We can fly to Italy for half as much if we fly first (using FF miles) to LaGuardia on the morning of the day of our flight to Italy from JFK. In other words we can take NWA using miles to NY, arriving at 10 AM and then transfer to JFK for a 9:40 PM flight to Italy on AerLingus. My question is, is this tempting fate with the possibility that our flight to NY might be delayed, etc? My husband thinks it is very doable because we have literally over 11 hours to play with if things are delayed from the midwest. We could fly to NY the night before but the hotel would obviously offset the money saved. It would be great to be able to take advantage of ff miles and AerLingus great rates. (Can't use/don't have enough FF miles to get to Europe) Would you do this?

12hr layover? I'd do it without second thought.

Life is not without risks, but the reward of going to Italy are great.

I do this frequently both coming and going. You have more thatn enough time.

Even I would probably do this, chicken as I am.

But of course you don't really have 11 hours to play with. Once you take away transport time between airports, and required preboarding time, and possible luggage pickup time (if you check luggage), maybe you have 8 hours. As you know, it's rare, but not unheard of, for domestic flights to be delayed 8 hours (if you have some combination of weather, flight crews, etc.).

There is also the possibility that NWA might change your flight times.

I might try to fly in the day before, use Priceline for a night in the city (it's gotten cheaper lately), and then enjoy a stressfree day in NYC before heading out to JFK around 6:30.

I'd be more worried if this is planned for the winter months when weather can cause long delays and you might not get into NY.

Willtravel - I've gotta work the day before, so the carefree day in NY is out. We COULD come in the night before and stay at an airport hotel but those are going for almost $200. One possibility is to have AerLingus in my cell phone and if by some stroke of horrible luck our flight is delayed by 10 hours or more, I can call AerLingus and pay the change fee. As Dirty Harry said, "Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, Punk?" Hahahaha I don't know!!!!! My husband, the cheapskate, will vote to take the chance, I'm sure! Hahaha

We do this alot--morning flight from KC to Chicago or NY LaGuardia to connect with Virgin Atlantic. Our situation is the opposite--we pay for the domestic tickets and use points with Virgin.

We've been fine so far, we do try to get an early flight out of KC, in case it's cancelled or delayed we have other options.

There's always a first time, but transfers from LGA to JFK have gone smoothly, probably less than an hour from the time we get off the plane at LGA to JFK.

Unless I missed something, Aer Lingus do not fly from JFK to Italy. Are you talking of two Aer Lingus flights, changing at Dublin? It sounds like a marathon journey.

Count me in as doing this all the time too. Besides saving money, it usually saves me time! I'm also from KC and when I want to book a flight online from here, it's usually fly to Houston (huh?) to get to Europe, or a stop 1st in ORD, before flying out of JFK. The worst was when I tried to get to Barcelona and the flight had me go from KC WEST to Denver and then out to Barcelona! We have never had to rebook, but I always take the earliest flight offered out of KC and if the flight out of the US is late, I make a daytrip out of it. Go for it.

Padraig - AerLingus flies to Italy through Dublin. We've done it a number of times. The nice part of the marathon journey is the "short" 6 hour or less flight across the pond. We actually like having long flights broken up by rest stops off the plane. We ARE considering a flight on SwissAir also, which stops first in Zurich, instead of AerLingus to Dublin. Thanks for all the advice!