wanderer1

dickensdad - please reply. What were the horror stories?

I assume once you book, you have your tickets, and then deal direct with the airlines.

The only horror story i can imagine is if you pay and never receive the tickets.

I'm also assuming, though, that once you book, you print your tickets and boarding pass off the web (??) Is that correct?

If anyone who has used Airfare.com can help I would appreciate it.

Here's my fear. Just read a story in Conde Nast Traveler about a couple who rented a car in Portugal through Expedia. Expedia told them to pick it up at the Advantage counter. When they got to the airport, no such counter, and no one had ever heard of the car rental company. So they rented another car. Seems Advantage had TOLD Expedia they were sharing counter space with Budget, but Expedia neglected to put that information on the confirmation.

So I can see how booking through an intermediary can really mess things up.

Bostboy71

Try looking at www.iberia.com. It looks like they have flights out of Boston to Naples in the $800.00 price range. I just booked an open jaw in to Venice out of Rome in June for 855.00 pp. But it was only listed on their website, Orbitz, Expedia, etc. still listed $1200.00 plus for the Iberia flight. Iberia is not my favorite airline, but if it saves me a couple hundred dollars, what the heck.

Good luck.

rex

<< Try looking at www.iberia.com. It looks like they have flights out of Boston to Naples in the $800.00 price range. I just booked an open jaw in to Venice out of Rome in June for 855.00 pp. But it was only listed on their website, Orbitz, Expedia, etc. still listed $1200.00 plus for the Iberia flight. Iberia is not my favorite airline, but if it saves me a couple hundred dollars, what the heck. >>

I should have emphasized in my earlier post - - that despite my "definitive-sounding", quantititative and seemingly "scientific" numbers... they are/were purely guesses... and nothing more.

That said... I would say that this Iberia might be your "2%" star falling from the sky (unless it doesn't actually work for your dates).

wanderer1

Thank you. I will check this out.

When I was on Kayak.com, it did show Iberia from Boston, but with 2 stops. We only want one. We are trying to keep this as hassle-free as possible.

For the person who mentioned Dublin connection, I did see that also, but the layover was 15 hrs. Not workable.

Can anyone expound on the "horrors" encountered using airfare.com? I am leaning toward booking this way, but would like to know specifics of what problems people have encountered with them.

amyb

I shudder when I suggest this, but have you tried Alitalia online? There have been ads the last few days in the Boston paper for BOS-FCO from $909. It's not my favorite carrier, but it is direct and it is a little cheaper than what you're seeing. You could easily get to Naples via train from there...

Bostboy71

I looked directly on Iberia's site and you only have one connection in Madrid. Boston - Madrid, Madrid - Naples. I used random dates in May, I didn't know your specifics, and it was $806.45 including taxes.

wanderer1

I just looked on Iberia's site -

It's either BOS to JFK to Madrid, to NAP, or BOS to Chicago, to Madrid to NAP.

Might be our dates - 5/6/08 depart BOS for NAP and 5/17/08 depart NAP for BOS.

Nothing on their site for these dates without connecting twice.

wanderer1

Looks like my 2 best choices are Airfare.com for Swiss Intl at $2,158.88 total for the 2 of us, or Alitalia connecting through Rome through Alitalia at $2,350 total.

dickensdad

Check out this link for some reviews of Airfare.com

http://dcpages.com/cgi-bin/dcpdir/review.cgi?ID=4482

dickensdad

Also, the other travel site discussion board that begins with the letter F has a number of posts about Airfare.com

wanderer1

Thank you.

adlmllr

A few weeks ago I booked our trip from Boston to Rome on Alitalia, and the total is $2800 for the 2 of us. Iberia would have been cheaper, with a connection in Madrid, but would get us into Rome about 5 hours later and we'd have to hustle to drive to back to the airport for a morning flight, as opposed to the 1:00 pm return on Alitalia.

It must definitely a sign of aging that I'm leaning more towards convenience than saving money..............

adlmllr

I should point out that I booked for the end of June, which is high season.

Viajero2

wanderer-- I would have a real hard time paying those prices when I could fly Boston-Madrid for less than $600 and then seek out a connection Madrid- Naples (or Rome) with an intra-Europe ariline (ypou mentioned Iberia, have you looked into others?). Those prices for May travel are ridiculous.

wanderer1

I agree the prices are ridiculous, but I agree with the other poster, that at some point, convenience wins out over price.

A vacation should be relaxing, and if the flight matches our schedule, and gets us where we need to be with the least amount of hassle, that is worth more to me than flying somewhere I've never been and trying to locate a flight out to where I want to get.

Maybe if I was 20 years younger....

shangrila

Orbitz had a better deal than that, with a change in Rome. Also as suggested above, try Aer Lingus and connect from there.

wanderer1

We ended up getting our tickets this weekend through 1800flyeurope.

Saved $328 off the airline price.

They were great to deal with - very professional. Hopefully all will go well.

Thanks again to Ira for the recommendation.