Buying tickets to Rome

I saw a post recently that said the best time is about 130 days before your trip. That said, I’ve been watching prices for a trip next summer and they have been astronomical compared to what we’ve paid in the past. We’ve never paid more than $800 rt from the west coast. Everything I’m seeing is pretty much double that.

I saw a news clip that said prices are expected to come down in October, so I have my fingers crossed. The advice I’ve always heard was: If you find a fare at a price you think is good and you buy your tickets, don’t keep watching the prices.

I'd suggest going to Google Flights for your research. You are correct, you should buy your air tickets directly from the airlines, but you can learn a lot from this site. You can set up price alerts, track price trends, see if it's cheaper to go a day earlier or later, or cheaper to fly into different cities. Air prices have been a bit high lately, and we are all hoping to see price reductions soon.
Safe travels.

I'm seeing the cheapest flights in the $600-$700 range right now from Phoenix to Rome. Those are pretty good airfares.

Book it now at that price.

Agree. Fares to most of Europe BEFORE may 1st next year have been what I would call reasonable for the past couple of weeks. This is from Atlanta, tend to move up and down every few days.

Thanks all for the replies!

Quick question: It seems like most of the flights I'm looking at have me going from Phoenix to the east coast (Philly, NY) and then jumping the pond to Italy. How much of a layover would I need here in the States? I'm assuming I'd go through customs in the east coast city before boarding the plan to Europe so I'm not sure what the minimum time I need to do that and then board my plane to Europe.

No customs as you leave US

Passport control as you enter Italy ( or your first Schengen entry)
“Customs” is merely a walk thru a door on arrival (unless you have something to declare) to your final destination

Airlines won’t normally book you on a connection that they don’t think you can make.

If all on one ticket your luggage should be booked thru from departure city to Italy

passport control is not the same thing as security either. You can be in a line for a security check anywhere.

Thanks all. I just realized how incorrect my question was and came here to try and redeem myself before anyone answered haha. Thanks all

I’m currently looking at San Francisco to Rome and leaving from Milan and it’s 1750 for 2 plus. The dates are 6/17/23-7/6/22 on air Canada through Montreal. Doesn’t seem to bad.

I have only used third party sites for airline tickets for EVERY flight I have ever purchased. Never an issue. If money isn't an issue for you then by all means use the airline directly. If you want to save hundreds of dollars, use a third party site.

I asked the same question a few months ago: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/flights-how-far-in-advance-to-buy

I especially appreciated the brilliant response from someone: Buy them when the price is palatable and don't think about it again.

So I did just that. And I was astounded with what I found. We used miles and found flights from San Francisco to Rome via Paris for LESS than we used for our past two trips to Europe in 2015 and 2019. Not only was it palatable, it shocked us in these times of extremely high fuel costs.

You never know, and you can only do your best. Cheers.