Flights from SeaTac

We fly from SeaTac to Europe a few times a year. Our personal preference is to fly nonstop to Europe and make a connection from there. That’s because we once got held up in Chicago and missed a flight which in turn messed up our hotel the first night and ended up overnighting in the states.
Also, the nonstop flights out of Seattle tend to be the afternoon which works for us as we don’t have to get up at 3 AM to go to the airport.
If the flight is late getting into Europe, there’s many more options for getting to your destination that same day. I will say, though sometimes it’s rough making a connection with jet leg.
Coming home we also like to go directly into Seattle. That usually involves a really early start from your destination, like 6:30 AM which also has its challenges (but at least all of your traveling is in one day).
Mentally for us after that long haul we like being home rather than having to get on another plane.
Others may prefer having a connection in New York just to break up the long flight.

I 100% agree with Renee and use that reasoning myself! I can get anywhere in Europe with a flight from SEA to Paris, London or Amsterdam. I'm a Delta flyer so I know there are other airlines that go thru Iceland and Germany.

The last couple of trips coming back in thru SEA I literally did not have to slow down except for about 30 seconds for Border Control. That includes last Wednesday on the flight from Paris. They have combined functions now so that Passport Control (the passage of people) and Customs (the passage of goods) are combined functions. I do have Global Entry with speeds things up. Wherever you come in you will want to download the Mobile Passport app for quicker passage thru that area.

To me, Seattle has an advantage because it's mostly all in one terminal. There are the North and South gates but they feel like they are a part of the whole especially coming back in thru Border Control. I landed at a South Gate last week and it's seamless even though I HATE those tall escalators!

Where are you planning to go?

Do you have a preferred airline?

From personal experience we now always try to make our connecting flight from the West coast in Europe. If you miss your connection (as we have) there is normally more options in Europe than the US to get another.
To answer your second question, you go thru customs in the US at your first stop. For example, coming back from London we stopped in Newark, went thru customs then proceeded to our connection to Seattle. As others have stated, I also prefer to fly directly to Seattle and not worry about making my connection depending on how busy customs is.

Agree, agree , agree with all of the above. Get yourself to the continent. It's no fun having a USA connection canceled, and then the first night of your vacation is at a US airport hotel. Safe travels!

I don’t fly out of SEA but SFO, but I also prefer to fly directly to Europe for the reasons mentioned above (more options to make it on the same day if I miss the connection). I would add another benefit. In the US, unlike Europe, customs is done at the first port of entry. That means that when you return home, you need to retrieve your luggage at the first airport in the US, go through customs at that airport, then, if that airport is not your last destination, you need to recheck in the luggage again to your last destination (Seattle in your case). By taking the flight back directly from Europe to Seattle, the first port of entry is Seattle, and you don’t need to recheck anything. Once you retrieve your luggage and go through customs, you are home already.

If you could wait until May 2026 Alaska Airlines is starting a non-stop flight from Seattle to Rome.

I’ve heard of Alaska’s plan to fly non stop to Rome
just not sure when those will be available to book.

Alaska said their flights to Rome (and to London, too, I think) will begin in the Spring, and that flights will go on sale "in the Fall" of this year. As I figure it, Fall runs from September 21 to December 21. So I would assume they will be doing everything they can to put those flights on sale sometime before 12/21.

They have had some IT issues in the past couple of weeks (including an equipment failure in their primary facility, they said) which may have added some challenges. Since they made a lot of very public announcements about this, and it's a big deal for them, I would expect they will try very hard to meet their deadline of "by the end of Fall 2025".

My guess would be flights will go on sale soon (before the peak Thanksgiving rush starts). We will see.

Agree with posters above about preferring to connect to flights within Europe. We fly out of Seattle (SEA) and unless we can fly directly, nonstop to our destination our first choice is to connect in Amsterdam (AMS). We’ve flown Delta into or through AMS 4 times in the last 2 years with zero issues. Very easy airport with lots of connecting flights going just about anywhere you want to go. We are risk averse and usually choose a 3 hour layover.