Opinion on airlines: ITA vs United

Forget the reviews. Get the tickets with the carrier that is most convenient for your needs. For sure United does not fly to Bari, ITA does.

I would do the transatlantic portions with United and buy tix in March and buy the Italian flights separately in summer. Friends flying SFO to Rome on ITA for Sept-Nov 2024 bought early and had their direct flights cancelled and had to go through LAX twice with long layovers. That tells me ITA doesn't have the passenger volume in non-peak times, leading to cancellation risk.

We have flown on ITA in 2023 and 2024 - their long haul service is excellent. We fly from MIA on their A330-900NEO non-stop to FCO and back to MIA. If you are returning from Rome, ITA hard product and service back to the USA is the way to go. IMO foreign airlines are superior to USA airlines on this route. Before you book your flights, check which aircraft is used for the flight, as the NEO premium economy should be very comfortable.

You might check out Air France schedule too. We flew Air France to Bologna last year out of MIA and it was great.

Sorry, not a big fan of USA airlines for long haul flights. Not much to get excited about out of MIA or MCO when traveling east.

I booked with ITA last year. The staff were outstanding and the flight comfortable. As with any carrier schedule changes occur. My original flight was discontinued - dropped from their schedule altogether. The resulting options were not feasible. Thankfully it occurred a couple of months before my departure date allowing plenty of time to revamp my itinerary. I happily rebooked with them.

I flew ITA from JFK to Rome a couple of years ago because my Delta flight was canceled and Delta rebooked me on ITA. It was great. No complaints.

I had a premium economy ticket May 2024 that I had booked on United's site... Chicago to Rome to Bari. The portion from Rome to Bari was ITA. I worried about the connection in Rome but knew that since it was booked as 1 ticket, I would get re-booked on a later ITA flight if I missed my Rome connection to Bari. Although the United flight had over an hour delayed departure out of Chicago, we made up 40 minutes in flight and I made my connection in Rome to Bari without needing to rush. As others have mentioned, booking this far out from your travel date has more chance of experiencing cancellations. You might want to track the cancellation records for United and ITA from SFO to Rome FCO before making a decision.

Thank you all for the great responses and advice! This forum is filled with so many helpful travelers!

I despise ITA based upon my flight from/to FCO-CTA.
Paid $100 extra each way per person to have good service.
Nope. Terrible. Water and stale rosemary crackers were our only sustenance.