Berlin Airport question

If you have checked bag(s) you are most certainly doomed. Even with just carry on you have a high risk of a sad ending.

Some info here may be helpful--- https://ber.berlin-airport.de/en/selected-for-you/VIABER.html

If the second flight is to Amsterdam, you won't be going through passport control and US-bound security screening until then, before you board the US-bound flight. I don't know whether 75 minutes is enough to change terminals at BER but it seems like it should be or they wouldn't have sold you the connection. Couldn't you have flown from Rome to Amsterdam, then on to the US, faster and cheaper?

The problem with flying in on RyanAir and flying out on another airline is that RyanAir calls themselves a "Point-to-point" airlines. All that they guarantee is that if you are there in time to board the flight, they will get you to the destination sometime. All of their connections a "stand alone" connections. It's like if you had a flight to Berlin on one ticket one day, and the flight to the US on another day. RyanAir takes no responsibility for getting you to Berlin in time for your Delta flight to the US. And Delta won't excuse a late arrival on RyanAir.

Actually, as I have read in their conditions of cariage, if you have two connection flights on RyanAir and the first flight is delay so that you miss the connecting RyanAir flight, you are still out of luck for the second flight.

It sounds like you have 2 separate tickets — one on Ryanair and one purchased from Delta (though the flight to Amsterdam will be operated by KLM). Rome to Berlin and Berlin to Amsterdam are „domestic“ flights, so you will not need to go through security if you only have a carry on bag. If you have a checked bag, you will not make the connection because you will have to exit the secure side of the airport, collect your bag at baggage claim, recheck your bag at the KLM counter, and then go through security again. If you just have a carry on, the odds are in your favor, but there are things like flight delays on the first flight that could make you miss the connection. In that case, Delta is under no obligation to honor your ticket (there is a chance they might, but it is not guaranteed; they can make you purchase a new ticket at the super high „walk up“ price). I fly on two tickets from time to time. I generally give myself at least a good 4 hours with a carry on (no checked bag) if connecting using two tickets. And I avoid discount airlines when I do it. A connection time of 75 minutes is too risky for me!

You've got a chance; not a good chance, but still a chance of making your Berlin connection, providing your first flight arrives on time and you only have carry on luggage. You haven't got a snowballs chance in Miami if you have checked bags, since you can't tag them all the way through. If I was in your shoes I'd try really, really hard to get an earlier flight, and preferably direct Rome to Amsterdam.

I would look at changing to the 220PM departure from Berlin.

The one way walk up fare could be 4000+ euro, as is the case for tomorrow where only 1st class is available

I have never been in the Berlin airport, so I can only go by what I see on maps and information from the airport website. Hopefully someone can give a better answer, but as far as I can tell, there is no "airside" transfer system, like the SkyLine at FRA or the shuttlebuses at MUC, between T1 and T2 in the Berlin airport.

Looking at maps and aerial photos on Google Maps, it appears that there may be a walkway between the northern end of the airside of T1 and the western end of the airside of T2, so changing gates airside at BER could be a walk (a few feet if you are lucky, maybe up to a mile if you are not). There does not appear to be any connection, except walking outside, between the public sides of T1 and T2. If you don't have your boarding pass on arrival and have to go out into the public area and check in for Delta, all is lost. You'll have to go out of and back into the secure area.

Lee,

Delta does not currently fly its own metal to Berlin, and none of its partners fly non-stop to the US from Berlin. Delta formerly had a seasonal JFK to Berlin flight, but the airline last flew that route in 2019. Any current Delta-marketed/sold flight is going to be operated by KLM (to Amsterdam) or Air France (to Paris). So, the OP should remain in Terminal 1. Edit: I am wrong. As the OP notes himself, he will arrive in Terminal 2, which opened in the spring as BER‘s terminal for low-cost carriers.

So, the OP should remain in Terminal 1.

OK, yes, it is a KLM flight codeshared with Delta, so the OP would have to check in with KLM in T1, but the point is, the OP is arriving on RyanAir, which uses Terminal 2, and the flight out is from Terminal 1, so the OP needs to get to T1 airside without having taking the time to go through security. It looks like there might be a walkway from the western end of the air-(gate-)side of T2 to the air-side of T1. If they already have a boarding pass, they should be able to go directly to their departure gate, but if they don't, they will have to go out of security, check in with KLM and get a boarding pass, then go back through security to their departure gate, from which their flight will probably have already left.

I stand corrected on Ryanair. It looks like Terminal 2 had just opened last time I flew out of BER. I didn’t realize Ryanair had moved it’s operation over there.

Thanks to all of you! We have opted to shift flights to the night before to minimize risk:) Appreciate you all!

Good call. And thanks for returning and letting us know the result. Many people don’t!