Hello all, has anyone flown back to the states out of Rome or Venice lately and what was your experience like? Specifically I am only interested in going back home to the US. A friend was there last week and said the airport lines out of Rome took a solid 4.5 hours. Was that a bad day or the norm as of late?
We have flexibility to fly in and out of different locations so now I am considering if one is better than the other. Our trip runs Oct 6-18.
Best
Michele
Venice has a smaller airport, which is always nice. The problem arises with getting from Venice to the airport for early morning flights. Often the vaporettos are still running on their reduced night schedules, which makes getting to Piazzale Roma for a taxi or bus much more time consuming.
One would expect that with schools back in session, by mid October the airports should be less crowded than at the end of summer.
It took me 20 min to go through security in Rome last July on an early flight to Zurich (from which I flew to SFO). 4.5 hours seems excessive. I’ve never experienced anything like that. Generally 2 hours prior to departure is more than adequate for an intra Europe flight. If you fly directly to the US, the recommended time is 3 hours.
Venice is a smaller airport, therefore lines are likely shorter. However getting to the airport from the historical city center in the middle of the lagoon takes quite a bit of time.
We flew out of FCO at the end of May. The hotel staff said to give it 1 1/2 hours but more if we felt more comfortable that way. We opted for a little earlier. Those were still the days of COVID testing before leaving and take was the biggest sticking point as we couldn't get the American Airlines app to work.
I'd say getting through security was fairly easy and efficient. At FCO, there are different layers of checking. Keep your passport out as it will be scanned a lot. We left our hotel in Trastevere at 7:30 ish for a 10:10 am flight. Drove there, went through a long manual check=in due to COVID testing results, and got through security with enough time to do a little airport shopping.
4 1/2 hours seems very excessive.
I flew out of FCO to the states in mid-August and the whole process including checking a bag took about 30 minutes. They have lanes for US citizens headed to the US that are very quick. The "regular" security line for non-US passengers was much bigger but 4.5 hours seems unbelievable. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend flying out of Rome.
I flew out of Rome/FCO - JFK at the beginning of August. The security/check-in process was very quick and smooth. We allowed ourselves about 2.5-3 hours and ended up with plenty of extra time at the gate.
Unfortunately there was a mysterious, unexplained issue with a passenger on our flight that delayed our FCO departure by 3 hours, causing us to miss our connection at JFK. But that was Delta's fault, nothing to do with FCO.
We flew out of Venice to ATL a couple weeks ago. Check-in line took 30 minutes, as did the security line. Flights direct to USA have their own screening point, so guessing that helped. It’s a small airport, and I recommend it.
Our flight was also a morning flight. As such, we stayed at a hotel on the mainland about a 10 minute walk from the airport. If you’re worried about transportation time from the historic city, it’s not a bad option.
Hi, I just flew home yesterday from Rome. I had an early flight, so I stayed at the Hilton airport hotel again for the last night. I don’t check luggage, although he wanted to see my bag and weigh it (KLM/Delta flights). Easily passed both criteria.
I was there three hours early and had a lot of time to waste for an espresso and pastry up in the Eataly shop and lots of time to walk around.
Thanks to those of you that responded with your experience, it’s good news! I’m thinking our friend had a bad day. Cheers to all of the travelers in this group!
