Help...Flight Prices to Italy (LAX to Venice & Rome to LAX)

Coming from the east coast I have it a bit easier, but here is my process for the last 15 years: About 5-6 months before the trip (always same time frame as yours--late May), I began searching flights on Kayak, where you can search open jaw (in one city, out the other). When I find a flight that is painless (only one brief layover) and in my price range (between 1000 and 1500), I buy it. The airlines all collude, so you just have to go with what seems fair to you (and never search again after you have purchased tix!).
I am with you on breaking up the trip--by the time you have paid for ground transport and stayed a night at a hotel, you could have just paid more. Also, the low cost carriers often have baggage restrictions that can make it a further pain.
My only other tip--many airlines have made it more difficult to choose seats or do not have the two-seat configuration on the windows, and you often have to pay to choose seats, so this will add a bit to your final ticket cost. This is worth the money, though annoying. When I have to fly overnight, the two-seater row is the only thing that makes it tolerable!
A lot of folks swear by https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

We feel it is worth paying a bit more for a flight from the west coast with one stop (preferably in Europe) in each direction. If your sister added in the cost of a hotel for one night in London, plus transport to and from the Irport, was it really cheaper than a direct flight?

We now fly on miles, but back when we were paying I was happy with $1400-$1600 from Seattle to the Continent in summer, usually with British Airways (but not to Venice; see below). I know that my sister, who flies out of LAX, has done better than that using Air Berlin, Norwegian Air, and for this summer Austrian Airlines. Friends here in Seattle love the prices and flights on Icelandair, but I don't know if they fly from LAX.

British Airways often has good prices for May travel, but be careful flying into Venice with them. Most of their flights from the west coast do not arrive in London in time to catch the one morning flight to Venice from Heathrow, so you have to transfer by bus to Gatwick ( LGW) which is a real pain.

Investigate fares into Milan as well as into Venice. From my origin, Milan is often hundreds of dollars cheaper. That may not be true for you, but it's worth looking. It's mot that s train trip if the savings on airfare are substantial.

I would start looking at fares now. It cannot hurt. I think last year was rather strange, but there were several cycles of sharp price cuts beginning in September if not before. And just in the last week or so, people living in three different cities posted on this forum about finding incredible bargains. The great deals tend to be specific to a few origins and a few destinations, but if you are paying attemtion, you may get lucky. Looking now doesn't mean that you have to buy now, but do be aware that if the fare suddenly drops by $300 or $500, it may stay there for only a few hours or a day. You need to know what the typical fare range is, otherwise, how will you recognize a bargain if one comes along?

And do stay flexible on your precise dates as long as you can. Occasionally even one day can make a difference of several hundred dollars.

I agree with what other posters have said. For my most recent trip (May 1st to 19th) I had $1,000 to $1,200 in the budget to fly from Seattle to Naples, Venice to Seattle. I often find the best fares late at night. On August 31st 2016 I was looking about 10pm Pacific time and found an offer on American Airlines Seattle to Chicago O'Hare, then to Madrid, then Naples on American & Iberian. Layovers of 1 to 3 hours. The return was Venice to London Heathrow, Heathrow to Seattle on British Air. $762.00. So start looking as soon as flights are being sold for your dates and jump on anything that fits the budget or less as long as you like the connections. I shop using Kayak or the like, then buy direct from the airline. Pay careful attention to airport names as others mentioned so you don't have to go from Heathrow to Gatwick during your connection time. For my ticket in May I bought it on the American Airlines site, Iberian & BA are their codeshare partners. Buon viaggio!

Thank you all for the advice. I think I'll start looking again in September and the late night tip is a great idea I haven't heard that before. So for two of us traveling is it unreasonable to have a $2,500 budget total for us to get there and back? I'd love to spend less of course but that's what my husband has budgeted us for flights.

I also downloaded the app Hopper. A co-worker in my work travel department said that's how he finds good deals on flights but I will check Kayak also. Has anyone used Hooper?

Seriously appreciated all the responses :) Thanks again everyone!

ocsurfergirl, what prices are you seeing now for your itinerary? Keep tracking it for a while, and you might get lucky and see a sudden and short-term drop. You are looking at open jaw fares, right?

Comparing to your family's plan of flying to London and booking a separate ticket to Rome, you have to consider more than just the money. Your time has value, and adding an extra day on either end (with hotel costs) doesn't make sense.

