Flying to Rome on budget airlines?

Hi dejackome. Both are reputable airlines; Condor is more bare bones but fine if you understand that. Put the airline names in the search box above and you will see multiple threads with a lot of good feedback / info. Have a great trip!

With any airline, be sure you are looking carefully at exactly what's included, and what's not, on the specific ticket you are considering. It's now common for many airlines (Aer Lingus is just one example) to "unbundle" various things that we all used to assume were included in the cost of a ticket: seat selection, checked bags, carry-on bags, etc. This is just (one way) how legacy airlines are responding to so-called "low cost airlines" offering tickets at cheaper prices. And prices swing wildly all the time.

I've flown Aer Lingus a few times and enjoyed it, will fly them again when needed without any hesitation. They're fine. I have not flown Condor but I'm sure they're OK too. Just know exactly what you are being offered, and when making comparisons, be sure to compare apples-to-apples.

Italy is incredibly popular - it's like everyone on the planet has just decided that their life isn't worth living unless they can get a photo of themselves in Rome or Sicily to post to social media. Yes, Italy is lovely. But you're competing for space with every TV- and instragram-driven "follower" heading there. For next summer, you may actually be a bit late to the game if you're booking things now. Prices reflect that demand.

It's a holiday period. For many people, they're just now turning their attention to 2024 travel plans. Many people have some down time in the next week or two. A lot of them will be "figuring out" their 2024 trips. I suspect a lot of people will be booking things during this holiday break time (I'm one of them!).

No pressure... 😎

I don’t think Air Lingus is a budget airline. It’s Ireland’s flag carrier now wholly owned by IAG (British Airways’ and Iberia’s parent company).

hey hey dejackome
airline fares have been more than people want to pay, like you many looking for budget airlines to travel anywhere, especially europe.
where are you flying from, helps posters here help you out with more info. your plans for end of june is high high season, HOT HOT & will be crazy/busy, big cities are packed like a can of sardines, depending on what your gang (want they plan or hope to see) will be needed to book in advance with day/time slots. everyone traveling want to see the same things and places you want, long lines, waiting for restaurants that are full.

what cities are you hoping for, look at multi-city, not one way tickets, are you using points/miles, what category for seating (paying for seats and luggage, backtracking will add up with trains cost (example: SFO to rome (FUC) Milan (MIL) to SFO) multicity flight, add cost of train to milan, no backtrack to rome and cost of hotel. you wanna be at departure airport night before. tells us what plans are and these "old time travelers" will give you good bad and ugly. don't stress out, once you get the idea planning can become fun and crazy but it will help you guys out when you get there.
4 adults and ages in your gang, hotels/apts (hotels are small in europe, "family rooms" usually are a sofa bed for 2, many only with one bathroom gets tough in mornings for all to use, get 2 hotel rooms "one double bed other room 2 twin beds and each room has
a bathroom, any mobility issues, look for one with a lift/elevator, make sure A/C, cancellation policies read fine print, what's budget in euros, some in city center more expensive, anybody else contributing to paying or it's all on you? not trying to be too nosy but gives us some clues to give back to you. when that's all been done, people here will give you options you can check out before booking anything, if it suits your fancy and is good then book it. have your gang give you input, about what they want so all is involved. we would give one of our friends take a day and plan it all, okay by all, one day down. next day another family/friend plans their day. we really enjoyed this not knowing they planned and having a great time even with a "hiccup"
with the prices of many things going crazy with interests, inflation all over the world just go with the flow. put money in a piggy bank to save over the next 6 months, i did $50 every payday. we would go to the markets and buy picnic food to have at a park, riding the train to next city or in our place for dinner. always have a corkscrew with you. keep asking questions to help you
GO NINERS & MELE KALIKIMAKA
aloha

Aer Lingus is fine to fly and often has some of the least expensive fares to some of its destinations from Los Angeles and San Francisco. I usually fly out of San Diego, which lacks the competitive ticket prices that LAX is known for. Aer Lingus recently offered $499 roundtrip fares for direct 11-hour flights from LAX to Dublin which seems like a price from 1980. In looking at fares, you really need to know what is included in the ticket price for each airline you are considering because some of the newer budget airlines will only allow a personal item for free and you have to pay for all checked and carry-on luggage which can easily add $125 and up. Some airlines charge the checked bag fee for each leg of the routing. So, on a direct flight there will be one charge. If the plane has one stop before getting to its final destination, the journey will have two legs and you will be charged the checked-bag fee two times. If the return flight home involves a stop-- you're going to be charged twice for the checked-bag fee.

One would think fares would be structured to charge more for any non-stop flight. Some airlines charge passengers more on flights that take more time to get to their final destinations because of the stops on the way; due to the luggage rules, their luggage-toting passengers will end up paying more. While flying to Oslo last August on Norse Atlantic Airline, a single meal was $20-$30 which means adding at least $100 to the tab for meals on the roundtrip flights. Each airline's baggage allowances and prices are available online to help in comparing apples to apples so you know whether those low air fares that draw your attention are real, or just the first of many items you'll need to add to the bill.

Rather than one-way tickets, try multi-city tickets, maybe into Rome and out of Milan? They would certainly be less than 2 single tickets.

with most airlines a one-way ticket to a destination, and a one-way ticket back will be way way expensive. Probably pay nearly as much for each one-way as for a round-trip.

Traditionally a round trip would be cheapest.

But - what are called multi-city or Rick Steves calls open-jaw flights are often as cheap or very close to a round-trip. That is, instead of A-B plus C-A on two separate tickets or instead of A-B-A single ticket round trip, this is A-B and C-A on one multi-city ticket with the airline knowing you will make your own way from B to C and then home. Multi-city if often approximately the average of round trips to both cities, so you pay about the same and don't have to backtrack.

So Boston to Rome, surface travel via Garda to Milan and Milan home to Boston.

Most airlines will have a multi-city (or similar name) tab.

But don't do it by adding one-ways....

We like Condor but be aware the change of planes at FRA is a bit chaotic so on arriving there (everything hubs through FRA) be prepared for long walks and multiple bus rides.

The other thing to be aware of on Condor is that regular coach can be extremely cramped. Their newer planes may be better but the one time we flew coach we upgraded in flight to premium economy as we could not function in the coach seats. We are not large people, but we could not lower tray tables nor use the entertainment screens when the people in front of us reclined a few inches. It would have been a miserable situation for 9+ hours so we were lucky to find upgrade seats available at an extra charge.

Laurel, i looked up the seat sizes on Seat Guru. I guess I might fly them but had better be for a big discount.

i looked up the seat sizes on Seat Guru. I guess I might fly them but had better be for a big discount.

Seat guru ceased being 'active' about 2 + yrs ago. I believe Condor no longer has the 767 fleet which is what seatguru is still showing.

As of September 2021 attempting to contact the site via "Contact Me" to update seat maps results in the reply "Thank you for your interest in SeatGuru. Currently we are not making additional updates to our content on the site and are unable to provide other support. -SeatGuru".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeatGuru

You are right, Joe32F. Instead, there is SeatMaps (link to Condor info). I think this one is kept up to date. Very useful.

Yes look for alternatives to Seatturu which has become a zombie site.

People keep suggesting one way tickets, that used to be a guaranteed way to get a free physical in the back room, has that changed?

People keep suggesting one way tickets, that used to be a guaranteed way to get a free physical in the back room, has that changed?

We always book one way flights as our trips are two months and I try to book outbound with miles as soon as they release seats and that is too soon to book the return .It has never caused additional screening.