Questions on my First international Trip
 

This will be my first time traveling international, I am from the US and have friend that lives in Luxembourg currently and want to tour the country and plan to visit Germany and Belgium. Planning on mid-October.

1. What is the best place to get plane tickets?
2. When going through immigration, what questions do they usually ask?
3. Are there any recommended credit cards international that would be good for international travel?
4. Do you recommended using an international pass plan or getting a eSIM for calling?
5. I have some medications that I take, taking the pill bottle with the label of what it is and doctor information is good enough or do I need something more from the doctor?
6. I would go through immigration at my final destination which would be Luxembourg since I have one stop in Paris first.
7. When returning to the US, is it the first airport destination that will be going through immigration? In my case, it is Chicago before going to a smaller airport which would be my final stop. Read about the CBP Declaration Form 6059B, there anything else?

Sorry for all the questions :)

immigration questions.

What is your purpose for being here? say 20% of the time
Where are you staying? say 5% of the time
Do you have a return ticket? say 1% of the time
Do you have enough money? say 1/2% of the time

Going through immigration place. It depends on where you technically enter Shengen. So if your flight to Paris is followed by a train to Luxembourg. Then Paris. If your flight to Paris is followed by a Domestic flight to Luxembourg (most likely). Then Paris. If your flight to Paris is followed by an International flight to Luxembourg. Then Luxembourg. But at the end of the day it doesn't matter. You just do it. You walk up to a person, you smile, you hand them your passport (open at the face page) and you wait for them to decide your fate.

Medication. I take a stock of all medication for any holiday with me in my on board bag, so it can never get lost. I also have a prescription APP which I can show to any Doctor or Pharmacist if I need replacement. I don't know how your system works but access to a prescription would be sensible.

Welcome to Fodors

Welcome. Just very quick - "6. I would go through immigration at my final destination which would be Luxembourg since I have one stop in Paris first.flying from the States." No, you will go through Immigration the first time you set foot in Schengen (in this case that would be Paris). It makes no difference how you travel onward. .

But I am a bit confused because you ask where to buy your plane tickets . . . but if you haven't booked the flights how do you know you will land in Paris first?? Flights from various cities in the US and on to Luxembourg can connect in lots of different cities - London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich and others.

You will go through immigration - passport control - in Paris as your point of entry into Schengen, regardless of how you are going on to Luxembourg, if that is where you land first. You will go through customs in Luxembourg if you fly there, assuming you are on the same ticket and it is a straight transfer, not two tickets when you need to reclaim any bags for the next flight, but customs is a non event. If you land in London first, ie a non Schengen country, you will go through immigration and customs in Luxembourg.

Depending on your medication you may need something from the doctor to allow you to import it not all medication available in the US is legal in the EU. You can check this with your doctor or look online.

Returning to the US you will go though immigration and customs at your first point of arrival.

If you already have a credit card it will work just fine - you may have to let them know you are travelling abroad, ditto your bank since you can use you bank card to get cash at an ATM.

It depends oon how much you plan on using your phone whether an e-Sim or an international plan is better for you. I expect you can use your friends WiFi most of the time, and any hotels you stay in will normally also offer free WiFi, so it would only be needed for when out and about. You can use the GPS function without connecting to the internet - set the phone to airplane mode to be sure it doesn't accidentally connect.

Public transport within Luxembourg is free.

Buy your plane tickets directly from an airline, avoid third party sites.

Your existing credit card will be fine. Just be sure your transactions are charged in the currency of the country you are visiting, not the currency of the country you are from (which I assume is the US). Do the same when using an ATM. Otherwise you'll be paying much more - this practice is called dynamic currency conversion - look it up.

If you plan to travel internationally more in the future, you might consider getting a Schwab debit card - they will refund ATM fees up to a set amount per month.

If your cell phone carrier is t-Mobile, verify the details of your plan. We travel in North America and Europe with no need for additional plan or SIM card.

Yes always book direct with the airline rather than a third party. If there are issues, the airline will give priority to those who have booked directly. To check flight schedules and pricing, I usually use Kayak to check and once I make my decision, I go directly to the airline. That said for me I try to book Delta and now JetBlue with additional European flights to gain points but points no longer give you the benefits they used to provide, so you might consider the best schedule and pricing as priority.

My apologies on the confusing, i am looking at plane tickets through Unitled, one that I am thinking of going with is going through Paris and was just checking if there are better sites out there, the ones I looked at or either going to stop at Paris or Frankfurt.

Thanks for replying 🙂

From Frankfurt you can get a bus direct to Luxembourg city, or the train for not much more, though that involves changing trains.
Have a look at Flixbus.
Better than a really short flight, climate wise, and probably moneywise too. Takes a bit longer but you get to see things along the way.

Make sure you have a credit card that doesn't charge the 3% Foreign Transaction Fee on everything you charge.

For immigration I've had questions, no comments at all, and occasionally a machine instead of a person. Be clear and direct if asked questions. They don't want a long story. If they think perhaps you're not being honest, it could lead to a longer interview. The most common questions in my experience are 'what is the nature of your visit? ' and 'how long are you here for?'.

If you are travelling with your credit card, remember to contact your bank before buying plane fares or leaving the country. Banks can block big purchases or put the brakes on if they think a scammer is using your card in an unauthorised way overseas.

Lavandula

Don't forget to buy travel insurance. Hopefully you will never need it but things can go wrong.

