Hi all!! <BR> <BR>I'm looking to take a two week trip to Italy in May, but the airfair is outrageous, even when flying during the week! Does anybody have any suggestions of websites that might offer a better deal? Has anybody had any luck with priceline.com? <BR> <BR>Thanks!

From where? Since you wrote this question in English, I will assume you are from England. <BR> <BR>Or Australia. <BR> <BR>Or Canada. <BR> <BR>Or South Africa. <BR>

I guess that would help... <BR> <BR>US, Chicago

My fiance and I are going in May in Italy for out honeymooon. <BR> <BR>Detroit-Rome Venice-Detroit, staying little bit less than 2 weeks. <BR> <BR>DannyTravel, http://www.dannytravel.com found us tickets for about $700. If you want send them an email and ask what they can do for you. <BR> <BR>Good luck.

Okay, Ann, we're making progress. <BR> <BR>I am topping for you a thread entitled "Cheapest Airfare to Paris" on which I have previously provided some ideas about cheapER airfares to Europe. <BR> <BR>It refers to a different route.. (New Orleans to Paris, I think)... but the primciples are the same. Travelocity shows that the cheapest PUBLISHED fares you can expect for May is $718, no matter whether you try ORD-MIL or ORD-ROM or ORD-VCE or ORD-BGY or ORD-FLR. <BR> <BR>If these all seem too high for you, you might try Brussels ($448) or London ($595) instead. There are some introductory low fares PHL-BRU on US Air ($378), and I think you can get to PHL cheaply from MDW (on Spirit?) This may or may not save you any money. There are various cheap fares from BRU or LON to Italy (on www.virgin-express.com or www.ryanair.com - - just to mention two). <BR> <BR>So, this gives you some ideas, I hope. <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR> <BR>

Ann I am going to Itally May 3-13th flying from NYC Kennedy to Rome-Da Vinci. I got tickets on Alitalia no connections and great flight times on Priceline.com for $630 per ticket. I would give it a shot.

I had been waiting & waiting for rates to go down for my end of April trip to Milan. Continental fares were $927 roundtrip from Newark. I took the recommendation from some folks on this site & booked airfare thru Tiss.com for $726, they offer an added cash discount if paid within 5 days. I no sooner sent my certified check to them, when Continental lowered their airfares to $400 roundtrip!!! I was very fortunate, tiss.com had not received my check yet, so they willingly sent it back to me (they were a pleasure to deal with) and I was able to book the same flights on Continental. Sometimes it pays to wait it out. Americanexpress.com allows you to view the seating charts of flights, so you can keep an eye on any that might be filling up. <BR> <BR>Good Luck, Barb

Ann: <BR> <BR>Check out British Airways. As per the Frommer's website, BA is offering some good deals. Tickets need to be purchased by March 31. <BR> <BR>Travel is good from April 1 to July 31, which is well into summer's peak rates. Naturally, you should always check with the consolidators to see what they can offer for long-lead reservations, but when we price-checked rates for April departures, we found savings this way. For a Newark-London itinerary from April 10 to 17, the British Airways discount-inclusive price was $349 ($410 before the discount). The closest any rival airline came for those dates was American, with $389. <BR> <BR>The best prices are for trips flying on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and staying a Saturday night, but the discount is good an economy class ticket for any day and from any American gateway. <BR>

Ann - justfares.com is showing $651 ORD-Mil and $595 ORD-Rom both on Air Canada. I think you could do better with searching other consolidators but I would not call these fares outrageous. <BR>Good Luck - Tom <BR>PS How about ORD-Mil & Rom-ORD

Just a note for you Ann, The tickets to Rome for May shoot up exponentially in price compared to even March or April, I know because I called and or check about every website possibel before going to Pricline.com. If you can get anything under $700 roundtrip with no connections in May I would take it immediately. Just my advice.

