Airline help- Naples and Rome

You're looking very early - Covid and depressed demand has scrambled any sense of predictability for airfare algorithms based on "normal" historical data. There are too many (unknown) variables at play for anyone to explain why fares fluctuate and vary as much as they do (it's like the stock market).

But, generally speaking, you have a miuch better chance at a less expensive flight if you just do a round-trip to Rome (it's a much larger market than Naples so there would be more competition among carriers) and take an easy train to Naples from there. Turkish Air has consistenly good fares, but you will have to go through Instanbul to save $$$. It shouldn't cost $1,500 to go to Italy from a large airport like IAH, probably more like $800 or so.

Part of the problem with airlines at the moment is the chaos in schedules. There are no deals. Capacity has been greatly reduced so there are not seats to fill. And traffic to and from Europe is not balanced so planes are flying with lots of empty seats on return flights. While $1500 may be a touch on the expensive side but it is not crazy given what we have seen in the past. In the past it is very rare for multi-city tickets to be significantly different than RT tickets. But, at the moment, the past is not a good indicator going forward. Just keep looking and it is early.

PS I just a quick check for mid-May - Wed to Wed. The flights were just under $1200 and no difference between flying into Naples and home from Rome or just RT to Rome. The cost variation was less than $25. You may want to check your flights again. I excluded the ridiculous 25 hour flight for $800 on Turkish air via Istanbul.

Try searching flights on google/flights or some other search engine. They will track fares for you and also give you an idea how fares change with the calendar. Hang tight - I saw a round trip from Philadelphia to Rome go from $1100 - $8000 in one day. Then the flight disappeared altogether. It's still early so keep watching and grab the fare that looks like your budget.

Yep, it's MUCH too early to be booking for May....unless you see some sort of crazy-cheap deal anytime soon. Even so, it doesn't mean than crazy-cheap flight might not get cancelled; been a lot of that recently. Like Frank said, it's pretty much been chaos lately.

Check Skyscanner for flights too but be sure to do your bookings directly with the airlines and not with a 3rd party. It's useful to be dealing directly with the airlines if things go wobbly.

Don't stopped checking for a flight. I would agree it does seem too early but a few weeks ago I found our flight out of Asheville NC open jaw into Naples out of Rome. Dates April 27 - May 13. It doesn't hurt to check. Even if you forfeit the deposit on Airbnb it could be worth it. I was seeing near $1,200 before it dropped. Good luck! Check skyscanner.com then contact the airline direct

Naples [NAP] is very poor for flights. You might look into a Rome FCO round trip, train from the airport to Naples a little over 2 hours.
Fiumicino Aeroporto to Napoli Afragola and a driver [avoiding downtown traffic vs Napoli Centrale], Sorrentocars or other company.