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