I have heard/read somewhere that there are certain days that are better and cheaper to fly. I will be going from Montana to Florence or Rome, Italy. Does anyone know about this? Also does anyone know approx. how many hours flying time to Italy from Montana? Thanks!!
I have found the best travel days to be the middle of the week - Tues, Wed, Thur. But most websites (both airlines and search engines like kayak.com) have options where you can enter a date and ask for flexible dates so you can see immediately if it is cheaper a few days before or after. Also using something like kayak (or the actualy airline sites) they give you the total travel time as well.
Many airline and travel web sites have a feature that should help you figure out the answers to your questions. Try visiting a variety of sites (kayak, expedia, orbitz) as well as specific airlines, and when you enter your travel dates, sometimes you'll see the option "Look for lower fares +- 3 days." This will give you a matrix of fares showing which day of the week for departure and return flights will give you the best fare.
You won't find a direct flight, so it all depends on connections. Direct flights to Italy from the east coast are about 8 hours, but you might find that the best fare isn't a direct flight.
The Florence airport is not large so you won't see the U.S. carriers flying from the U.S. to Florence. For example, United could fly you on Lufthansa from the U.S. to Frankfurt and then to Florence. This is how we did it. You don't see the big planes in Florence. You can easily fly into Rome, Milan or Venice from the U.S. Still, some carriers may choose to fly you on a partner airline.
If you are planning on seeing Rome, Florence and Venice, I would suggest flying into one airport (i.e. Rome) and flying out of another (i.e. Venice). All airlines will do this but you will have to check the costs. This saves a lot of train time getting back to the first airport.
Our flight from LAX to Frankfurt was 10.5hrs. We departed at 6:15pm and flew through the night and arrived just after 10:00. At 2:00pm, we flew to Florence. It was a 2hr. flight.
From Montana, you would probably connect to Minneapolis or Chicago for your international flight. But it could be other airports depending on the carrier you choose.