Trip to Germany
 

I am looking at travelling from Houston to Germany for the World Cup in June. I had a look at flying to Berlin which is expensive. I tried redeeming frequent flyer points to no avail. My other options are to get a reward ticket to London or Paris or another European City and train/fly it to Germany. Any suggestions which would be the best and cheapest route?

Have you looked into flying into Frankfurt? Might be cheaper than into Berlin, and there are excellent train/plane connections to anywhere else in Germany you might want to go.

For cheap flights within Europe look at these (you'll need a good map or atlas with an index and good geography knowledge):

www.skyscanner.net

www.whichbudget.com

Once you know that you have a cheap flight into Germany from a point of arrival in Europe where your US carrier takes you, it doesn't matter if they drop you into Rome, Madrid, London, Frankfurt or Zuerich for example. If fifty Euros get you from there to somewhere near your target in Germany, you're fine.

Look at www.dba.de and www.germanwings.com and www.airberlin.com, they fly within Germany and also from countries around Germany into Germany. And there are others, too.

WK

I think a lot would depend on where you are headed in Germany.

If Berlin is your primary destination, do also look into flying into Hamburg. Continental has a nonstop connection from Newark.

Berlin is just a 90 min. train ride away from Hamburg (and the transfer from HAM to Central Station would only take you about 30 min. by Express Bus). Cost of train approx. EUR 50.00 for the undiscounted one-way trip.

WallyKringen gave you good tips for domestic German budget airlines. But do not rule out Lufthansa:
If you are interested in a domestic round-trip flight ticket, they often have better deals than their competitors at dba.

Forgot to add: Hamburg itself is worth a day's visit, too, IMHO (although as a resident I am biased) - particularly during summers.

Berlin is probably the most expensive German city to fly into from North America.

Check out the full range of other options, especially Hamburg, Hanover, Koeln, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt (probably the cheapest to fly into).

Then, take a train to Berlin.

We are also traveling to Germany for World Cup. We were able to redeem SkyMiles points for Singapore Air from JFK to FRA. We are taking the train to Hamburg. I also hear people are having luck flying into Dusseldorf. Good luck!