I also usually fly LAX to Europe. But, I went to a travel show and listened to a lecture by the travel guy Peter Greenberg. He had some amazing tips about finding great prices for flights to Europe. He has a website and some links there, the thing I remember was the deals he talked about by using non -US airlines and getting better prices - some were 1/2 the price.
like WOW (Iceland airline) stops several places in Europe, also flying out of Ontario, CA or Phoenix or other places where you could fly to for about $100 and save about 1/2 the price out of LAX.

Phoenix origination will connect with a direct to a european central airport i.e. SLC, LAX, or another direct destination. Possibly ok on the way but on the return your ZZZ's will be disturbed. On a direct from AMS to SLC there were people from Denver and Phoenix and they still had one more leg. Arriving in Phoenix is like a roller coaster due to temperature and psi changes.

I did the same route last October. We flew Delta. Had to change planes in either Detroit or New York and it was just under $1,000. You can fly non-stop on Alitalia to Rome but a friend took it a couple of months before we flew and was not impressed with the service. They also have different rules for carry-on which you need to consider if flying on them. We went the Delta route so we could fly into Venice and out of Rome. And the planes we had were the 2 - 3 - 2 seat configurations.

We're in the midwest and visiting Italy in October. So not the same origin point, but similar questions. Like you, we considered London and Ryan Air type flights within Europe, but it was never any cheaper and a lot more hassle.

I scouted flights for several weeks, so I had a good idea of price and just kept checking daily. We're going into Venice and out of Rome, and we wanted (ideally) to fly Delta because of FF status. After weeks of checking, the route dropped $500 overnight, so I bought tickets. The next morning (a Thursday FWIW) it had dropped another $600! Because Delta has a 24 hour cancellation policy, I was able to cancel and rebook at the new price. Two tickets with upgrades to Delta Comfort+ on the long legs (DTW - AMS/AMS-DTW), total price $1690. I felt like I won the lotto. :-) So once you're decided on your route, keep checking!

I always do my air flight research starting with the Kayak website or the Matrix website. Once I find the airline that I want, I do directly to that airline and book.

We live in Georgia and prefer Delta. We have flown Delta, United and American and prefer Delta. I usually find the prices are not far apart. Occasionally, when I find a large price difference, I book with the lower cost air line. I have the Delta AmEx Skymiles credit card as well as the Barclay's American Airlines card, so I get miles every time.

Delta has great partner airlines (KJM and Air France) that if their prices are the lowest, love going with them. We had a great trip to Singapore, returning from Dubai a couple of years ago on Air France. Found the great prices on Kayak. Got, Skymiles flying on AF.

I always look for a flight out of Atlanta (I avoid JFK like the plague) direct to Europe.

Be careful with the discounted airlines in Europe, they usually have restrictions on luggage and charge big time for luggage.

I would aviod the one day stopover you mentioned in London, unless you can save a considerable sum.

It is not a bad idea to do the open jaw to Venice and then return to the US from Rome. Take the train from Venice to Rome.

Kayak is a good tool, and for the first time we utilized that for our many qualifiers/caveats for our trip last February--Chicago/Rome, Naples/Chicago. Had to leave Chicago late afternoon/early evening, had to leave Naples around noon. Knew that time of year there are no non-stops Chicago/Rome, and none from Naples/Chicago all year long, so the layover had to be between 90 min to 3 hours (too short and we're running for a plane in an unfamiliar place).

Also we'd prefer both legs be the same airline, and not United or Alitalia, from past experience. As a word of warning, we did choose Lufthansa--the best in the business as far as I'm concerned--but we did have to careful in picking as some Lufthansa flights are 'operated by United'. Uh, no. Finally, no Chicago/Istanbul, 32 hr layover/Paris type deals to save a couple hundred bucks, as my daughter did last year. I'm too old for that.

We started looking in late September for late February travel, so about 150 days out. Had two specific workable itineraries flagged on Kayak, one each with Lufthansa and Aer Lingus. Oh--that's another caveat. I had read that Dublin and Frankfurt are two of the most efficient airports logistically for layovers. In truth, they're all about the same--Frankfurt was a real P.I.T.A. as it turned out, but that's another story.

Anyway, fares were initially in the $1300 range, so I decided to wait, telling Kayak to notify me immediately when fares dropped. $1200, $1100 as the weeks went by, then early December it dropped to $890, and I pounced--Chicago/Frankfurt/Rome, Naples/Munich/Chicago. Too early, as it turned out, as the S.O.B. dropped all the way to $775, but only for hours as others have said. But I still feel we got in at a decent price, no (or not many) regrets!

