I spent weeks obsessing over the fares to Germany. Finding the best fares was easy, but the layovers were insane, and the travel dates were way out of our range. We are going to be travelling with a 7 year old, and spending hours in an airport in Amsterdam or London did not seem like a good time.
I checked every site, everyday. Kayak, Vayama, Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, CheapTickets... and the airline's websites, too. I signed up for every fare alert and deal detector I could find. I even tried FareCast, but they didn't have predictions for Denver to Frankfurt. I made bets with myself. I found cheap tickets, about $400 round trip, but that didn't include the extra $400 in taxes. And again, the layovers, ugh. I waited. And waited. For weeks.
Biting the bullet, I jumped on a chance to get all three tickets for $3000. Sticker shock? Yes. It was not the $1800 I had hoped for, obviously. But the itinerary was a breeze. Colorado Springs to O'Hare, a piece-of-cake one hour layover, and then direct from O'Hare to Frankfurt. The return itinerary is similar. The travel time is approximately 12 hours both ways.
I booked through Orbitz. The flights are on United, but the fare wasn't available on their website. Plus, Orbitz has this Price Assurance thing. If someone else books my itinerary at a lower price, they refund the difference.
Also, while booking, Orbitz offered a rental car for all 11 days for $350 from Avis. Seriously. Not Euros. Dollars. I got that too. It's a VW Polo, so it's small, but not Smartcar small. We'll fit. And probably get bumped to a higher class vehicle (cross your fingers!).
At any rate, the Germany/Austria Christmas 2008 trip is now definitely happening! I'll be dusting off the Rosetta Stone discs and brushing up on my German.
Auf Wiedersehen!
