Swiss Air for $1200?

You just about have the lease expensive fare according to www.kayak.com. The only airline cheaper was Aeroflot. I believe that Swiss Air is owned by Lufthansa and both are excellent. Swiss Air will most likely fly you into Zurich and then to Marco Polo.

Last October we flew on SwissAir from SFO to Rome via Zurich and from Venice to SFO via Frankfurt on partner airline Lufthansa for $1260. Leaving from the west coast we departed at 7 p.m and flew non-stop to Europe, and arrived at night so we could go straight to bed for a good night sleep. The food was good (I believe they BAKED bread on the flight!) and the personal entertainment centers had a great variety of movies, games, music, etc. Nevertheless I wish I could fly first or business class next time.

Swiss is great. i actually managed to fly from LA to Florence RT through Zurich in 2009 for under $600. Flights were all on time, my luggage arrived, everyone's friendly, etc. I'd say take it. Airfares are expensive this spring/summer, it seems :(

We took Swiss Air Boston to Rome return from Venice in for 950 pp in July 2009. But it looks like flights in general have gone up quite a bit in the last year, so not sure if they will get that low again. As far as the airline, we loved it, especially all the chocolate they gave us. Changed in Zurich in both directions & met the friendliest customs & immigrations officers I've ever encountered!

I am looking at an open jaw flights for the last 2 weeks of June- Fly to Rome and fly out from Barcelona. I checked yesterday ( saturday) and the fares runs about $ 1,700. We did the search engine _ kayak and did American Airlines. So , I think what you saw for your itinerary was a good price.

Italy is always higher (esp. Venice)than most of Europe so if u can get it for $1200 incl taxes and surcharges buy it quick. Besides it goes exactly where you wish to go you are ahead for sure many travelers take a cheaper flight but then end up traveling by public transit and lose about 2 days for it plus land transport (makes no sense to me).
Also Swiss Air is a great airline to ,fly.

You should definitely look at AerLingus as well. I just booked JFK to Venice and Naples to JFK (both via Dublin) afor less than $1,100 for a mid0June departure. Also, their layovers in Dublin were only ablout 2 1/2 hours each way.

Just booked my flight from LAX to Rome on Expedia, flying to Rome on SwissAir, return on AirCanada, cost $1254.00. I watched air fares for some time, not getting any cheaper. I have never flown SwissAir or AirCanada, but booked because it was the best fare and flight times were good for my trip.

I just checked this route via Kayak. If you can leave May 31 and return on June 16 you can fly on American Airlines for $667 total for each ticket.

My wife and I are leaving next week friday from Miami to JFK, JFK to Amsterdam and the return is from Rome to Miami flying Delta there and Alitalia back and we got ours for $1700 total for both of us on expedia.

We looked at Air Lingus, Aeroflot and Air Berlin. Better prices, but there were 17-23 hour layovers. Not good. So we booked with Swiss Air-under $1200 each JFK to Venice,Rome to JFK. Knowing we were flying in peak season,we made air reservations first. Working on hotels, then trains, then museums. Thanks for the help.

Alfonso's posting shows the difference in airfare between flying peak and off peak. Jeff, I think you got a fair price. And fuel prices are predicted to just keep going up. And I can't figure out how Tim saw tickets under $700 thru Kayak on American. I plugged in that same info and got $1511 as the cheapest. Aerflot, by the way, shows 35 hours to get from JFK to Venice and 19+ hours to get from Rome to JFK.

Sorry - I should have clarified that my response was for Sally's trip JFK->FCO BCN->JFK Yes, American still has it for $667 May 31 returning June 16.

Wow....all these fares that people are paying seem very steep to me. Last week I bought round trip tickets to Barcelona from Chicago for $280 each (taxes are included in the number) on Delta with 1 stop. Two years ago I bought round trip tickets from Chicago to Pisa (stop in Rome) on Alitalia for $380 each. With each deal, I've flown out about 6 weeks after purchase. I'm usually flexible with my dates and destinations, keep watching fares, and jump on the opportunity as soon as I see a great deal. The Barcelona fares started rising almost as soon as I had the website open. I've seen a number of great deals from JFK.

I never pay a full price regular fare to Europe...I go where ever the sale fare takes me. I've lost count of our trips to Europe - but all have been on sale fares.

Maybe it's because of the dates UR travelling, but thru www.airfare.com, i found a R/T airfare of $831.82 for May, from JFK to Naples (which is further away than Venice) & returning from Rome to JFK. Note: Fare was $145.00 cheaper if i travel on a Tues vs. Wed!! Also, found the same flight for $826.80 via Alitalia.com. Again, Tues was cheaper than Wed. Play w/the dates a bit if you can. But yes, gone are the day where you could snag a R/T tix for $550.00. Good luck

An interesting discussion. Let me point out that, since we both work, we have a very specific travel window and we had very specific places we wanted to go. So flights in May, or flexible traveling times, or including Barcelona in our trip or layovers in excess of five hours are not options for us. And, of course, they may be cheaper than what we ed. The cheapest American Airlines flight for my dates and route is $1329-more than 10% above what I paid. My route on Tim's dates of 5/31-6/16 was >$1400. I checked Kayak,Experdia, Orbitz,Travelocity and individual airlines prior to making reservations. Also looked at air safety and customer service ratings. This was the best we could do, so I am happy with it. If you find a better rate, I am truly pleased for you. Someday, when I am fully retired, I look forward to just traveling where ever the rates is cheapest. Thatt would be fun.

My husband and I are flying Swiss Air out of PDX to Rome on 6/10/11 and back home out of Milan on 6/26/11. We booked towards the end of November and paid a couple hundred +, more per person than you did.We felt it was a fair price and a choice flight. Like you, we have a very specific window for travel times. I would rather pay a little more and gain "real" vacation time. I am hoping that our flight is as nice as our Lufthansa flight we had in 2006. Buon viaggo!

That's really what it comes down to, if you are satisfied with what you paid, regardless of your price, it was a good deal. Asking others for their opinions on price after purchase will only make you or the other person feel like they could have got a better deal. BTW, I also work full time, but 6-8 weeks is more than enough notice to give for an 8 day vacation where I'm employed, and the longest layover I have is just over an hour. With very specific dates, rates will almost always be more expensive.

My wife works for the state and is on a pre-school year schedule. They all are off at the same time and it's not more than a few weeks at at time, even in summers. So, it doesn't matter how far ahead one plans, the dates are fixed.

My wife just flew Swiss from Barcelona back to San Francisco (via Zurich). It's very safe, related to Lufthansa and better run than it was in the past. It's just OK in terms of comfort, but anything is better than Alitalia in that regard! If price is important, I'd take it.