Enjoy your planning!

Delta had a non stop FCO to LAX, but doesn't look like they have it anymore. It was serviced by Alitalia, but they aren't using them lately. So it has one stop. The Venice leg would have 1 stop too, usually Paris or Amsterdam. Delta partners with KLM or Air France. They used to, and maybe still partner with Alitalia, but doesn't look like the use them much anymore.

There is the notion that the best time to book is from 30 days to 54 days out, the best days to fly Tues, Weds, Thurs, Sat., and the best day to buy is Tues. Who knows for sure. I recommend putting your dates into Google Flights. You can track prices and they will email you with any changes. When you see that great fare....jump on it. We are going in September, out of NY. prices were about $1200 when I started. Every time I got an updated price, I just watched it until I saw non stop JFK to VCE, non stop FOC to JFK at $736. I jumped on it. I still get emails from google and I watch it. Has not been this price since we booked. Yesterday the same flights were $1236, today $1017. That's how fast the prices can change. We book in January.

Tickets right now are about $1130 for your trip. Google will look at all airlines.

Have a great trip.

Skyscanner is another airfare tool to look into.

You can set alerts for one route or for multiple departure and multiple arrival locations and see how fares are trending from your departure city (LAX) to, for example, FCO, VCE, FLR and MXP.

As long as you have the option to stay flexible for you arrival city, you can use this to monitor ALL of those routes and get price increases and decreases sent to you in the email. When you see a price that you can live with, you can grab it.

The drawback to the Skyscanner alerts is that you have to enter travel dates. I entered several combinations of dates I thought were best options for me with all of the arrival cities and two airports near me from which I was willing to leave.

I got an alert about a price drop more than 24 hours before Delta notified me of the same.

Prices from Louisville to Rome had been $1350+ for several weeks. The alerted price was $814. This was about 6 1/2 months before my departure date.

You can also enter open jaw/multiple city itineraries for alerts, which I had also entered. My travel situation just worked out better arriving and departing Rome.

What others have said about monitoring and pouncing on a good fare. Also, keep looking this Forum. Someone posted last fall about KLM fare sale to Italy which extended to May 2017 -- I wasn't planning on a trip, but RT from SFO for under $500 was too good to turn down, so we went in May. (SFO>AMS>Venice on KLM, Rome>CDG>SFO on Air France)

Norwegian will start flying LAX to Rome (FCO) nonstop in November. They will probably have some good introductory rates in the beginning.

Using Kayak or also other search engines, like google flights enter a multi city option:
Going: LAX-VCE
Returning: FCO-LAX
then see the options that pop up. My preference is to fly directly from West Coast to Europe, rather than via JFK or ATL or other Eastern US hub, but if the price is much lower, I'll take the East coast layover.
After you see the options, try also LAX-MXP (with nearby airports checked to see the Milan LIN option too). If flying to Milan, instead of Venice, is at least $100 cheaper, then it might be worthwhile (don't settle for less as the train fare plus the extra time has a cost too).
Prices tend to be lower about 5-7 months prior, but that is only on average. Sometimes you get great deals closer to the date of departure. $1300-1500 from the West coast to Italy has been the average for me in the past 5-6 years, although I travel in June - July which is more expensive. This year I had a major break as there were several good offers, including from Delta. I spent half my usual fare with British, but Delta had even lower prices if I could travel in May (under $500 r/t). So if you can see it's a hard to predict as prices may vary wildly from year to year.

While not from the west cost, I'll just add this to give you some perspective on finding tickets. Three weeks ago I purchased two (2) round trip tickets from Orlando to Milan for a trip in early April 2018 for $567 per ticket. These were purchased through American Airlines with two stops on the outbound (MCO-MIA-LHR-LIN) and return (LIN-MAD-MIA-MCO).

One flight on the outbound portion is operated by British Airways. Two flights on the return portion are operated by Iberia. I thought it was a good deal (under $600 per ticket) even with the two stops (now the same tickets are selling for $1500 per person). I was alerted to the low fares by Google Flights.

WOW thank you for all your responses. I really appreciate it!

I do have a problem though... My husband and I will be staying in air bnbs in Venice, Positano, and Rome during our trip. The problem I'm noticing is the air bnbs are starting to get booked up for next summer already. So I had to change my trip dates to May 29th - June 13th. A lot of you have suggested that you would purchase your plane tickets around 6 months before our trip but I'm afraid if we wait that long all of the air bnbs I have flagged in each city will be unavailable.