Ann,my family and I just bought tickets <BR>to Italy for our trip May 11th-26th.This <BR>is high season,according to everyone I've talked to.I agree with Len-if you <BR>can find anything under $700-get it.We <BR>thought by waiting we woulg get a good deal.All flights to Florence on our arrival date are sold out and those that aren't are over $1,000.We are fly- <BR>ing from Jax,Fl to Rome for $750+taxes <BR>on USAirways.Good luck!

Hi Ann... <BR>My family's going to Italy the end of <BR>May...4 of us are going Denver/Paris <BR>surface to Italy and then Milan/Denver... 3 are going Denver/Milan <BR>RT...our tickets were $753. ... even the <BR>open jaw ones...Air Canada through <BR>Montreal going and through Toronto coming back. <BR>Give a try...we booked ours and ticketed <BR>on the 16th of February. <BR>Good luck. <BR>sb

Just got BOS-MXP-BOS for $600 Alitalia (not the best airline but the only non-stop) The trick: My agent booked the flight through Northwest, don't know why but the same ticket directly with Alitalia was $850. My travel agent also offered Milan stopping in Amsterdam for $470Just got BOS-MXP-BOS for $600 Alitalia (not the best airline but the only non-stop) The trick: My agent booked the flight through Northwest, don't know why but the same ticket directly with Alitalia was $850. My travel agent also offered Milan stopping in Amsterdam for $470. <BR>Let me know if you want my agent info.

Beatriz, <BR> <BR>Without telling us the dates, your fares don't mean much. And it appears that there are some lower fares, compared to when I posted earlier this week on this thread. I get the exact same $600 on an ordinary Expedia search of BOS-MXP-BOS, arebirtraily using the dates of May 11-May 26 (mentioned by someone else here earlier). And ORD-MXP is about $45 cheaper now on NW than the priceing I got earlier. <BR> <BR>This is all supply and demand - - neither of which can be easily discerned from the consumer's vantage point. <BR>

Just found $619 (incl tax) RT ORD-Milan on Northwest; $629 on American, both nonstop on cheaptickets.com (I put in imaginary May dates). These sound good.

Expedia retrurned $580 for NY-Rome-NY on Northwest. For flight dates before May 15 you find ~$380 on many airlines.

Hi, try www.qixo.com - a fare search engine finds lowest prices, I then go directly to the site of the website that has the lowest fare. <BR> <BR>Also, www.flights.com has been successful for me. You just need to stay on top of them after you book your flights to get confirmation and tickets. Have a great trip. <BR> <BR>Luanne

Ann, <BR>We're also going to Italy (Milan) in May (at the end of the month). We got our airfare through www.bestfares.com. You have to join ($49.95/year)in order to get their discount fares, but it was well worth it (you also get other "perks". Including taxes, etc., the final price for an adult ticket was $553 on Continental (Newark to Milan).

Just booked 2 tix from Jackson MS to Rome (via ATL and Paris) on Air France departing May 22 and returning June 7 at $587 total per peson. Used Qixo--GREAT search engine for most fare websites like Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, etc. etc.--to get to Lowestfares.com. Did extensive search of fares from major hubs (ATL, DFW, MSY--N. Orleans), and for some reason unknown to me the regionals like Jackson came up much lower. Did spreadsheet search using various dep/ret dates and airports, and biggest factors were staying more than 14 days and departing before June 1, when prices jump sharply. When searching, be sure to do one day increments on dep/ret dates even when search engines tell you they have done 4-day blocks--our tix came up on a departure date in one of these supposedly "sold out" periods. If you use Lowestfares, be careful: the "blue screen" "Buy It Now" option makes reservations for only one person even if you requested more; use "Reservations" instead for multiple tix. Good luck!

just booked Alitalia NYC-Naples round trip for $453, depart 5/17 return 5/28. They are having a "sale" through March 31 for flights ending May 31. I booked online. I found a range of prices from $453-$850 for the flights. The differences varied by day and by time. The moral is just keep varying days and times if you can (I had a 48 hour range for days, and a two hour range for times).