Flights to Venice

When should you book?

See "Crap Shoot" in the dictionary.

If you are not already you should start monitoring ticket prices from your departure city. Not all airlines serve all cities - Alitalia has ceased most of its US operations - now they serve NYC, Boston, Miami and LA & Chicago seasonally.

Use sites like https://www.skyscanner.com/ to check your prices - you can even set alerts. You will get a feel for what the average price will be.

There was another thread on this last week - search here - there were some links that gave "best booking windows"

Where are you flying from? And why do you want to fly Alitalia?

If you are coming from the States and want to fly Alitalia, you would have to connect in Rome. That said, you're probably going to have to connect somewhere in Europe anyways as I don't think any of the U.S. carriers fly direct during that time of year.

If you limit yourself to one airline, you are less likely to get the best deal. In the last couple of weeks, there have already been some great flash sales from the U.S. to Europe for travel this fall. I know I've seen under $700 fares, but not sure that included Venice. In any case, I would be scanning hard and just book when you see a fare you are comfortable with.

Flying from Miami. I've heard how wonderful it is to fly on Alitalia to Italy. I'll have to figure it out. Thanks for responding.

I would check theflightdeal.com every day. Here's the link for Miami deals:

http://www.theflightdeal.com/category/flight-deals/miami/

In just the last week, there have been several fares to Scandinavia for under $500 during your desired timeframe. And it looks like there were several more deals the week before that for all over Europe from Miami. Good luck.

I like Alitalia, but I also like any European airlines (well, maybe not Air France) and try to always use them instead of American airlines. Be careful when booking because Alitalia is a code share with Delta and so you have to make sure you get the Alitalia flight and not the Delta flight. European airlines generally have friendlier staff, better food, and are more generous with beverages (of all kinds)!

This is research you should clearly do yourself, since it's your money being spent. Is this the first time you are buying airline tickets ? If you really need hand holding, go to a travel agent and tell them your budget. Otherwise, you can do all of this online.

You should get a sense of airfares on your own and make your decision. With airfares, past is not necessarily prologue and any answers about when you should buy tickets is anecdotal. You have almost 7 months to do some research - and maybe even join a frequent flyer program. Get a sense of what airfares are, what different airlines are charging and then decide.

Beyond that, is Venice the only city you will be visiting in Italy? You might want to consider flying into one city, and out of another. You should also consider schedule, if non stops are available, vs connecting flights, etc.

Delta codeshares with Alitalia, Air France, and KLM. I would watch fares for a few days and then book. I have taken all these airlines, and there is not much difference.

I just booked Tampa-Venice; Milan-Tampa for $860 on United Airlines for the end of September. I used www.momondo.com to find the price which was almost $400 more on United.com. Woooo hoooo!

I am pretty sure all direct flights to Venice originating in the U.S., including UA's EWR-VCE, are seasonal and not operating in November. I could have missed something, but the OP will probably have to connect in Europe to get to Venice.

And I definitely do not recommend using miles by opening airline credit cards in the OP's situation. I'm guessing there's a good chance she'll find tickets under $900 each, and possibly much better than that. If someone's using miles for that kind of redemption, they are doing it wrong.

The truth is you should get at least two cents per mile value when redeeming. If not, you're much better off getting a 2% cash back travel card like the Barclay Arrival Plus or the Capitol One Venture. Assuming a $900 ticket, it would take $60,000 spend on a UA Visa to get an economy ticket to Europe vs only $45,000 for the other two cards (and you still get the miles for flying in the latters' case). Also, the $400 bonus on both cards is stronger than the 30,000 miles you'll get with the UA Visa too.

There's no doubt the mileage game can be really lucrative if you know how to play. But a lot of people don't get the proper value to make it worthwhile. If you don't already know what you're doing, you're probably much better off using cash or cash back rewards when traveling in the less expensive off season.

We're getting off topic here, but the point is not that it's bad to use miles; it's how you redeem them. The bottom line is this: if you are not getting 2 cents per mile value from redemptions, you are better off getting getting a 2% cash back card and paying for travel that way.

Look, I've also been using miles forever to supplement my travel. This summer I'm redeeming 107,500 miles per person to fly my family of four to Italy in business class both ways. Last summer I used 25,000 miles per person to fly from the West Coast to Hawaii. The summer before that I used miles to fly my wife and I in Lufthansa first class to Greece and then back in Turkish business before UA's massive miles devaluation. The list goes on. The point is in all cases, I was getting much better than 2 cents per mile.

Opening credit cards aren't bad. But you have to know what you're doing. I've opened six in just the last year. And you touched on the importance of paying in full each month.

In your case, I am guessing a summer ticket to Italy from the West Coast is about $1200, so using 60,000 miles is pretty much right there. But a ticket under $900? No way. If that's a typical redemption, you should be using a 2% cash back card. You'll be getting much faster redemptions and more value that way.