alitalia - did you know...
 

...that if you book your flights on the Italy (alitalia.it.com) website it is MUCH cheaper? An Italian friend of ours let us in on this. In fact, we'll be flying from Rome to Catania, Sicily the end of Sept. On the US Alitalia website, the tickets are ~$1195 RT for 2. On the Italy Alitalia website, the tickets are ~$495 RT for 2 - and yes that is US dollars. If you are at all familiar with airline websites, you can muddle your way through without any language translation.

And you can fly from Rome Fiumicino to Catania or Palermo even more cheaply with the discount airlines Air One and WindJet. Their service is no worse than Alitalia's...

jil_h- i went to the website and all the prices quoted were in Euros. Can you tell us where to find the US dollar prices? (when I did the math myself and added taxes,, the costs didn't seem too much cheaper...)

I thought it sounded too good to be true!

Hi J,

I checked Rome/Catania for Sept 30 and got 152E pp ($190) on the Italian site and $297 on the US site.

At www.whichbudget.com its 55E.

((I))

Bellastar, yes the prices are in Euros, but when you convert the prices to USD, it is less than the US site. The US site quoted me approx $1195 for 2 RT tickets; the Italy website quoted me Euro 358 which = approx $453 USD.
$453 is much less than $1195 in my calculations.

ok,maybe it's not too good to be true

I just tried several times to access the alitalia.it.com website and it was not possible to. Did Alitalia see this thread of yours jill, LOL.

I found exactly the same on the Iberia website. The tickets I booked were FOUR times more expensive on the US Iberian website than on the Spanish Iberian website!

jill_h
If this is true, it's great!
But i think the fares you mention are one way-I might be mistaken of course, but I just looked again and it seemed that it's a one way fare.

Thanks Kr..and you too jill for starting this thread!

so what's the consensus-is it a better deal or not? I'm so confused...(nothing new)

Confusion - it's either .it (Italian) or .com (American site), but not both.

WK

Bellastarr - it is RT because when you provide the dates of travel, it gives you both outbound AND inbound flights - you don't really get to choose from a wide selection. For instance, if you choose to leave at 8:55 a.m., it will give you that departure as well as specific return options. It seems as if the returns are "tied into" the departures. It's not AA where you can select from many departures and many different returns.

jill_h
thanks so much for this tip- I am still plugging in dates on the site hoping you're right!
But I just entered dates for September to Rome from NYC and got a price in Euros of 832 plus 183.49 taxes and fees- which converts to $1278 and change $US. Maybe I am missing a step?

ttt--marking for the next time we go to Italy! :)

Bellastarr - perhaps it is only inter-Italy flights that come out cheaper. If you note in my original post, we are flying from Rome to Catania, Sicily. THAT flight is definitely cheaper on the Italy website. Hopefully your flights will work out. I did not intend to be misleading in my postings.

Hi jill-
Yes, I agree- just the intercity Italian flights are cheaper- In fact- friends from Italy who just got a place on NYC use Alitalia that way....
Oh well- in our next lives!

traditionally, ferry fares booked in england for travel to france and return are dearer than those booked in france, for exactly the same trip. It's called capitalism!