Diane

Has anyone ever gotten discounted fares when taking open-jaw flights? It would be so much more convenient to fly in to Milan and out of Rome, but will I have to pay a premium to do so? We're planning a 20-day trip in May 2001.

Ed

With all due respect to the participants on Fodor's forums ... it would be much wiser to ask airlines. <BR> <BR>It used to be common that most open jaws were priced by taking the sum of half the two roundtrip fares. <BR> <BR>With deregulation and it's effect on pricing this is not always the case. <BR> <BR>In your case you really have several airlines to try, certainly Alitalia, probably one or more of American, United or Delta as well. <BR> <BR>Also, if you're looking for a good price and don't mind a trip that's perhaps an hour or so longer, check with carriers that operate good hubs in Europe. KLM and BA are the first two candidates I'd think of. Swissair, Lufthansa and Air France are among the other possibilities. <BR> <BR>While many will disagree with me, I think ones best bet for buying transatlantic air tickets is to find a good, competent travel counselor who has extensive experience with international travel. <BR> <BR>By the way, you're likely to find fares to Milano a bit less expensive than to Rome. You'll have to measure the difference against the time from Rome to Milan by train (4-5 hours and $50/person) against the air fare savings. <BR> <BR>Rome.Switzerland.Bavaria <BR>www.twenj.com

sandi

I got a really good fare flying from DFW into Milan and out of Rome. (About $720.00) The secret was not worrying about whether you change planes in Chicago or NY or whether you come in at Heathrow or Gatewick. I didn't care, just so I eventually landed in Milan. The other secret is to find a travel agent that will keep an eye on the prices, even if it takes months to find the best rate. I found it almost impossible to do this by myself because of so many variables that can change your fare tremendously. Good Luck.

John

Diane, open jaws can be easily arranged; most carriers still use the approach Ed mentioned above. It does depend, though, on how deep a discount you want. Also note that intra-Europe airfares have plunged with the entry of the cheapo operators into the markets, so it's possible to save money on a trip to Italy by going through, say, London, where the transatlantic fares are usually pretty low, then using the likes of British Midland's Discover Europe program (www.britishmidland.com) for cheap one-way fares out and back from Rome or Milan. <BR>Some consolidators, like TISS, (www.tiss.com) also offer open-jaw or point-to-point routings. Happy planning!

Christina

I don't know what you mean by discount, I've certainly gotten cheap APEX fares that way--I've done it several times, and never have paid a premium for doing this. I've never seen an air fare where you paid more for that than the sum of the two parts (which were strictly the roundtrip fare divided by two). This is real easy to figure out on an airline web site, though, like Travelocity -- just go in and find the RT fares to and from Milan and Rome and then the open-jaw flight you want and see if it's higher-priced than the sum of the two half-tickets. I've never seen a major airline where it wasn't, but I think most consolidators want to sell RT fares for some reason.

Walter

9 days ago I bought a open-jaw Boston-Milan..Rome-Milan-Boston on Alitalia for March. Now the price before and after my purchase on Alitalia's website and "tiss" just for a Boston-Milan R/T was $524US. I went down to my TA expecting to pay more for the open-jaw but it was the same price $524, so I paid nothing for the Rome-Milan leg. HTH Regards, Walter <BR>

Diane

Thanks -- also thank you Fodors for moving this to the European forum (I posted it under budget travel, even though, in the back of my mind knowing it would get better response here.) Walter, your experience shows it is possible. Ed, the airlines don't have any sort of fare deals for Spring yet. I've asked them already and the best I can get so far is $847pp (from any of the 3 DC area airports). But it does seem to follow the practice of giving half the RT fare. That seemed logical, but logic isn't always practiced when you wish it might be! This was more of a general question so I will know what to expect. Thanks, too, for the ball-park on train from Rome to Milan -- that might not be a bad idea if I had to use RT in and out of Rome (which could give me USAirways miles on both legs...they don't fly into Milan) Lately there hasn't been much difference on travel from here to Milan or Rome. I'd be much happier with something under $600pp and I expect that will be available. Ciao

Diane

Wait a minute -- maybe I reposted this myself....I think it was scrolling down the budget travel headlines and seeing the one about getting "payed" for writing travel articles....There are so many much brighter folk here