Airfares to Italy from North America

How to find the cheapest plane tickets every time to fly to Italy from the U.S.

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There are two ways to fly from the U.S. to Italy:

  1. Using a legacy carrier—any major U.S. airline, Italy's Alitalia (or one of its codeshare partners), or a major European airline like British Airways, Air France, or Lufthansa, or...
  2. Using the low-cost carrier Eurofly—If you're lucky enough to live near New York City.

Since Eurofly is (a) news to most people and (b) usually preferable (if you can swing it), let's start with Eurofly, then go on to a quick overview of legacy carriers, and finally round up the ultimate tips for finding the cheapest airfare every time.

Fly Eurofly to Italy and save

Reid's shortcut to the best fares
All of the airfare hunting techniques mentioned on this site have merit, but, honestly, if I had to narrow it down to three crucial places to check, they would be:

1) The low-cost carrier euroflyEurofly
2) The aggregator Momondo
3) The consolidator AutoEurope

Nine times out of ten, I end up booking my plane tickets to Italy through one of those methods.PartnerSimply put, Eurofly (www.euroflyusa.com)—now part of Italy's Meridiana network—is a low-cost carrier flying from the U.S. to Italy that:

(a) Is almost always cheaper than Alitalia and the other major airlines (a recent price comparison for the cheapest available flights during high season showed: $868 on Eurofly direct to Naples or Palermo, versus $1,181 on Alitalia to Rome; low season rates on Eurofly can drop as low as $550 roundtrip), and...

(b) Flies direct to Naples and Palermo, with seasonal service to Rome, Bologna, Milan and other airports. (To put that in perspective, Alitalia and its partners fly direct only to Rome and Milan).

Eurofly flies brand-new Airbuses, with individual seatback screens, and the seats, leg room, and food are no better or worse than on any other airline.

The drawbacks: euroflyEurofly only offers flights a few times a week (Alitalia and other major airlines fly daily to Italy), and only from New York's JFK.

More disturbingly, in recent years the company seems to be experimenting with making this a regularly-priced carrier (rather than low-cost). If the fares are more than those you can find by other means, don't bother.

(Live outside the NYC area? Look into the Big Apple Switcheroo for flying independently into JFK then switching to Eurofly.)

» Here's much more in Eurofly and how it works. Full story

The legacy carriers—Alitalia and other major airlines

This is the old-fashioned and still standard way to fly to Europe: on some major airline you've already heard of. Most major U.S. airlines offer flights to Italy—direct from the East Coast and other major cities; if not, at least connecting through New York.

Then, of course, there is Alitalia (www.alitalia.com), Italy's national airline. Alitalia is no better or worse than any other major airline out there, and, as you'd expect, tends to have the largest number of direct flight from the U.S. to Italy:

Alitalia also codeshares with Continental (if you book an Alitalia flight that leaves out of Newark rather than New York's JFK airport, you'll almost certainly be aboard a Continental jet), is now a strategic partner with KLM/Air France, and is a member of the Skyteam alliance (www.skyteam.com), which includes Delta.

All of which means you can probably book a ticket on any of those carriers (and accrue your frequent flier miles) and still fly Alitalia to Italy.

You can also often fly to Italy on a major European airline, usually connecting through a hub in their home country (say, London on British Airways, Paris on Air France, or Frankfurt on Lufthansa). Why bother? Sometimes a European carrier will be having a systemwide sale that drops its prices lower than even U.S. ones. It always pays to check—but don't do all that legwork yourself. Let an airfare aggregator do the checking for you.

One of the major benefits to using a major airline is that you can often arrange to fly "open jaws"—into, say, Rome and back home from Milan—which will save you at least several hours of backtracking and probably a day's-worth of vacation.

» Here's more esoterica on the pros, cons, and details of flying a major airline to Italy. Full story

Tips for finding the cheapest airfare every time

Reid's shortcut to the best fares
All of the airfare hunting techniques mentioned on this site have merit, but, honestly, if I had to narrow it down to three crucial places to check, they would be:

1) The low-cost carrier Eurofly
2) The aggregator KayakPartner
3) The consolidator AutoEurope

Nine times out of ten, I end up booking my plane tickets to Italy through one of those methods. I go into much more detail on all of these methods on the "Saving money on airfare to Italy" page, but in brief:

» Here's much more on all these tips on how to find the cheapest airfare to Italy every single time. Full story

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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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Copyright © 2008–2012 by Reid Bramblett. Author: Reid Bramblett



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