Best sites to book our own airfare

If you're flying from Chicago, Norwegian Air Shuttle flights start in June to Rome FCO non-stop. That's your best bet. O'Hare is not exactly the best city to fly out of going to Europe with United being the dominant airline flying out of there.
Norwegian Air Shuttle is Europe's third largest budget airline. You might could catch a flight from Venice to London Gatwick on British Airways or EasyJet and catch Norwegian home from there.

You can use any of the third party sites (expedia, kayak, etc,) to research the available flights. But I (and many others) will only book our flights directly through the airline, If something goes wrong (a delay, a cancelation) you do not want to be dependent on a third party to solve the problem.

My friends and i have flown Norwegian Air many times and love it. Flying on a Dreamliner is really nice. Price is excellent. As David said, they fly non-stop to Rome.

I have been using Google flights matrix to search best dates as well as airlines. Once I find a good flight I book directly with the airline or credit card travel portal if I’m using credit card points. I’ve also used kayak, Skyscanner and momondo.

Thanks everyone!

I also have found that Google flights has the best info, while other sites will try to manipulate fares based on cookies stored. Once I find the best route/fare on Google, I book directly with the airline(s). Arriving in London and then connecting with another airline there for the ultimate destination, seems to work best for us when traveling to Europe.

We flew home on Norwegian on our last trip and really liked it. Only suggestion is to either bring food or order it ahead. They ran out of quite a bit so the choices were slim.

We always book flights directly through the airline. It makes life easier when something goes wrong because you’re dealing directly with the airline directly versus a third party site; especially when dealing with airfares or flight changes. My experience with third a party website for flights was not good. I will use third party sites to look for flights, but book directly with the airline.

I only use the hopper app. It’s amazing. I’m flying to Italy for 271.00

I’ve had to cancel a flight to Portland, Or due to my child falling ill. Hopper worked hard to get me a full refund for a non refundable flight.

I’ve used them for the last 5 years and travel frequently.

I tried the hopper app but don’t see how to do an open jaw trip. We want to fly into Venice and out of Rome. Any advice?

I checked British Airways ( our usual airline) and they offer flights on American Airlines for $865 round trip, into Venice and back from Rome from Chicago. These are non-stop flights both ways, the last week of September. . You could check on American Airlines for the same price and for other cities if you want. (I chose Chicago as someone mentioned it above).

The tentative dates are Sept 18, returning Oct 3, but are flexible. We live near St Louis but Can use Southwest points to fly anywhere they go so that we can get direct flight.

I looked at BA, didn’t see a direct return but will keep looking...
Thank you !
Laura