Brussels - Columbus (OH), cheapest way?
 

My sister will be doing an exchange in Columbus, Ohio for a month.
I have been looking for cheap airplane rates. The lowest rate I can get from Brussels is with Delta Airlines, with changes in NY and Washington. I don't know too much about American low-cost airlines. I've checked Southwest, and the only reasonable city to connect between Brussels and Columbus seems to be Chicago. However, from Brussels

I pushed enter by accident.
Ok, so from Brussels that would mean flying into Chicago O'Hare airport and out of Midway. Does anybody have any idea how easy these 2 airports are connected? Any other ideas of how to get to Columbus for a reasonable price?

Thanks a lot!

Hi Stardust--
a couple of "outside the box" suggestions. Can she get anybody to drive her to Dusseldorf? She could catch an LTU nonstop to Orlando and then do a budget airline up to Columbus. LTU has flight auctions on their site (www.ltu.com). One of our German relatives did it and scored a cheap flight to Florida. Southwest flies direct from Orlando (MCO) to Columbus. SW internet rate was $99 each way.
Also, will she be renting a car while in Columbus? If so, she might consider flying into Pittsburgh or Cincinnati and driving to Columbus.

Stardust, it would be helpful to know what rates your sister is finding and also her general dates of travel (summer, fall?). I did a quick search on Expedia.co.uk and for a mid-July departure/mid-August return and found rates of 900 euro RT departing from Frankfurt, connecting in Atlanta through to Columbus. Similar one stop RT flights (Continental, connecting in Newark) starting in Brussels were about 150 euro higher.

I will refrain from being nosy and asking why on earth your sister would want to spend a month in Columbus ;-)

Hi BTilke,

Thanks a lot for your help.

Travel dates: July 31st till August 27th (more or less). We found 864€ Brussels-NY-Washington-Columbus.

My sister wanted some experience in an American law firm before starting her LLM in London next September. And since my father happens to work a lot with a company in Ohio, that's where he got the contacts to get her an internship place. Of course, if you happen to have contacts in places just a little more exciting than Colombus, that would be great :-). They seem to have found an appartment for her on the Ohio State Campus though, which seems nice.

We live close to Lille btw, so Paris could be a lot more convenient to start from than Germany.

ttt

864€ is a pretty decent price for summer travel. Only downside is that it involves two connections, instead of one. I doubt you'll find a better price by flying to a E. Coast gateway in the US and connect on a low-cost carrier. At least not for those dates.

STARDUST,
we are the folks looking for apt. in eixample or la ribera. but coincidentally, we live in dayton, ohio area.
if your sister can fly from paris, there is nonstop to cincinnati, ohio. the drive is about 2 hours to ohio state campus. she will have a blast there...despite ohio's reputation, ohio state campus is consistantly voted as one of nicest campuses. and people have fun there!

I think you can get that same fare on Continental, with just one change in Newark.

The only low-cost air I can think of is Baltimore to Columbus, so you might check for specials into Baltimore from Brussels. Lowest fares are probably from London but then you have Brussels-to-London to add.