Using Germany's smaller airports

Kat: Please let us know which of the many Parkdales you live in.
You can then get a better analysis of your itinerary.

I don't think you'll find anything nonstop back to N.A. from Nuremburg. I would not call Munich "smaller", lots of flights to many N.A. cities. I've used Dusseldorf; flights to New York, Toronto, Chicago, and others I'm sure.

Are you flying to/from SMF or SFO? And where and when are we going? ;-)

Hi, Aside from the West Coast to Frankfurt and Munich direct, from SFO and LAX you fly directly to Düsseldorf and Berlin. Definitely LAX to Berlin.

Many thanks to all for your comments and suggestions. A big thanks to Elle for the hypothetic! Does anyone know if leaving from the Dussledorf or Munich generally comes with a heftier price increase over that of Frankfort? We'll be flying back to SMF (west coast), so a layover is indicated. Hoping to keep the # of layovers to a minimum!

Munich was just awful. I was put in so many lines that I walked, along with many others, over a mile after I put on my pedometer. The business class lounge wasn't restful at all. After several hours, I injured my shoulder from my carryon and had to check it. The plane was late with no explanation. Only one English speaker, and no French speaker at my particular airline (Lufthansa). The information lady told me to "Go Away". That's what she said. I wasn't even in a bad mood, but I was surely unhappy. Fortunately, a group blew a gasket, and then we got some answers. As a child of a WWII veteran, I wondered why the lines and the multiple checking. Never had it anywhere else. I'm not a shopper, but Frankfort was a shopper's and diner's wonderland. Everything professional there.

We flew from Munich to SMF with one stop in D.C. Don't know about the prices since we got our tickets with miles. I guess you would need to compare the cost of different airports, factoring in the cost of going out of your way to save money on airfare.

I love the Munich airport, clear signage, good services, small number of travelers, etc. We can usually get a flight cheaper from LAX to MUC than to FRA. This summer for the first time we are flying from LAX in and out of the Dusseldorf airport with one stop, Chicago in one direction and Zurich in the other. The cost of our tickets to Dusseldorf was substantially less that than flights to both FRA and MUC. We'll be flying Lufthansa. One other summer we got a significantly cheaper flight in and out of Koln. That small airport was very new and really easy to navigate. We always look for flights withing a certain radius of the main part of Europe we want to go to and sometimes we get very lucky and find a wonderful smaller airport (with 1 stop) for hundreds of dollars less than some of the big hubs.

I don't mind the Frankf-U-rt airport. I will use it if it is the closest to where I am just before leaving. I've flown from Munich four times this century. Two flights were NS to the US (PHL & EWR), one connected in Frankfurt to Denver, one in Düsseldorf to O'Hare. I don't know that it cost me much more than from Frankfurt, but I was in Bavaria, so Munich was easier and less expensive to get to. For me FRA can be non-stop; MUC requires a change in the US (PHL, EWR, ORD). Delta has a non-stop flight from Stuttgart to Atlanta.

Dusseldorf can be less money at times. You just need to run it by Kayak or ITA. Don't even think about Charlotte-Munich. BMW has a lock on that flight.

To Keith: Yep, it was for real. Many children of WWI veterans hear about it for the whole of their childhoods. Others just read their history. Travel is a time of vulnerability, wouldn't you agree? This was a bizarre experience for anyone. I didn't pipe up, but several groups of people were upset and scared. A couple of ladies eventually cried. I wasn't upset or scared, but keenly aware that this day wasn't usual, and we were never told why. It was an odd place to be ordered about in that manner. I'm sure they had their reasons. I've been sent to stand against a wall with a bunch of police, guns drawn, looking for drugs at LAX and other fun stuff, but at least I was told why. Those cops yelled, too, but they also yelled the basis for their actions. Take care, and may every trip be smooth.

"Does anyone know if leaving from the Dussledorf or Munich generally comes with a heftier price increase over that of Frankfort?" There is no longer any consistency to which airports are "cheap" or "expensive." Use http://www.kayak.com, plug in your airport choices, and be sure to check the "include nearby airports" box. Then, do another search if you want to check other airports that didn't show up in the first search. Be sure to use the "multi city" option in Kayak if you are thinking of arriving at one airport and departing from another; this is much cheaper than two one-ways, and may not cost any more than a standard round trip.

I am perplexed as to why being the child of a WWII vet has anything what so ever to do with airports, waiting in line, etc. What is it that these children hear their whole lives? Are you fully unaware of why people stand in security lines at airports? Very little in Sarah's post makes any sense at all. Walking a mile? That is a basic 10 min. walk you will do in almost any airport. Has nothing to do with Munich airport. If you are in a lounge, why are you carrying a bag around with you to the point that your shoulders hurt? Usually one sits or stores their luggage at the lounge. Every airport has employees that speak multiple languages, English being the most common in German airports, followed by French. This includes the restaurants, info stands, post office and airline counters. Back to the question from the OP. Frankfurt airport is just big, it isn't a zoo. It is one of the most efficient airports I have been through. If you let us know where Parkdale is located, we could help you out a bit more.

Kat, have you priced out any tickets? It depends on the airline...How many gates they have at a particular airport, if it's a hub for them, if another airline has recently started flying there and now there's a pricing war, etc. And what seems logical won't always bear out... Apparently more than one post disappeared...I hate missing all the good stuff ;-)