Where did you already check, and what is the best price you found (so we don’t repeat efforts)?

I think that’s a lot of hassle and risk for small potential savings. I’d rather use it with an NWA itinerary if it was similarly-priced to other airlines for this itinerary.

A quick check with ITA, Bookingbuddy, and Farecompare turned up $1511 from Airfare.com (22Jul-6Aug, KLM+Alitalia PDX-AMS-MXP-TIA and return).

Then I checked Whichbudget.com to see who’s got low-cost air service to Tirana. Looks like Germanwings from CGN, plus other airline(s) from MIL, PSA, ROM, VCE (TSF). Cheapest among these, according to ITA, around your dates is $1365 with Northwest to Cologne and return. Check Whichbudget to find the airline on CGN-TIA for prices and timetable to match up with the Northwest (KLM) flights to/from CGN—if this strategy interests you.

I also used ITA to check prices from NYC and LON, but I don’t say any prices there worth the hassle.

Thanks for your prompt reply DON!
 
I have searched all the websites youve mentioned here in this site plus a lot of other ones like Orbitz, cheaptickets.com, vayama, different airlines websites, etc.  and everything from PDX is around $1500-2500.
 
As far as my NWA voucher goes, can I only use that through the airline?  It says it is good through any other NWA partner. 
 
It might actually be a good idea to fly to Italy first since we both would like to visit there for a couple of days and then fly down to TIA.