Have you tried the consolidators and other links and strategies in our new user thread (top of this forum)?

How about from PHL? ITA found PHL-ATH 16th \ MXP-PHL 28th for $1022 on Swiss (with the PHL-ZRH legs op by USair).

I also tried ITA for BWI-DUB for you, and found $710 with American+Aer Lingus, or… $744 for Continental that is showing to Ireland in business class but return is economy—both flight legs (via Newark). $747 to Shannon—w/biz class outbound legs.

Not that it’s significantly different, but there’s also IAD-DUB non-stop on Aer Lingus for $676.

You can get June 15-23, JFK-FRA on usair.com, for $494 total.

God that is AMAZING. I’m do tempted to just buy that but a week isn’t enough. How did you find that?

and Don thank you for the Dub tip, I think id I don’t find anything better that’ll probably be the route I consider.

Do you guys just know the european hubs and try them all? I mean how did you think to find that USair fare?

Dublin is often a good option* since it’s a main hub for Ryanair, and often the cheapest transatlantic ticket from the US. (*If you can travel light—like 1 20kg checked bag, and 1 smallish carryon).

Sometimes I do try all of the European gateways if I’m bored and have the time (not often!). Watching trends and sales usually points you in the right direction. Used to be (several years ago) that LON was cheapest from USA most of the time, but not so often any more due to high taxes on UK air routes. Sometimes German airports come up cheapest. A few months ago, Stockholm and Helsinki were coming up cheapest for summer. ITAsoftware and Farecompare make it really easy to see what’s cheapest currently for the upcoming year. For example from BWI.

Go to usair.com and use the flexible date finder.
Try different departure and arrival cities.
For example, June 15-25, PHL-AMS, for $556 total.

Note that if you go to AMS, Ryanair is not your best bet. Transavia likely is.
And I’d arrange for an overnight at least in AMS, each way (not that you’ll suffer hardship doing so!).

So I’ve tried everyone’s suggestions. Unfortunately I missed the usair sale—plus the stay wasn’t long enough. Basically what I see now is BWI to DUB via Continental @ $716 as the cheapest (Jun 16 – Jun 28) and then I figure I can Ryanair my way to italy.

Does that sound reasonable? any other brilliant suggestions?
Should I wait a bit more you guys think?

Aly, did you notice that the outbound legs on the $716 Continental price are in business class??!! Nice!!! (Get your double miles on those legs!! Continental is now part of Star Alliance—if that matters to you—but don’t pass up earning miles on this!).

Ryanair I believe now only allow 15kg checked bag. Also check making your own connections from DUB with Aer Lingus, which are slightly more generous (20kg?) and won’t fee you to death like Ryanair can if you’re not careful.

Skyscanner lists both: http://www.skyscanne…

Personally, I’d probably take the Continental offer. I do see Aer Lingus from Dulles-Italy at $821, but with very long layovers (a night each way) at Dublin, which might not be all bad if you wanted to visit Dublin, anyway.