Planning to fly from Newark to Rome. Target dates are the end of May, mid week. <BR> <BR>Am told by some agencies to wait till early Feb. because they don't yet have their prices for the end of May. <BR> <BR>When I do see prices on the many websites we have available, there are just so many -- some very high, some more reasonable. <BR> <BR>I'm debating whether to book something now for what might seem like a good price (eg. $650 or so) or wait till Feb. <BR> <BR>I certainly welcome advice on this. Really not sure what is best. Appreciate your comments. <BR> <BR>Bob

I just booked a great airfare for Rome - in fact, I was able to get same rate flying into Rome and out of Venice at the same price as flying in and out of Rome. I will tell you that the earlier you book, the better. Also, I found that there were cheaper rates out of JFK than Newark, even though I preferred Newark. You might want to check JFK. Also check out Alitalia which has pretty good packages. Good luck.

Uuggg! Alitalia! that's all I'll say on that airline! A lot of consolidators don't yet have Spring prices so that's why they are telling you to wait until Feb- I think buying too early results in paying higher prices and missing the sales. Try watching and perusing www.bestfares.com and Cheap flight forum at www.eurotrip.com and subscribe to www.smarterliving.com give them your iteniary and they'll keep you abreat of prices. The guys on Cheap Flight forum found a website that searches for THE lowest fare for a route- I'm not sure but I think its www.quixo.com ? I'll have to find their posts and make sure that's it!

http://www.qixo.com/index.html?QIXO_...998c2afaf5b42b

$650 doesn't sound that too far off for May. I just booked tixs to rome for $466 each round-trip from the east coast for late march. Lufthansa currently has a sale for $350 rt from may east coast cities to rome (via frankfurt) but it's for early march. Please, do your best to avoid Alitalia!

Agree wth Tricia, try qixo.com. They also have a price alert that you should enroll on. Although, $650 ain't that bad. Also try go-today.com. They don't have the mid-May packages yet, those may start showing by Mid-late February, but definitely worth a look.

I was shopping around for flights a week ago for the first week of April and got fares of about $650, but then this past weekend booked a fare for $495, roundtrip from JFK to FCO via Alitalia.

You guys I am so impressed! I clearly do not have the correct urls for flight consolidators. I'm already looking at airfare for 2 in to Rome and out from Florence in early September so far all the airfares I'm getting are $900 and above! I am super jealous, and will have to explore some of these sites.

I think you can do better than $650. We are flying to Rome from JFK in Mid June and then from Venice back to JFK on British Air. Our round trip tickets were $469

Beth, where did you find those fares? I've been looking for the end of June (leaving June 29th) from DC into either Milan or Rome and can't do much better than about $1000 per person roundtrip.

Beth, <BR>I would also love to know where you found such great fares to Rome. We are planning a trip to Rome (from Detroit) in August and the cheapest we've found is about $1000. <BR>Thanks! <BR>Ang

I purchased my tickets on expedia.com. The trick was I had to search for British Air NOT the cheapest fare. That deal only lasted about 24 hours. When I went in the next day the same air fare went up to 800.00. I was alerted to the fares on www.eurotrip.com-cheap flight forum.The forum is good for questions on fares and people will let you know about sales, but you usually have to act fast. <BR>Good Luck I still think you will do better on the fare.