We are going to Positano in May of this year, flying from Boston to Naples.

I have been searching flights since Fall of last year, and they have not changed much.

The best deal I can find without multiple connections is through Airfare.com for $1085 per ticket.

This still seems really high to me, but maybe that's just the going rate. I had hoped they would come down a little since I started looking.

Should I just go ahead and book this? It is alot cheaper than the $1337 same flight through Swiss Int'l.

We like the connection times, and hear Zurich is a good airport to connect through.

Any chance prices will come down?

I'm not an expert on airfare timing, but I would nail down my reservations for airfare AND accommodations soon. Positano is very popular, and the good places get booked up first, of course. You don't want to end up with plane dates that don't match your hotel or apartment reservations.

All of the sales I've seen so far end in March or April. I would (personally) wait at least until the end of this month to see if some May fares come up. I am looking for June tickets, and am about at the same place.

Have you looked at www.euroflyusa.com or www. flyzoom.com for their cheaper fares? - - though neither is particularly convenient for your origin or final destination.

It might depend on when in May - - and how bad you will feel if, a few weeks from now, the $1085 fare can no longer be found, and the next lowest price is $100-150 higher. Implicit in that is th issue of how many tickets you are purchasing.

I agree that you can (perhaps) give yourself until 60 days out. Between now and then, I think you have a 20-30% chance that you might save %100-$150, and a 2% chance that you might save $200 or more.

And I think you have a 10-20% chance that you will miss out on the $1085 fare you have found, and end up paying $100-150 more, and a 2% chance that you will have to pay $200 or more than you're finding right now.

Put $1085 in a money market account for the next three weeks, and it will earn you about $2-3 interest, for your having waited.

Peace of mind comes at different prices for different people.

Best wishes,

Rex

Hi W,

Check www.mobissimo.com

They have a number of 1 stop flights for less than $1085.

Would you consider this: fly Boston- Madrid and then get a low intra-Europe from Madrid to Rome or Naples (Iberia, Vueling, Ryanair). I just booked Boston-Madrid nonstop for May for $550. The same airline offers connections to Rome for about $100. It seems you are stuck with connections anyway...

I'm with Viajero2- If you can be flexible on departure cities (can you train to NY or Newark for decent rate?) or connect Boston to any European mainland city, as inter-Europe fares are cheap/cheap/cheap. (try RyanAir/easyJet, etc). I'd look at Boston to Madrid/Paris/Rome/Frankfort/Amsterdam for starters.

good luck!

Hi. Thanks to all.

No, we cannot be flexible with departure dates, as we have both our Capri hotel and Positano apartment booked and cannot changes dates without hefty penalty.

I think from what you all have said I will go ahead with booking tomorrow.

Is Airfare.com safe to use - ie., no problem our ticket will be screwed up? I remember only one time we booked non-airline through Orbitz and it was a complete mess. Seems they had some computer problem, and our whole reservation was wiped out. Quite a stressful time that I am willing to pay $200+ to avoid, however, $200+ per TICKET is quite a bit more and is it worth it.

Anyone used Airfare.com???

I recently bought roundtrip tickets from airfare.com for Sept 2008 from Boston to JFK to Rome for $740 each. They sent me an email confimation right away. I am hoping all is well! I was planning on calling American Airlines (carrier of our flight) to confirm. The flights for that same time frame to Naples were significantly higher in cost and since we were going to both Rome and the Amalfi Coast I chose to fly in and out of Rome. Just for reference I paid $1050 for rountrip ticket from Boston to Florence in early June 2006. A co-worker of mine recently booked tickets to Rome for May and paid over $1000 and is having a very hard time finding a hotel. If the deal seems good to you I would book it. I don't think the prices will go down - only up. for my current trip I had been watching fares for 4 + months all at around $900 when just 2 - 3 weeks ago the $740 fare came up. so I booked it right away.

I have heard too many horror stories about Airfare.com and other travel sites. Our approach is to only purchase tickets through the airline websites.

Have you considered flying to Rome instead of Naples? There are more flight options and probably better prices.

Just a suggestion, wanderer- you might want to post your question on the Airlines board. There are very helpful, savvy people who regularly answer flight-related questions on that board.

(No offense to the people here!)

Bloom

wanderer.... just to let you know I called american airlines and went on their website and they confirmed that my flights that I booked through airfare.com were confirmed and valid and there was no issue whatsoever with them! just to ease your fears in case you have any based on what other posters have said regarding airfare.com
they were the cheapest fares available for my exact dates and itinerary

dickensdad -

What kind of horror stories have you heard regarding airfare.com?

I checked the Rome flights. The only possibility is Alitalia for the same price we are looking at.

While I like the direct flight, I have also heard horror stories about Alitalia - strikes and the like. We flew them only once last year to Rome and it was a bit strange - no one at the ticket counter to check in, no ticket counter even, about 2 hrs late with no one to be found, with rumors that the flight had been cancelled.

Then finally 15 minutes before we boarded they all showed up like nothing had happened(??!!) We didn't have a connection, so it was no big deal. The trip home was uneventful.

If we fly into Rome, how would we then get to Capri, and how much longer would that take?

Hi W,

If you fly into FCO, you take the express shuttle to Rome TE (0:30 min - 11.5 E)

You then take the train to Naples (2 hr - 22E)

You then take the tram no. 1 to the docks.

Hydrofoil to Capri.

I have bought tickets through www.airfare.com and had no problems.

The past two summers we have used aerlingus for the cheapest flights across the pond. We flew NY - Dubin - Italy. Have you checked them out? (Not sure they fly from Boston.)

Given Boston' strong Irish heritage I guarantee you Aer Lingus definitely flyes out of Boston! I already suggested wanderer1 to fly out to a connecting intra Europe flight. Not sure where his/her head is at with that suggestion.

wanderer1-- sarge56 did not say to change your travel dates, he recommends (as do I) that you look at alternate connecting cities.

wanderer -
if you are staying down south in the Amalfi Coast region I recommend sticking with your plan to fly into Naples. I am going to both Rome and the Amalfi Coast and chose to fly in and out of Rome because it was cheaper. That being said my original plans to travel down to the Amalfi Coast straight after landing in Rome just wasn't working out for me! it is significantly easier and cheaper to take a bus (marozzi?) from rome to positano or sorrento - 20 euros per person than to worry about doing the whole train to train to bus to boat, etc thing plus spend more time, money and energy on it. of course the bus only leaves Rome at 7 am and 3 pm and my flight landed at 7:30am so I'd be hanging around Rome, jet lagged waiting for a bus and wasting a precious day! So we switched things around and are doing Rome on the first 4 days of our trip, then taking the 7 am bus down to the Amalfi Coast and settling in there for a while. will take the 3pm bus back to Rome from Positano the day before our flight leaves and spend that last night in Rome.

so long story short definitely stick with your original plan of flying in and out of Naples!

Try deleting the "Cookies" in your computer. I have been told that the airlines leave "cookies" in your computer so that you never get quoted a lower rate than you have already received.