Has anyone ever gotten a deal on flights by booking 10 months before your trip or is that not likely? My sister-in-law just came back from Rome and said she would book as soon as possible and not even wait until fall. I'm confused if I should roll the dice and book at the end of the year or book now. Prices for 2 adults from LAX to Venice and Rome to LAX is over $3,300 right now and I'm really only budgeted for $2,500 total.

Any suggestions would be great!

$1650 pp is on the high end of the price spectrum. I don't think I've ever spent that much from the West Coast to Italy (SFO), not even when fuel prices were highest a few years back. And I usually go in June or July, which is most expensive. I spent more than that only when I had family emergencies and had to fly the next day. I spent under $800 this July, with a ticket purchased in November. I'd wait. If you must book accommodations now, do so if you want. I'm pretty sure you can find cheaper fares in the fall.

Book accommodations that have friendly refund/cancellation policies.

Its probably still early to get favorable airfares for when you plan to travel

@Roberto $800 per person round trip would be a dream! I think your right I should check back in the fall.
@Joe maybe that's the way to do it. Book places that have a good refund/cancellation policy.

Has anyone booked air bnbs before then booked their flights or is that just crazy to go that route? I mean I'd be booking rooms without knowing for sure if I can find an affordable flight for those specific dates needed.

Hey ocsurfergirl
Another website to look at is fareboom.com. our trip is this september: sfo-venice- (fly to) paris- (train to) amsterdam-sfo. I had alerts out for a few sites and this came up for $890 R/T late april. I liked the arrival times coming and going, with a 2 hour layovers in london going at dublin coming back, jumped on it for 4 of us. Be careful with booking your airbnb's early with the new laws out there if they are legal. We used booking.com with the free cancellation in case something happens. When flights were booked started looking for places to stay, we got great deals with the places, (2 apts and 1 houseboat) to ease our minds. Plus the train was booked with trainline.eu ahead of time. Do your due diligence with research and asking questions here will let you enjoy and have a fabulous time in italy. Take you time and indulge in the food, wine, and ambience. No need to be rushed. YOU'LL LOVE IT!!!
Aloha Princess Pupule

I had great results with Hopper. I was notified as prices changed and it recommends you wait or buy now. If it says buy now, you should be ready to buy, because it's a good deal. I got roundtrip LAX to Rome for under $500.

Has anyone booked airbnbs before then booked their flights or is that
just crazy to go that route? I mean I'd be booking rooms without
knowing for sure if I can find an affordable flight for those specific
dates needed.

I personally wouldn't recommend it for airbnb, hotels or any other sort of accommodation. We've only booked when we were as sure as possible where we were going to be and when (flights bought/itinerary set). We also only book at places which offer no-penalty cancellation up to a day or two before the booked dates in case of a medical emergency, flight cancellation or other complication beyond our control.

Tying up rooms based on airfare isn't really fair to people who bought their flights and can commit to those accommodations. Let's just say that we've heard what bind some our fellow travelers have been placed in when their airbnb hosts cancelled on THEM close to their booked dates?

@purple princess what kind of new laws were you talking about for the air bnbs? I've only heard great things from friends and family that's used air bnbs. We honestly couldnt afford the trip if we had to stay in hotels. It just blows the budget out of the water. I'll for sure check out that website! Thank you for the recommendation!

@AZgirl wow $500 is an amazing price. How far in advance did you book your flights from your departure date?

Thanks for the comments everyone seems like there is a consensus to book air bnbs after we book our flights. Fingers crossed the good ones I've flagged are still available by then.

I hope the flights get down to $1,000 per person round trip at least. Hearing from some of you makes me feel like it's more doable of a number than I thought!

We flew in/out of the exact same cities last year & also in 2013. Both times we used miles on Air France and it was a good experience so I suggest you have a look their flights/prices. Both times we flew the A380 (a neat experience) from LA to Venice with a very quick layover in Paris & then Rome to LA again with a quick stop in Paris. I prefer to stop over in Europe (if I can't get a direct flight) because this affords me a longer amount of time to sleep on the way there. Getting a solid 6 hours of sleep is the key to minimizing jet lag for me. I'd expect to pay around $1000-1200 per person round trip for May. I read an article recently on the best/cheapest days to book flights and I'll see if I can locate the article but I believe it said Wednesday is the cheapest day & the weekends are most expensive as fares go up for the weekends.

