Air travel from Seattle to Rome

Try to fly a "multi-city" ticket also known as an "open jaw." Fly into Rome out of Venice (better would be into Venice out of Rome). Book all as one ticket, using the multi-city option on most booking websites, instead of two one-way tickets. Can be as cheap as a round-trip ticket.

I'd look for the flights that are the most direct and of course the most convenient - as few stops as possible. You can get direct flights between Seattle and European cities like Amsterdam and connect there - better in my opinion than connecting in the US. Amsterdam is a good connection airport in my experience. Be careful about very early flights back out of Venice - could be expensive to get to the airport early in the morning (water taxi?).

Try to book directly with an airline vs. on some third party booking site like Expedia, unless you are saving tons of money. If you're booking Delta flights, book on Delta's website. Use Google Flights to search, then follow the links from there to the airline websites.

hey hey Jill
I also agreed with Andrew about flights, multi-city (into one city out of another) no backtracking. most USA flights out of Venice very early 530am-800am, transport cost add up. Fly into Venice, nice place to relax and get rid of jet lag, spend 3 nights there. Then train to where ever next. book trains early for cheaper fares (trenitalia italo trainline loco2). Check your arrival and departure times, early check in, luggage storage or pull & push bags until checkin/checkout for hotels, cancellation policy, read fine print. read guides, write down must sees, look at maps where attractions are. It’s sounds like a lot to think about, helps out in the end and no stress vacation. Come back and ask questions, these great posters here will give you good bad and ugly. enjoy and happy researching
aloha

All Andrew's advice is good.

Last year I found Heathrow the best connection option between Seattle and Italy (to Venice, return from Rome). British Airways was fine. I had a long Heathrow layover before the flight to Venice, bought a lounge pass in Terminal 5. Landed in Venice around midnight and spent the night at a hotel near the airport. The flight from Rome left early AM (night before at an airport hotel), with a few hours at Heathrow, enough for an easy lunch.

This itinerary and carrier worked fine for me, I guess a shorter outbound layover would have been more convenient. I've been through Heathrow several times without the problems others have reported, and I've had good flights with British Airways. Your European hub choices from Seattle are Heathrow, Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. I've used all and the only one I didn't "appreciate" was Paris. Maybe if enough of us fly from here to Italy someone will offer a nonstop to Rome -- the best option!

The really inexpensive way to get to Rome might be on Norwegian Air Shuttle (seasonally) into London Gatwick. There, you could connect to EasyJet.com into Rome FCO airport. You can also return from Venice to Gatwick on EasyJet.
Virgin Atlantic and British Airways fly SEATAC to London Heathrow and you could take a connecting flight to Rome. You can also fly back to Heathrow from Venice on British Airways.
We flew through Heathrow a year ago without any issues. Wish I could say the same about Paris' de Gaulle airport last month--a very poor and hot experience.

All of the comments posted so far are good. I am planning a trip to Italy in the spring and I have found that if you can find a way to Vancouver, BC flights to Rome and Venice cost roughly $500 less PER PERSON RT. I think I can drive up to Vancouver, park my car at the airport for a couple of weeks, hotel before and after, and still save a ton of money. So, you might want to take a look at that and see if it can work for you. Just an FYI, I am also looking multicity airfare. As for Heathrow, it seems that most of the flights to Italy stop over in Toronto and then straight to Italy. Good Luck!

Look at Aer Lingus. They have nonstop flights Seattle to Dublin several times a week, then reasonable flights from Dublin to Rome and other Italian cities. My sister and my cousin have done such flights and said they were fine.

Totally consider flying out of YVR. We saved a bundle in 2017 and 2018 flying through YVR instead of Seattle.

You can also consider Delta's non-stop from SEA to Amsterdam and connect to Rome (or Venice) thru there. I like connecting thru AMS - very easy airport to get around and fairly easy when I was a newcomer to international travel. Delta is partners with KLM and Alitalia so if your flight is booked on one ticket then the airline is responsible for getting you to your destination if there is a delay.

I'd also be wary of flying back to Seattle from Venice. It's a PIA to get to the Venice airport for an early flight out and if you are trying to make it home on the same day you'll be getting a connecting flight at one of the big European hubs. If you can arrange it, I'd fly IN to Venice and out of Rome.

Flying from the West, I also avoid changing planes on the East coast. If I am going to have to change, I prefer to do it in Europe as there are often many more intra-European flights if something delays your longer international leg.

Do book directly thru your airline. While some 3rd party bookers are OK, some are pretty awful.

Donna, how did you get to Vancouver? Did you drive, or is there a good way to get there without driving? If we didn't have to take our car, it would save even more. Thanks!

Also, in reference to Pam's post, flights from Venice to Vancouver don't leave until noonish rather than the 6:30AM flight to Seattle.

You can get from Seattle to Vancouver by Bolt Bus (https://www.boltbus.com) and probably by AMTRAK too. I would choose the former, I've taken it many times to NYC. Very inexpensive and easy way to get around.

Having said that, I can't imagine adding more time (on both ends) to an already long trip just to avoid flying out of SEATAC. Unless you're tagging it onto an existing trip in BC.

Consider that if you fly mainstream planes to Europe and then book a different airline to Rome or Venice, there are some cautionary considerations.

