Great deal on Italy flights May 2004
 

Greetings all.. I have been shopping flights for my May 2004 Italy trip ..Finally today on www.expedia.com the flights dropped to 484.00. That is a great deal and there were several to choose from, mostly Alitalia.
Previously the best price I could find was over 720.00.. Hope this is usefull info..

Nice when those competitions for Spring travel start. You sure you want Alitalia? We've flown USAirways from US to Europe 3 out of 4 times in the last couple of years and especially found the Airbus they use to Italy to be fairly comfortable for tourist class.

From where are you flying?

I just went on Expedia and could not find anything lower than $900. Can tell us where these flights are flying out of?

Good grief,

Expedia has Nonstop ATL/FCO w/a one stop return on Alitalia for only $474 at the end of April.

They also have the same price for ATL/CDG, but it's a one stop both ways.

We are flying Ft Lauderdale to Rome .. Our dates are May 13-25.. This will be our 3 trip on Alitalia and we find them just fine. There is nothing great about 8.5 hours flights to start with. I am fortunate that as soon as I eat I am able to sleep until the plane lands, awakening refreshed and ready for my journey to really begin. We started planning this trip on our flight back from Italy lasy May. It was our first trip to Italy and we fell head over heels in love with this wonderful country and people.

By the way two friends that are joining us are flying May 15-24 from Miami to Rome and back got 498.00 fares..

Wow 498.00 from San Francisco- Alitalia!!! Too late for me, I'm already booked on AA @670.00 Hope some will be able to benefit!

I found some incredibly low airfares from Newark to Rome in August (of all times!) on Orbitz today. I believe it was about $530.

I booked San Francisco-Rome in June for $445 today on orbitz. The flights are United/Alitalia. Yesterday the price was $1100.

Thanks for the heads up on Orbitz. I'm traveling NY to Rome and then back from Venice in September. I've been checking flights, and the best fare was $860 each. After reading your post, I checked Orbitz and the flights I had been checking were there for $494 each, so I booked them. Timing is everything.

I say 3 cheers to garynfla for posting this in the first place!

I did a search on Orbitz for SEA-ROM.
Initially it said $919 per ticket.
When I went to book, it said the prices had *DECREASED* since my search.

The total including booking for two tickets would have been $1230.98 had I booked them - about $615 each. The dates were July 1-July 18.

Too bad I can't book right now!

I had been looking at airfare to Italy for awhile, for our trip to Rome in June. When I looked on Orbitz several weeks ago, I filled in my information on one of the options they offer, called Deal Detector. You type in your destination and tell them to notify you when the price of a ticket goes to or below your desired price. Well, in my case, it really worked.

Thank you, Fodorites!!!!! Thanks to this thread, I just saved a huge amount of money. Yesterday, our honeymoon flights were running $1400 each. I just bought 2 open-jaw (out of ATL, into VCE; out of FCO, into ATL) for $502 each! I definite deserve my gondola ride after saving that much money!

Thanks for the tip!! Purchased Chicago-Rome - Milan-Chicago in September for $419r/t+tax and fees.

If you try Orbitz for this, the results can be a bit puzzling. Sometimes when you click all the way through, it shows the fare as having increased.

But other times, when you click all the way through, the fare is shown as having decreased, often by $200 or more.

Looking at ex-SEA flights, all of the cheapest results that I have seen have included an Alaska Airlines leg on the return from EWR (Newark). I'm not sure if this is always the case, but be sure to click through on those flights, even if they look more expensive.

For other gateways, I'm not sure what will work, but try lots of different combinations and don't necessarily believe what Orbitz tells you from the search page.

Hope these all come through. I also wondered why the price for dates I had been checking in May had suddenly dropped, but only on Orbitz. I checked the terms and conditions for the fare and saw it was supposed to be for travel starting by April. So, if the terms are correct, it looks like a computer error at Orbitz, but sounds as if they are ticketing at the price.

I booked on Expedia today for our September trip for 442 each nonstop from Boston to Rome ! This is so much cheaper than I thought I would have to pay .

