Airfare to Rome via Vayama

[Karynanne]

Using Vayama's site, I found airfare for $621 out of SFO to FCO (Rome) for next 10/09, on Lufthansa. This is including all taxes and fees.

 

Question: Is the Vayama site reliable, and have other's used it for bookings?

 

Thanks in advance.

[greatam]

Using Vayama's site, I found airfare for $621 out of SFO to FCO (Rome) for next 10/09, on Lufthansa. This is including all taxes and fees.

 

Question: Is the Vayama site reliable, and have other's used it for bookings?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Please do a search on this forum for Vayama and consolidator fares. Vayama, Mobissimo, Cheap Tickets, Cheap Fares, etc. etc. OFTEN sell consolidator tickets. In fact, quite few of the "new guys on the block" ONLY sell consolidator tickets.

 

They have a wide variety of restrictions and the one impacting cruise customers the most (other than a missed connection): You booked flight XXX. Flight XXX is changed from 12:00PM to 10:30AM. No way you will make the flight. BUT Flight XXX is flying, just at a different time. Consolidators have been telling customers-take Flight XXX at YYY time or forget it.

 

DO you have access to the fare rules??? Are the tickets ENDORSABLE??? What are the change fees???? What ARE their restrictions about airline changed flight times???

 

You will have to read the fine print to see if you are getting a good deal. AND if you are flying in the day of the cruise (or late the evening before), I personally feel you are VERY foolish with a consolidator ticket. You MAY miss your cruise. You MAY have to get to another port to get on the ship. And if it is a TA, there are NO other ports. You would miss most of your cruise.

 

Do some SERIOUS investigation. DON'T buy strictly on price. Could cost you a LOT in the long run.

 

If you are on a TA, have you looked at a one way ticket on AerLingus??? AerLingus sells the ONLY TRUE one way tickets to Europe that I know of. And if you are on a TA, buying a RT open jaw DOMESTIC ticket (SFO/JFK, ORD or BOS), then FLL/MIA/JFK to SFO can certainly save you some money. Then just buy the over the pond European ticket.

[Karynanne]

Thanks for the fast reply.

 

This is our situation: We are taking a TA, but are flying into Rome 1 week early to visit Tuscany for that week...so we're not stressed with the thought of missing our cruise.

 

I'll look into Aer Lingus from SFO. And then getting a flight to FCO from there.

 

I'll also look into the open-jaw R/T tickets. We usually like taking JetBlue from FLL into SFO. It stops in Austin, but no plane change.

 

Thanks again for the advice.

 

Karyn

[world~citizen]

I used Vayama and have recommended it.

 

I paid up to 50% less on one TransAtlantic, 33% less on on another. The difficulty I have had with them is that for me, it takes an uncomfortably long time to get eticket numbers emailed to me. A call to Vayama customer service cleared this up in a minute. The staff was very friendly and efficient.

 

I am not saying that any of the problems expressed in an earlier response are unrealistic. It just wasn't my experience.

 

If you have concerns related to the issues brought up, call up Vayama and ask them about them.

 

I "took a chance" on a new company and have been very happy.

 

By the way, I have heard horror stories about just about all the online ticket agents.

 

I suppose I will continue to buy online as long as the fares and service are good and I don't get burned.

 

Smooth sailing to you...