IYO, Best Airline JFK to Italy
 

For Late Feb. or early April 2009, which airline do you think would be the best to fly to Italy ... Rome, Florence, or Venice? I am thinking about cost and direct or 1-stop flights. I'm a little nervous booking with Alitalia in their present financial crisis. I would like to book in Sept/Oct.

All Alitalia flights from NY are code-shared with other airlines, in most cases either Delta or Continental, so it makes no difference. If you see a flight on Alitalia whose prices is cheaper than Continental, check to see if it is the same price.

Which is the best flight to take depends crucially on where you are going, and whether you are comfortable with changing planes after losing a night's sleep.

It can be very cheap to fly through Dublin, but it's a miserable airport, and I recently found myself being told I had to wait on the tarmac, in the rain, at 6am, while Aer Lingus got it's act together loading the plane. I was sorry I'd done it for the cheaper fare.

Why don't you first plan your trip and then decide what's the best flight for starting and leaving it?

Easter 2009 is April 12th. Easter week is a holiday in Italy and places will be crowded and expensive.

Alitalia's crisis started long before $140/barrel oil. I wouldn't want a cheap ticket on Alitalia on the bet that it will still be around.

If the choices are between Delta and Continental, well, to me neither is great, but Continental is better than Delta. Just FYI the entertainment selections on Continental were horrible.

I negotiated Rome airport okay but I would not choose it to fly into, flying out of it was enough. I flew Delta into Venice because I wanted a small airport fairly easy to navigate and get to my hotel. It was easy, but traveling light, light light is the key. I think Florence might also be good to fly into. Not Milan.

You can get direct flights to Rome and Venice from JFK. No airline flies directly to Florence from JFK, though Delta flies direct to Pisa, which is quite close to Florence.

JFK to Rome you can fly nonstop on AA, Delta, Alitalia, or Eurofly. AA and Delta are both fine - they'll get you there.

To Venice or Pisa, your only non-stop option is Delta.

If you want to fly to Florence, then I would choose Lufthansa, connecting through Frankfurt.

In my opinion non-stop flights are far far better than any connecting flight - I would choose something like Delta into Venice and out of Rome, or vice versa.