Flying Open Jaw or Not?

Why not into Venice and home from Rome? Beats going back to Venice. I am not sure I completely understand the question. You can do open jaw from anywhere but the smaller cities in Italy will required a connection through a major city like Rome, Milan etc, I doubt if you can find direct flights back to SF.

If you end in amalfi you will have to fly back thru Rome. Why are you going to Milan. If there is no reason, then Recommend for example into Venice three days then to Florence four days and Tuscany or Cinque Terra four days then to Amalfi four days and back up to Rome four days. Fly home out of Rome.

I would fly open jaw unless rates are way higher.
I still like Kayak.com best to search for flights.
Quick check shows in/out Rome May 10 to 31st $ 983
In Venice out Rome $ 987 and In Milan out Rome $984.
It is tough to say if rates are going to go up or down, i would wait until Jan or Feb but cant guarantee rates wont go up.

Helen:

It certainly appears you have the right idea insofar as flying open jaws. Another poster here once said your most valuable travel asset is time.

For my 3wk vacation in June, I am flying into Milan and out of Rome, as I have chosen not to go to Venice this time. I would think for you too, surely departing from Rome will save time rather than choosing to backtrack to Venice.

I think all the major airlines provide open jaw flights. That said, I chose KLM (from SFO) simply because I prefer a non-stop flight to Europe...and I like Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.

The experience and the wisdom offered by these wonderful people on this forum have given me the confidence I need to do this trip alone. Keep a bookmark on this site.

Take care.

Bing.com $958 sfo to venice and out rome May 10-31

i've just found that flying to venice round trip costs pretty much just as much as flying open jaw into venice and out of rome for just under $1000. i just did not know how to probably search for open jaw flights. should i purchase the open jaw tickets now or should i wait? how likely do you think the prices will go up? i originally was planning to wait until jan. thanks for the advice everyone!

You don't have to fly the same airlines for an open jaw tickets. We just flew to Amsterdam on United and came home from Rome on Lufthansa.

Hi Helen,

We spent 3 weeks in Italy just this summer, late June to mid July. We flew into Venice and out of Rome. This allowed us to not have a car in either Venice or Rome but we did rent a car to travel south through Florence and Tuscany/Hill towns and then returned the car when we arrived in Rome. It worked GREAT for us and if memory serves, it was actually cheaper in the long run than getting back to any original destination.

Good Luck and Enjoy Italy,

Jodie

The common phrase is open-jaw but when using travel web sites it is the advance search feature called multi-cities. Fares will almost always be more expensive when using smaller cities like Venice, Naples, etc. Partly because you have to get from there to a major departure city like Rome, London, Frankfurt, Milan, etc. Open jaw tickets may or may not be cheaper depending on the airports used. However, they will always be cheaper if you add in the return costs to get back to your starting point.

Two other quick points -- Steve constantly talks about the price break at 90 days out. In my experience with summer trips I have never seen that price break. Second, I have never been successful with the web alerts for cheap tickets. My experience is that the alert hits my computer around 3 or 4 AM and by the time I log on around 6 or 7, the cheap fare is gone.

Chasing the cheap fare can cause a lot of brain damage because you will not know the cheapest fare until it has passed. Then you kick yourself for not buying. And often the cheapest fare will have poor connections. So set a budget figure, when the ticket is close, buy it and never look back. There are much easier places in a travel budget to save money than trying to save a hundred on an airline ticket.

Late 2010 will def be cheaper than mid 2010. Summer is always the highest and easter or xmas time. that being said start checking consolidators like cheaptickets.com etc about springtime or even later and track it until you find a fare that you are comfortable with and buy it.This yr you def could have paid less than $1000 rdtrip sfo-italy. go open jaw for sure or use a european discount airline to get to your departure airport.

Helen,
Some airlines don't give you the option online of flying open-jaw or multiple destinations. We just purchased tickets from Swiss Air (www.swiss.com) for Chicago to Rome and then Venice back to Chicago in May for $830, which I thought was a great price. They have a similar price flying out of L.A., if you want to check them out. I happened to find a great deal round trip with Swiss Air and called them and they quoted me their open-jaw price and did it over the phone. It was about $50 more for open-jaw, but a much cheaper option than driving or taking a train back to the original airport. Check them out if you can fly out of L.A.

In addition to flights from SFO you might want to check the prices from LAX. It might save you a lot of money. You could fly SFO to LAX for pretty cheap. My brother found a cheaper flight from LAX so he just flew down there earlier in the day.