Hi everyone,

I joined this site when planning my first trip to Italy a few years ago and everyone's advice and experiences were amazing! Thank you!

Now I have the wonderful opportunity to return to Italy and have a new question. I will be flying direct from NYC to Rome in September of this year and have 4 choices of airfare carriers: Alitalia, Delta, American Airlines and Continental Airlines. I've followed other threads warning against Alitalia and will be avoiding them, but does anyone have any experiences with the other carriers or have recommendations on which would be the best choice? Also airfare is so high right now, today the cheapest direct flight I saw was $909. I would really like to wait to see if the prices come down or is this the general trend and should I just bite the bullet?

Thanks again for everyone's help... I can't wait to go back!!!

For me with your remaining airlines of CO, Delta and American, I'd go for the one flying out of the most convenient airport (in my case Newark), unless the price was dramatically different (i.e., enough to cover the extra in car service to JFK and the added hassle/time of getting home - in November I got a $300 RT on Delta out of JFK - couldn't touch it out of EWR.).

I don't think American flies nonstop from EWR, so I would rule them out.

Delta and CO are no longer partners and I'm a CO mileage whore, so I'd probably rule out Delta (Oh, and Delta codeshares with Alitalia, so I would need to make sure that that though I booked through Delta it wasn't an Alitalia flight).

That's just my thought process.

Hi--by "flying out of NYC" I assume you mean JFK. Delta has three direct flights in Sept to FCO (Rome) and 2 or them are operated by Alitalia so, if you want to avoid Alitalia, be sure you check who is flying the airplane.

I have never heard anything good about Alitalia but, I flew them direct FCO-BOS with no problems other than they were 1 hour late leaving FCO and I had to run through 3 terminals to make my connection, which is not an issue in your case.

Also, I would be sure that any airfares you see include taxes and fees. Sometimes I see "fares" for $600 or so and the taxes and fees drive the cost up to over $1000.

buon viaggio

My last few flights to Roma were on Continental, US AIrways and Air France. On CO and US, I had no trouble at all. Both int'l terminals at EWR and PHL are modern and have many amenities while you pass time between flights. Air France was a different story--I vowed never to fly them again because I will not go to CDG for any reason. A total nuthouse! Never seen such disorganization in my life. I am going to Rome next month and flying CO from EWR at $675--not a bad price.

So I'm thinking about biting the bullet and choosing a flight with connections rather than direct. Let's call it me being adventurous and throughing my paranoia about lost luggage to the wind... haha. Anyway, I've only ever flown direct... how much time should I leave between connections? I'm disabled so it takes me a little longer to walk/get places. I was thinking of making arrangements for airport staff to escort/wheel me whatever to help with this. Also, the cheapest flight I see right now is with Iberia at $737... has anyone had experience with them?

We have flown Iberia a couple of times, always via the wonderfully huge airport in Madrid. Iberia was fine. The Madrid airport is really nice, but it really is spread out, so allow extra time to make your connection.

The time required for a connection depends on the airport. If you know which airports you are connecting in and which airline is involved I'm sure someone will have a good idea of the time needed. Also, some Slow Travel members are disabled and can probably give you some good advise.

Iberia was fine. I would fly direct if possible. Flights are just a necessary evil to reach a destination,at this point I don't care about the food, can put up with uncomfortable seats etc.Sometimes or even the majority it's better than that,great.But the flight is just the work of travel, not the joy. Who here would turn down the chance of a 1 hr flight to Europe or teletransportation? beam me there Scotty!

Summary fly direct minimize the time in transit! I've never been to an airport anywhere in the world which is a destination in it's own right. It's an airport, more or less the same in all big cities anywhere in the world. I wish I could have all those hours back or boring waiting in airports, at this poit it amounts to enough time for a fabulous vacation! RR

Robert I completely agree with you and that's why usually I fly direct, however I have a tighter budget this trip and am trying to save everywhere I can. My logic is if I save a couple hundred on airfare, I have more to spend while in Italy or save altogether.

My trip isn't until September, but I know that generally you get better airfare buying it earlier rather than later. If I chose to fly with Iberia I would be connecting in Madrid and as someone mentioned before it's a big airport; in an airport that size what is a good rule of thumb for connection times? The flights I've seen only give you between 1 hour 15 mins. to 2 hours.

Two years ago, we flew on Iberia to Italy. I know a lot of people don't like Iberia and have had many problems with poor service and lost luggage, but our experience was fine.

As one person already said, the Madrid airport is large, but lovely. We had about an hour and a half between flights and found that we needed all of that time. We had to go through passport control and security in Madrid, which takes time. So, I'd suggest allowing at least 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours for making your connections.

Hi

Regarding Iberia, I agree. It was an Ok way to get to our destination

As for connection time, according to my notes, it took us almost 1 1/2 hours from the time we landed until we arrived at the gate for our connecting flight to Rome.

Madrid airport has an airy and open design which I thought was pretty pleasant.

I hope you will forgive my being picky but....

For the sake of those who don't know, a "direct" flight is not necessarily a non-stop flight.

A direct flight can stop, can change crew, can even change airplanes! I think the only thing that can't change is the Flight Number.

I once spent an unplanned night in Newark when the second leg of my "direct" flight from Houston to Madrid left before the first leg arrived in Newark!

Ask for a non-stop flight!

All non-stop flights are direct, but not all direct flights are non-stop.

Decisions, decisions.... I was looking on flyabroadcheap.com and found a RT nonstop flight for $778 including taxes and fees on Delta. The only problem is that the flight from Rome to the NYC is operated by Alitalia. This is by far the best non-stop price I've seen... do others think it's worth taking the risk of using a flight operated Alitalia? What bad and good experiences have people had with them?