We are doing the 17 day Best of Italy trip next year. Flying from Portland Oregon to Venice and then Rome back to Portland. Doing a quick air fare check (we typically fly Economy Plus or Comfort Plus) it is super expensive! I'm wondering if there is a more creative and less expensive way to fly round trip from Italy back to Portland. For example, adding in a short train trip to a different city to fly home from, rather than Rome. Or perhaps flying into Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Portland the next day. Any thoughts about that?
Posted by
Northwest Arkansas
686 posts
Google Flights. Enter dates and Portland departure only. See what pops up around those dates.
The PointsGuy states that 3-5 months out offers the least expensive international flight prices.
Finally, some airlines allow you to change full fare tickets if the price drops.
Posted by
Chicago
654 posts
Well, not to be too sarcastic, but if there was a foolproof way to do this, we'd all do it.
The idea of flying into a hub (any hub) and then adding a short intra-Europe flight on
a low cost carrier can work. But it comes with risks of its own, such as making sure you
have padded the connect times sufficiently (you are onto that somewhat) and the
fees-for-everything philosophy.
Maybe flying from Seattle will be cheaper also. If the goal is to save money, then you
are potentially sacrificing convenience.
But a) assuming you're thinking about summer 2025, what expectations did you have
for fares and b) as noted, you're too far ahead of time. Start looking again just before
Black Friday, you may see some sales related to that.
Posted by
San Diego, California
5629 posts
For some reason, flying into Venice is expensive for 2025. We booked business class recently, and found flying into Milan was much cheaper, and you can choose between Malpensa and Linate, (depending on airlines.)
For Google Flights, put in your home airport, dates, and just Europe as a destination, to view fares at other airports. You can look at fares for the entire month, and set up alerts.
You can also search multi-city trips, but I don't think you can set up Alerts for these. Good luck!
Posted by
NorthCarolina
1066 posts
Just being sure you are booking MULTICITY tickets and NOT ONE WAY?
We are flying next week Greensboro to Atlanta to Venice --- and then home Rome to Atlanta to Greensboro. Now we booked very early at our 330 day mark basically and Coach was $980 and Delta Comfort Plus was $1600.
Now, 2025 is Jubilee, so maybe that is why it is so expensive.
Posted by
New York, NY
4071 posts
Maybe you’ll save money from SEA-TAC?
Posted by
Salem, Oregon, USA
2736 posts
I have used the Delta PDX-Amsterdam flight a half dozen times to fly to/from Europe, it's very convenient and usually worth the extra dollars (to me) for a direct flight to Europe. Last year I flew home from Izmir in Turkey and due to times/logistics I ended up doing an overnight at the Amsterdam airport and flying home the next day. That flight ended up being through Seattle but I could have taken the Portland direct for $400 more - even with the hotel cost the layover was cost efficient.
Depending on your tour dates, you could be looking at prices too early. Also the AMS flight from Portland is not every day of the week, try searching +/- a day to see if that helps with pricing. There is also a British Airways flight to London as well as Icelandair. Set up a Google flight alert for an open jaw route (PDX-VCE and FCO-PDX) as well as round trips to Venice and Rome on your chosen dates and track prices for a bit. If you see something amenable book it within a few hours of getting notified.