I am happy o many people were able to get deals on their flights. Sharing helpfull info is what these boards are about. We also FYI found a great deal on hotels in Rome.. We found a great 4 star place for 130.00 per night for 2 people.It is Hotel Ariston. It is close to the Termini Station which is convenient for everything. http://www.romeby.com/ariston
Hope to here more stories of bargains here..
PS Thanks Eileen :)

Gary,

Can't believe I did it but I just booked another flight for October! San Francisco to Rome for 491.00! Thanks so much for the tip and I can't believe I get to go twice this year!

Eileen!!! Where did you find such a terrific flight?
I so far found from Miami to Rome and Venice to Miami 611 for the best price. Would like to leave from Ft. Lauderdale but Miami is not that far from us.

We booked our flight for July tonight at a stellar price of $580 each (after all of Orbitz's extra fees, too). This is definitely the time to get them - the same flight was $1200/each on Friday! We are flying Indianapolis to Florence, with our return from Venice.

Thanks GARYNGLA - you beat me to the punch. I also have been looking for flights for our May 17-31 trip to Italy out of Newark. Last week the least expensinve direct flight was $805 on Alitalia. Thanks to another Fodorite who suggested "Booking Buddy", I checked Orbitz again this morning and I was able to get a $459. ticket - for my dates. Needless to say I booked my trip and now I can really plan all the fun stuff. The flight is direct to Rome from Newark - on the return we fly to Milan and then onto Newark with a 50 minute delay just to change planes. My husband also called Alitalia direct and got our seating assignments already. Thanks again for all the useful information on this forum.

i too got September open-jaw fares for $511 that were previously well over $800.

Thanks fodorites!

Hi robbiegirl - I booked 9/30 to 10/9 on orbitz. If you can, play around with dates if your having problems finding those prices. Good luck too!

Having posting problems - sorry if this comes up multipal times

What airlines are you using? Maybe it is the dates oct 18-29. I have to check it out.

Robbiegirl -- Ours came up as a combo of American, United and Alitalia. =)

I am glad to have my ticket in hand today. I had free ticket (Delta Miles) on hold through today. The problem with my free ticket was a 9 hour layover in New York and a 4 hour layover in Milan. I would rather pay for my ticket and fly when I want, especially at these ticket prices. I notice Alitalia is back up to over 900. for the same flight I just bought for 484.00.. My friends thought I was nuts for checking the flights 6-8 times a day for a month but ir saved the 6 of us 2550.00 dollars. That will buy some very nice meals in Italy. Now if the dollar would just climb back up......

Gary- thanks for checking so often and clueing us all in!! thanks to the heads up, my family was also able to get 6 round trip tickets (non-stop JFK to Rome) for under $3000 total.... and that is after all taxes, fees, AND travel insurance!! It was literally half price from the fares we'd been seeing.

It certainly pays to check 6-8 times a day. Bravo!!

I got 4 Alitalia tickets at $470 each (June/July from Newark to Rome/Milan) through Orbitz yesterday. They sent a confirmation and promised an email with ticket numbers within 24 hours. It's been more than 24 hours and I haven't received the etickets yet. Has anyone else had any problem with this, or are they just running slow? Thanks.

Travelgirl-- Etickets wer not available for my flight (paper only for me) but my parents got etickets... i think it said the e-mail confirmation would come in 24 hours (it did) and they would receive a subsequent email containing the eticket numbers. Not sure if there was a 24 hour time frame on it... not sure if they received it yet. I would imagine with the low fares their site saw a lot of volume yesterday so I'd wait a bit and see what happens.

I'm going in to Sardinia and out Calabria on FF miles this Aug. My father has to buy his ticket, but is very last minute in deciding what parts of the my trip he will be joining me. His ticket would have been $560 on Sunday, yesterday and today it's $1200-1300!!!

Eticket email did eventually come, after I contacted Orbitz. No problem. Flight is booked through Alitalia. (I guess I was worried that the low fare was too good to be true! That was an amazing deal - $470 to Rome/Milan in the summertime!)

Thonglori, you are very welcome..I am finally all booked. I have the renta cars, the villa in Sorrento, Hotels in Rome, the airfare, and a couple dollars left over.. Now let's cross our fingers the dollar climbs a bit higher. Have a great day!!