My husband and I are planning our trip to Germany to see family in June 2023. We believe this would be the best month for the good weather. Where is the best place to purchase our tickets to fly from Orlando International Airport to Frankfurt? Is this the best route? and should we do a non-stop or 1 stop flight? what are the pro's and con's ? Thank you...
Patty Walker
Lufthansa has direct flights from Orlando to Frankfurt, so buy the tickets from www.lufthansa.com. A one stop flight can be cheaper if you are lucky, but otherwise there are no advantages of stopping along the route in my opinion.
The best place to purchase your flight tickets is from the airline. But do your initial searches on a site like Google flights or Kayak to see what your options are. If Orlando and Frankfurt are the closest airports at either end, then they are likely your best choice for route. If there are alternate airports within a reasonable distance (reasonable to you) then you could consider those as well.
I believe that only Lufthansa is offering a nonstop flight at present between these airports. All of the others will involve a stop, probably in another US or Canadian airport. Nonstop is always ideal, but you will likely pay more for the shorter travel time and convenience. But don't just look at price. Consider the length of the connection time on connecting flights.
It's still early to book June flights. You can set up flight price alerts on Google flights to monitor prices for a while before buying.
I agree there are no advantages for a flight itinerary where you have to change. I live where I always have to make multiple changes and that just increases your chances that something will go wrong with one flight and cause issues down the line. I'd pay more for a non-stop flight.
Be sure to understand your luggage allowances with your airline of choice if you decide you want to carry on instead of checking your luggage. Lufthansa has an 8 kilo weight limit on carry on plus a size restriction so you'll want to make sure you can work within that regulation.
Always book directly with your airline of choice. Some of the online travel agencies may look like they have good fares but sometimes they are not "live" fares and you wind up paying much more than you thought. If there are problems with a flight - delays or cancellations - you have to deal with your booker instead of the airline.
A direct flight is always preferable, but cost and schedule are factors to balance. It’s not the end of the world to have a connection. I often search using a site like skyscanner.com then book directly w an airline.
You ask about “best route”. I’m not sure what that means. Orlando is a great outbound because Disney is a popular international destination. Frankfurt is fine for an inbound, assuming that’s near where your family is. Munich and Berlin are options if those cities are closer. Düsseldorf might even be an option.
You’ll have to go through passport control then claim your bags, then clear customs. In my experience, that process is super fast in Germany but it depends on how many flights are arriving that hour. If you are connecting through another EU Schengen country on your way to Germany (eg amsterdam) you’ll have to do that process there, so budget time on your connections.
Public transit is very good in Germany. Google will tell you various transit connections. Don’t be afraid to use transit. That said; sometimes w luggage, a taxi is a good splurge for a jetlagged traveler.
Patty, it's not vital, but I want to raise the possibility that you'll do something besides visit family. I mention that because an Open-Jaw flight, even if it has a second segment on the more remote destination, can often cost the same as a direct roundtrip to one place like Frankfurt. Bad example, but if someone wants to visit the BMW factory customer center, or follow the path of Luther or Bach, you might go farther afield than Frankfurt. And you don't need to return to Frankfurt if you already have a ticket home from somewhere else.
To be clearer, we wanted to start a trip in Cologne, which you can't fly to directly. Lufthansa got us there for the same price as a direct flight, and since you can't get into a hotel at 9AM anyway, we were happy to arrive in Cologne at 1PM (from the US East Coast.) I think we drove across the Netherlands and flew home from Amsterdam.
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