Can anyone figure out airfare weirdness?

We're still trying to figure out a way to make the airfare doable to
allow us an Eastern Mediterranean cruise.

My wife priced Al Italia and it is less expensive (at least on the day
she checked) to fly to Venice with a stopover to switch flights in Rome
than it is to fly to Rome. HOw can that make any sense?

On Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:43:52 -0500, (Jeff
Gersten) wrote:

My wife priced Al Italia and it is less expensive (at least on the day
she checked) to fly to Venice with a stopover to switch flights in Rome
than it is to fly to Rome. HOw can that make any sense?

Hi Jeff,

This is very common. It has been this way for many years. It often,
but now always, has to do with the fare another airline is charging
for a non-stop to a particular city.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
--

[Default] Thus spake Ray Goldenberg :

On Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:43:52 -0500, (Jeff
Gersten) wrote:

My wife priced Al Italia and it is less expensive (at least on the day
she checked) to fly to Venice with a stopover to switch flights in Rome
than it is to fly to Rome. HOw can that make any sense?

Hi Jeff,

This is very common. It has been this way for many years. It often,
but now always, has to do with the fare another airline is charging
for a non-stop to a particular city.

It's also a case of capacity management. It may be that the demand
for ??? to Venice is less than to Rome, and the price from Venice to
Rome is less than the difference. BUT, that could change in a day.
--

- dillon I am not invalid

Men are like a carpet. Lay them well and you can
walk on them for years.

On Jan 31, 4:43*pm, (Jeff Gersten) wrote:
We're still trying to figure out a way to make the airfare doable to
allow us an Eastern Mediterranean cruise.

My wife priced Al Italia and it is less expensive (at least on the day
she checked) to fly to Venice with a stopover to switch flights in Rome
than it is to fly to Rome. HOw can that make any sense?

Hi, Jeff,

I'm delighted to hear your Med investigation is ongoing! I could
return again and again to that part of the world.

Just a note of caution on Alitalia. If you insure your trips, please
make sure before you purchase tix that Alitalia is not on the list of
travel suppliers excluded for financial shakiness. It was government-
owned, went bankrupt in '08 and has been reformed as a private concern
with capital infusion from some solid companies, including most
recently Air France-KLM. That may be enough to take it off those
lists. But I'd still be wary. The "new" Alitalia is a very fresh
operation, is scrambling to regain some airport slots it lost and
remains plagued by the usual old problems, a key one being labor
strikes. In fact, I definitely wouldn't book it without insurance, and
on an overseas cruise trip where reliability of flights can be
critical, I would try really hard to find something more reliable yet
reasonably priced.

I think we've talked about the "travel light" issue before, and as I
recall, you're not in that camp (yet!). But if the fares don't seem to
be breaking on your preferred routing into Rome, you might consider
looking at the most economical flights across the pond--usually to
London, but you never know, esp. in this economy--and then tacking on
a domestic connection to Rome via easyJet or similar. The downside of
that for most cruisers is the limited luggage allowance on those
discount carriers. OTOH, at the rate conventional airlines are going
with their extra baggage fees, I'm not sure things aren't equalizing
on that front.

Cheers,

Diana Ball
Austin, TX