Arline connections

Have her buy a separate ticket LAX-RDU; meet up; then fly together from there. Yes, it adds flying time but avoids potentially bad connections in Europe. Bonus - you can visit with your friend and make last minute plans together.

If you are very concerned about the friend, you might try meeting in the US. Maybe ATL or one of the NY airports?
If you think "they've got this," I'd just meet in Venice at the airport. Since the connection is likely to be the only point of difficulty for a newbie, I'd err on a longer layover (though those shorter ones might be "legal" according to the airlines).
Munich is a great airport for transiting through, but 50 minutes is tight. One hour is tight for CDG. It all differs according to airport--I try to avoid CDG and London airports. Amsterdam can be chaotic. Two hours in a German airport should be fine.

I told her it wasn’t like the bus where you pull the cord and can get off at the wrong stop, lol!

I flew separately from my travel partner. We’d be traveling together for 3 weeks and found no sane reason to meet up in the US. Her flight got to CDG 90 minutes after mine. I used the time to get our rental car and then waited for her arrival. To us, putting up with any inconvenience to meet and then spending 8 hours on a noisy flight where you want to TRY to get some shuteye just isn’t worth the annoyance.

True true, kathy. But some airport connections can definitely be a little hairy--especially if there is a rush. There can be long walks, crowded buses, linger lines. With ample time, anybody with the wherewithal to get overseas will be able to make it through a transfer. (And some of us are more anxious than others, lol)
I find looking at an airport map in advance can be helpful.

If she has never flown before, transiting through CDG is a stressful nightmare especially with only a one hour connection. Can you only connect at CDG? Have you considered connecting through AMS?

I agree with the advice above of having your friend travel to RDU and then the two of you traveling together if you honestly believe she will have difficulty flying to VCE on her own. I always allow a connection time of two hours if I don’t have to go through immigration/customs.

She should be able to fly directly from LAX to Milan, if you meet there you have the option of a short flight to Venice or a train ride. J

She should be able to fly directly from LAX to Milan,

joanne, did you actually find such a flight? I cannot.

I have done that several times in the past on Italian Airlines, however currently the website shows Delta as a partner and the flights have one stop, JFK or Atlanta. British Airways will connect thru London, Iberia thru Madrid. American stops either London, JFK. (Some flights have more connections). Level will fly LAX to BCN, then a Vueling flight to Venice. Level is a very budget airline, and those scare me but they are cheap. Good Luck

I would recommend connecting/transferring in the US of A, which probably means JFK or Newark. Or perhaps Dulles. Keep it simple.

United stops at EWR then into VCE. J

Since your travel date is May of 2023 I don’t believe it’s very productive to put too much energy into what is being offered right now due to internal staffing conditions at most airlines and their decisions to often change frequencies and the route (where the layover change might happen) for any given flight. I realize too that the desire to plan and at least have a general idea of what to expect is a good idea. Personally, I think there will be many changes in flight routes and offerings between this May and next, even though the international side of airlines tends to be a bit more stable.
Maybe pick a couple of possible days/dates each month that might coincide to your intended travel time in May and follow the offerings through the airlines you are looking at flying and see what changes and how much it changes.
We are booked to fly BA in late August and even though the flight has been operating on it’s regular schedule, I’m still leery about the reservation because of pilot and cabin crew shortages(and current news of a possible strike). There is still a bit of flux within the industry, so tracking might be a worthwhile consideration.
Meanwhile, have great fun planning with your friend for a fabulous trip.

Yes, it’s too early. I enjoy the research and your advice helps with my questions. I wanted to arrive early in the morning so we wouldn’t lose too much time that first day in Venice. We have 3 nights there and a boat to Burano and Murano will take part of a day. I’m thinking that if we go a day early, we can consider more flight options throughout the day and then have 3 full days there.

To answer your "safe layover time" question: we like 3 hours, will go for 2.5 hours in an airport we know well like AMS, will go up to 6 hours (6 hours is actually kind of fun in AMS, a pain at JFK). We've had a few connections for which 3 hours was just barely long enough, usually not because the first plane was late but because for one reason or another some section of the layover airport was short-staffed and lines were super long.

If it were my friend, internationally a novice or not, I would meet up with her for the transatlantic flight. I guess there's just a bunch of things that are less trouble, less stress, more fun, more bearable when you fly (or deal with airport stuff) with another person.

My flights are always from LAX and my preference for connections is through JFK. We flew delta in 2016 and were able to connect to Venice with an AM arrival.

If this is your friends first time flying international, it will be stressful to do alone, so she may be more comfortable with a layover in the states. She can probably do that with ease on her own meeting up in Venice if you aren’t able to connect in JFK around the same time.

We always look for a layover no less than 1.5 hours in the States but even that can be tight. Probably safer for a longer layover if the connection is outside of the states.

I agree with sjs-
this is too early, and the airline industry is in such a state of chaos post- COVID. I have done two international trips in the last nine months: the first was canceled entirely after a 4-5 hr delay, which meant no flights for 24 hours; the second had a four hour delay and we missed our connection flight. (We had already experienced six changes on the first flight itinerary.)
Enjoy the planning, make sure you have an extra day at the beginning in case of flight cancelation, and wait to book until the airlines look a bit more stable.
Safe travels.

Pat, that sounds like a nightmare. I can’t imagine having a flight just totally cancelled. Airline flight is in a mess from what I hear. Thanks for the idea to plan an extra day in the beginning in the event of flight changes.
Delta does indeed offer a flight where we could meet in JFK: is a layover of 1h23 min longer enough? For me it is $1300, but hers is $1860! I really hope prices come down.

It doesn’t look like Delta has flights past the first week of May available yet. Google flights doesn’t even go that far out but once they do you can track the prices for updates on specific dates.

I’ve not travelled to Italy in May but flights in June-August I’ve spent from $1300 to as high as $1800 and those were booked 1-3 months out. I was able to get better prices when I was flexible with my dates and my flights are always multi-city / open jaw.

The shortest layover I had at JFK was 1hr 48min and I connected without issue but I would be nervous with less than an 1hr and a half layover.

May is on my radar for a trip to Italy so I sure hope flights stabilize and prices come down too!

I just did this with my brother last week, though we flew into Rome. I live in LA and he lives in NC. We flew United and met in Newark with a direct flight to Rome. I had a two hour layover but his was only about an hour. On the way back, we both had two-hour layovers. I prefer making a connection in the US, versus somewhere in Europe, because if I don’t make a connection at least I’m on my “home turf” if I can’t get a new flight immediately. We could have also met at Dulles or Chicago but I prefer the Polaris Lounge at Newark and Chicago would have been back-tracking for him. You may have fewer (and more expensive) option flying into Venice. Maybe consider flying into a different city, if possible. Also, I expect that more flight will be scheduled next year—most airlines are still running restricted schedules due to COVID.