Preferred airline for flying to Italy from SFO
 

Hi,
we are still trying to figure out our travels from San Francisco to Italy in October. We prefer to fly into Florence, but we can also fly into Milan or Rome. Since we will be traveling with a one year old, we would like to limit our # of stops to 1.

Originally, we were going to book on United or Luftnasa but have heard many negatives about United and arent able to get the fare/class on Lufthansa we orginally hoped for (biz).

Does anyone recommend a carrier/routing from SFO to Italy (both for coach and for biz if we are able to swing an upgrade)?

Many thanks!

Topping for you...I'd go with the one offering the cheapest and most convenient flights despite what you have "heard."

How about British Airways to London, then connection on..When I fly to Spain from SFO I go through London and then connect on..its not a bad flight.

Delta had a nonstop to Florence/Pisa out of JFK this year-don't know if it is seasonal but then you could fly nonstop SFO to JFK and then to Florence. Possibly out of Venice,Rome or Milan back to SFO through JFK,ATL or even CVG?

If you're looking for a North American airline, you will need 2 stops if you want to fly into Florence. Florence's airport is not long enough for transatlantic flights.

You could do Delta SFO-JFK-PSA, and fly into Pisa. Otherwise you're looking at the usual European suspects of Air France or British Airways, flying SFO-LHR/CDG-FLR.

If you want to fly into Rome or Milan, your choices are much better and then you can fly an North American airline.

Errr........I meant Florence's RUNWAY is not long enough....

Flew my daughter LAX to MXP and back this summer. I got up very early and plugged the itinerary into Kayak.com every day for weeks until I got a good price and good one stop connections through CDG and LHR. Booked through Orbitz and flew AF and Alitalia. Smooth.

United or Lufthansa non-stop SFO to Frankfurt(FRA) and Lufthansa FRA to FLR.
I've done it,no problems. It's always hit and miss with air travel. I guess you just find the best fare you can get for the easiest route and hope for the best!

When you've flown United and Lufthansa through Frankfurt, have you been in Business Class or coach? If we end up in coach, would you strongly recommend one over another? What comfortable is Lufthansa coach? How have your experiences been with United overall?

Just flew to Italy on United to Frankfurt in economy, then Frankfurt to Rome on Lufthansa. United was a bad experience. Lufthansa was much better.

We flew from SFO to FCO via Frankfurt last May on Lufthansa and it was a pretty typical coach experience. I've learned by now that there is no such thing as a ten hour flight in coach that's going to be comfortable. The service and the food were fine (well, it is airline food), but the only thing I didn't like was that there weren't any seatback monitors for inflight entertainment and my neck hurt trying to see the screen.

We previously flew to Florence on Air France through CDG and altho a lot of people dislike AF and CDG airport, we had a reasonably good experience. The flight itself and the food were actually pretty good, and we didn't take the tight connection option so weren't trying to rush through the madhouse at CDG.