I'd like to go to Rome May 29-June 15 2012. Airfares are running about $1500.00. Dukey1 suggested flying into London and then Easy Jet to Rome. Would I fly into Gatwick London?
This is like a foreign language to me. Would it be best to work with a travel agent, or would I be able to get enough feedback from this forum to make it work on my own. This will be our 3rd trip to Italy. The first trip an agent arranged everything for us. The 2nd trip I planned with a great deal of help from this forum.

Easyjet does fly to FCO from Gatwick, but some things to keep in mind:

1. They are a no frills airline so you will pay for everything - including any luggage outside their restrictive limits

2. You will not be on a continuous ticket so if you are late checking for ANY reason, or you miss the flight you will have no recourse other then buying a new ticket at that days prices (could be quite expensive).

3. Tickets are basically first come first serve so the sooner you book the cheaper they are (generally)

Unless you have an overnight in London I wouldnt do this because of #2 above - any delays and you will miss your connection. But that will add the cost of transportation into London and a nights hotel to the cost which may bring it back up enough for it not to be worth it. The hassle for me wouldnt be worth it when you add in the additional costs plus the time.

I use Easyjet all the time, but I live in London. I would never use them for a same day connection from another airline but I am risk averse hahaha - I am sure if you give yourself enough time (like several hours) it would be fine, but the extra stress and hassle isnt worth it and I prefer to book through connections on the same ticket/same airline so if there are delays the airline still gets me to the destination without me buying another replacement ticket.

I flew this exact flight in May, though I had been staying in London. I had a pretty bad experience with Easyjet, I'm not going to lie. My grandmother and I arrived in Rome after a two and a half hour flight, and had to wait one and a half to two hours for our luggage to appear on the baggage carousel, it didn't even start moving for a whole hour! The waiting area for the flight had no restrooms, you would have had to hike back up a huge hallway and then re-cleared security if you had wanted to go. It's definitely a no-frills airline. The seats are first come first serve, the check-in lines are long, the check-in times are strict, and the carry-on luggage allowance is tiny: only one item per person ( I just stuffed my handbag inside my bigger pack ). I honestly wished we had flown British Airways, might have got the luggage sooner at the Rome end of it....

You're looking at prices awfully early for June 2012. I'd wait a bit and see if the airfare prices come down. I went to Italy this past May, and when I started researching flight schedules last summer about this time, tickets were about $1300. We ended up booking in October and paying $922.

Now, that was last year and this is this year, so that may not happen, but you definitely have some time to wait and see what prices do (and this is coming from me, a very type-A planning sort of person!). You can set up fare alerts on sites like Kayak.com - I put in a bunch of date/city combinations that could possibly work for us, and told Kayak to email me when prices went under $1000. Easy.

Unless you'd like to add some time in London to your trip, I'd be hesitant about booking EasyJet for the reasons jamikins mentioned. Even if all your flights are on time, the baggage restrictions will be tighter on EasyJet. However, if prices stay this high, it's an option - just build in PLENTY of leeway time.

Thanks for the replies.I think I'll just sit tight and see what happens. We went to Italy in May 2010 and the airfare for the 2 of us was $1261 total. I did buy the tickets 10 months before the trip. I don't think that will happen again

My husband and children caught up with me in France this summer and used this route - Delta to Gatwick, Easyjet from Gatwick (to Lyon in our case). Their Atlantic flight arrived early in the morning, they checked their luggage and took the train into London, had a nice day at and around the Tower of London, came back out for an evening flight to Lyon. No problem and it was by quite a bit the cheapest option for the three of them.

EasyJet service isn't significantly different from that on any full-price airline: the odd horror story can just as easily be told about British Airways, and is far more likely on Alitalia.

But I really doubt whether transferring to easyJet makes sense for any intercontinental passenger. If your intercontinental flight arrives at Gatwick (few do), transferring to easyJet's a time-consuming, unpleasant nuisance: if it arrives at Heathrow or City, transferring airports is a nightmare, and if it arrives at Stansted transferring to easyJet at Stansted is just as horrid as it is at Gatwick.

If direct flights from wherever to live to Rome (and it's simply immaterial whether you end up at FCO or CIA, so specifying FCO might be the basis of your problem) are too expensive for you, I simply don't believe faffing about with a transfer to a low cost, non-interlining airline can possibly make any sense - least of all in Britain, bearing in mind our high departure taxes.

It MUST make better sense to find a codeshare transfer at Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Madrid, Munich or Zurich.

Irishwhistler - I think most of your complaints are due to the airport, not the airline. We flew BA to Rome and it took over an hour to get our luggage, and the belt didnt move that entire hour. The facilities at the airport are not Easyjet's issue. While I agree the lines are long and the seats are slef serve (thats to get people on and seated faster btw) the issues with the airport would have nothing to do with Easyjet.

I think horror stories can be said about every airline, the issue I would have is that its not a continuous ticket and they have tight luggage weight restrictions.

You may recall that I ALSO suggested you wait and see about flight costs as well as asking yourself if ANY of your alternatives are worth the money.

Do another check for airfares using the three-letter-code ROM instead of FCO. Or choose "Rome - all airports".

While you wait for lower airfares, ask yourself if you are the person who is comfortable with an unprotected transfer from one airline to a low-budget airline (with all the restrictions on cabin and checked luggage).
Neither airline has any obligations to accomodate you in case any problems arise from not making the connecting either way of travel.

If you think that you are fine with that, look for any promotional airfare to any European hub, not just to London. And check if low-cost airlines like Easyjet, Vueling, Ryanair, Air Berlin, etc. offer low cost fares from/to there to/from Rome.
You can check that at whichbudget.com

In total, I would probably do this stunt if the combined airfare was $1,000 or less vs $1,500 for a non-stop or a protected connection to Rome. But not to save one or two hundred dollars.

I flew to Paris and then EasyJet to Rome, which required crossing all of Paris to go from one airport to the other--you might have a similar transfer in London. If Italy is your sole destination, I would look for a RT to Rome or Milan. At any rate, wait until January to see if prices are dropping.