Travel insurance, buy it before or very soon after you place your first purchase (normally the flight) then if there is a major crisis (another Covid or Ukraine) and you have to cancel all the elements of your holiday are covered. Don't buy it at the airport waiting to board. If you have medical conditions you need to make sure the insurance company is made aware of these.

I strongly encourage you to get a good guidebook. Most will cover much of the information you've sought and have been given ... and BONUS!: it will cover the things you haven't thought to ask! :)

I think Rick Steves Europe through the Back door would be helpful

Do you have a US passport? Others on this forum will know if visas are required. Europe is introducing an online visa, later this year I think.

AFAIK - ETIAS (visa) for US citizens doesn't begin until mid 2025.

ETIAS is NOT a visa
 

"Europe", ie the EU/Schengen area, is not introducing an "online visa."

ETIAS is pre-screenings for terrorism and migration-related risks for citizens of countries where visas are not required. It's late getting rolled out (expect it in 2025) but you can read more here: https://etias.com/etias-requirements/

OP, check out deals to Europe for October as some airlines have promotional fares. If you plan on flying into Paris, check PROMO deals on Air France, for example. You can get deals for $900 round trip if you look around. You can try Skyscanner to compare fares. Delta/Air France/KLM are Skyteam and work together so you can book all the way through to Paris or wherever you want from the nearest airport on one ticket, often referred to as a "through ticket." That way your luggage goes to your final destination and you get all of your boarding passes. In case of a delay, the airlines puts you on the next flight.

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT BOOK your tickets SEPARATELY as that requires you to pick up your luggage and recheck it yourself every time you change planes. Everything should be on one booking, from the airport closest to your home to the airport in Europe which is your destination. Things happen and missed connections are an everyday occurrence but the airlines are always responsible to get you to you final destination if you are on a through ticket. I once got stuck for 3 days in Montevideo because my flight to Buenos Aires was canceled and I had to rebook my flight out of Buenos Aires to Paris myself with just hours to spare before the flight lifted. This was because I had booked my tickets separately after changing my plans. Not fun. If I had booked on one ticket, the airlines would have done it all for me, at no extra expense. I had to cough up $500 more to change my ticket. A costly mistake.

When you arrive back in the US, you will pick up your luggage but you return it right after clearing US Customs and Immigration so it's no big deal.

Thank you, that makes sense, I just had tickets I had picked out from united airlines that were going through Paris but I haven't got the tickets yet, I did see that American Airlines have flights going to stop in London first, deciding which route is better.
Thanks for your reply on this :)

I have my US passport, I checked and says no Visa required when staying for less than 90 days

In fact I do use T-Mobile as my carrier, I'll have to check on that.

Just want to say thanks everyone that took the time to reply with answers on all this.

Have fun, and please report back to tell us how it went.

Just one more question, promise :), I am about to get my plane tickets and first I look, I was going to book one that is going to Paris first. I also see options to stop in London and one that stops in Frankfurt before going to Luxembourg, which would be the better route to take?

Are the routes all on the same ticket? I'm assuming they are. How are the connection times?

All three airports are very busy. Airlines tend to, imho, under estimate airport transit if there are terminal changes and passport control.

At the minimum, I prefer at least 2 hours in any of them, but would prefer a bit longer if possible.

Yes, all on the same ticket, some are an 1 hour and 30 minutes, but I do understand that isn't enough time, think I saw a few for 3 hours, I'll keep that in mind.

I assume you are flying American on your first leg. I am also going to assume this is all on one ticket? If so connecting in LHR you will probably flying BA. I don't fly American much so I do not know what airlines will take you from CDG or FRA. If the costs are the same your choice should depend on time of departure from your home airport and connection times.
You don't want too short of a connection time or too long of a connection time. I generally prefer 2-3 hours. I am personally ambivalent about your choices of connecting airports. Are you checking a bag? What time you land at your destination may also be an issue.

Like Travel_Nerd, I want at least 2 hours between flights and I want all legs of my journey on the same ticket. And like mjs, I consider actual times for departing my "home" airport and reaching my planned destination.

I'm sorry I've lost track of your itinerary, but FWIW, I would encourage you to consider not just the financial cost of your flights, but also the cost in time and energy. And it isn't just the extra time you might need for the stop: I once chose to fly into a city that wasn't actually part of my plan, but which had hourly train connections to my intended destination and cost less than 2/3 of what it would have cost to fly into my planned starting point. Good deal, I thought! WRONG. There was a problem with the train lines, so instead of hopping onto the next train, it took me more than 12 hours to get a train. And by the time I recognized the problem, it was already too late to cancel the first night of my lodging in the planned destination, so I had to eat that cost AND pay for a place to stay that night, and trust me, last minute lodging can be pricey. Lesson learned!

P.S. Ask your questions! No need to apologize. :)

90 minute connection time is possible. But it makes things tight if there are any delays. Having a longer connection helps absorb delays.

Given that this is your first international trip, I'd give yourself a longer connection. So you can get through logistics, find a loo, get water or snacks if you want them, and breathe a bit before your connecting flight.

Hi Starman32,

I'd go for Frankfurt or Paris. In a pinch, if something happens to your onward flight, you can always take a train from Frankfurt or Paris to Luxembourg. Paris to Luxembourg is about 3h30 or 4h30 with 1 change, and Frankfurt to Luxembourg is about 4h30 with 1 change.

You can check train schedules at

www.bahn.com

Have fun as you plan!
s

I take it you are connecting in Chicago so this is a two stop itinerary? I would think United would have more flight options than American. You are going to be exhausted by the time you reach your final destination. Other things you might consider are on time histories of your possible flights, available seats.