Dresden to Vienna...airlines
 

We need to fly from Dresden to Vienna....any suggestions as to airlines that we can contact. Our trip is scheduled for June, 2010.

Thanks. Judi

Start with some engines, there are plenty recommendations on this board.
Right now both Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines have direct flight, Air Berlin has the lowest fare, but who knows what's going to be nearly in a year.

Try air search engines www.kayak.com (seems to show only Austria Air with non stop flights) or www.whichbudget.com (a cheap fares website, seems to show Air Berlin - through Berlin -- and Germanwings - through Cologne). Even with an air connection it might be preferable to the train which takes 7-8 hours and a connection through Prague.

Check out http://www.flylc.com/directall-en.asp

You don't state your entire route, but I would definitely recommend you look at a multi-city itinerary (home-city 1, city 2-city 3, then home) right from the get-go. The Dresden-Vienna leg may be cheaper as part of a complete itinerary compared to just buying a 1-way ticket.

Lufthansa has neither a direct nor a non-stop flight of their own, but rather a code-share on the Austrian airlines non-stop. LH only flies their own metal from Dresden to Munich and Frankfurt, and codeshares to Duesseldorf and Hamburg.

If you are going to buy a 1 way ticket Dresden to Vienna I'd wait till sometime in the spring - this could be well after you've booked your long haul flights.

Thanks for all the info.

Have already booked our flight from Miami-Berlin; Vienna- Miami. Using frequent flyer miles. Will check with Lufthansa. Really want a direct flight if possible.

THanks...Judi

Be careful with your terminology. In airline parlance direct is not the same as non-stop. A direct flight simply means the same flight number, and it may include a stopover somewhere.

I've made this mistake in the past booking a direct flight, only to be surprised enroute. Caveat emptor.

The only option I see for a non-stop is a single Austrian Airways crop-duster, I mean turboprop, currently flying 6 days a week (Sundays excluded) at 8:05 am. Lufthansa code-shares on this flight, but does not offer their own service.

First of, my point was that to check fares now for June of next year is not indicative. How knows whether Air Berlin will still be around and/or there won't be another opeartor?
My question though is about www.whichbudget.com. I've never heard about it before and was curious to check. For the area I am interested in now it the site showed a flight, which no longer operational, and a flight, which never existed. Did anybody actually booked anything on using this search engine?

mian11224,

Sites such as http://www.whichbudget.com/, kayak.com and http://www.flylc.com/directall-en.asp are informational. The booking is done via the airline's own site. Sometimes the information is out of date or plain wrong. Then the booking won't work. But I've used all three sites at various times successfully.

Sorry, Michael, have to disagree. Kayak transfers you to the site of the source of the price, not necessarily an airline. Whichbudget in one case also transferred me to an airline site (which confirmed that such flight doesn't exist), but in another case it presented a form to fill out with the button 'Buy ticket'. Couldn't master the required format of the phone number to proceed, but the site of the codeshare airline, which supposedly performs this flight, doesn't have such destination.
Flylc is definitely incomplete, although possible not for all destinations.

There are not always direct flights between any given pair of airport.
If you fly with a plane change, you can however just take a train - it will take the same time and less hassle.

I checked on www.bahn.de and I see you can take a train, with zero changes, that takes 6 hours, 52 minutes from Dresden Hauptbahnhof to Wien Sudbahnhof. Given the limited flight options, the train is a very sensible choice that provides almost zero hassle. If you book far enough in advance (but not more than 3 months), you can get excellent deals on price that are almost certain to be cheaper than a flight.

Thank you for your valuable information. I was hoping to avoid the 7 hr train ride, but given our options this might be the best one. We still have time...so I"ll keep checking, but good to know about the train travel availability.

judi

>I was hoping to avoid the 7 hr train ride,

It´s not really more hassle than hanging around in airports which will cost you about 4 h anyway. The part just after Dresden, along the Elbe valley, is very scenic. And you can make a break in the journey and spend a few hours in Prague, especially if they finish refurbishing the main station (Hlavni Nadrazi).
If the works are not finished yet, the train will stop in Prague Holesovice which is a fair bit from the city center.

$169 US, non-stop return, on a Lufthansa code share flight with Tyrolean Airlines (Austrian Air) for pretty much any day in June.
1 hour 25 minute flight.
Just don't take the return flight.

I've taken the train between Dresden and Vienna a couple of times and personally I wouldn't recommend it except for the german part as altamiro has mentioned. I only did it because I was too late to book the airline, it was a very long & boring ride on a poorer quality train!