ljv

My 21 y/o daughter is headed to Florence in June to do a 2 month internship in Tuscany. The agritourismo farm she is staying at is 20 km south of Florence/

I have been searching various sites for the lowest airfare, but all unbelievably high!.To date, the best I found was $1,400 into Florence, routing through Frankfurt. I guess the airlines are trying to recoup losses sustained as a result of the volcano disruptions

Does anyone have any ideas of where to look for better deals? Are there sites geared to students?

Finally, I'm not sure if I should just buy now, or hold off on the chance fares will drop?Any comments?

Thanks everyone!

Ricardo_215

Flying from ... ?

kybourbon

From what US airport? You need to look at flying into bigger airports such as Pisa (shuttle bus or train to Florence is 1 hour and less than 10€), Rome (90 minute train ride to Florence) or Milan (about 2 hour train ride). Delta has a JFK/PSA flight, but not every day so adjust your days.

Many students studying in Europe use STATravel to book their flights. They have offices on many campuses and seem to get consolidator prices. They have lower fees to change return flights than you can get with the airlines since many students that are staying six months don't know what their exact return date will be. They usually require the student have an ISIC card to book with them.
http://www.statravel.com/
http://www.isic.org/home.aspx

ljv

Thanks...Flying from either Newark or JFK...whichever offers the better deal.

Sher

ljv. From what I have checked, you are going to get the best deal out of a NY airport. At least historically that is true.
But try the suggestions flying into a bigger airport as kybourbon says like Rome.
The train ride is easy. Train from FCO to the Rome Termini and train to Florence.
Good Luck.

CarolA

"I guess the airlines are trying to recoup losses sustained as a result of the volcano disruptions"

Not really. If you do a seach this has been a recurring theme on posts for months, well before the volcano. Airfares to Europe for peak season are up over $1,000 easily this year. Flying to a city lke Florence with fewer connections adds a few hundred to the standard $1,100 to $1,200 that has been coming up.

As to buy now or wait? When in June? Are you heading close to the 30 day window? If so I would buy. If you have 8 weeks I MIGHT wait a week or so just incase. There is a VERY slight chance that if bookings fall for this summer due to the Volcano their MIGHT be a sale. It's slim and it's a risk because everything I have read says bookings were up fairly high for summer travel so they may not need that big of a sale if they sold the seats before the volcano.

I also think STA is a good bet, but you may have waited too late.

(And remember none of us were issued a crystal ball and therefore our abiltiy to predict airfare is limited )

Michel_Paris

Have a look at Kayak.com. As others have stated, be more flexible in departure and arrival airports. For example, with Southwest, could fly into NY area cheaply if required.

kaleighmh

we booked through studentuniverse.com which has pretty normal prices but, unlike expedia or other discount sites, they include travel insurance, health insurance, and much lower cancellation or change fees which is good for study abroad since plans can change... they verify you're a student through the university's registrar

CarolA

OK. You are starting to get the "combine airlines" approach.

There's a risk. Let's say you find a cheap flight to London and decide she can take one of the discount carriers to Italy. Book a VERY LONG layover! VERY LONG! Because if the first flight is late and you miss the "discount" carrier to your destination you are out of luck and will be buying a costly walk up ticket.

Also, the European budget carriers have very limited luggage rules. My bet is that a 21 year old going for two months is well over thier limits and the "excess fees" can be HIGH!

Also, while the train ideas are good. How much has she traveled? (And how much luggage are we talking about?) If she hasn't traveled much this may be a bit overwhelming not to mention that if she's doing the "huge suitcases" plan it's a lot to deal with.

I don't mean to sound so negative, but sometimes we tend to think "cheap" without realizing there are other costs involved (time, stress etc..)

zoecat

Check flight into Pisa or Rome. I've noticed that they are much cheaper right now. She can take the train after she arrives. Use kayak.com for finding flights. I would not wait to book. Good luck!

Big_Red

Also, I don't know exactly why but flights into Italy usually seem more expensive than flights to some of the other major gateway cities. Have you looked ant flying into Zurich. Using Zurich saved us 25% last year (over Malpensa).

Texastrips

Going to a smaller airport like Florence is almost always going to be more expensive. Try Rome. It's an easy journey from there.
And I agree the prices are nothing to do with the volcano disruption. I'm not sure why you're finding it unbelievable. It's about what I would have guessed for that route.
You should book asap or you will be in even more expensive territory for prices

Christina

YOu might check flights into cities that are more known for business travel, and thus might have cheaper airfares than Florence. Then she can take the train or something. Try Milan, or Rome.

Check 1800flyeurope.com

I just tried them for roundtrip NY to Milan and got a fare for only $1068 (6/15 to 8/10 or something). That included all taxes. I tried the same thing to Florence and it was $200 higher and had a couple connections. There was one RT FLorence for only $1269 though with only one connetion each way (on BritishAirways). And sometimes you do have to check various dates in case one is a lot higher. I always do that when I fly to Europe -- I just bought a ticket a few weeks ago on Air France and saved $200 just by moving my flight back one week, but for the same amount of time.

lovisa

Look at AerLingus for a flight to Rome with a change in Dublin:

http://www.aerlingus.com/cgi-bin/obe...line/index.jsp

uhoh_busted

Decide what you think is a fair price based on a week or so of comparisons. Then buy it and don't look back. Consider -- how sophisticated/patient is your daughter about traveling? Will changing planes multiple times be ok with her or stress her out? I'd suggest making the flight there as easy as possible. She may want to take a train to Rome at the end of her trip and fly back from there. But do look at Kayak and vayama to plot out the possibilities.