ang

in oct., we are flying to italy. i want to fly into rome and leave from boston since i live in rhode island and it is one hour closer to boston than to new york. the problem is that my sister is buying the ticket and i dont want to buy the most expensive ticket. she has used a flight consolidator for her ticket. so, for flights leaving from boston going to rome, they are showing flights going back to philly or newark, laguardia or jfk. that doesnt make much sense to drive two hours north, and turn around and fly 1-11/2 hours south to then fly back over and head to italy?? maybe i would just be better off taking a train or limo to jfk and flying to rome. any thoughts??if we call alitalia or delta directly, the prices are about $1100-$1200 per ticket whereas this consolidator has them for a little more than half of that amount. what is the deal with these types of companies.also, i checked about two months ago and they did have delta flights from boston to either milan then rome or to munich and then rome. why the change-- i am sure it is what is available but i am not going to travel for fourteen hours for an actual eight hour flight.

Katherine

Ang I was playing around on the Orbitz website. I found a fare of $776.00 RT from PVD to FCO..on American via ORD.
You might play around with the dates if you can. Also you will do better if you pick a weekday to leave. The prime flying times such as Fridays and Sundays get booked fast. Also if you have to sometimes you can break up your ticketing. Say purchase a fare from PVD to JFK and then JFK to FCO. There are millions of ways to do this.
As far as consolidators you get what you pay for low fare but if you want to change your ticket you are referred back to the Travel Agency. It is all about risk how much you are willing to bet. Are your dates firm? Are you flexible on your travel dates?

Bootman4U

Please remember that the amount of money spent on a ticket has absolutely NOTHING to do with the distances involved; rather, it all depends on the particular route "markeT (such as Boston-Rome) and the amount of competition in that market.
It is true you may get a cheaper flight if you flew out of New York to Rome...but add the cost (and the time spent) of getting the train to New York, etc., if you decide to do that.
It may not make a lot of "sense" to backtrack (we once flew from Washington, DC to Atlanta and from there to Paris..and I am certain we flew right over our house here on the Atlanta-Paris segment. But we were in First Class using FF miles so who cares?)
Again, it is easier AND cheaper to go to NYC and fly from there or go to Boston and go through what sounds like hub cities (NY, Philadelphia, etc) and arrive after doing minimal ground travel?

Guest_User

Back tracking and overshooting - it's all about your airlines hub cities.

rex

You probably already know this, but I seem to recall that there are some dirt cheap fares from Providence to BWI - - and from there there are some VERY low fares to Europe. If not to Rome, then certainly to London and other major gateway cities. If you want to find the cheapest way to get there, it might be worth your while to look into this.

Best wishes,

Rex

ParadiseLost

Hi ang: I also live in RI and fly out of Boston. Just in case you didn't know Bonanza has buses to Logan. It's 1:15 and they drop you off (and pick-up) right at the International departures terminal (usually E).
www.bonanzabus.com
Good-Luck with your flights. Regards, Walter

ang

thanks for the tips. let me make sure i understand-- if iwas to fly out of boston and go back to jfk, say and then on to rome, that would be less travel time than if i was to take a train to new york?? also, paradise lost , i have taken the bonanza buses to logan from pawtucket. i dont mind making a stop in europe, but it just doesnt make sense to go backward? i am sorry someone said flight for $776 from providence to rome via ord(which city is that?)if you could let me know

andy

ORD is Chicago

Try to get a consolidator tkt-
They have the cheapest tkts....but sell what is available....

Delta has been cancelling tons of flights due to lack of capacity--so that could be why the consolidator had different things available when you called the 2nd time....

Usually a consolidator will hold a spot for you for 24 hrs thru your travel agent....

Personally, I would try to take a flight out of Boston........

ira

Hi ang,

http://apps.flights.com/is offering RT PVD/FCO via Phila for about $700 taxes incl.

richardab

Have you considered Newark? easier to get to in and out from Boston. Less traffic, smaller airport.

Katherine

I used to work in reservations for a major carrier..sorry about the lingo..
The bottom line is that sometimes you have to play around to save money.
The best example I remember was trying to get a passenger from San Fransicso area to Dubai. The fare all the way thru to Dubai was quite expensive. So I remembered asking the passenger if he had a little time on his hands and we played with routing. We basically ended up booking 2 separate tickets. It ended up costing the passenger half of what it should. There are so many things that affect the price of a ticket. First you have a fare..but for each flight only a certain amount of seats can be sold at this fare. Hence you will have different people who pay a different price. Also of course you should consider the day of the week that you are traveling and the season.
The prime flying times often can get sold out ahead of time because that is where the demand is. Also certain markets can me more expensive to fly out of and into. Boston and Providence are an excellent example. I remember booking people to Providence over Boston because the fare was cheaper.
Also the time of year for booking. Also market conditions set prices and sudden fare cuts or increases.
I guess I won't babble on but it boils down to if you have the time and patience you can find a good fare. The internet has opened up a new world for passengers giving more choices to consumers on fares etc.
If you can handle risk then check out some of the most popular sites
Priceline
Orbitz
Hotwire
and even the airlines directly on their sites.
Again sorry I did not mean to type out the airport codes....it is an old habit to break...
Good luck on your planning.

bill_n_ted

I think everyone here is on to something here. I have found that you can search the different routes on Orbitz and end up getting a really good fare. I did this last year, and saved a ton of money on my trip to New Zeland.

ang

i have found flights but my concern is that i would have to fly from say boston and go backwards to say philly, or newark or jfk. why would i want to go back?? it doesnt seem to make much sense to me? i know if i went on a train or limo say to jfk, i can fly nonstop to rome-- that may be what i will do because i cant see backtracking? or am i not getting the picture??

ira

Hi ang,

Why are you concerned that you might have to fly West to go East, if that is the least expensive way to do it?

BTW, did you check on flights out of PVD?

kaudrey

ang - no offense, but you are not getting the picture.

What difference does it make if you backtrack a little with a short flight? It maybe adds 2 hours onto your total flight time, including layover. Big deal.

If you take a train to NY, you are spending 3 hours to go to Penn Station in NYC from Boston, then you have to take a train/bus/taxi whatever to get to JFK. This can take another hour. You are heading south anyway, spending more time doing it, and making it inconvenient for yourself - plus you have to lug your luggage all around.

Why would you want to do that? Take the flight and don't worry so much. This is just how airlines do things.

Sally30

Try Air France or British Air from boston to Italy. You can leave from Boston, get an overnight flight and sleep, then just change in paris or london. at least you can got to sleep right when you get on the plane and when you land in europe you are almost there. I agree that there is something annoying about leaving boston to go somewhere else in the US. also, if you take the train to NYC, you are going to pay at least $50 for a train ticket plus cab fare from Penn station to JFK (which is about $30). that is really not fun on the way home. If you can't make the plane ticket work from Boston, I'd at least try to fly to your next place.