European cheap airlines are very limited on carry on luggage allowance and checked bag fees can add up. Add additional fees for seat reservations, and it may not be the value - for some people. Do a dummy booking first to see what you are comfortable with costs. Also, some airlines use a secondary airport and you have to get from Airport 1 to Airport 2.
Other consideration is that if booked on 2 tickets and flight 1 is delayed so you miss flight 2, you are out of luck. You have missed the flight and need to rebook at whatever cost it is that day - or find alternate methods of travel.
If you go with the original plan to fly Seattle to Rome, then be aware of the transfer time in whatever airport it is. I haven't personally had any issues flying through Heathrow, but for any airport, I would want at least a 2 hour layover, or more if the airport is in the Schengen Zone as that is where you enter and go through Immigration.
I use matrix ita software website. Google owns it now, but it started life as the planning site for travel agents looking at flight options. You can ask it to look at airports XX miles from your initial airport choice. You can add restrictions or extensions for dates, number of connections, narrow down the times of departure or arrival, etc.
Once you see something of value, you book it on the airline website, as MatrixITA doesn't sell flights.

Fellow Seattle citizen here. There aren't really any outstanding options. We found that going up to Vancouver just didn't pencil out because it added too much time, stress and unknown variables. (Taking the train or driving? What if there's a delay? If you get to Vancouver a day early, you have to pay for the hotel, etc.)

Our preferred method is Seattle - Amsterdam - Italy. We have friends in Seattle who do six months Italy/ six months US and they said Delta was the best of the choices.

If you can fly into Venice and come back from Rome, you'll have better flight timing options. Heathrow truly bites. The distance between our gates when we did it was mind-boggling. It's HUUUUUUUUGE and the security lines are positively glacial.

We flew Delta most recently and it was okay. (KLM used to do the US leg themselves, but jobbed it out to Delta a few years ago.) Do be sure to allow for a long enough layover in Amsterdam for your luggage to make your plane as well as you. (Not a problem if you are carry-on only, of course.) We had a tight connection this past May (under an hour) to catch a flight in Amsterdam to Rome and though we made our flight (running), our bags did not. They didn't show up at our lodging in Rome until 23 hours later. (24 hours and they would have had to reimburse us for additional expenses.) We'll never again do such a tight connection.

I flew out of Vancouver before and saved quite a bit on KLM. I parked at an off-airport lot and still saved money because I would have had to pay for parking at Seattle anyway.

Another Puget Sounder here. We've flown to Europe twice now from Seattle through Heathrow. Both going and coming back. Haven't had any major problems but I would suggest making sure the layover is long enough to get between terminals if needed. Anything less than 90 minutes could be problematic.

Seattle to Vancover Airport

https://www.ridebooker.com/transfers/seattle/yvr/quick-shuttle

We found Seattle to Milan for late summer had the best fare. Son has an open jaw ticket returning from Venice that is also reasonable. Fare to/from Florence was almost twice as expensive as Milan when I bought tickets.

Thank you, fellow travelers, for all your comments and suggestions. I agree that flying into Venice and leaving from Rome provides for a better itinerary, but our tour begins in Rome and ends in Florence. Leaving from Vancouver is not an option for us, so Seattle to Amsterdam to Rome sounds like the best option for us. We plan to arrive in Rome 3 days before our tour to give us time to overcome jet lag and explore more of Rome. We will be extending our trip to Venice for a few days on our own. I agree that early departures from Venice will be a challenge, so we may take a train back to Florence. Still researching our return options. I appreciate all the invaluable information from your experiences, (the good and the bad). Mahalo

The last time I flew home from a European location without a direct flight (Milan to SLC) and had to leave the hotel to be at the airport for a 6AM departure, I swore I would come back in stages next time!! It hasn’t happened yet but my thought was to overnight in the European hub city -Amsterdam for instance. So afternoon flight from Milan or other Italian city to Amsterdam. Have a reasonable departure time from AMS back home. That strategy might work depending on how pushed for time you are to return home.

We always fly into LHR Heathrow, no problems.

Donna, how did you get to Vancouver? Did you drive, or is there a good way to get there without driving? If we didn't have to take our car, it would save even more. Thanks!

First time we drove over - if you reserve your parking ahead it's amazing the discount you can get. I think that trip we paid under $140 for 20 days.

The second time we flew from PSC to SEA to YVR and stayed at the hotel closest to YVR. We have loads of AS miles so it was a good option for us.

From SEA you could look at the train but we haven't done that yet.

Here's what I mean about taking a closer look at the bus from Seattle to Vancouver Airport:
The earliest bus leaves at 8:40 am from downtown Seattle, and gets you to Vancouver Airport a little after noon. That means that your flight better not leave before 3 pm AND you better pray that bus doesn't get stuck in traffic or that there's some weird delay at the border.
Also, there's no way I would want to be stuck on a bus for 3.5 hours before getting onto a 10 hour flight and then transfer to a 2 hour flight. Then do it in reverse when you're coming home.

But, it's always nice to know the options and clearly this works for some people. Just proves that there is no one size fits all approach to travel.

I wouldn't pay significantly more or travel for significantly longer just to avoid LHR (Heathrow). It's not one of the world's best airports by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not appalling either. Not like CDG, where any connection of less than 120 min is a gamble.