Cheapest way to fly to Europe/Germany in September?
 

I've been doing the Kayak alert fair thing and searching the travel sights but I have no clue as to find the cheapest way to get to Germany in September (flying from Texas). Should I fly into Portugal or Ireland, then take Ryan Air over to Germany or....?

Do you care which city? I don't find it cheaper to fly into another country by the time you pay onward transport and use more vacation time getting to where you really want to go.

I would use a site that lets you search date ranges if your dates are flexible. Look at multiple cities (Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, etc.) if you don't care where in Germany you arrive.

We have found that Frankfurt is one of the cheapest major airports to fly into and travel to Germany regularly. We are in the Houston area and like to fly on American Airlines going through DFW.

Prices HAVE gone up this year compared to years past but prices normally go down a bit for travel after mid-September. You need to check the airline websites regularly and sign up for airfare notices on Travelocity, etc. Also, go to www.aa.com and check American's pricing online.

One way or do you plan to return? If so, when?

Low budget carriers like Ryan Air are a good deal for people living in Europe who are taking a weekend trip with a very small amount of luggage, but coming from the US I'm betting you have at least one big suitcase. If you check their fees for baggage you will probably discover that you're not saving any money unless you are traveling extremely light. Also if your flight into Europe is delayed and you miss your flight on Ryan Air you will have to buy a whole new ticket, whereas you would not if you booked your entire trip with one ticket.

I have to second bettyk's advice to fly straight into Frankfurt, but also check Munich depending on what part of Germany you will be visiting. I don't think you will save time or money by going into another country.

bettyk, may I ask why you prefer American via DFW over United's non-stop from IAH?

We had no other option last year but to fly to any city in Europe and get a budget airline onwards for a price $300 less than doing it all with one airline (also with connection in Europe). About $200 less each once you look at: The downsides to this are price to check in (yes it costs; but a lot less if you do it online) and to check in your big bag (also not cheap)and if you are tired from a trans-atlantic flight you may also want to pay for priority seating on the budget airline; also money. The major downside is if your flight out of the US is delayed you are out of luck once you land in Europe as your budget airline has no alliance with the airline you flew in on so it is hard for the budget airline to help or feel sorry for you if you miss the flight. Did it twice. Second time was one too many.Mainly because of that worry about missing the flight connection and not being able blame it on the same airline!! Also a lot of the budget airlines fly out of smaller airports than the US flights come in from. Some that you may be OK with are Dublin, London Gatwick, Barcelona and Berlin.

P_M, I'm not a big fan of UA. I use to book flights for the people in my department in work and none of them liked flying UA.

We started flying AA when they had "more leg room in coach" and joined their frequent flyer program. We've flown AA on all of our European trips since 2002 and have never had any problems with them. However, I don't know how this merger will change things.

Where are you flying into in Germany?

Your best bet is to fly direct from the US and forget the hassles of Ryan Air.Ryan Air nickels and dimes you for everything;sometimes they are even at the right airport for the connection and the time and effort spent is ridiculous when you are tired and jet lagged.

Delta,United and American all have flights into the main German airports-Dusseldorf,Stuttgart,Munich and Frankfort so check those flights out.

The only reasonable alternatives would be to check airfare to Amsterdam, if your destination was in the West of Germany. Schipol airport has its own train station and is quite well connected towards the Rhine-Ruhr metroplex, Cologne and Frankfurt with direct HSTs.
Zurich is a good gateway to the Southwest, esp. the Southern Black Forest or Lake Constance. Also has a train station.
But flexible train tickets that take away the stress of delayed incomining flights (vs. discount fares which limit you to specific trains) are not cheap. And that may eat up the savings from flying into any other than your final destination.

I would not fly via Dublin and connect to Ryanair unless I wanted to spend a day or two in Dublin anyway and could live with the limitation on checked and cabin baggage.
Still, Ryanair serves mostly secondary airports in Germany which are 1-2 hrs by bus from the actual destination. Like for Frankfurt or Munich. One exemption would be Berlin, though.

>>>The only reasonable alternatives would be to check airfare to Amsterdam,<<<

Not from where I live. AMS is a Delta hub (I live in a former Delta hub area) and it's almost always cheaper for me to get a flight to somewhere else in Europe even if I have to change flights in AMS. I usually find cheaper flights to Dusseldorf or Stuttgart than the main airports (Frankfurt, Munich).

Shmitty must be too busy or has changed plans. He hasn't been back to either of his threads.