Airfare from East Coast USA to Rome in June

Bad news is that June will be expensive compared to other times of the year. You might find that adding a few days and leaving before June 1 may yield cheaper tickets, but then you will also have expenses for those extra days.

Aside from that, Kayak is a decent flight aggregator that will return most airlines, or Cheapoair, or any number of other sites, it will miss those odd and discount airlines that do not release their fares to sites, but look at the airports you are considering, get a list of airlines serving them, and check out their websites as well.

Aeroflot...yes some service and reputation issues, but to me the problem would be going so far out of the way to get to Rome. Also make sure prices you see include all taxes and fees. On International flights, they can equal the ticket price

Here is the most recent post (2012) on this forum I could find.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/aeroflot-flights-to-italy

I see comments such as:

• " . . . 11 -12 hrs layover in Moscow . . ."'
• " . . .So, on the one hand, I'm saying don't worry, and on the other hand, I'm saying be very careful - not about the airline itself, but the airport and the possible need for a visa."
• " . . . For a few hundred dollars, you spend much longer on a plane and many hours in the Moscow airport. Is that really worth it to you?"

One thought that keeps coming back to me is from the East Coast (& even the West Coast) Moscow is not a direct flight to Italy.

Just as Air France needs to make a stop in France, and British Airways needs to stop in Great Britian, Aeroflot needs to fly to and stop in Russia. On my trips to Europe I stick with the airlines I know such as Delta, Air France, etc.

Good luck on your choice of airlines.
Ciao!

Trust your instinct. It's not worth it. I would happily pay more to avoid time stuck on a plane or in airports.

Use www.kayak.com.
I read somewhere that the best prices to Europe tend to appear 2 to 3 months prior to travel time. So you might want to wait a little longer before making your purchase. I have never purchased a ticket to Italy earlier than 4 months prior.

Another vote for Kayak.

Where on the East Coast are you flying from? There are some really inexpensive flights from JFK to Milan, then train to your destination. I have generally found that Aer Lingus, Turkish Airlines and Finnair are competitive with Aeroflot with out nearly as long a layover.

I have been seeing great fares on Air Canada for June and connecting in T.O. seems more reasonable. Maybe that will work?

On ITA, I'm seeing round trips on Delta from IAD to Milan for $1054 with plane changes at JFK.

SAS has a pretty good sale going on right now.

USAir flies direct to Rome from PHL.
I purchased 2 sets of tickets this past year-
1st set was for a trip in June
PHL to FCO, VCE to PHL- RT was $1257- direct non stop both ways
2nd set was for trip in Aug/Sept
PHL to VCE, FCO to PHL same price as above, both direct non stop.

I started looking at prices in Dec- purchased mid-late Feb- I did monitor prices after I purchased and never saw anything for less (at least not from DC/Balto/PHL area).
I prefer direct whenever possible and am willing pay a bit more to book direct flights.

Thank you to all of you for the helpful information. I will be careful to research fares from multiple sources, avoid flying through Moscow or Istanbul, and consider a direct flight. Also I will not rush my decision. Again, thank you all. Sharon

Thank you all for your very helpful info. Originally it seemed to be less expensive to visit our friends in Lancaster, PA, then fly from the East coast, but we live in the San Francisco bay area.We worked for hours on different discount flight search sites and found excellent prices by diligently tracking prices very late at night/early morning. We did this for 5 days. Although blurry eyed and lacking sleep, we eventually got tickets that were about one-third of the price we had expected to pay. It was worth the many hours on the internet. And yes, some of those really budget priced tickets do go fast!! We are flying Norwegian Air from Oakland, CA to Copenhagen-staying there 2 days; sounds a lot more fun than Moscow or Istanbul. We then fly then on to Rome. We're excited! Sharon