Help with Airfares Seattle to Italy - June 2013

Unfortunately it is a dice roll and no one on this site can provide a better answer than maybe because only you have a dog in the fight. It is your call. If someone tells you to wait, have them put up the $600 as a hedge so you can take their advice and then split the savings with them if the price goes down. That seems fair. You will be ahead with open jaw when you add in the cost of returning to Rome from Venice.

Delta is showing $1660 for into Milan, out of Rome, one stop in each direction. Venice is about $80 more, but the convenience of going directly there might well be worth it. Those prices are consistent with what I have observed this year, with fares being higher than usual. I have been tracking fares out of Seattle on British Airways since before Christmas. (This is just out of curiousity, as we have miles tickets already). They dropped about $100 briefly, then went up $50, then down $50. Who knows what will happen next? But since you need 5 tickets, any price difference is greatly magnified. I don't normally suggest a travel agent, but you might give Elizabeth Holmes Travel a call (they are here in Seattle) just to see what they can offer. They are consolidators and claim they can offer better prices because of the volume business they do. It's worth a try.

Lisa - Your post made me quite curious as to who cancelled your tickets. I have similar tickets booked into Venice the week before and purchased them directly from Condor, who also sold me the Lufthansa add-on to Venice. Condor would only book us onto flights with that same 1:25 layover time, even though there is a later flight down to Venice. I flew through Frankfurt last fall and know that is tight for that (or any) airport, but I felt my hands were tied since Condor wouldn't sell me any other ticket. I did have my travel agent price it all out for me as well, using that later connection out of Frankfurt, and her price was $500 more per ticket. She told me to book it myself and so I did. We paid $1500 - but for Premium Economy. I am extremely nervous about the connection time - I doubt we will make it, even though we fly only with carry on, but I am hoping we can just be accommodated on the later flight if we miss our connection.

We booked through a travel website and the issue was with the Lufthansa flight out of Rome (we flight into Venice and out of Rome). They changed the itinerary from Rome to Frankfurt leaving 15 minutes later. This change resulted in making our layover 1 hr 25 min instead of 1 hr 40 min. The travel agent/website said this did not meet FAA rules of having at least 1 hr 30 min connection time for international flights. They said the only choice was to cancel my flight and give me a refund - so the cancellation came from the travel agent, not the airline. If there would have been an earlier flight out of Rome they would have just put me on that flight. Unfortunately there was not. My guess is that you will be fine since you booked directly with Condor. I have seen itineraries available with a shorter connection time. I think the problem comes up when the two flights are not on the same airline or partner airlines. Also, I noticed that right after I was cancelled off this flight, it was taken off all travel websites as an option. Good luck - I now have to rebook 6 tickets!

What a bummer. Given your experience with your travel agent, I guess my suggestion to call Elizabeth Holmes didn't sit too well. Was that by any chance the agent you already used? I wish I could be more helpful. We like BA flights from Seattle but their prices are running about $200 more than usual (previous years) right now. And their flight to Venice requires a change from Heathrow to Gatwick, which I won't do again, so we build in a night in London, but it sounds like you are stuck with certain dates and cannot take more time? (If you could add a day or so I would suggest looking at flying into Zurich, as prices there are less, and you can get a good discount on Zurich to Milan train tickets by buying in advance. We saved almost $500 on a recent trip that way, for 4 of us.)

I actually did look at the Elizabeth's website, but after a bit more research I have decided I will rebook directly with the airline. On less expensive domestic flights I think travel agents and websites are ok, but I didn't realize (or stop to think about it) that travel agents can manipulate your ticket until right before you check into your flight. From the research I did, it seems like some of the less honest travel websites have been known to engage in this practice. I'm sure most reputable regular travel agents are fine. In my case the travel site I used was very helpful and did not send me into a black hole, but I would have had a much easier time and less expense if I had booked through a airline directly so they could handle the change in itinerary and not cancel my flight and have me start over. However, I am almost glad my ticket was cancelled because I would have hated missing my flight Frankfurt to Seattle and then try to figure out who was responsible for rebooking six people. My guess is that the airline and the travel agent would have pointed fingers at each other. I have looked into flying to other cities, but by the time I incur the costs of train tickets, time and dragging the kids around I am tempted to spend the extra 1,000.00. Learned my lesson.

Lis............change your out bound date by one day and you can find lots of open jaw flights for under $1200 to and from your destinations. We were looking at going on the 17th also, but noticed mucho many airlines had sales on flights; IF you left town by the 16th. Leave on the 16th! Pay a 100 bucks more R/T and fly Delta. Then grab some of their Economy Comfort seats for another $160 R/T and fly with 38" seat pitch and free booze, priority boarding etc. You are still under your magic 1500 and will be flying in style. I am going to wait under mid Feb to find the best prices. I bet you could find some for a lot less than $1200. Have a great trip!