or Cincinnati. Or, if the cost is a lot less, we can drive to Chicago and fly from there. Our dates are flexible by a few days, but not by any more. We plan to travel around June 5th and return around June 21st. Thanks!

I have been faithfully monitoring airfare between San Juan, Puerto Rico and Rome during the last week of May. Nothing less than than $1300 since the day the fares were released. I still have hope....

I would not bet on prices coming down.

I check some departure dates on itasoftware.com and assumed an 8 night stay.

If you can leave from Chicago anywhere between June 2 and June 15, you can go for under or around $1200 total per person - including all taxes and fees on Swiss Air (includes one stop - either Zurich, Frankfort, or D.C.). Book directly with the airline.

Just saw your dates. The same $1200 or less from Chicago still applies for a 16 night stay if you depart anywhere between June 2 and June 8.

As we all know, predicting air fares these days is a crapshoot. But even in the best of times, you're not going to find deals 10 mos out. I'd wait until winter - but that's just my opinion, which can be very wrong at times.

I knew over a year ago that we would like to return to Europe in 2009. I followed airfares for a year thru farecompare.com, trying to figure out when might be the best time to buy. We live near you, in Cincinnati. I hate to say it, but they never came down. They were high the whole year. You could fly Air India from NY to London and then a low-cost carrier to Rome for much less, but that is a real pain and the luggage limits on the low cost carriers are really low. We finally ended up with enough FF miles for 3 tickets and just sucked it up and paid the high fares for the other 2 for next summer.

I too have been looking at flights to Rome for 2009; however, we are going in September. I cannot even get a price on them but I do see them very high for June/July. I know that these are the summer months and it will be higher but the prices are out of control. I paid $975 USD last year to go from FL to Rome. I continue to watch the airfare but fear that they will not come down enough, so I might get a flight to Frankfurt and take a train to Rome. My trip to Frankfurt this September was $690 USD. It was before gas hit $4.00 + dollars a gallon though.

Please let me know if anyone can offer any suggestions... Thanks.

I should have noted that we were also looking for June airfares. If you can travel before the end of May or after the end of August, you can get much better airfares. Those summer airfares are killers!

topping

Just booked flights SFO to London returning to SFO from Rome through Dulles on United at $1122 leaving on Sept 1 and returning in three weeks.

I always use kayak.com
I watched our flights for June 06 and Sept 08 to Italy for at least 8+ months before booking.

paid $1000 each round trip in June and $700 each round trip in Sept. from Boston.

both times the fares had been much much higher prior to booking. I set up a fare watch through kayak and was notified everytime a fare came within range of my ideal price.

good luck!

Thanks for the information. I signed up for the Kayak notifications. Right now, the airfare is still in the $1600-$1700 range (Ohio). We can drive to Chicago, but it is not much better and may not be worth the drive. I found airfare for $1166 from Air One, but I do not know anything about that airline. Do you think airfare will come down, or should I book now as it will only get worse?

From NY, it's usually cheaper to fly into London, Dublin, possibly Paris. Is it possible to do that and then take a budget carrier from there? www.whichbudget.com will tell you which budget carriers fly where.

Wait until 2009--maybe as late as March.

We just got a pretty good deal (we think anyway) for our May trip into Rome and out of Milan on Delta- $930 per person. That is $170 per person less than it was last night. I'm excited!!

Where are you flying from in the US? Did you find the airfare on the Delta site or another?
$930 sounds great! If I can find that for June, I would be happy!

We live in Charlotte, so we were expecting to find cheaper flights on US Air since this is a major hub, but then we found this great deal on Delta. I booked it directly through their website, and we basically just kept going to Travelocity along with all the other major airline sites until one day, Delta dropped by a LOT and we booked it. I just looked again after I saw your post and it is back up over $1000, so we are pretty happy with our price.

I suggest just checking on it every day and see what happens. You have time, so hopefully the prices will go down from your city.