I'm trying to book Tampa-London-Rome-Tampa and I see that I have a few choices.

My question is this: On Orbitz I can book the whole trip, multiple carriers, for about $815 (after all the darn taxes). It's one booking but 3 different carriers, including Alitalia. I flew Alitalia most recently a few years ago and they lost my luggage, and I've read other horror stories. What's your thinking on Alitalia?

Also with one ticket, 3 carriers, is there any protection if one flight goes late? Or are you on your own dealing with the other airlines?

I could also book a shell: Tpa-London-Tpa and then an intraEurope carrier like Ryan Air (or, sigh, Alitalia) as a round trip in between. It would mean an extra day of travel and an extra flight. I thought it might be a cost savings but initial searches indicate the cost's probably about a wash. My fear is the risk of missing connections so I'd want to fly into London a day early. This sounds like a royal pain.

Any thoughts or wisdom on this?

Many thanks!

Your "sigh" on Alitalia is unwarranted ... the last 5 years I've flown US Air and they have not gotten the bag delivery right even once ... in 5 YEARs!

Alitalia has never lost our bags ...

Orbitz will not back you up if you miss a connection. They sold me tix with an impossible connection between Air Canada and Air France last year (a one hour connection at Montreal; it takes 45 minutes mininum of jogging to cross that huge airport, clear security, immigration and customs checks, etc., and we didn't have any checked luggage. AF closes their gates 60 minutes prior to a flight, so 1:45 is the absolute minimum possible, and that's cutting it close). Air Canada and AF are in different alliances, so they have no cross responsibility. Fortunately AF stepped up to the plate and rebooked us, (due to our status on SkyTeam) but they were not under any obligation to do so. Anyway, we were about 8 hours late getting to Italy, and had to take extra segments to get there. so we lost a day there. Orbitz's response? They said that by purchasing a ticket on Orbitz I was acting as a travel agent, and therefore I assumed all responsibility for every aspect of the booking. It took multiple e-mails to even get through their computerized auto-response letters. So, if you miss the connection, you're completely on your own.

As to your problems with Alitalia, I've flown dozens of segments on them, and while they have problems and a bad reputation, they've always taken care of me.