Getting 3 Students to Berlin from Different Cities
 

Our daughter will be flying to Berlin for the summer for an internship program, along with 2 other students (these are college students, age 20 plus or minus). They want to go together if possible. They will be starting from Seattle, LA, and Milwaukee. It looks like Air Berlin is way the best option, price-wise. Would it make sense to have them meet up at JFK to take the same flight? It is a direct (non-stop flight from there. Are there other options I should suggest to them?

Air Berlin also goes direct from LAX for very little more than the JFK flight, but that would put the one in Milwaukee flying backwards to meet up. OTOH, LAX would be better for our daughter and the one from LA. So there will probably be some negotiating involved. . .

Any thoughts are appreicated!

AB also fly ORD-TXL, which would be doable both from LAX and SEA (and obviously from MKE.)

Yes, I checked prices and for their dates ORD is about $200 more than either LAX or JFK. But maybe it is that much cheaper to get there from LA and Seattle than to JFK? I didn't check that. It would be more central for all three.

I would discourage meeting at an airport; too many opportunities for something to go wrong. My suggestion would be that they all meet at one home (probably a day early) and fly from there the next day.

Flying from Wisconsin to LA or Seattle to get to Europe is not uncommon. When we flew from Cleveland to Hong Kong, they routed us through Newark; and now when I fly from Cleveland to Europe, we are frequently routed through Chicago.

That is good to know, Cleveland Brown. I felt like it would be imposing on the Wisconsin student to have her fly back to LA, but apparently it's not so bad? LA does make the most sense in terms of a place to meet up, as they could all stay with the one who lives there the night before flying out. Or they could all come to Seattle and stay with us, and fly Condor Air.

I didn't like the idea of them just meeting up in New York at the airport either.

There is a huge difference between CLE-EWR-HKG and MKE-LAX-TXL. Going through EWR adds at most an hour of flight time when going from Cleveland to Hong Kong when compared to the shortest times via ORD or YYZ.

In contrast, flying via LAX from Milwaukee to Berlin adds 5 hours of scheduled flight time (15.5hr vs 10.5) and that is IF there is non-stop MKE-LAX.

How did Hong Kong come into the question?

clevelandbrown brought it up.

I live in Milwaukee and I'd be very cranky if someone suggested that I (or my child) fly to LA to get to Berlin. My response would be, "I'll meet you in Berlin>"

I'm from Wisconsin originally. I disagree with Clevelandbrown's statement. No, it is not common at all to get to Europe via LAX if you live in the Midwest. That would be a huge imposition to ask the Milwaukee student to do that. With a good selection of Europe-bound flights from Chicago and with connecting on the east coast as an alternative, someone from Milwaukee is not going to connect in LA. O'Hare is more on the way for everybody than anything on the west coast, and Milwaukee is about an hour away from that airport.

I will agree with the half of Clevelandbrown's statement about meeting up in airports. There's always the risk someone will be delayed.

Yes, that is my greatest concern. I may need to ask our friends and relatives who live innChicago and New York to see if anyone would be willing to host the three kids for a night.

There is also thpossibility that the Wiscon student won't go home between the end of the school year and the trip. Their college is in California ( in the BayArea) so LAX would still work in that case. I haven't found any good prices out ot SFO, at least not as low as the Air Berlin flights.

I'm certain they can work something out. If they buy their tickets separately, ask the airline to link the individual reservations. Ideally that will make them be processed as a group if there is an equipment change, and it would be nice if the airline would seat them together.

Why wouldn't the L.A.-based student not fly non-stop with AB to Berlin. And let the two remaining from Wisconsin and Seattle sort it out as they don't have the luxury of an affordable non-stop from their home towns. After all, it will be a night flight with not much to do than sleep, if they can.

They want to fly together so that is their priority. I have given them the information and they will have to work it out among themselves. Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this.