I had an extremely difficult time trying to book reward travel to Rome on US during summer 2000, maybe because of the Vatican Jubilee going on at the time. I ended up booking reward travel on Delta. I would suggest booking ASAP. One other option is to use US miles going toward AA's ORD direct flight to Rome, if you have at least 1000 AA miles to combine with your US miles. Your friend's best options from Nebraska may be on United, then either the two of you on United or AA to from ORD to Rome, otherwise, PHL, PIT or CLT to Rome on US, but there will be connections to get to all three US gateways from either Omaha or Lincoln.