Airline worries - What do I need to know?
 

I'm out of the airline travel news loop...Planning a trip to Italy in March and haven't booked airfare yet. What do I need to know about possible strikes, etc.? Thanks!

Way too far out to know. Wait for the fare sales that will be bound to occur, starting within a month or so.

It seems Italy is often more expensive to fly to directly from N. America than indirectly, i.e., through another gateway. Be thinking about whether you'd like so see some other area or city as well as Italy, because it might be cost effective to fly there, then take cheap intra-Europe flights or trains to Italy from there.

Hi NM,

No one knows when/if airlines will go on strike.

For travel from the US to Italy, London is a good place to spend a day or two and then fly on a discount airline.

Take a look at www.whichbudget.com.

I like http://airtravelcenter.com/onetrav.htm

I agree with Gardyloo. It's too early to even look at fares right now. March is a very low season for Europe travel, so you won't have problem finding low fares and lots of availability around Jan/Feb.

Fares from the US to Italy is expensive because of Italian policies. In fact, British Airways is complaining that to the EU at this moment about that. Italy, in order to protect their failing Alitalia, prohibits other airlines to sell tickets from outside the EU to Italy for prices lower than Alitalia, even if there's a connection in London or elsewhere.

We'll see how this ends up. But in the meantime, that's the reason why many people decide to fly to London or elsewhere, and buy a second ticket to Italy. Intra-EU flights are not affected by the Italian policy.

Thanks for the input...one question, is it realistic to expect airline sales for travel in late March (the 2 weeks on either side of Easter)? Thanks!

Yes, March is very low season, so you won't have problem getting a good fare closer to travel date. For 2004, we went to Paris from Houston for ~$350, tax included, with tickets bought about 10 days before departure. Italy may be a little more expensive, but <$400 should not be a problem.

Interesting--again, I've had nothing but great service from MBNA. I would bet that any company of any kind would have employees that could tell horror stories. Oh, and none of you would ever dine in any restaurant if you ever worked in the kitchen.

Dammit, how'd that get to this thread?