Flying west coast to Italy

rolgail,

Based on your comments, I assume you're travelling from Portland (your location isn't shown in your Profile)? If that's the case, you'd also have to include the return costs of travel between Portland and Vancouver.

I'd have to spend some time looking at options but to answer your first question, it MAY be cheaper if you use a flight with Air Transat from YVR to LGW. From London you could transfer to an EasyJet flight to FCO (they have four flights a day). I haven't checked A.T. prices, but EasyJet flights are currently priced at about £45 PP using an arbitrary date in May 2014.

For car rental, you could either consider Orvieto or Siena. Where are you planning to drop the car?

Cheers!

Why go to Vancouver to fly to London on the way to Rome? If you want to stop in London, you can go from Seattle. But British Airways charges more to fly to London than they do to fly to Rome using the same SEA to LHR flight. I just checked. SEA to LHR in May is $1364 RT. if you continue on to Rome from LHR, the Rt price drops to $1290. It is something to do with taxes at Heathrow.

Your best bet actually is to go right from Portland on the Delta flight direct to Amsterdam ($1213). Then connect to a Delta flight to Rome on the same ticket. The RT price only goes up to $1246. That is better than you will do adding an Easyjet flight to the long haul flight, AND you will be on the same ticket, so no worries if your long haul,flight is delayed.

First, price flying from your origin to your destination on one ticket, using Kayak or Matrix Ita Software. Then, if you are considering using separate tickets (such as Air Canada from Vancouver to London, then Easyjet from London to Rome) remember the following:

1. Unless both of your flights use Gatwick airport, you will have to change airports in London. You must allow several hours for this.

2. If you are flying multiple segments on one ticket, the airline is responsible for getting you to your final destination (so, if you miss a connecting flight, they will put you on the next available flight at no extra charge). But if you are on separate tickets, you are responsible both logistically (the airlines won't help you) and financially. The two airlines will not interline your bags, either, so you have to claim your bags and then check in for your next flight yourself (if you're on one ticket, you will usually get both boarding passes at your first check in and your bags are transferred for you).

So, if you are going to do this, be sure to allow enough time, and be sure the savings are worth the hassle.

Others here have posted that from Portland, the only nonstop to Europe is to Amsterdam on KLM, and this is the best way to go, since AMS is a good airport to change in (you would be on one ticket to your final destination). From the west coast, changing in Europe is faster and easier than changing in the US.

When searching, be sure to look at all options. For instance, if your goal is Tuscany, look into flights to Florence or Pisa. And if you are returning from, say, Venice, you'd want to fly into Florence and out of Venice (rather than round trip to Rome). This is called "open jaw," and can be booked by using the "multi city" option on Kayak, etc. It's much cheaper to use multi city than to book two one way tickets, and it's much more convenient to fly where you want to be than to take a flight somewhere else (even if it's "cheaper," you have to account for the time and money it takes to get to your ultimate destination).

One point to clarify.

AFAIK, Air Canada only uses LHR, which is one reason I suggested Air Transat in my earlier post. As I recall, AT only uses LGW (same thing with Canadian Affair), so it's relatively easy to make connections to budget airlines there.

I'm not as familiar with flight options from the U.S., so agree with the others that if you can fly directly from PDX (or even SEA), that would probably be your best bet.

Cheers!

From Portland to Europe, any stop in the US (other than Seattle) adds a lot of time and distance to your trip. For example, compared to a straight line from Portland to Dublin, going by way of Chicago adds almost 800 miles.