Help!

My family is taking a Mediterranean Cruise in May, and the only choices of airlines that work for us out of LAX are ITA and Turkish Air. Turkish Air is the cheapest, but it gets us into Rome 12 hours later than ITA due to a 4-hour layover in Turkey. I have read nightmares about ITA being late, canceling flights, and losing luggage! I don't want to deal with any of those things, but we get into Rome at noon instead of 11:45 p.m.

Is ITA that bad, or should we suck it up and lose an entire day in Rome by flying Turkish Air?

Why can't you take Turkish and go a day or two early?

Turkish is by far the better of the two. Give yourself more time by leaving earlier.

I looked into that, but leaving a day earlier will cost $300 more pp. We will probably just lose the day.

Thanks for responding!

Whatever you do, fly in at least one, and better more two days before cruise departure, not the night before!

We want to fly in on the 3rd, and our cruise leaves Rome on the 5th.

ok. Turkish to me is worth it.
Good luck
Larry

I much prefer Turkish Air. How many in your group? If just two, I would for sure bite the bullet, spend the extra money and go a day earlier. Seriously, arriving on the fourth, you will be too exhausted to do much in Rome and will start your cruise too tired to enjoy sail away. If you have not been to Rome and can add even more time, I recommend you do so.

Turkish Air is probably best but I've flown ITA a few times and nothing bad happened.
It's not so different that Alitalia was.
Direct flight? Not much chance of losing luggage..

If you have never been to Istanbul you might want to check to see if Turkish can arrange a stopover on your way to Rome.

Brilliant idea!

This is kind of a no-brainer, I think.

You leave on the 3rd, get to Rome on the 4th, cruise on the 5th.

You can get to Rome at noon on ITA. Or on TK at almost midnight (which would be 12 hours closer to cruise time and that is assuming your connecting flight arrives on time)

Thw no-brainer part is that the ITA flight is nonstop.

They won't loose your luggage. It would be hard to do, anyway. It might get the next nonstop flight from LAX and arrive FCO at noon on cruise day. (the other option being that your luggage is at LAX, Istanbul, or got on a different TK flight somewhere not Rome).

Might not be happy if the flight departs hours late, but nbd really - you won't be missing a connection.

Cancelled flights happen. ITA is losing money. Turkish is not.

The LAX-FCO flight on on ITA has been on time with all 10 flights (incudling the one in the air) since Oct 3.
AZ621 (ITY621) ITA Airways Flight Tracking and History - FlightAware

In reality, you are not “flying in on the 3rd.” You are departing home on the 3rd and “flying in on the 4th,” only about 24 hours before the cruise. As mrwunrfl said, “no brainer” get the earliest arrival, most direct flight. Everything said makes perfect sense.
I would go earlier if at all possible. A cancelled flight and you could be stuck. I for sure would not want to be arriving at 11:00 pm the night before the cruise. At best, you would be getting luggage and getting to a hotel after midnight, getting little sleep and if the flight was delayed, a waste of a hotel night. Can you leave early on the 3rd or late on the 2nd?

I think that means that the Turkish (TK) fare would be $300 more on the 2nd than the TK fare on the 3rd. But the TK fare on the 3rd was cheaper than ITA on that day. What is that difference?

If this is a business class fare then TK would be worth it. If not, then TK might/probably be worth it. At least, you can be confident that they will be operating flights in May.

Considering that the trip is in May, i checked some financial news:

Turkish Airlines finished the second quarter of the year with 635 million USD Net Profit with strong recovery on international demand.Aug 14, 2023

Turkish Airlines continued its strong post-pandemic profits run by lifting second-quarter operating profits by 50%. The carrier posted a profit from its main operations of $794 million for the three months ending 30 June 2023, compared with a $530 million profit at the same stage last year.Aug 9, 2023

Turkish Airlines continues to fly to new records after marking its highest-ever Q1 revenue, reporting a €214 million net profit, up from €148 million a year earlier. The airline was voted the Best Airline in Europe at 2022 Skytrax World Airline Awards last September.Sep 30, 2023

Flag carrier sees record high revenue of $18.4B revenue last year, exceeding its pre-virus figure. National flag carrier Turkish Airlines posted a $2.7 billion net profit in 2022 thanks to a strong recovery on demand, the company announced on Wednesday.Mar 1, 2023

ROME, March 28 (Reuters) - ITA Airways on Tuesday posted a 2022 loss of around 486 million euros ($526.97 million) due to lingering effects of the pandemic and rising fuel costs, despite strong revenues of 1.58 billion euros.Mar 28, 2023

ITA Airways on Tuesday posted annual revenue of 1.58 billion euros ($1.71 billion), up from EUR90 million in 2021. The carrier started operations in late 2021 after the collapse of Alitalia, which had been embroiled in special bankruptcy proceedings for years even before the spread of Covid-19.Mar 29, 2023

Mar 28, 2023 — ROME, March 28 (Reuters) - ITA Airways on Tuesday posted a 2022 loss of around 486 million euros ($526.97 million) due to lingering effects ...

It really is. I think they do have free/low cost stopovers in Istanbul - I have seen the offer in their ads. They have two flights a day to IST. Go on the first and stay two nights.

Oh heck. No ITA nonstop on May3. The OP trip must be:

Los Angeles - Rome

Departs on Friday, 3 May 2024
Arrives on Saturday, 4 May 2024
Total duration: 15 hours and 50 minutes

11:15Los Angeles
Los Angeles International (LAX)
19:46New York
John F Kennedy International (JFK)
Flight duration 5 hours and 31 minutes
Flight number DL 562
Operated by Delta Air Lines
BOEING 767-300 (WINGLETS)

1 stop in John F Kennedy International
Terminal change
Duration 1 hour and 44 minutes

21:30New York
John F Kennedy International (JFK)
12:05Rome
(+1 day)
Fiumicino (FCO)
Flight duration 8 hours and 35 minutes
Flight number AZ 611
Operated by ITA Airways
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A330

Mark me as overly cautious, but there is no way I would arrive in Europe less than a full day before the cruise, plus I would make sure there are more flights departing soon after mine, going to the same destination. Most times, thing go fine, but if one thing goes wrong, it can mess up everything. There is no room for a flight fiasco when you are catching a cruise. One cruise from Tampa, we thought about saving the hotel cost and going early the morning of the cruise. However, I like a good night’s sleep before boarding a cruise, rather than the hassle of the airport, flight, etc. so, anticipating arriving mid-afternoon, a nice dinner, pool and hotel, I booked an early afternoon flight the day before the cruise. A storm delayed flights. There were lots of people, also going on that cruise, but booked on later flights, waiting with us at the airport. As our flight boarded, flights after ours were cancelled. We did not get to the hotel until after midnight. Flights the next morning were again delayed, so all of the people who had been waiting with us missed the cruise. I am not a risk taker with flights, but if you have insurance, guess you would at least be covered.