Oops. I posted this for "Europe" when I meant to poet for "Italy":
We are trying to go to Italy Sept. 21 to Oct. 1 or Oct. 26 to Nov. 5. Which date is likely to have the cheapest tickets and when would be the best time to buy them? I know that no one has a crystal ball, but any opinions would be very much appreciated. Which of those date spans would be best for seeing Venice and Florence and how soon do we need to get rooms? Thanks everyone!

Not sure I can answer your question, but just FYI, there is no Italy forum, it all goes into Europe.

Hello again.

When I posted earlier I was in a hurry, posting on the sly from work. ;-) I'll try to help you now.

The earlier dates will probably be a little more expensive, but I would choose those dates anyway for the better weather. Not that the weather is terrible for the later dates, but I think it will be a lot more pleasant if you can go earlier.

It's really hard to know when is the best time to buy tickets anymore. All I can suggest is to start looking now, and when you find a price that seems good to you, take it. Keep an eye out for good deals on rooms, there's no harm in booking early.

There was a sale a week or so back, it was for travel beginning 10/15, which may be the beginning of the slower season.

I've been tracking our fare for mid/late September travel since purchase in February and have only seen it go up.

We considered late Oct/early Nov but wanted to enjoy some warmer weather this trip. Last two were over Thanksgiving and in early March. Brrrrrr.

IMO, it's never too early to book rooms.

Sorry about the double posts. I'll remember from now on. Thanks for all the advice!

You don't say how many people but we had apartments sleepinitaly.com and viewsonvenice.com and they were great and good deals. If they say 7 night minimum still ask for shorter time and they might allow it. Check cancellation policies, you might just book now while figuring out your other plans and you can then change them.

www.itasoftware.com let's you do a month long search. Also, you could consider using Ryan Air or Easy Jet from a city that might be significantly less expensive to arrive and depart. Check w/ the Cheap Flights forum on www.Eurotrip.com and see what's there. Don is extremely helpful.

I know that you can fly RT from Baltimore/Washington to Paris beginning Sept. 1 for $736 all incl. Rome, Milan, Florence, etc, were $200 more.

On our trip, Venice and Rome in early September were perfect weather wise.

You might look at a website 1800flyeurope. These are not absolutes but people say that the Fall season starts around mid October.

People say that the individual airlines review their seat availablility weekely. Most post fare reductions tues nite wed am (midnight to 2:00 am eastern time). Some people say a few airlines post fare reductions the following evening.

Try "Dream Maps" on travelocity.com

Best wishes,

Rex

This is continuing to munch up way too much time, pursuing (seemingly non-existent) bargains to get to ANYwhere this fall for under $1000 ($900? $800?) - - from Louisville (preferably) or other gateway choices (but factoring in the true cost of leaving from somewhere else).

Some discoveries about Dream Maps - - you get very different results using the three following strategies"

1. "Now" through "October"
2. "September" through "October"
3. "September" through "September"

Oddly, there are some sale fares for the summer months that do not seem to exist (yet - - but I am hanging in there) for September and October.

And the earlier AF/AZ sale fares notwithstanding... it seems that the concept of October as a "shoulder season" doesn't really even exist in discounted fares (at least not right now). It used to be that September had some "shoulder season" discounts... then only the second half of September, then October became the "shoulder season" month - - and as the earlier sales exhibited, just the second half of October was priced lower.

And now, it seems that prices for the first 29 days of October are no better than for all of September.

For comparison purposes, the best (closest thing to a decent) deal I have found so far, is ORD-MAD, nominally on Iberia (but the outbound requires ORD-
JFK on American, then JFK-MAD on IB; the return is nonstop, on my preferred dates) at "$434" ($629 all in - - yikes, the "taxes and fees" just keep getting higher!). Plus about $160 to get to and from ORD from Louisville, on a separate ticket (UA outbound, AA return - - wonder what are the chances of getting this as all one ticket, to protect against mis-connects?).

For now, I am going to say no to $789, thinking that I can do better (if not price, then at least simple one-stop service... to <i>somewhere</i>!)

I keep thinking that October discounts could yet appear again (might not be able to get astraddle the Sep 30 weekend, which is my preference).

And Italy seems to be running about $200 more than Madrid. Even breaking into separate itineraries involving EDI - - wouldn't be the worse thing in the world - - but crummy price, as it stands now)...

From http://www.fodors.com/wire/archives/001883.cfm

Air France Summer Sale Commences!

Perhaps this augurs well...

Let some of these legacy airlines get their planes (more completely) filled for the remainder of summer, and perhaps soon they will turn their attention to trying to hook the bargain-hunting prospective autumn travelers...

Trying to keep this subject alive - - since I continue to scour for (more deeply) discounted airfare in October (or ideally, late September)...

...posted somewhat puzzling results on another thread - - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34814311 - - about <i>summer</i> airfares on Air France earlier today, even though it was prompted by looking at their purported &quot;Early Fall Sale&quot; to Athens.

I guess it's a &quot;sale&quot; - - since the fares to Athens (from NYC, for example), are not much different from the fares to any other destination they serve, in France.

Not sure where you are departing from in the states but swiss air out of nyc has rt to venice at $882 for your oct/nov dates. I used them recently out of chicago, best price I could find. I wanted to fly into venice and out of rome and they could not do that on line but could over the phone.

In some ways, it's only partly about the money - - and as much about the &quot;chase&quot;. I think that fares for $850+ can be found for all kinds of city pairs (less for London, less for NYC); based on historic fares, I am guessing that sub $650 may be possible (for October? not necessarily in September; I seem to recall paying closer to high 700's/800 in 2000 and 2001 in September; 2002 was anomalously cheap because we flew ON September 11, considered a hard day to sell) - - but it will take luck and diligence to find it. As expressed on another thread, this is part of why I feel &quot;procrastinator's remorse&quot; with regard to the AirFrance sale that expired April 15.

Between $650 and $850, I may have options of this'n'that - - and that, too, is a mental game - - making the fewest number of compromises (dates, routing, layover times) for the best price.