My husband and I are flying from San Diego to Venice on 02/11/05 and from Rome to San Diego on 02/27/04. Orbitz is consistently showing the lowest price for this open jaw, and it is currently $568 including all taxes and fees.

The outbound flight is from SAN to JFK on AA. There is a 3 1/2 hr connection time in JFK. (We will not be checking in baggage). The flight from JFK to VCE is on Alitalia but is operated by Delta.

Both legs of the return flight are on Alitalia operated by Delta.

My worries stem from the thread by blithespirit who had to pay huge penalties for missing her connection.

Am I OK if I book all the segments at 1 time through Orbitz? Will Alitalia accomodate any delays caused by the American flight, or could I be charged with penalties?

Also...if Alitalia folds, will Delta still honor the ticket since the flights are operated by Delta?

And finally...I know there is no way to be sure, but does anyone have any predictions based on past experiences as to whether or not the fares will drop further before February?

Hope this post makes sense, and thanks for your help!

My father booked a flight to Ireland from Miami for us in April 2002. It was in three legs

Miami to Atlanta Delta
Atlanta to NYC Delta
NYC to Dublin AA

The second Delta flight was delayed an hour before taking off, and then another hour on landing (due to a storm in NYC), and we missed the AA flight. It took us 3 hours to get rebooked, but they took care of all costs. We ended up flying AA to London, then Aer Lingus to Dublin. We arrived 8 hours later than we were going to, but safe and sound and no poorer.

Good luck! And leave LOTS of times between flight connections!

If they are all on the same ticket (i.e. bought with one route in orbitz), you shouldn't have a problem. All bets about 1 airline honouring the tickets of another bankrupt airline are off. However, Alitalia will still be flying in Feb, they have just had a cash infusion and it will take them till Feb to even conclude all talks with the govt, employees, etc.

You are travelling when fares should be low, but I think the fare you have found may be a good buy even though it is a little early. I would think that sales that may come up won't help you, because you are going to be on multiple airlines, and sales are usually by single airlines, not by groups. Realistically, the fare you have found is a great bargain, compared to years ago, for such a long trip.

If you buy the ticket as one unit, the airlines should accomodate you if one flight is delayed, although I recall reading that sometimes the airlines want you to have orbitz make good any problems, rather than handling it themselves. One of my pet gripes with orbitz type sites is that they sometimes seem to cut corners on connection times, which can be a real inconvenience even if they get you on a later flight, but I think a 3.5 hour connection time at JFK is safe; Blythespirit's problem was that she bought separate tickets, rather than a single ticket for the whole flight. I would double check the airports, because it is not uncommon that an airline will fly you into one NYC airport, and out of another, leaving it up to you to get between them.

Enjoy your trip. Isn't that carnivale time in Venice?

Others are correct about missing the connection. You will be taken cared of.

However, if Alitalia folds, Delta has no obligation to fly you at all. AZ basically just buys seats on the DL flights and put their flight number on it. Having said that, AZ should still be operating next Feb.

Thanks so much for the responses. You all gave me precisely the info I needed.

clevelandbrown: carnivale ends a few days before we arrive. Would love to experience it someday though.

Another suggestion: Double check the flight times periodically before you leave. BA changed a flight schedule without notifying us and, luckily, I just happened to double check. The change in schedule would have made it impossible for us to catch our connecting flight. I was able to change our flights to times that were actually better for us than the original plan, but it took a bit of nail-biting and many phone calls.

Hi daisy,

You have a good price.

Note that orbitz provides a link "my trip" that allows you to keep track of your itinerary.

They will send you an email if there are changes.

You can also change your seats.

www.seatguru.com will give you the cabin layout for your plane. We have found that the 3-3-3 seating arrangement is awful. We get seats on the aisle across from each other. You can stretch one leg at a time.