I'm with many of the others in preferring -- on vacation -- to get close and then to make my way to the destination by car. Much more fun and adventure than just parachuting in to some hotel. However, if you want to fly into FCO, even a quick search I ran on through the Air Canada's Aeroplan interface shows AC or AC/Lufthansa availability if you can accept one connection. [I ran 7/5-7/19 ewr-fco].

I guess if I were you and wanted to do this on miles, I would start by calling one reservations/rewards center from each of the major alliances (One World, etc.) that will cover many of your options. Then if that doesn't turn up something you can grab with your Amex MR points come back with more details and I'm sure we can help!

Oh--and book me a companion ticket, bella Roma here I come.

travel to italy
 

Isi

I greatly appreciate all of your advice.

I previuosly spoke with Delta and Continental and their partner airlines regarding redemptions of their points and miles.

It seems as if there have not been any rewards released for the summer of 2006.
Is this right; I was under the impression that rewards using miles are released 11 months in advance.

Am I asking for something that is not available?

Thanx to all of the help that I have received thus far.

I signed up with Aeroplan , yet I was only able to find a higher mile reward. ( This was the same that I found with CO=200K R/T).

I can fly from any of the NYC airpots as well.

thanx:
jebien

I am flying on Alitalia BC from Newark to Milan in May on Delta miles, and back from Venice to ATL to EWR on Delta in June, in BE using miles, so it is clearly not true that Delta and its partners have not yet released award seats.

I think it is more likely that the ones which have been released are already spoken for, and the agent may have meant that more seats MIGHT be released later on (I seriously doubt it, though, particularly for SkySaver awards).

Gotta plan way ahead of time to use miles for a ticket to Europe during the summer, in my experience.

Good luck.

yes plan way ahead might be a good idea.

Here's an example:

We're doing a "big trip" to Europe this coming spring. I picked the spring because crowds are down, awards are available, weather is pleasant, etc.

I booked the hotels (all awards) this summer, probably around June or July. Availability was there. As a Hilton Diamond, i could have "forced" it, but I'd rather not.

Booked J class across the Atlantic about the same time. Because it was so far in advance, and the season is not the most popular, I got the flights I wanted on the dates i wanted.

For the intra-Europe portions, I'm using LCC's, and they often don't release their schedules more than about 3 months in advance. No matter; I'll book them probably this month, and I'm confident the prices will be affordable.

A lot of people come here and, seeing all these experienced travellers, they assume we know some magic way to get choice seats on short notice at cheap prices (or free). Yes, it happens sometimes. But in general, you hang around and pick up tips and eventually, partly by osmosis, you get a "feel" for the travel/hospitality industry and how to work your way around in it.

Good luck. You didn't say why you have mid-summer pegged as your dates, but from the comments here I think you've picked up on the fact that that's a tough time to find deals to Europe. Because everybody else wants to go there then! Welcome to supply and demand! :)

BIGLAR:

Thanx for all of your advice...I have appreciated all of the invaluable info that I have read about here and I am sure that others have as well.

I agree that there are a lot of folks here at FT who will book 330 days in advance to get what they are looking for, but there are also lots of us who do almost the opposite.

I often don't know in advance what my vacation availability is going to be so I end up booking less than six weeks in advance. Nevertheless, over the last five years I have often been able to get myself over to far Western Europe in May or June.

Also, and I don't know if this goes against the received wisdom, but I have found it easier to get C/J -- or whatever you want to call business class -- awards figured out and tracked down. With the right awards desk agent, might get you some assistance.

For instance, my most recent trip, if I had planned way ahead I would have flown YVR-FRA-AMS RT, but because I booked it only several weeks instead of months ahead of time I ended up changing things a bit to YVR-JFK-VIE-AMS, with the return AMS-MUC-JFK-ORD-YVR.

Now that's some extra stops for sure -- but looking at the outbound flights I took advantage and made a stopover in NY and then had the good fortune to enjoy the most amazing meal service on OS to VIE. Really made it worth the extra stops. Even made it worth missing my connection and spending the afternoon in the Vienna airport.

But I digress, the important info is that the hard to get segment (the trans-atlantic segment that is) was not available the first time I called. I booked this trip through US Air. Nor the second time I called -- although the second time I tried I found myself an even more roundabout route with 6 segments that put me on Lot -- something I didn't want to experience on this trip if I didn't have to. But a few more calls (a day or so between calls) peiced together a final itin. that worked well for me--patience and researching the options and trying over and over and there I was...feet up, drinking beer, and eating bitterballen on the shores of the Maas.

Thank you for this reminder, which will be particularly helpful to me some day as my wife's sister married an Italian and lives in a mountain town on the train line half-way between Nice and Torino.

Summer Trip to Italy with Family
 

We are intending to visit Italy in the Summer of 07. This would be a family trip with extended family. We are thinking of visiting Venice, FLorence and Rome with a side trip to east coast.

We have lots of miles on American Express and status on American with miles there also.

If we are intending to use miles, would American or American Express miles be best.

Also what city would you recomend flying into.

Thanks