Low cost flights to Rome?

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Roma

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A friend needs to get to Rome (or Florence) from Adelaide such that he is there for one continuous month and it includes the last week of August 2008.

In the past he has paid a great deal for the return tickets for him and his wife. This year I wondered if I or perhaps one of us can find a better deal? (Currently I am looking at BestFlights and trying Tiger to Asia then a connecting flight to Italy)

Best wishes for the New Year,

RR
 
Hi Roma, on zuji with Flexible dates I noted two fares that may help.

1st: $1421 with JAL ex ADL + taxes
2nd: $1423 with Malaysian ex ADL + taxes

If they can get to SYD first, the following are avaiable:
1st: Qatar Airways for $1300 + taxes (and several low value fares if no seats left in this bucket.
2nd: Thai Airways for $1319

The Air Asia and other LCC deals may be cheaper though once taxes and fuel fines are factored in.
 
Hi Roma.

Whilst it might seem attractive to purchase a LCC from ADL-Asia and a separate ticket from there, with years of experience speaking, i'd recommend you give careful consideration prior to doing so.

The challenges with mixed tickets is that if a schedule change occurs on one airline, it leaves you up the proverbial creek with the other, for which you could be left out of pocket to reschedule.

As an agent with years of experience, i've seen it happen way to many times, and i'd recommend spending a few hundred extra and purchasing one ticket on someone like MH right through.

JAL's fare looks ok, but with their taxes to Europe going up around $150pp from midnight tonight, their taxes will make the fare seem anything but cheap.

Good luck with your search

TG
 
Well I found:

Melbourne to Singapore $120 (Tiger)
Singapore to Bangalore $59 (Tiger)
Bangalore to Rome $352 (Air India)

The JAL one and others found on zuji are often booked out for the required dates but SwissAir was available for a little more. Thanks for the advice TravelGuru, food for thought.

Ta,

RR
 
Roma said:
Well I found:

Melbourne to Singapore $120 (Tiger)
Singapore to Bangalore $59 (Tiger)
Bangalore to Rome $352 (Air India)

The JAL one and others found on zuji are often booked out for the required dates but SwissAir was available for a little more. Thanks for the advice TravelGuru, food for thought.

Ta,

RR

does that include taxes? because if it doesnt, one of those returns for $1400 on JAL or Malaysia would probably be cheaper anyway

personally, i got an earlybird to Rome last year on Malaysia for $1300 return. Four hours in transit each way in KL, which was excellent (not too long or too short).

airlines like Malaysia and Thai tend to offer the cheapest flights to Europe because they dont have FF programs or Australians cant accrue flier points through these airlines that will be of much use. QF earlybirds on the other hand are always at least $500 more expensive
 
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I had a friend ask exactly the same question a week ago... excellent advice here! Thanks...

I am curious however as to just how TG doesn't "have a FF program" or why "Australians can't accrue... that will be much use" on that airline... I'd imagine they have some non-earning (or poor earning?) booking classes (like everyone else:( ) but they ARE *A!! In fact I've got 2 segments with them in my wanderings next year... crediting to NZ...:confused:
 
The Bangalore to Rome leg didn't include taxes. The others did.

Ta,

RR
 
Roma said:
Melbourne to Singapore $120 (Tiger)
Singapore to Bangalore $59 (Tiger)
Bangalore to Rome $352 (Air India)

The JAL one and others found on zuji are often booked out for the required dates but SwissAir was available for a little more. Thanks for the advice TravelGuru, food for thought.
Does Air India fly to Rome? I could not find it on their drop down list. So assuming these are one way air fares and add on taxes of ~$170 for Bangalore-Rome gives a one way airfare of ~$700 or a return airfare of ~$1400.

As there is no direct flight BLR-FCO one possible routing will be MEL-DRW-SIN-BLR-FRA-FCO. There are 4 transits! On separate tickets you will need to leave at least 3 hours each in SIN and BLR.

Please do not take this as criticism as it looks like a very creative routing to get to Rome but also very painful just to save a couple of hundred dollars.
 
Hi John,

I found the Air India flight to Rome on ZUJI: Your Online Travel Guru

Those taxes are rather high. I didn't realise they were that high. :-(

The friends who are going are still thinking about which option to pick and I passed on comments. They are actually happy with stopovers as they dislike long flights. They asked about stopovers of at least eight hours.

RR
 
Roma said:
I found the Air India flight to Rome on ZUJI: Your Online Travel Guru

Those taxes are rather high. I didn't realise they were that high. :-(
I have just had a look again for July and August and there are no direct flights BLR-FCO. All have a European connection. Maybe I am doing something wrong.

Roma said:
The friends who are going are still thinking about which option to pick and I passed on comments. They are actually happy with stopovers as they dislike long flights. They asked about stopovers of at least eight hours.
What would they be doing during the stopover? If going to a hotel then it is probably a good idea but to just hang around the airport for that length of time would be painful.
 
Use flexible dates for Aug->Sept. Then Air India direct popped up.

They could go walkabout I guess :)

RR
 
Roma said:
Use flexible dates for Aug->Sept. Then Air India direct popped up.
But I do not think it is a direct flight. As far as I am aware there is no direct flight BLR-FCO.

By the way the lowest price now for Air India BLR-FCO during that period is $550 + taxes.
 
trooper said:
I had a friend ask exactly the same question a week ago... excellent advice here! Thanks...

I am curious however as to just how TG doesn't "have a FF program" or why "Australians can't accrue... that will be much use" on that airline... I'd imagine they have some non-earning (or poor earning?) booking classes (like everyone else:( ) but they ARE *A!! In fact I've got 2 segments with them in my wanderings next year... crediting to NZ...:confused:

because TG is not in OW, so unless you do a lot of o/s travel on TG or other Star Alliance airlines, you arent going to get much use from their FF program (let's face it, most of us accrue our miles/SC on domestic flights).

They know this, so if they offered the same priced fares as the OW airlines, they would get clobbered, because in effect they would be 10-20% more expensive.

by the way, a correction to my post above - i just noticed that you can now credit Malaysia flights through Velocity... so that makes Malaysia an even better option if they are offering a nice price
 
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