Hey guys, I am looking for the cheapest possible flights from Houston to Italy... Do any of you have suggestions on places where I can get the best deals out there? I am new to international traveling so I am kind of clueless. Thanks for your help!
Try Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, etc, or if you know an employee of a major airline, get a buddy pass.
I forgot where it was but I saw $500 coach flights to Rome a few weeks ago. I'll try to look up where I found that.
I fly for a airline. Let me give you some advice. If you are new to flying domestic or international. Dont buy a buddy pass. Its not worth it if you dont understand the system. I have to listen to, to many people who cry because they bought one and didnt understand how it works. Flying is cheap now a days.
I've been in the airline business 20+ years, though now I'm strictly in the freight side of things. I know what you say is true and I was just trying to be mildly funny. International buddy passes can be a disaster if the employee giving them isn't knowledge and doesn't watch out for his/her "buddies" best interest. Since fares are a lot cheaper now and buddy passes are a LOT more expensive than years ago, the best answer when asked for buddy passes is usually, "no".
Because they may as well pay a little more, buy a cheap fare and be guaranteed a seat. Personally, I stopped giving out buddy passes ages ago because too many people I barely knew asked and then acted like I owed them. It was great back in the day when buddy passes were ~$60-70 round-trip, but then Continental jacked the cost up. That was the beginning of the end. When air fares plummeted, buddy passes rarely made sense. I always checked seat availability and made sure my "buddies" were in good shape going/coming, which got tiresome.
Imagine you have a buddy pass. You pay 130 dollars for it. (This is Domestic, would be around 350+ for international.) And everyone shows up for the flight and it is full. Well tough luck bud you dont fly. Gotta wait for the next flight tommorow morning. Oh your bags? They got on the flight. Dont live in Houston? There are plenty of hotels. Gotta wear the same cloths. Guess how much the hotel is? 75 bucks? Guess how much a confirmed ticket was? 200 bucks. You spent 200 bucks anyway and you have feel like **** flying and then dont get home till 16 hours after you wanted. Spend the 200 bucks and get a confirmed seat.
Listen to me closely: Take the money you're saving on airfare and spend it on traveler's insurance. You never know what can happen and you damn sure don't want to wind up like me -- laid up for months and out thousands of dollars to boot.
So far all I have found are tickets for $1200 and up, is that the going rate these days or should I be able to find something cheaper?
When are you wanting to go? You got to realize if a round trip ticket was only 500 dollars the airline would literally making ZERO dollars off you flying them. After taxes. You dont realize it but, you pay to use the toilet in the airport. To walk through security. You pay to take off and to land. Its all part of your taxes. Then you got to pay international tax. Customs Tax. Give me the dates and ill look. There are hidden days that are cheaper.
Around August 4th to go and August 18th to return. Obviously with it being soon I know the prices are much higher, but I was thinking something 800-900 range would be possible to find, maybe not though. Thanks for your help!
