Bay Area Travel to Paris/Italy

Lisa, flight schedules are usually posted about 9 months in advance. Why does your 1 stop have to be Paris? That restricts you to Air France. Lufthansa has a great overnight over the pole flight to Frankfurt. You arrive at 10:50. Change planes and it's 2hrs to Rome. Some domestic carriers can easily 1-stop you to Rome. United can do this via Washington/Dulles. American, Delta and U.S. Airways can probably do this as well. Check out www.kayak.com. the 1-stop box and see what comes up. Secondly, is your traveling area limited to the general area of Rome? Might you end up in Venice or France or Switzerland? Have you considered flying into one airport and out of another to avoid lengthy backtracking? We do it all the time. All airlines will do this. My wife (met her in Pleasanton) and her daughter leave in 3 weeks for Italy. They will arrive in Venice and leave out of Rome-FCO. Very easy. (Had dinner recently at Nonni's. Really good).

Larry, thank you for the reply and the restaurant review:). I'm staying in Paris for 3 nights before I head to Venice, Genoa and then I end my trip in Rome. I'm planning on being gone for 13 nights. I have been checking Kayak and other sites for the same time this year to get an idea on what's out there but I can't determine if leaving on a Sunday or Monday will give me better options for flights and airlines which I guess will determine the price. I think I want to stay away from the East Coast for the stops to avoid possible delays. Do you know if I stop in Germany as an example do I have to go through any type of Customs or just when I get to the US? Thanks again

Too early too book some hotels.. too early to find all flight schedules . Think you could wait another couple of months.

I think flight schedules are available about ten months out. Generally mid week travel can be a little cheaper than weekend but it varies so just keep checking. Just because of distances it will be hard to find non-stop to and from SF. Most likely one stop will be your best options. You can check schedules for this Fall to see what non-stops are available this Fall. Schedules can change some from year to year but it is not substantial unless services is completely dropped.

The major airline schedules are the same week to week. Only the fare is affected by the day of the week. It is possible that you might find a flight that only goes to Europe on M, W, F and returns T, Th, Sat or something like that. About 20 years ago Lufthansa did something like that out of Denver when it was the only direct flight to Europe. But have not seen a pattern like that in recent years. You will go through immigration the first time your land in the Schegen zone and customs at your last stop. And, of course, immigration and customs at your first stop in the US when return.

Lisa, just for fun, I set up a dummy purchase on Air France. You would be non-stop from SFO>Paris-CDG. Then, you would be departing Rome-FCO 13 days later on Alitalia to Paris where you would change planes for a non-stop back to SFO. $1,135 is not bad given today's fare increases. Here's a link to a picture of what it looks like. I only looked 90 days out. Can't see fall 2014 yet. http://gyazo.com/b2fc54fe50128799051c400a4199c572

I fly United Airlines from SFO to London LHR every year. If I want to fly to Paris, I have a choice of non-stop only when paying cash and not using FF miles. Maybe a very early reservation would allow for using FF miles nonstop to Paris. When returning on United from Rome 3 years ago, I flew into Washington's IAD to connect with a flight to SFO. This worked very well. I would rather connect in the USA when returning and connect in Europe airports when traveling to Europe. What I do when traveling to Paris is fly into London, stay at a hotel near St. Pancras train station overnight to recover from jetlag. Then I catch a train to Paris the next morning. By staying overnight in London I have some flexibility if my plane from SFO is delayed. An internet search will sometimes reveal a less expensive ticket for a certain day of the week. I decide on day of the week depending on transportation to the airport, which day I want to arrive, price of ticket, and (sometimes) the availability of desirable seats. I like to fly on Sundays; traffic to the airport in the Bay Area is easier. I've had no particular problem landing in European airports on Monday mornings.

Just a side comment about flying on Sunday if you want to use BART to SFO, the Sunday BART schedule may start too late for an early-morning flight. (And I HIGHLY recommend BART versus drive-and-park for trips longer than a weekend.) Last year we flew KLM to/from Italy via Amsterdam, very efficient. United also flies direct to Paris.

Done that route many times. From SFO the only non stop to Paris are with AirFrance in codeshare with Delta and Alitalia (2 daily pairs), all part of the Sky Team, or with United (one daily pair), which is part of the Star alliance. If you choose the SkyTeam you can buy tickets with any of these 3 airlines (all part of the SkyTeam alliance) but the flight SFO-CDG is operated by AirFrance. Price for that very same flight may vary depending on whether you buy from one airline rather than the other (although in my experience it shouldn't vary by much). If you take the above non stop SFO-CDG The return trip from FCO will have to be with the same SkyTeam alliance combination, i.e. AirFrance (AF), Delta (DL), Alitalia (AZ), KLM (KL). The most likely options with the Sky Team alliance for the return trip are the following (one stop only): FCO-SFO (via JFK or ATL) (operated by DL or AZ from FCO, then by DL to SFO). FCO-SFO (via CDG) (operated by AF or AZ from FCO, then by AF from CDG) FCO-SFO (via AMS) (oper. by KL or AZ from FCO, then by KL from AMS to SFO)
FCO-SFO (via LAX) (operated by AZ from FCO to LAX, then by DL from LAX to SFO). My preference goes always to avoid layovers in the east coast (JFK or ATL), because it's a longer trip with high chance of delay. My preference among the above 4 return options would be to return via AMS or via CDG. via JFK would be my last choice. For prices there are no fast rules, you need to check prices, as they vary constantly. A friend who works for Delta (and often traveling to Italy for free on stand by) told me that midweek (Tue-Wed-Thu) are less crowded, therefore you might have a better chance at lower prices.

(cont'd) If you choose the Star Alliance (United/Lufthansa/Swiss) you can fly non stop from SFO to CDG with United. The return trip from FCO to SFO would have to be via one of the Lufthansa or Swiss hubs, such as Frankfurt (FRA), Munich (MUC) or Zurich (ZRH). Lufthansa and Swiss are the same company since they merged. There are non stop flights to SFO from FRA (operated by LH or UA), from MUC (operated by LH), from ZRH (Operated by SW). All of the above LH or SW hubs have connections with FCO. So choose your best option for your days of travel. Also consider with which alliance you have the most miles (if you are a member of any). I for example I'm heavily invested in United mileage program, therefore I would probably opt for the Star Alliance for that reason. But maybe you are a Delta fan, therefore you could decide to go for the Sky Team option illustrated in my previous post. If you are a Southwest fan, you might opt to go to Vegas instead of Paris and stay at the Paris Las Vegas hotel. But it wouldn't be the same. Paris est toujours Paris.