Flights to Rome - opinions?

[Twickenham]

A friend asked me to check flights to Rome for a cruise she's taking with her husband this November (9th to 20th). Here are the 3 options I've found:

-Air France: YUL-FCO via CDG - CA$707

-KLM: YUL-FCO via AMS - CA$704

-Swiss: YQB-FCO via YUL-ZUR - CA$785

They are closer to YQB, but are travelling with others who I believe will be going out of YUL, so either would be fine. Mainly looking at opinions on 1) each airline's economy product, and 2) ease of transfer at each connecting airport. Thanks!

[alicia68]

Transat Holidays have non stop flights to Rome from Montreal. Pricing isnt out on their website for November yet but they may want to call and see if they can get a quote

[Twickenham]

Transat Holidays have non stop flights to Rome from Montreal. Pricing isnt out on their website for November yet but they may want to call and see if they can get a quote

 

I checked the pricing for October (which is on their website), and it was over $800. As they offer less flexibility date-wise, I would want Air Transat to be a nice bit cheaper before I recommended them.

[greatam]

A friend asked me to check flights to Rome for a cruise she's taking with her husband this November (9th to 20th). Here are the 3 options I've found:

-Air France: YUL-FCO via CDG - CA$707

-KLM: YUL-FCO via AMS - CA$704

-Swiss: YQB-FCO via YUL-ZUR - CA$785

They are closer to YQB, but are travelling with others who I believe will be going out of YUL, so either would be fine. Mainly looking at opinions on 1) each airline's economy product, and 2) ease of transfer at each connecting airport. Thanks!

 

Transfers at AMS and ZRH are much simpler than a CDG transfer (you MUST allow extra time at CDG-it is THAT confusing).

[ab0si]

There really isn't much difference in economy between the 3 airlines (note: I sleep and/or listen to my iPod on planes and have no idea about the relative merits of the video/audio available).

 

You do not mention the connection times, so I will assume they are roughly equal.

 

ZUR: great airport for connections. Small, easy, organized.

 

AMS: very good for connections. some long walks, but well organized. KLM often does not issue boarding passes for the intra-European leg when boarding in North America (sometimes they do; sometimes they do not). Stopping at the transfer desk can be a PITA if the line is long.

 

CDG: I do not find this airport as bad as many others do. That said, it is clearly the least desirable of the three for making connections.

[Twickenham]

I hate CDG nearly as much as YYZ (it would probably be more, but I've had more opportunity to develop my hatred of YYZ...). The only reason AF is still in the running for me is that it's the only option that offers an easily makeable flight home on the day the ship arrives back in Rome. All the others have morning departures and would require another night in Rome. Also, there's a greater number of TA flights between YUL-CDG on AF in case of problems.

 

There's still a variety of connection times available, although the Swiss option has the fewest - either a 1:10 or a 6:20 layover. I normally don't like such a short layover, but if ZUR is easy to navigate, I could recommend the earlier flight.

[ab0si]

I hate CDG nearly as much as YYZ (it would probably be more, but I've had more opportunity to develop my hatred of YYZ...). The only reason AF is still in the running for me is that it's the only option that offers an easily makeable flight home on the day the ship arrives back in Rome. All the others have morning departures and would require another night in Rome. Also, there's a greater number of TA flights between YUL-CDG on AF in case of problems.

 

There's still a variety of connection times available, although the Swiss option has the fewest - either a 1:10 or a 6:20 layover. I normally don't like such a short layover, but if ZUR is easy to navigate, I could recommend the earlier flight.

 

1:10 is fine in Zurich -- as long as you really have 1:10. To state the obvious, if your incoming plane is an hour late .....

[FlyerTalker]

The only reason AF is still in the running for me is that it's the only option that offers an easily makeable flight home on the day the ship arrives back in Rome. All the others have morning departures and would require another night in Rome. Also, there's a greater number of TA flights between YUL-CDG on AF in case of problems.

I am curious why you couldn't take the KL outbound through AMS and route on AF for the return? Given that they are the same company, see if you can get a pricing for that with a phone call to AF. Also, since NW handled marketing on TATL for KL, you might want to give NW as call as well and see what they can come up with.

 

With the AF/KL and DL/NW mergers, there is so much code-sharing that you can't keep things straight. Almost any of the operating airlines could likely sell you seats on any of the actual operating flight that you want - and the pricing may very well be better on one combo than the other.

 

Play around with it. Try forcing flights on the website by choosing "select by schedule" rather than autopricing with "search by price" searches.

[Globaliser]

-Swiss: YQB-FCO via YUL-ZUR - CA$785

Just a small, pedantic bit of advice: Zurich = ZRH.

[Twickenham]

I am curious why you couldn't take the KL outbound through AMS and route on AF for the return? Given that they are the same company, see if you can get a pricing for that with a phone call to AF. Also, since NW handled marketing on TATL for KL, you might want to give NW as call as well and see what they can come up with.

 

With the AF/KL and DL/NW mergers, there is so much code-sharing that you can't keep things straight. Almost any of the operating airlines could likely sell you seats on any of the actual operating flight that you want - and the pricing may very well be better on one combo than the other.

 

Play around with it. Try forcing flights on the website by choosing "select by schedule" rather than autopricing with "search by price" searches.

 

Thanks for the tip. I was able to check this by using the multi-city option on the AF website - YUL-AMS, then AMS-FCO, with a straight FCO-YUL return. Got that option, and not a penny more than booking all AF (which is an AF-Alitalia option anyways).

 

Just a small, pedantic bit of advice: Zurich = ZRH.

 

Thanks - I knew ZUR wasn't correct but coundn't remember the correct code! (this is what happens when you're doing 3 things at once :rolleyes:)

[wrp96]

Got that option, and not a penny more than booking all AF (which is an AF-Alitalia option anyways).

 

Hope you are skipping that Alitalia option.