What's a good airfare to Italy?
 

I know there are dozens of variables and unknowns in pricing airfares, but I was wondering if someone could give me a ballpark estimate of what's a good price for roundtrip airfare to Italy in the 2nd half of May 2002? <BR>We're leaving from the DC/Baltimore area, going to Rome, probably returning from Genoa or Milan, flying back to DC/Baltimore. <BR>I'll search several airfare web sites, but I've never priced this route before and don't really know a good price when I see one. <BR>Many thanks in advance!

Most people would be happy with a fare on this route, for these dates, at two times their income for one day's work. <BR> <BR>You might be able to get it for half that, and most people would consider that phenomenal. <BR> <BR>Unless you're Alex Rodriguez. In which case the measurement might be in hours, or even minutes. <BR>

You are likely to pay considerably more flying back from a different city. A good R/T fare from DC to Rome will probably be about $500. You might expect to pay 2 or 3 times that if you fly into Rome but depart from Milan. <BR> <BR>Of course, that's a guess at this point. Wait until a couple months before you want to travel to buy your tickets. You probably won't get a good price buying this far in advance.

for the past 2 years we have flown from portland, or. to rome and then from milan back to pdx. the fare was the same as flying round trip to either city. it is not always more expensive to do this, the net makes it easy to check your options. good luck

I agree that anything under $500 is a good fare, but the fact that you are trying to do an open jaw may make it more expensive. <BR> <BR>I got my tickets last April when Northwest had a sale -- paid about $430 roundtrip including taxes, Dulles-Rome, for tickets in late August (but could have bought them for May). <BR> <BR>

- <BR>Mark: <BR> <BR>Flying open jaws sometimes, not always may add more to ticket price. <BR> <BR>For example, if you were able to find roundtrip from DC to Rome for $500; and samd carrier also offered DC to Milan for $600; then you'd be able to fly into Rome / out of Milan and ticket cost $550. When tracking prices, you want to identify the carriers who fly from possible markets into both Rome & Milan. <BR> <BR>You're less likely to get a good price flying out of Genoa --- possibly if you use a consolidator (Cheap Tickets, Travelocity) you might be able to. Prices thru the major carriers out of the USA to Genoa tend to run higher as it's a smaller airport. <BR>

We flew into Rome in May and flew out of Venice with not extra cost with British Airways. I believe we paid around $569 per coach ticket . We bought the tickets in February.

Mark, I flew Lufthansa May 2000 - LAX thru Frankfurt to Milan. Returned Venice thru Frankfurt to LAX. RT was $569. It was actually a little less to return from Venice rather than Milan. Flights were on time & I even made tight connections. Ticketed thru a consolidator, Cheap Seats in California.

Italy is one of the most popular destinations for US travelers (it was either #1 or 2 in a recent Frommers poll) As such the fares may be slightly higher than those to London or Frankfort, especially in a shoulder season like May. If you keep checking consolidators you may be able to get the open jaws flight you want for around $500. I'd consider that a good price. They never really got that low this past year (until recently) so if you can get it pinned down for under $600, I'd grab it.

We flew into Paris and out of Venice two years ago with KLM/Northwest. From New York their bargain airfare was $480. This year, I couldn't find any bargains. We're going via Italiatour (Alitalia). Their "Rome Escapade", round trip NYC to Rome, 5 nights in a 3-star, and return 2 weeks later via Milan, was about $800 each (double occupancy). I didn't find any better bargains in car rentals either than part of the package. If you're going to be in Rome or Milan (or an assortment of cities - they're very flexible) price it out as an option.

In April USAirways was offering great fares to European cities from several East Coast cities, including Baltimore for travel through June 9. I went from BWI to Philly to Frankfurt and return for $342 including all taxes. With a fare like that, you could easily travel from Frankfurt to Italy, probably for not very much.

I've been shopping around myself for travel in November from DC to Rome. The best I found was $487 total R/T. I decided to put a bid in at priceline.com and got a fare for $400 total R/T. With priceline it can be a bit of a gamble, but if your dates are flexible, it's definately worth a shot. Good luck.

try orbitz igot a fare for 480 from SFO to rome by air france

You may not realize that airlines do not publish flights for 2002 until late September and sometimes even late October. So the prices that are out there now that I have checked out from Atlanta to Rome have been outrageous even on Orbitz. Usually $700 and higher. I would think it would be best to wait until a couple of months and then try the different sights as well as checking for specials that will be valid through the dates you want to travel since we are so far in advance now, they really don't apply. The travel agent I am working with says that somewhere around $500 or so is a good deal. Good luck!