artnbarb
1000+ Posts
We know we'll be flying from Italy back to the states in November, and we also knew we'd want to use FF miles for that flight. I think the magic number is 330 - FF flights usually open up 330 days in advance - so I was online in December watching and waiting. We just want basic seats and the cost was 22,500 miles per person, but the itineraries vary from day to day. some days you find different connection cities, different departure times, etc.
After watching for several weeks, and only seeing flights American airlines flights from Rome going through either London or Madrid, I finally settled on what I thought were the best times for us and I booked FCO-LHR-CLT, arriving at about 6 p.m., then we'd spend the night in Charlotte and fly to Tampa the next morning. Not perfect, but doable. I still checked back every day, hoping for a better, more direct itinerary. Yesterday I found a FCO-PHL-TPA flight that leaves Rome at a reasonable hour, arrives in Philly at a reasonable hour, and lets us continue on to Tampa the next morning.
Of course it took a total of FIVE phone calls to get it rebooked correctly - we'd each used miles from our individual accounts and for some reason Art's miles weren't redeposited from the cancelled flight, so the new flight wouldn't book because he needed more miles. At long last I received the confirmation email and now we're all set!
Just like with car rental prices, keep checking both airlines and hotels for better rates.
After watching for several weeks, and only seeing flights American airlines flights from Rome going through either London or Madrid, I finally settled on what I thought were the best times for us and I booked FCO-LHR-CLT, arriving at about 6 p.m., then we'd spend the night in Charlotte and fly to Tampa the next morning. Not perfect, but doable. I still checked back every day, hoping for a better, more direct itinerary. Yesterday I found a FCO-PHL-TPA flight that leaves Rome at a reasonable hour, arrives in Philly at a reasonable hour, and lets us continue on to Tampa the next morning.
Of course it took a total of FIVE phone calls to get it rebooked correctly - we'd each used miles from our individual accounts and for some reason Art's miles weren't redeposited from the cancelled flight, so the new flight wouldn't book because he needed more miles. At long last I received the confirmation email and now we're all set!
Just like with car rental prices, keep checking both airlines and hotels for better rates.
