Seattle to Italy Flight options

We checked a number of options. For us, for a flight in September, the best option was through Travelocity - on Lufthansa which goes Seattle to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Rome. Good luck!

If direct flights are an option, I would certainly do this. We flew Toronto to Rome, and it is a long 8 or 9 hour flight, so why extend the pain with a stopover if you can financially avoid it?

Direct flights to Italy are unfortunately not available from Seattle, WA. :-(

A number of people prefer to fly direct to Europe and then change planes there. The advantage of this is that if something goes wrong on the first leg, at least you are already in Europe and there are many more flights per day between European countries than trans-Atlantic.

From Seattle, you can get a non-stop flight to Paris (Air France), Frankfurt (Lufthansa, one of the better airlines), London (Northwest or British Airways), or Amsterdam (Northwest/KLM). For our flight to Rome in November, we are flying NWA to Amsterdam/KLM to Rome. Return trip is Alitalia to London and NWA to Seattle.

Regardless, if your tour is in October and you haven't bought airfare yet, you will probably want to hurry. The "cheap" fares are likely already gone, and the longer you wait, the higher the price is probably going to be.

It seems a little counter-intuitive, but you might also look into flying to Los Angeles and then doing a nonstop flight from there to Rome. Or do Rome - LA - Seattle for the return. I seem to recall that the departure times from Rome to LA were at a more civilized hour than the others.

Or, for the return, look into flying SAS to Copenhagen with a 23 hour layover and then out the next day to Seattle. We did that in May and it was great. We flew out of Venice on a 2 pm flight, arrived at the airport in Copenhagen, picked up our bags, took the train into Copenhagen, checked into the CabInnCity Hotel (RS recommended and very near the central train station) and then wandered around Copenhagen that evening and the next morning. Our flight left Copenhagen around 4 pm to come back to Seattle.

Probably the best in my opinion may be Continental via Newark. Newark is a MUCH easier airport to change planes in than anywhere in Europe and Continental flies nonstop to Milan and Rome from Newark.

If you take David's suggestion make sure that you book Continental the whole way through and not on any partner airlines. I flew Continental Seattle - Newark, then switched to Alitalia. I had to leave security, change terminals, get a new boarding pass, re-enter security and reach my gate. Major hassle!

American Airlines has two daily flights to Rome...one connecting thru ORD & the other connecting thru JFK.

Just bear in mind that "direct" does not mean non-stop. Direct means that there is a stop-over, but you don't have to change planes.

Check out US Airways flying from Seattle to Philadelphia, change planes, then fly to Rome nonstop. $909 round trip.

We flew from Seattle-Toronto-Rome. Great flight, because it's 5 hours to Toronto, then you get off and stretch a little, then back on and fly for 8 hours. Best part was coming back and you go through Canadian and US customs at one time, and it was pretty easy and pain free!!

Another reason we flew through Toronto was that we did not want to get stuck in Chicago or anywhere along the eastcoast. Often times they shut down the airport for weather, and I don't hear they do this in Toronto!

We have tickets for Sept. from SeaTac to Newark nonstop, then Newark to Milan nonstop. Continental Airlines.