From Frantic : Thank you all for responding! Got our tickets, reasonable price!

Check JFK to Milan, Venice, or Rome (maybe even Pisa too) and take the train to Florence if you can save a lot of money. Try Google Flights.

When are you going? Are you only looking at non-stops, or particular airlines? That seems awfully high from JFK.

May 12 to May 19, is the week we will be in Italy. We searched for low cost flights.

Sounds like business class.
Otherwise it is outrageously high.

If u want econ , try www.kayak.com for your options

Try Skyscanner, and as Andrew suggested, look at flights to Rome, Venice or Milan.

https://www.skyscanner.com

When I plugged your dates into skyscanner.com, I saw prices a little over $900 to a little over $1000 for flying to Rome or Milan. Getting to Tuscany from either is pretty easy.

4

I entered your dates at the Norwegian Airlines site - they fly to Milan, not Florence from JFK. May 12th is not available, but May 10th is and your return date is available. I didn't try other Italian cities, but Norwegian does fly to Rome.
Round trip is less than half your quoted fare, although you must understand that Norwegian is a budget carrier and upgrades cost additional fees. This is a one-stop flight, connecting thru Oslo both ways. Norwegian Transatlantic flights are on Boeing 787-300 Dreamliners - a nice plane.
There are probably other carriers with competitive fares. Be certain to book directly with the airline - not a travel website.

Be certain to book directly with the airline - not a travel website.

Agree: we always book directly with the airlines when we fly to Europe.

Don't know where you are looking but I found a dozen flights in the 1000 to 1100 on different airlines. Sat to Sat is generally the most expensive. I did not look at other days of week.

Yes, there are cheaper flights. But important that if the savings means you fly in a few days earlier, and have to take a train or other transportation you must factor in all of those costs-hotel, food, transportation, etc. Sometimes the savings of a cheaper will shrink or vanish when other costs are considered.

I did a quick search on Travelocity (to use to compare multiple airlines).

If you leave JFK on the 10th instead of the 12th, every airline costs is lower to significantly lower. Both Iberia and Lufthansa are being quoted as less than $800 RT in economy. United is showing up around $1200 & Delta is roughly $1350. Again, all of those are coach fares.

If you leave JFK on the 12th and return on the 20th, instead of the 19th, fares are still cheaper, although not as much.

United also has some lower rates if you fly out of Newark rather than JFK.

Google Flights is my favorite place to check for flights and fares. You say you'll be in Italy May 12 to May 19. I looked at nonstop, roundtrip flights from NYC JFK to Milan Malpensa MXP. I chose departing JFK on 11 May so you would arrive on 12 May and departing on 20 May from MXP so that you would have a full week in Florence. You could take a fast train between Florence and Milan.

All RT nonstops listed were cheaper per person than the price you quoted. The cheapest when I looked was $783 on Emirates.

I highly recommend that you use Google Flights to search for options, set up price tracking if you want and book the flight you want directly with the airline when you see a good price. But $783 RT per person sounds pretty amazing to me.

It's about 1 hour 45 minutes by fast Frecciarossa train from Milano Centrale to Firenze S.M. Novella. It's too early to book for May yet, and because flights can be late, I checked prices on Trenitalia to go next week. Prices vary based on time of departure. The standard base price per person would be about 55€. There were many other lower prices depending on time of day, but even if you have to pay full price, that seems pretty cheap to me.

By booking ahead you could save as much as half on the Firenze to Milano trip, because you will have more control over your time heading back home. All Frecce trains require reserved seats. I love them. The fastest I went between Rome and Bologna in June was 250 km/h.

FLR has a limited choice of carriers. When using Kayak in the departure box enter JFK, but also click on the nearby airport box.
In the destination box enter FLR, MXP, FCO separated by a comma (respectively, Florence, Milan Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino)
Kayak will include flights to all 3 airports, which you can then compare. If the savings are substantial, consider it. However consider also the cost of the train fare, which is about $85 one way per person, plus the cost of the hotel in those cities, since you will need to spend your last night near the airport where you depart from. That can easily add up.
I often fly to FLR, which is my final destination. Unless I need to be in Rome or Milan for other reasons, it’s cheaper for me to fly to FLR, even if the airfare is more expensive than Rome or Milan. Anything less than $250 in savings per ticket, I wouldn’t bother, I would fly to FLR.

I am glad you are satisfied and hope that all goes well on your trip. I notice you chose to ignore the advice about buying directly with the airlines. I hope this turns out well for you.

What in the world is kiwi.com?

I Googled it and it's a Czech online travel agency. Not something I'd use, but hopefully it will work out for the OP.

Wikipedia link. Trip Advisor warning.

I'm glad you found something that pleases you, ndymond. Where are you changing planes? Or is it direct?

At least 3 people said to book directly with the airline. I wouldn't use an online ticket seller either. That's a pitfall of Kayak, Google Flights, Skyscanner, or any of these services to compare prices because they include prices from these unknown, overseas ticket sellers. People don’t pay attention to the advice, don’t research the companies on line and end up bookinng through them.

Reading the Trip Advisor warning thread about Kiwi was an eye opener.

That's a pitfall of Kayak, Google Flights, Skyscanner, or any of these
services to compare prices because they include prices from these
unknown, overseas ticket sellers.

Right. I had recommended skyscanner for searching/comparing flights/connections/costs but we book directly with the airlines in case they throw us a change, cancellation or other unwanted complication.

Lots of negative experiences with kiwi.com are posted on TripAdvisor. I hope it works out OK for the OP here.

I am thing that ndymond doesn't understand how to use this site. She apparently went back and edited her question to include a later response instead of posting a response. I am also concerned that she bought travel insurance through the booking site. My guess is she was unable to read the fine print so unsure what she has purchased. And with $700 being well under the prevailing fare, I wonder how that fare was achieved.

According to Trip Advisor, Kiwi cobbles together unconnected low-cost airline tickets. So this could be Norwegian to London followed by Ryanair to Italy or some such itinerary.

According to Trip Advisor, Kiwi cobbles together unconnected low-cost airline tickets. So this could be Norwegian to London followed by Ryanair to Italy or some such itinerary.

This certainly seems to be the case here. I tried to replicate on Kayak what the OP bought from Kiwi (yes, bored this morning, family stuff hasn't started yet!), and one of the flights appears to be a Vueling/EasyJet/WOW combo between Florence and JFK (FLR-LGW-KEF-JFK.)

Just to clarify an earlier point, Google Flights is not a third party seller. It is simply a search engine. Should you wish to purchase an itinerary you find on Google Flights, you are taken directly to the selling airline's website. Google Flights does not cobble together unrelated airlines for an itinerary. I have only found multiple airlines listed in an itinerary if they are in the same consortium, e.g. One World or Star Alliance.

That said, I also only buy directly through the airline and not through third parties.

Air France has had good rates to Paris for some time. I haven't checked lately, but paid something just over $700 RT for next April. I will fly there and stay a week. I have a flight to Venice from Paris Orly on EasyJet for around $100.