GAS 2020 flights? LUX vs FRA

Have you checked fares for your itinerary? Usually FRA is less expensive. Also FRA has direct flights from North America, whereas LUX requires a connection, as far as I know. Which airline is less important to me than convenient schedules.

If you find a great fare into Paris CDG, it is worth considering as well - Trier is about 3.5 hours away from Paris, vs. 3 hours from Frankfurt.
Train will cost more though, due to greater distance - unless you book early (up to 90 days before travel).
But still, if a flight into Paris is $200 cheaper...

EDITED to mention early booking

I did exactly what Balso is suggesting when I did the GAS in 2016. It was a great excuse to add time in Paris to get over jet lag, lol!! I stayed there for about a week then took the TGV/fast train to Saarbrucken and a local train up to Trier. It was very easy and fairly inexpensive bought well-ahead. There are several routes from Paris to Trier and I just picked the one that worked time-wise and price-wise with fewest connections.

I do suggest you arrive at least the night before to Trier, 2 nights if you can manage it no matter where you fly in to. I thought there was a lot to do there and I did not see everything I wanted before the tour started. There is basically no time in Trier on the tour. There is a walking tour but no time to go in to the really interesting churches before you have to leave for lunch on the Mosel and then Burg Eltz.

Airline suggestion will certainly depend on your departure city. You don't have a location listed in your profile so it will be hard for anyone to give you experiences. Seattle? A backwater N. Idaho town like me? Atlanta? Chicago? NYC?

Sorry, from Seattle. Just updated my profile.

From Seattle, I would look at Iceland Air and fly into Frankfurt. Nice, quick, flight into Iceland. Get off the plane and get on the next flight to Frankfurt.

From Seattle you have a variety of nonstop options -- Air France and Delta to Paris CDG, and Lufthansa and Condor to Frankfurt. If it were me I'd choose one of those nonstop flights (though maybe I'd stay away from Condor at the moment since who knows what's happening with their financial situation); I wouldn't pick an Iceland Air or other one-stop itinerary unless it was substantially cheaper than one of those nonstop options.

My wife and I, and our good friends are also booked for the GAS 2020 tour. (9/5/20 Wenatchee, Wa)

At this point we're thinking of flying in to Frankfurt, then train to either St Goar, or Bacharach for a couple of nights pre Trier.

We've used KLM (Delta) in the past for trans Atlantic, but I think it might still be a bit early to get realistic rates.

Mark writes, At this point we're thinking of flying in to Frankfurt, then train to either St Goar, or Bacharach for a couple of nights pre Trier.

I like LUX airport - it's small and things go quickly there. The bus ride to the Luxembourg train station is simple and inexpensive - and so is the train ride from there to Trier (about 50 minutes.) If the price is right, I wouldn't hesitate to use LUX for getting to Trier.

From FRA, sure, you can catch a train to Trier, but it's going to cost you three hours +. That's a lot of time on top of a long overnight transatlantic flight!

That said... Your tour doesn't include the Middle Rhine Valley, and if you have time for that (like Mark from Orondo does) prior to your tour, FRA would be a much better choice - it's only about one hour by train from FRA to St. Goar, an ideal base town for a 2-3-night stay.

Hey Mark, we're right behind you on the 9/12 Tour. Please leave some beer in Munich and strudel in Vienna for us, and have a great trip!

We're taking a not-as-the-crow-flies' path to Trier, arriving KLM into Brussels and spending a week on the ground between Bruges/Ghent and the Moselle Valley. Flying back from Vienna on Air France following a few days after tour's conclusion.

Looks like we’re the tour ahead of both Mark and Matt starting 8/22. We’ve been looking at different configurations of flights and can’t decide what we want to do pre tour, PAris or Rhine for a couple days. Love the planning process though.

We did that tour last year. We have the advantage of being close to JFK airport in NYC, with lots of direct flights to Europe.

We considered flying into LUX but decided on FRA instead, because we couldn't get a direct flight to LUX in our desired timeframe (we prefer redeyes to Europe because we arrive when it's light outside). We spent two nights in Bacharach (an hour from Frankfurt by train), and we're glad we got to enjoy a piece of the Rhine Valley before the tour. From there, it was two hours to Trier by train (via Koblenz, an easy transfer). The trains were fast and inexpensive.

You will love the tour!

Thanks for the info have never planned train travel and to be honest I feel a little intimidated by it. I guess I need to do more research. Love the idea of being on the Rhine a couple of days before the tour. I always feel the cost of getting over there I need to take full advantage of my time.