charms81

Saudia is only through agents? Let me try that. I'll browse ITA so see saudia routes before the rep roulette.

Thanks!

mtkeller

Saudia can be checked on ExpertFlyer or FlightStats. See this post for info on using FlightStats (free).

mtkeller

AZ has some of the best J seats in SkyTeam now that they've gone full-flat, 1-2-1. There are only a couple aircraft still operating with the old seats, and I don't expect JFK-FCO will see one of the old birds.

charms81

Thanks, JFK-RUH is available with plenty of seats, but there is no flight out from RUH to DEL after JFK flight lands. So may be that doesn't work.

charms81

Thanks for the info. I didn't know AZ has converted that many planes. As per their website: http://alitalia.com/US_EN/your_trave...ess/index.aspx (Click on center tab, 'On Board Services'), it only mentions the 3 planes.

mtkeller

Check the AZ forum here on FT for much more up-to-date information. The sticky at the top is the best source. The seasonal LAX-FCO is now even operated with flat bed seats on the updated 777.

charms81

One last suggestion guys: What would you chose out of these two options for return?

CDG-ATL on a DL-763 (old seats)

OR

CDG-FRA-ATL on a DL-764 Flat bed seat (This route requires a AF CDG-FRA in Business class and a 1 hr 15 min layover in FRA)

Just want to get idea what other people would do, because I would generally chose the FRA route.

stylo4444

Going through FRA for the Flat Bed is more comfortable sure, it just depends on if you are wanting to take the extra flight to FRA and wait an hour. Which is not that long. The cradle seats aren't bad, but I would go with CDG-FRA-ATL if I could.

charms81

Thank you everyone for your valuable inputs! I finally ticketed my itinerary and it is fairly complex, but that was what I was able to find for my dates.

Past two days there was no 'low' availability for ATL-New York for my dates, but when I finally went to buy the ticket, I just thought to check - and magically a Low award First Class ticket opened up! I'm not sure how that happened, but when I checked without logging into my DL account the availability was medium - 80K miles. Then when I logged-in and checked "I'm flying" box, the mileage required came down to 'Low'. Lesson learnt!

ATL-EWR-JFK-FCO-DEL
DEL-CDG-FRA-ATL

All in J/F. I'll also see if I can utilize the DL paid service for NY airport transfers - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...e-jfk-lga.html

---------------------------
Need another advice though - I've 10 hours to kill in Rome and I read that the airport is a dump. Since the layover is long, I may have to retrieve my checked-bags which I cannot carry with me if I want to go out in the city. Any advice of whether I'll need to retrieve the bags or not and if yes, where can I store them?

Thanks!

charms81

Nevermind - I found these:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...ome-Italy.html
http://www.airwise.com/airports/euro...o/luggage.html

So good option for just 6 bucks.

myc2004

Just out of curiosity, what did the Taxes and Fees come to? I know that adding an AZ segment especially a long haul segment can add a nice chunk of chance to the overal cost.

charms81

Wirelessly posted (Galaxy S2: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.3; en-us; SGH-T989 Build/IML74K) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

296.38 taxes for the complete trip. It is much higher than if it was just Delta and if it was Air France the taxes would have been close to $150.

mtkeller

AZ should not add fuel surcharges for US origin tickets. I think OP is using the CI FCO-DEL flight, which will pick up about $63 in YQ. If there were AZ YQ being collected for the TATL, it would exceed $400. It looks like the taxes/fees are right and mostly government taxes. The Italian and German connections are not cheap, and India comes with a pile of taxes, too.

charms81

Yes, it is the CI YQ and not AZ YQ. Airport charges are the main ones. Here is the itemization:
Total: 296.38
Itemized: 5.00 AY 5.00 XA 7.00 XY 5.50 YC 6.90 HB 9.70 IT 1.10 MJ 2.30 VT 43.23 IN 3.65 WO 26.20 YM 21.20 FR 50.00 IZ 14.60 QX 8.00 DE 24.00 RA 63.00 YQ

mtkeller

You have a stopover Paris on the return, yes? If not, that $50 IZ charge should be removed.