Flights to Venice Italy

Assuming that you want to stick to the Sky Team alliance then flying via either CDG or AMS is the logical choice and of those AMS wins hands down for efficiency. There will be other choices away from Sky Team such as One World with AA, BA or Iberia as well. Whatever you do make sure that you book the flight on one ticket preferably direct with the airline and not via a third party.

To get the best protection should something go wrong book with a European airline so KLM if you stick with Sky Team or BA or Iberia.

either CDG or AMS is the logical choice and of those AMS wins hands down for efficiency

By a wide margin of participants on this forum AMS is the clear winner over CDG.as a transfer point.

Sure looks to me like Air France LAX to CDG to VCE is your best and shortest option, with a decent layover time. AMS is our preferred airport but the layover is almost 6 hours.

I connected from Portland, OR, through JFK, and it wasn't bad at all. I enjoyed doing it this way because it broke up the flight in between, and I didn't have one huge, long-haul flight. I was also meeting up with a tour group and traveled solo; I am in my early 60's.

Paris and Amsterdam airports are no picnic in the park, in my opinion.

The best connection would be ITA non-stop LAX to Rome, connecting to a domestic ITA flight to Venice. Not a SkyTeam member, but how much is loyalty to a specific alliance actually worth? Another consideration would be the flight home - where would you be departing from after the tour?

You've gotten good advice from others and I think it makes sense to acknowledge any (most, these days?) airport experience can be fraught with travel nightmare peril. I'd make my flight choice based on my preferred itinerary elements: international connection from my home airport, minimum 2.5 hour layover and a widebody jet with 2-seat row configuration in the main cabin. I place my comfort and ease of travel over my dollars and will spend more on direct or maximum 1-stop flights with premium comfort seating and arrival times that give me the most remaining daylight hours at my destination. Best of luck and enjoy your trip to bella Italia!

Thank you for all your responses. You all have given me even more to think about. I hadn't even heard of ITA airlines. I will take another look at my flight options. I have many years of loyalty with Delta and my CC accumulates points for me so I have earned some perks with Delta that won't transfer to other airlines (with the exception of their partners KLM and Air France). My return flight will depart from Rome. I haven't even looked at that route yet!
One person mentioned JFK not being so bad. Should I consider the non-stop from JFK? Is it similar to LAX in size and crowds?
THANK YOU for taking the time to help me with this. I appreciate it.

Here’s my personal experience: I choose connecting through Amsterdam any chance I can. They’re efficient & can handle a lot of people. I don’t think I’ve ever had a delay at Schiphol. CDG is okay, but I want 2.5-3 hours to connect, just in case. I avoid JFK. The last two times, I had flights that left late, and it just seems like a dirty airport.

I agree with @markcw - I would avoid a JFK connection like the plague (if you recognize how unappealing Newark is, I'd put JFK in the same bucket). I always prefer to avoid connecting in the eastern USA. Just get a nonstop from the west coast and do a short connection (maybe by train...or a short ITA flight) in Europe.

ITA Airways is the latest incarnation of "Alitalia", what once was the national airline of Italy. ITA is now a "Star Alliance" partner (partners with United, Lufthansa, and dozens of other airlines worldwide - it's by far the largest airline alliance).

Personally, I've only flown short hops on ITA but it was perfectly fine, even nice. I've heard generally good things about ITA's long-haul flight experiences. (Hey, the Popes typically have flown Alitalia for many years, and continue to fly on ITA, so it can't be too awful). If it were me, given a choice between connecting in JFK (ewww...), or a nonstop from LAX to Italy, I'd jump on that ITA flight out of LAX in a New York nano-second.

That ITA flight does look tempting, especially being nonstop from Rome on the return. A layover of only an hour for the flights over is concerning. However, my theory is always that once you are in Europe, there are other flights, trains, buses, but if you're still in the US you might get stuck there overnight.

Another option to consider: Alaska Airlines. Yes, really. But...you might have to pay with points (seriously).

Alaska now flies from Seattle to Rome nonstop (on a brand new 787). They also fly from SEA to London. And Alaska has oodles of flights from all over California (including SNA) to Seattle. In fact (I just checked) Alaska can fly you from SNA to either London or Rome, and they'll sell you a ticket for that. But if you want to go all the way from SNA to Venice, then they can't sell you that ticket on most days. But they WILL trade you 95,000 Alaska Airlines ("Atmos" points) for that ticket on most days. They WILL sell you a ticket on some days (depends what days their partner airlines fly to Venice). They have many airline partners in Europe for connecting between London or Rome and Venice.

Do you happen to have 95K Alaska miles you can use? If so, they'll get you from your home airport all the way to Venice for that (plus $70 in fees) - on some days. That's going through London (LHR) not Rome. So two connections, but the hop from SoCal to Seattle is a quick, easy, milk run. They'll fly you to Venice from Seattle, either via Rome (last leg from Rome to Venice on British Airways) or via London (LHR) with the last leg to Venice on Condor (a German airline). On some days, you can fly via Dublin, too, on Aer Lingus - (Aer Lingus is the Irish airline - they fly from your home airport nonstop to Dublin). Options depend on the day you pick - some days on points, some days paid.

95,000 Alaska ("Atmos") points + $70 fees is pretty good, considering it's from your home airport to your destination.

For the return, check Alaska, too...since they now fly to/from Rome, you can get home from Rome to SNA with just one stop in Seattle (you can pay for that with points or money).

The flights vary (a lot) based on what day you're looking, so you may need to do a bit of searching, but I'm seeing a variety of options that would connect you from SNA to Venice, and from Rome to SNA - some of those have just one stop (in Seattle), some have two connections and go through other cities on airline partners (London, Dublin, etc.).

Or just grab that ITA nonstop flight between LAX and Rome FCO: see what flying LAX-FCO (Rome)-VCE (Venice) looks like.

Since I see your trip is in March, some flights that are "seasonal" may not be going on your dates, but it's worth checking (some seasonal flights start in late Spring).

You have a lot more options than you probably think. You just have to do a little (or more than a little) searching, and maybe get creative.

Hope some of the above is useful.

Wow - I had never considered Alaska Airlines. I'm originally from Calgary and have flown that airline many times from SNA thru Seattle to get to Calgary. I will be back on my computer tomorrow searching my options. Thank you David in Seattle and everyone else who has taken the time to help me with this. I'm very glad that I posted my question here!

Note that there is always the chance of schedule changes this far out, and there is usually
a timetable overhaul in December.

If a flight you've booked has a schedule change, you will have the option to accept, propose/
select a different flight, or get a refund.

Starting March 27 there is a daily nonstop from Atlanta to Venice, and on Mar 29 a daily
nonstop from Philly. Seasonal nonstops won't usually run until demand starts to rise;
if you moved your trip to April there will be more options for connections.

Also note that Milan is a 2 hour train ride to Venice, so that is potentially an option for easy
connection - you may have more options for flights.

At the end of the day, the connection is not a really big part of the trip, so you have to
decide how much effort it's worth managing the connection city. I do agree that AMS is
less of a hassle than CDG.

Thank you Shoeflyer - that's another good point that I hadn't thought of - schedules change. I'm booking flights months in advance because I'm very picky about where I sit on a plane. I was just in Amsterdam and Paris in late April into early May and it was already way too crowded for me. I was literally shoved so hard that I was lifted off my feet on two occasions. I promised myself that I would only return to Europe during the months of October thru March. I'd rather deal with rain and cold than the crowds!