I'm planning to return to Italy in late- September. Round-trip airfares (coach) MSY-FCO on DL, AZ, US, and others, are $800+. BA has lower fares but involves a stopover at London Gatwick, which adds considerably to time of travel. Fuel surcharge seems to be the villan. I was hoping to find something in the $600 - 700 USD range. Has anyone run across such fares, or believe that there is any real hoping of these materializing? Ideas welcomed. Grazie

unfortunately, i think the prices you are seeing are as low as they're gonna get right now.
my husband and i will be traveling from the west coast around the same time as you actually, and are finding $800-$900+ from San Francisco to Pisa OR Florence, and back from Rome (after taxes & fees).
honestly, i was hoping for the same airfare as you, too - $600-$700... but after talking to a couple different travel agents, watching the news and reading thru the boards here i've found that the $800+ fare is what we'll likely pay. bummer, eh!

check out some of the airline consolidator sites. (Google those key words) they may be able to get a better fare than the expedia/hotwire/travelocity sites.

good luck!

My husband and I just booked from Buffalo to Rome, for October. We're Canadian, and the cost will be about $1050CD for our return flight. Apparently there had been a $800 flight available earlier (perhaps a 2 day window) but all those seats had gone.
Don't you want, sometimes, to stand up in a plane and ask everyone what they paid for their seats? What would be the chances that no two bookings were for the same price?

I missed out on an 800 dollar fare lax-rome on air france.I have one free ticket so the 900 plus it costs is somewhat softened.I hope for lower fares may 1st.In the past some lower fares come up but high fuel costs are a bugger.RR