I'm in the beginning stages of planning a trip to Italy, step one being airfare. Clearly, the easiest way to do it is to book all through one airline so they handle the connections for you. However, I've read that you can save a lot of money by finding the cheapest trans-Atlantic flight first and then booking your own connecting flights on either end. Has anyone tried to do the latter? If so, a few questions:
1) How did you manage to narrow down all the myriad possibilities and how much time did it take to pick your flights? Start with the big hubs of international travel like NYC, Chicago, and DC?
2) How much money do you think you saved in total?
3) Were there any hiccups/issues caused by the multiple layovers/connections with different airlines (thinking missed connections, lost luggage, etc.)?
Appreciate any and all input. Seems like a huge rabbit hole to go down so I'm trying to do an upfront cost-benefit analysis.
1) How did you manage to narrow down all the myriad possibilities and how much time did it take to pick your flights? Start with the big hubs of international travel like NYC, Chicago, and DC?
2) How much money do you think you saved in total?
3) Were there any hiccups/issues caused by the multiple layovers/connections with different airlines (thinking missed connections, lost luggage, etc.)?
Appreciate any and all input. Seems like a huge rabbit hole to go down so I'm trying to do an upfront cost-benefit analysis.