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We have found that booking business class using miles about a week after flights become available on United offers the best pricing and seat selection. Our itinerary is BTV → EWR → FCO. Our most recent transatlantic flight experience booking with United was as follows: When flights were first released, at 11 months out...air miles required were obscenely high...over 500K miles per person. After about a week, cost dropped to 175K miles pp...we booked at this point. After about a month the flight cost rose to 245K pp miles where it remains to this day. I book with United after transferring the miles I need from my Chase Sapphire Reserve account to my United MileagePlus account.

Have you checked out Sifracar? Whenever we have called on Livorno, Sifracar has had a rental desk in the terminal. Email them to confirm...

After two itineraries through FRA we avoid it at all costs. Google Flights shows one-stop flights from DFW to TRS through FCO. You might want to check them out.

Although I'm sure we'll enjoy our 55 days, booking for that long is a result of a lot of FCCs from cancelled cruises during the height of COVID. We love long cruises, but this will certainly be our longest. I will check out your Barcelona to Rome blog. Thank you for mentioning it. Thank you for the good wishes...much appreciated!

@Sleep7... We can't thank you enough for your wonderful travelogue! It is truly a labor of love. We fly to Rome on September 30th and board the Sky on October 6th for 55 days, disembarking in Fort Lauderdale on November 30th. We're even more excited after reading about all you experienced.

You're welcome... Click here for info on tap&go in Roma.

Yes...

I had to cancel travel a few years ago due to a health issue. The combination of IMG and the insurance offered by Chase Sapphire Reserve covered all non-cancellable expenses.

It's up to the travel insurance shopper to make himself aware of all terms including pre-existing conditions. Companies differ in their policy terms...even within the same company. We have been purchasing IMG policies through Steve and note the IMG SE and IMG LX policies treat pre-existing conditions differently.

It's best to combine credit card coverage with commercial travel insurance for full coverage. Chase Sapphire Reserve provides us with a total of $20,000 per trip. We insure the balance of the total non-refundable trip cost with travel insurance for full coverage for whatever our credit card insurance does not cover.

Not familiar with Hotel River Palace. We're staying at Hotel Smeraldo for five nights this October because of recommendations here and location. I believe you can do better on your own for transfer from FCO to your Rome hotel. We use RomeCabs at a rate of €65.00. There are others. I know @cruisemom42 recommends taking a taxi...that would cost you less than RomeCabs.

We have toured with both...most recently with ItalyTours.EU last fall. We did the following three tours: -Positano, Amalfi & Ravello - Driver was 30 minutes late on a rainy day. No apology. Not one of out best excursion experiences -Etna & Taormina - Excellent experience -The Best of the French Riviera - Excellent experience ItalyTours.EU drivers do not employ headset / speaker systems which makes it difficult for those in the third row in the van to hear. I believe RomeInLimo does employ the speaker systems. ItalyTours.EU is associated with Spain Day Tours, offering an experience a step or two below.

I use booking sites to check out lodging I'm not familiar and compare relative pricing then go to the hotel's website to complete the booking. Do a Google search for the hotel's website...do not use a link provided by a booking site. Personally I would not use email for booking because it would require sending credit card info by email...not advisable. Also, I prefer to take screen shots as I proceed through the booking process in the event I need proof of pricing, dates, confirmations, etc. at a later date. Try to find something on Booking.com...then check out the website of a hotel that interests you.

Yes. Put your phone in Airplane Mode so it does not access the ship's cell service and turn Wi-Fi on to access the ship's Wi-Fi network.

Excellent post... I have found Google Maps to be excellent for warning when my intended bus, train, or metro stop is approaching.

Steve Dasseos and his staff at the TripInsuranceStore are the best. You can find Steve quite often on the Cruise/Travel Insurance board here on CC. Whatever you do, do not buy insurance from any cruise line.

Google Maps indicates it's 7.3 - 10.7km by car depending on the route. It's a 6.1km walk. Take a taxi...

You're right! Rates for April 10th are sky high. The reason is below... Hosted by Spain and co-organized with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO), the 2024 UN Ocean Decade Conference will take place on 10-12 April 2024 in the coastal city of Barcelona. You know...there are many knowledgeable CC members who want to help. Next time please provide as much information as possible. The name of your hotel and date of arrival in your initial post would have been very helpful.

I just checked the hotel's website and saw rooms during September for less than 400 euros per night.

Without knowing the name of the hotel it's kinda' difficult to determine whether the price you found is correct. I can tell you Barcelona has some very nice hotels priced at ¼ the cost you mentioned.

Clicking this link should bring up my entire itinerary.

It's a question you should ask of the car service you intend to use. They likely have the most accurate information.

Microsoft will likely have an issue as it owns the “X” trademark.

As promised, below is my correspondence with Viking's Guest Services Department. I understand, but do not agree with, Viking's policy. After all, I paid for each segment as if they were separate cruises, but Viking is not allowing us full benefit of what would otherwise be included excursions. As a point of comparison, we sailed on Regent Splendor for three consecutive cruises in January and February of this year and were able to take advantage of as many included excursions as we wanted...including repeated port calls. I am aware Viking and Regent are two different cruise lines, but they do cater to the same clientele. ===== Me... We're cruising on Viking Sky this fall on a 55-day multi-segment cruise that was combined into a single booking. Excursion selection opened yesterday and we were faced with Viking not allowing us to book more than one free excursion on multiple logical segments. This applies regardless of whether the free excursions are duplicates or different. One example would be for our three days in Fusina where the second day is the end of the first segment and beginning of the second. Viking will allow us to book a free transfer to and from Piazza San Marco on day one, but not again on day three. There are other repeated port calls with the same restriction. It appears we're being penalized by the fact that Viking combined the segments. This was not our choice. Can anything be done to correct this? Thank you for your assistance. ===== Viking... Rest assured, you will receive your allotted number of reservations for each segment. When we have a large number of in-transit guests booked on a combination cruise, we will offer one included tour and one optional tour in the 'in-transit' ports. These excursions are only available to book on board, as they will not be available in My Viking Journey. ===== Me... Regarding your statement concerning booking onboard, can you guarantee full availability of excursions and times as there were when excursion bookings opened on July 21st? If so, I’m fine waiting until we board. If not, I would appreciate it if you would find a way to confirm us for a second booking on turnaround days. In addition to turnaround days, we were not allowed to make a second free booking at the following ports that are visited on other days: Crete, Rhodes, Ephesus, Troy, Naples, Sicily, and Florence. Will a full complement of excursions be available to us once we board…guaranteed? ===== Viking... Your cruise is part of what we call a combination cruise, which is made up of multiple, separate itineraries. Shore excursions are not listed on embarkation/disembarkation (turnaround) days but are available to be booked on board. There should be no problem reserving your remaining shore excursions on board. We suggest going to the Shore Excursion Desk/Guest Services as soon as you can. They'll advise what is available and when. As far as the included shore excursions for Crete, Rhodes, Ephesus, Troy, Naples, Sicily, and Florence, you may only do one included tour per port; even if we have 2 days in the same port. We have to be fair to all guests, and all guests receive one included per port (not per day). There will be optional shore excursions available to you and of course the on board staff will be available to advise you of the details.

Good info! Thank you...