Finding Lowest Airfare Return USA-Italy with 3 Month Flexibility
in [USA]
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From: mono on 10 Jan 2008 03:02 On Jan 9, 6:18 pm, PeterOut <MajorSetb...(a)excite.com> wrote: > I am living in the USA and would like to find the cheapest return air > fare to Italy. I am very flexible as far as time goes. It could be > any time in the next 3 months. I would be grateful if someone could > tell me the best way to get the cheapest air fare under these > circumstances. > > Many thanks in advance, > Peter. Peter - You may find several of the databases at my international travel report site helpful. http://internationaltravelreport.com/low_cost_airline_search_engine.htm Regards, Nicholas Crowder
From: Jim Ley on 10 Jan 2008 05:13 On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:49:26 +0000 (UTC), johnl(a)iecc.com (John L) wrote: >>I am living in the USA and would like to find the cheapest return air >>fare to Italy. I am very flexible as far as time goes. It could be >>any time in the next 3 months. > >Fares to Europe vary a great deal by season, with the cheapest season >being the winter, right now. > >The always helpful search at www.itasoftware.com finds a $550 fare from >Dulles via Toronto on Air Canada (not a bad airline) on Feb 12th. Haven't Delta got a $300 to LGW at the moment, and LGW-Italy is generally easily available well under $100 there ($55 at the moment beginning of feb to Pisa or Milan on EasyJet) But you have the seperate ticketing issues there, still saves a good bit. Cheers, Jim.
From: =?ISO-8859-9?Q?Kir=E1ly?= on 10 Jan 2008 18:28 In rec.travel.europe PeterOut <MajorSetback(a)excite.com> wrote: > I am living in the USA and would like to find the cheapest return air > fare to Italy. I am very flexible as far as time goes. It could be > any time in the next 3 months. I would be grateful if someone could > tell me the best way to get the cheapest air fare under these > circumstances. I second Iceman's suggestion for checking out prices at local bricks-and-mortar discount travel agents. Don't assume that the best price will be found online. In 2005 my local discount agent got me the transtlantic flight I wanted for hundreds less than I would have paid by booking it anywhere online. -- K. Lang may your lum reek.
From: SMS on 11 Jan 2008 10:19 PeterOut wrote: > I am living in the USA and would like to find the cheapest return air > fare to Italy. I am very flexible as far as time goes. It could be > any time in the next 3 months. I would be grateful if someone could > tell me the best way to get the cheapest air fare under these > circumstances. > > Many thanks in advance, > Peter. First step is to go to "http://vayama.com" which is the only on-line international consolidator I've found. I bought one ticket from them to Italy last November. It was about $200 less than the same flights bought from the airline. Note that the Vayama price is the total price, including taxes and fees, while the advertised prices in the newspaper by airlines and travel agents usually exclude the taxes and fees, which can be more than double the advertised price. What you should do is find the cheapest price on Vayama, then ask a local consolidator for a quote on the same itinerary. One advantage of Vayama is that they take credit cards, while very few consolidators take credit cards. Another thing I noticed, from SFO, is that the best price always seemed to be outbound on United (on a flight operated by Lufthansa, and inbound on Lufthansa. But I couldn't buy this itinerary on the airline web sites or on the normal travel sites, only on Vayama. I think it's because the consolidators are buying a bunch of segments that the airlines release to them, and then they piece them together without regard for having to be on the same airline. Also check sidestep.com, which compares a bunch of the sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and lets you check off "my dates are flexible." As an example, LV Fri, Feb 22 SFO AR Sat, Feb 23 FCO LV Wed, Mar 5 FCO AR Wed, Mar 5 SFO Vayama has a bunch of itineraries for $577. SideStep comes up with some similarly low priced itineraries _only_ on Orbitz--every other reseller is far more expensive, with CheapTickets starting at $873. This leads me to believe that Orbitz may be doing consolidation as well, perhaps they have a deal with Vayama.
From: SMS on 11 Jan 2008 10:28
Kir�ly wrote: > In rec.travel.europe PeterOut <MajorSetback(a)excite.com> wrote: >> I am living in the USA and would like to find the cheapest return air >> fare to Italy. I am very flexible as far as time goes. It could be >> any time in the next 3 months. I would be grateful if someone could >> tell me the best way to get the cheapest air fare under these >> circumstances. > > I second Iceman's suggestion for checking out prices at local > bricks-and-mortar discount travel agents. Don't assume that the best > price will be found online. In 2005 my local discount agent got me the > transtlantic flight I wanted for hundreds less than I would have paid by > booking it anywhere online. This is true. A good B&M consolidator will beat most of the on-line prices, which almost always don't include consolidator fares. If Peter would say where he's starting from, maybe someone could point out some consolidators in the area. Otherwise, check out "http://vayama.com". I used them for a flight from SFO to FCO last year. They're an online consolidator (the only one I could find actually). Here's an article about them " What really hurts now is all the very high fees and taxes, which unfortunately consolidator fares have to include as well. An advertised $300 r/t to Europe easily turns into $600. I could have gotten a slightly lower fare by flying to London, then taking Easyjet, but it would have been a hassle because Easyjet leaves from a different airport in London. |