>>>The price difference between flights alone (upwards of $1,300 each - DEN-MUC on Lufthansa) and the same flights with a hotel on Expedia (some options well under $900 each) is definitely tempting me<<<

It's possible your airline is offering the deal too. Does it have a vacation link (on Delta's website there is a link to Delta Vacations)? Often you do save if you are just staying a few days and book Delta's package. Another reason is sometimes a specific hotel can be under remodel and they cut deals to OTC's.

kybourbon - I just checked Lufthansa's site again - there's an option to add a car to the booking, not a hotel. Weird. There's a hotel tab, but can't add it to the flight for some reason. Two tickets now up to $2,932. The hotel tab sends me to Booking.com.

Do print out paper copies of your hotel reservations and don't rely on what is sent electronically (btw this was with Hotels.com, which is an Expedia company and the booking was not part of a package).. the hotel clerk at checkin read the title of the booking which said "Room Only" despite the details including breakfast which I could have shown them if I had a paper copy. The electronic invoice is misleading. I discovered that Hotels.com is part of Expedia and that Expedia uses "partners" for hotel bookings so there was a lot of phone BS... our partner isn't open, we have to contact the hotel, yada yada yada. Eventually a Hotels.com supervisor gave me a credit card refund for the breakfast charge (after requiring copies of the hotel invoice, Hotels.com booking, forwarding to different office, promising a call back that never came, yada yada yada).

As I said, never had a problem with airline booking using them, although never had a cancelled flight booked via Expedia. It isn't unusual that I see airfares on Expedia that are lower than direct with the airlines after figuring all the extras.

Mel, I didn't see you mention the airfare-only price at Expedia. I saw the comparison of Expedia air+hotel package with Lufthansa air-only. With the $800 savings with the package I would consider the hotel to be a throw-away option.

Is the hotel where you want to stay or is it the lowest price package (or both)? You could figure out which hotel you actually want and see if there an Expedia package for it.

I would not have the same concern about the 3rd party booking that others mentioned. That was "what if there is an issue with the flight", i.e. a mechanical or other delay caused by the airline.

I would think about two things: the possibility that I would want to change the ticket and my assumption that I would be stuck in a center seat in the last row of the plane.

I'd want to buy tickets where I get to pick the seat in advance on those long flights.

When I last bought international airfare on Expedia, they had a window after the purchase where they offered discounted hotels. In many cases they were nonrefundable, and not necessarily better than I could have found on my own. So as mentioned you may want to run those numbers or consider them "throwaways".

BTW I often find airfare sales around the holidays, maybe there will be some on 4July...

The airfare only price through Expedia is $1,334 each.

The flight/hotel packages on Expedia are numerous - loads of hotels to choose from, some for the same basic price (~$2,000 for both tickets, plus three nights in a hotel) others with a slight surcharge, several of which will work well for our three nights in Munich. I've spent the afternoon researching some of them. They even have a few that I'd already zeroed in on before I checked Expedia.

It looks as if I can reserve seats when I book. They offer insurance for possible changes too, so it's looking better and better. Unless of course, I'm missing something, which is a distinct possibility.

Let's hope....regarding a potential sale that is.

Just a few months ago, I helped a friend's daughter book RT ATL <> FCO on Expedia. The packaged very nice hotels in Rome and Milan and both travelers were very happy. Purely anecdotal, based on my one experience with Expedia, but they paid a much lower price with the packaging and all went well.

Anecdotal works for me, thanks for that tuscanlifeedit.

>> They offer insurance for possible changes too

That is for changes before travel starts. My concern is about ticketing changes after departure. If you are in Munich and you want re-ticketed for whatever reason then you are in the right place if it is a Lufthansa ticket. If you go to LH with an Expedia then they tell you to contact Expedia. Nowadays, maybe that is not an issue the way it once was. I guess it isn't now that I consider that "contact Expedia" is just going to their website. Anyway, it is not a major concern.

Your two threads have been merged in to one.

Figured that would happen.

I usually buy an inexpensive policy from World Nomads if I'm going somewhere third-world. But for Europe I would just rely on the standard EU flight compensation and airline policies. And I do try to build extra time in to connections.

However EU compensation isn't due if the delay is due to bad weather, which would have been interesting last October when we nearly didn't land in Lisbon due to a hurricane front! Never experienced an aborted landing before.

Never experienced an aborted landing before.

Yeah, those are memorable. I experienced two on the same flight once - flying into Singapore.

The time we experienced wake turbulence on a flight from Houston to Vegas was pretty memorable too. Yowsa.

IIRC, the second go-round he didn't even try. He came on and said they'd try once more, and if that didn't work, they'd be back on with announcements. We didn't even know what the issue was, when I finally turned on the TV at the hotel around midnight, discovered it was Zombie Hurricane Leslie. I think that some of the diverted RyanAir flights went to Madeira where there wasn't enough hotel space for everyone. Lovely!

https://people.com/home/zombie-hurri...ain-rare-turn/

Sometimes ignorance really is bliss!

Okay, another possibly dumb question has come up.

I'd planned to drive to Denver and fly direct from there, but now I'm finding flights from COS (which is closer) with a connection in Denver for the same price.

If I book on Expedia on a single ticket, and something goes awry with the first leg of the flight, causing a mishap with the connecting flight in Denver, am I covered as I would be if I book directly with UA/Lufthansa?

I'd probably take an early flight, giving me a back-up for a later flight leaving from COS, just to give us some wiggle room. More time in Denver, but experience tells me if something is going to go wrong, it's going to be on the UA side of things.