By the way, I suggest flying into Venice and out of Rome as you are planning. If you were to reverse it and fly out of Venice, you'll likely have a very early morning flight and airport transportation in the wee hours of the morning is challenging to find. The public water buses aren't running that early.

I would not book lodging until your airfare is confirmed. This is not fair to the proprietors.

Good luck & have a great trip.

Found the article. http://www.travelthewholeworld.org/2015/12/theres-a-secret-trick-to-buying-plane-tickets-everyone-needs-to-know-this.html. Actually, Mon is the cheapest day to shop for air fare. Hope this helps.

AZ Girl - what is Hopper?

Hoppers and app that searchs flight prices. I like it but it doesn't do multi-city/open-jaw options. Only round trip or one way

OP- There is no need to stay overnight in London (whatttt??? How did this even happen???) We fly from LAX to Italy and have found great fares on Air Canada (Stop over in Canada) and Aer Lingus (Stop over in Dublin).

We book accommodations way before booking our flights because we have a set budget and usually stay in Airbnb and the good ones (price, location, reviews) fill up fast, just make sure they have a good cancellation policy (read carefully). Same with hotels. We book accommodations from 10-12 months before our trip and airfare 6 -4 months before the trip. The thing with AirBNB is you will pay the full fare when you book which I really like because that is part of my trip paid for.

Hopefully once in Italy you will be taking trains and not budget airlines to get from one place to another.

So, a tip on working open jaw flights with scanning apps.

For a Home - Venice, Milan - Home open jaw, I set four scans. RT Home-Venice-Home, RT Home-Milan-Home, one way Home-Venice and one way Milan to Home.

When I see price movement on those, I manually price the open jaw. I have already done research and found a target price and a couple acceptable routes.

First of all, I think your airfare budget is very realistic, but I wouldn't book so far out. As others have suggested, watch the fares for a few months to see if you can snag a bargain. Checking Milan is also an excellent idea. Getting from Milan to Venice is not in the same universe as, say, getting from Heathrow to Venice.

I wouldn't panic about accommodations. There are probably thousands of places to stay at your destinations. Look on booking.com, for example. They list apartments, as well as b&b's and hotels. (You can tick off the filters listed on the left side of the search page. Price, too.). At this time, so far out from your trip, you're apt to see "not available." That just means the rates haven't been set or rooms haven't been released to the website, yet. Just look to get a feel for what's out there.

I think with your budget you will be fine. In general I think 3-6 months is the time to book if you see a good fare. Farther than 6 months I don't think you will see the airlines best rates unless they are having a specific sale on your locations (which could happen). As you get closer than 3 months it would be rare to find the best rates unless traveling at off peak times but really no one can ever explain to me airline pricing so anything is possible!

Since you likely need a layover somewhere to reach Italy from the West Coast keep your options open and look into all alternatives. If Norwegian offers a non-stop from LAX to FCO or will be offering I would jump on that, they are cheap and I think great! Shocking to me they would offer that without a stop in Oslo, Norway or Gatwick, London but worth researching.

Worth noting since this is your first trip, some airlines will include seat selection, checked bag and meals with your ticket while others won't include any of those and charge extra so make sure you figure out your luggage situation and then can compare apples to apples when it comes to different airline rates offered. Norwegian for example you need to pay extra for all 3 of those which I think you will feel are necessary on a non-stop long flight like that.

@Rosalyn I think your right no harm in checking booking.com as well as Air bnb.

@mrreynolds A non-stop fight would be amazing. I'll keep my eye out like you suggested!

@Letizia I think we are in the same boat as you normally are. My husband and I have a set budget and don't want to miss out on the good Airbnbs that I've been researching for the last 4 months. I'll probably book our Airbnbs now and book our flights in the fall/winter.

I know someone mentioned above that "it's not fair" to book room accommodations without the airfare already booked but I know exactly what dates we will be flying on. There are so many flights to choose from on so many different airlines for those specific dates, there is no way we would change the flight dates after we booked our rooms. Its not a matter of if we will fly those dates its a matter of just waiting for the price to drop from $1,600 per person round trip to $1,000 or less per person. We are 100% going on this trip on the specific dates I have planned (unless God forbid a family emergency happened). And the real truth is there are only a few options of rooms that fit our budget so we have to jump on them before the rates go up. One of the rooms I want already went up a few dollars just from yesterday so waiting until 6 months before our trip to book rooms in not possible.

