air travel question

There's rarely a reason to book a one-way flight. If you want to fly into and out of different cities, you should check the "Multi-city" box that is normally an option along with "One-way" and "Round-trip". That will be far less expensive than two one-way flights.

Let me clarify something - you bought a one-way ticket only? And now you're looking to buy another one-way? I quickly looked at Kayak and saw that Air Berlin is < $980 in April. While that's the cheapest I saw, that is still a lot (especially if you plunked down a lot of $ for the other leg). I would definitely not buy two one-way trips because you'll pay through the nose....it's better to just get a round-trip ticket if you have to do it all over again.

Do you know what an open-jaw or multi-city ticket is? You could have gotten a very good price in April (probably $1000 round-trip or so), especially coming from a big market like LAX. I would search budget airlines like Air Berlin, Norwegian, Turkish Air, etc. if you're stuck having to buy a one-way ticket.

One-way trans-Atlantic tickets are always very expensive, so I'm surprised that you already booked Rome-LAX one way without having the same issue. It is best almost 100% of the time to buy either a roundtrip ticket or a "multi-city" ticket, which is into one city and home from another, but since they are tied together, you basically pay the roundtrip price. It may still be cheaper to buy this kind of ticket and throw out your other one.

I've used Skyscanner for lots of ticket searches within Europe (not trans-Atlantic) and have never seen a reference to Travel Merry. I prefer to book directly with the airline (although our office actually does many bookings through a corporate travel branch of Expedia).

You should have purchased round trip or multi-city, not one-way. You can call the airline you used and see what it would cost to change your ticket to round trip or multi-city. There will be a change fee, but that might be less than other alternatives.

If a company has gotten bad reviews, you are asking for trouble using it. I never, never would use a company like that. That's my opinion.

As Agnes pointed out, you can use Air Berlin. Or look at Norwegian Air, Icelandic, or another discount airline out of LAX. But it may be easiest to get info and an updated ticket from your current airline.

Perhaps a little more info would be in order. Was there a reason for booking the return flight as a one way already?

Is that ticket able to be converted into a round trip - even for a fee might end up cheaper.

Well, this is a good learning experience to say the least. The return flight was $380 so that's not too bad. I was not familiar with multi destination choice, so will definitely look at that the next time.

You all have been very helpful!

Hi Kathy --
Since you are already locked into your return flight, look at Norwegian Airlines out of Los Angeles. They book one way flights at the same price as half a round trip, much like Southwest. Be warned that you have to pay for everything extra, including food, but it's worth it because the flights are quite inexpensive. They also don't fly every day, more like 3 days a week, but if you can work with that it's a good option for you.
Let us know what you decide on.

I checked a random one-way fare for Norwegian Airlines on April 5 (random date since they don't fly every day of the week). Fortunately, there was a flight for as low as $378 (with no extras included). Unfortunately, Norwegian only flies into Rome but the train would more than pay for itself if you can get a similarly priced flight. If you're flexible on dates, I think you can do fine. My Mom just flew Norwegian Air from LAX to see family in Europe and it worked out well, even with extra charge for luggage. If you choose Norwegian, just read the fine print so you're not surprised.

Often one way tickets cost as much if not more than round trip tickets. I am going to guess that the OP purchased a RT ticket and paid a $380 upcharge on the return leg over the lowest quoted fair to get a better connection or time or......??

Take a look at what you could do flying into Bologna. You can take a bus or taxi to the train station and catch a train to Florence.

You all have given me valuable information and I will check into the ideas that you suggested. It may cost more this trip, but I'll definitely know what to do next time! Or what not to do, right?!

Thank you for taking the time to help out this novice. We are definitely looking forward to a delightful trip.