airline tickets: when to buy?

Since there are no direct flights to Bologna or from Florence to the USA,
where are you flying from the USA and what is the cost of the round trip flight that you found?
How long are the layovers?
What search engine did you use because it is possible that not all airlines will show in search results.

It does not exactly matter when you buy it depends sometimes more on the specific route you are taking.

I try to buy mine at least 6 months in advance. I'm headed to Europe in Sept and bought my flights before Christmas. I like having seat choices. Seems like the best deals are around the six month mark (at least in my experience in the Midwest). You can get good last minute deals sometimes, but who wants to risk lousy seats? I wouldn't be able to afford my same flight now.

I buy the tickets when they are the cheapest. Unfortunately that is hard to determine. I don't think there is any magic time or method. Buy it when you are comfortable with the price and don't look back. However, waiting tends to take away options and you may have to take flights with less desirable connections or times.

I am flying from Boston. There are some good travel times without long layovers. The best price I have hound is air Berlin for around $850. Milan or Rome is cheaper, last I looked. But then you add in the cost of train travel. I tend to use Kayak. I checked directly with air Berlin and same price. I will keep looking. Thanks for the advice. Especially the don't look back part.

i would buy that at $850 since it meets your open jaw plan

Look for value as well as price. Here are some of my value items:
Nonstop vs connections
In flight amenities (will I pay extra for food, seat, luggage?)
Number of "back up flights" or Alliance partners in case of last minute drama
Ease of interface with customer service.

I also check nearby cities for departure as well as arrival. I saved several hundred dollars last summer driving 30 minutes more to the airport and flying out of Vancouver BC vs Seattle.

The best time to buy your ticket is when you can live with the price and feel the emotional cost of waiting/worrying isn't worth any possible savings.

I wish there was a method to the madness. Too many variables.

Minimum 2 hour layovers

Maximum 4 hour layovers

No changes in Chucky D. airport

Trans Atlantic flight can't be a Code Share flight

No split tickets

Economy Plus on the Trans Atlantic flight

At least one additional first leg flight after the one I have booked

No center seats.

A month ago I checked rates for a late September trip. I went to the Delta site two days ago and the rate had jumped up $200.

Dates were flexible and so was the departing airport so I tried some new scenarios. After about 6 different scenarios I ended up back at the initial scenario, but for some reason the cost had gone up another $200.

I turned off the computer and tried again the next day from the office and got the lower rate; but still $200 more than the rate a month ago.

Buying flights is hard. It always seems you just missed getting a better deal. I think the thing to do is figure out what you think is a reasonably good price based on research, and when you find that price or better, buy it. You may see it cheaper elsewhere, but you can't obsess about it. It's going to cost you between $800-$1200 for economy to get to Europe and back. Buy when you're ready and the price is toward the bottom end of that range and then don't worry about it any longer.

Bologna and Florence are close enough that you should check flights into and out of each airport (in other words, Boston to Florence and Florence to Boston, Boston to Bologna and Bologna to Boston, Boston to Florence and Bologna to Boston, and your original itinerary of Boston to Bologna and Florence to Boston).

There is no longer any rhyme or reason to airline prices. That includes both which places are cheaper to fly to, and when the tickets are cheapest. Recent example: I was looking in March 2017 for flights to Europe from NYC in May 2017. The cheapest destination - by far - was Zurich, with nonstop roundtrip flights on American or Delta for $349 (not a typo - three hundred and forty-nine dollars!). Then I looked for Geneva. Nonstop flights were about $1200, and flights with a stopover were about $650 with a very long layover in Casablanca (Royal Air Maroc) or $700 with a reasonable layover.

Why was Zurich SO cheap? Why was Geneva SO much more expensive than Zurich? Your guess is as good as mine.

So, look at all the options and get to know the fares and routes. When you see a price you can live with, book before it's gone, and then don't look back.

My personal experience is that fares rarely go down.. I can recall it happened once, a long time ago.

If you have found a fare that fits your budget, get it now while there is still a good selection of seats.

Good abvice from Carol and James E. Buying tickets for international destinations where I live three months out is absurd. Typically, prices rise, sometimes very significantly, and if similar, the connections (more intermediate stops and crappy times) and seat selections become much less desirable.

I buy when I think the chances of the price going up are considerably better than the chances of the price going down. If I ever see something I consider a great deal, I'll buy right away. Most of the time I search, get some idea of the going price, then track the prices for awhile to see if I can either catch a great deal or buy the going price ticket before the good itineraries sell out (and I'm stuck flying at bad times of day with long connections).

If you end up looking at Milan, you can use WOWair. I find they price kind of high and keep bringing the price down as the flight gets closer. They also run periodic sales with great prices. My last two flights have been with WOW round trip between DC and Paris. I spent less than $600 last September and less than $500 in May. This September I'm flying with Icelandair (again to Paris). They had a special that was right at $500 (WOW wanted $600) so I booked it.

If I were flying in October, I'd be tempted to wait until the end of summer to book. Prices will drop, hopefully they'll drop a lot.

I use two methods to purchasing airfare.

1. I Purchase for a planned trip when it is at a price I feel comfortable with and don't worry about the possible ups and downs afterwards.
2. I Purchase for the unplanned trip whenever I see an exceptional deal, like my upcoming trip that was $400 from the west coast to AMS r/t.

When I budget for airfare, I usually assume the worst, say $1400 from the west coast, and then whether I find a deal for $400 or $900, I feel pretty good about it.