airfare to and from europe

You'll be flying what's called "open jaws". Essentially you will be buying two one-way tickets. That being the case there is no reason to stick with the same airline in each direction. Go for the best price/value you can find. Also, don't be surprised if a one-way ticket isn't half what a round trip is, it may in fact be twice as much. R/T Tampa to Rome on American is between 8 & 900 U.S. but taxes and fees. One way Tampa to Rome is o/a $2000 plus taxes and fees. This based on their web page. One way is usually utilized by business travelers so the price is inflated. The closer to departure date you get the more reasonable seats open up - but who wants to be on pins and needles over that. We flew into and out of London's Heathrow and then on to Rome the next day (and reverse) on BA. Even with the two overnights at Heathrow (use something like HOTWIRE to book a room) we were ahead of the game price wise. Be sure to check out baggage allowances and fees if you go this route. You're just going to have to put some real research into this.

Most reservation sites will have a "box" markedd "Multiple Cities" or something like that. In the first section put "NY to London" or whatever...in the second put "Paris to Amsterday" or what ever the cities are. Should have no difficutly that way.

The discussion about one way tickets, etc. I found confusing and not on point. What you need to book is commonly called an open jaw ticket and it is a true round trip ticket. It is not two one way tickets. On any of the ticket search engine sites advance search, multi-city, etc. something like that. All sites have it but sometimes call it by different names. We use open jaw all the times and sometimes find it is cheaper than some round trip tickets. Two years ago we flew into Rome and home from Zurich for $200 less person than RT to Rome. Last year we flew into Amsterdam, boarded in Rotterdam, cruised to Athens, flew to Rome for a few days, and then home from Rome. All on one reservation and it was very reasonable.

Frank is by far the best resource on this so I stand corrected. Great thing about this web is resources like Frank. Happy travels everyone!