I'm leaning more toward booking flights 6+ months out like everyone's suggested. Thank you all so much for the input everyone! I really appreciate the time you took to post your advice and experiences :)

hi ocsurfergirl
governments are cracking down on owners of airbnb's and apartments. it's all in the news. owners will need a registration number and obtain a license to rent to John Q Public or be fined, it's getting strict, for short term rentals. this has started in some cities already with more to begin by jan 2018. Of course cities want their taxes that feel is do them. Not everything you hear about airb&b is roses, we had a bad experience with one in London. A friend's reservation was cancelled 2 weeks before they left and were up in arms trying to find a place last minute. Another friend stopped renting because of all the issues with guests, company rules. I've used booking.com many times with no issues. They do have apartments, with filters to check what you want, as roslyn says. I don't know what you budget is for apartments, you need to read the "fine print" of payment. Security deposit in cash euros could be anywhere from $200 and upwards on arrival, cleaning deposit, paying for linens and towels, exact location, is there a lift or what floor how many flights and steps are there to carry luggage up. I'm on a tight budget with my travels so far, but have found great places to stay, flights worth going and friends that love to go. I have a great place i stayed at in venice, attic apt with lift. I will PM you more info. It's just wise information we give you and you can take it. I wish i knew all this info when i first went to europe about 12 years ago, and i'm on my 5th trip, not a seasoned traveler like a lot of these people here.
Thanks and aloha
Princess Pupule

I just checked Google flights for that time frame and LAX to Milan is $702 RT on Turkish airways. Maybe worth a couple of train rides.

The misery score on that Turkish Air has to be off the charts. I have it as low as $691, but it goes LAX to Istanbul Ataturk, which is 13 hours, 10 minutes, with a 4 hour layover at my favorite people watching airport I've ever been in (though I was there at the end of Hajj, so a ton of pilgrims were passing through on their way to everywhere), then a 3 hour hop to Milan. The return is worse, with a 6:45 AM departure from Milan, a three hour hop to Istanbul, a tightish 2:25 turn in Istanbul, and then 14 hours back to LA, estimated. If it's really hot (which it will be in June, probably longer).

Hipmunk does rate it as the lowest Agony, but that's largely on price. I've done ORD-IST-ORD direct flights on Turkish and, while it's not quite Lawrence of Arabia with the Turkish Bey, it's pretty hard.

I love Priceline for flights. After checking Hopper for the cheapes dates to fly out of your location to your destination go to priceline and find the best flights. It's often best to search for 2 one way flights instead of round trip. Just booked boston to paris for $298 and Rome to Boston for $303. I'm planning on traveling in between. I booked WOW airlines there, and Turkish Airlines back. Do your research, it pays off!

I fly out of LAX to Europe at least twice a year, up to four times a year sometimes. One of these trips is always in summer.
When I search flights I most frequently find the best prices on Skyscanner or Kayak. The last two years I've found the best deals on Norwegian Airlines via Kayak. I've had great experiences with this airline. Last year I flew them to Copenhagen for about $950 round trip...granted, this was departing and returning in early September. When I flew there in the summer (mid-June to Norway, returning early August from Prague) I paid a little over $1100 rt.
From LA I usually try to buy my tickets for summer either in December right before Christmas or sometime in February...after February the prices start to steadily rise - that's my experience at least.
I am most adept with the Kayak website and will recommend using their "flex" feature. You can type in your desired dates and, if you have a little flexibility, it will show you a grid with rt prices departing and returning on various dates...I'm flying to Italy rt (Venice) on Sept 1 for $520...found that on the grid just before Christmas. British Airways with 1 stop going each way - 3 hour layover.
Because you're leaving in May you should be able to fine a pretty good airfare that might even be under $1000...returning in June jacks the price up a bit since it's officially summer.
I would not want to switch airlines at Heathrow - the fare won't be that much cheaper and, depending on the airlines, you may have to change terminals which is a hassle in my opinion. With an airline like Ryanair you will end up paying hefty baggage fees that probably would jack the price up to equal or greater than staying on the same airline all the way through.

I booked my British Air tickets SEA to Milan, Rome to Seattle last month for our trip in October. I considered waiting but as another poster has said, the choice B&B's seemed to be booking up quickly. I paid $1300 round trip (plus another $100 for British Air's seat selection charge.) Checked yesterday and the price is now under $1000. Kicking myself because I feel like I just threw three $100 bills out the window!!! :-(