Air Travel from Rome to Palermo

Are they all the same price? Vueling has a lot of outrageously bad customer service reviews in the last year, involving lost luggage and cancelled flights. Given a choice, I'd go with one of the other two. It's a really short flight....you need nothing in the way of amenities for such a short flight. If you're flying into Rome on Alitalia, though, and you can purchase the additional segment as a single ticket, I'd opt for Alitalia. Ditto if you can get some airline to sell you the entire routing on a single ticket. Try to price a RT from your home town to Palermo and then from Rome back to your home town. You'd then just buy a Palermo to Rome one way ticket from RyanAir or Vueling or one of the other carriers.

If you've not already booked your flight to Rome you could research a multi-city flight plan into Palermo from your point of origin, and then include a stopover in Rome on the way back...all on the same ticket. Can be done by modifying the dates on the return leg of the multi-city routing to include the few days in Rome - staying with Alitalia all the way. In some cases it can be cheaper and more convenient to do it that way rather than splitting things up as you propose by using a discount carrier for part of the trip.
If you've already committed to flights to/from FCO then a separate round trip into Palermo would indeed be required, and in that case Alitalia would be the safest bet (if only for your peace of mind) if the fares are at all comparable.

I used miles for my Sicily trip, but they would only take me to Rome, so I had to buy a separate ticket to Palermo. I agree that if you can, you want to get a flight to Palermo from the US all on one ticket, so you're "protected" if there's a delay.

Since I was on separate tickets, what I did was buy two of them (both on Alitalia). One was FCO to PMO three hours after my arrival, and one was ten hours after my arrival. This way, I knew I would use one and throw away the other, and it was still cheaper than a last minute ticket (it was a Monday, and the prices were already getting very high a few months out). In the end, I made the three hour connection with time to spare, but of course that's never guaranteed.

I wouldn't worry too much about which airline based on reputation (it's a short flight). But one thing to consider is total cost. Alitalia includes one free checked bag and has a pretty generous carry-on allowance too; the others will charge you to check a bag and will have tighter restrictions on carry-ons as well (so you may have to check a bag you could carry on Alitalia).

If you are looking at Alitalia, look at their International website; it has the same prices as the Italian website but has an English language option (the Italian website is all in Italian). The US website often shows higher prices for the same flights.

Trying to combine trans-Atlantic flights with European budget airlines will present problems. The big budget airlines do not appear on the major international on-line travel agencies such as Kayak or even http://www.itasoftware.com/
Low-cost airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair are very large, but they do not connect with each other or the traditional airlines -- no combined tickets, no luggage transfer etc. Not a problem if you are staying in Rome for a few days, but if you are starting your vacation by connecting to Palermo you should be aware of the need to go through border procedures at the Rome airport and the airline's own check-in procedures, carrying your bags. That might give Alitalia the edge if it provides the connection.The ideal would be a flight to Palermo provided by your trans-Atlantic carrier, then returning to Rome by a budget carrier for your stay there before returning to the US. You can use the multi-destination function on many websites to see the possibilities for the trans-Atlantic legs. My preferred website for budget carriers is www.skyscanner.com

I have flown Alitalia from Roma to Palermo several times, no problems. I flew Vueling once, no problems. Alitalia's pricing structure allows better carryon/baggage check allowances, I think.

We are taking the RS Sicily tour that starts on Sunday 4/10 and ends on Wednesday 4/20. We are taking Are Lingus from Boston to Rome on Wednesday 4/6, spending two nights in Rome, and then taking Alitalia from Rome to Palermo on the afternoon of Saturday 4/9. At the end of the tour, we are flying Alitalia from Catania to Rome, spending a night in Rome, and then continuing on Are Lingus to Boston on Thursday 4/21. I considered flying to Palermo on the same day we arrive in Rome, but did not want to experience the worry of making a connection. Besides, Rome is one of our favorite cities, and we don't mind getting over our jet lag in a familiar place. I booked the Alitalia flights on the Italian version of the website because the prices were lower at that time (However, I checked again recently and the prices were the same on the US and Italian websites).

We picked Alitalia because they seem to have fewer rules, restrictions and extra fees. Also, other family members have flown a lot within Italy, and have not enjoyed the sometimes chaotic process of getting onto Ryanair flights.