Open Jaws clamping down?

It may just be that Stuttgart and Munich are more expensive airports to fly to or from, rather than anything to do with open jaws.

Edit: This isn't the answer as I checked Delta RT flights from SLC on random dates next summer, and RT to MUC and STR are actually cheaper (slightly) than FRA.

I am not sure what you were trying to schedule but I just did a quick check of fares without looking at the exact schedule. Mid-April RT Frankfurt is low $1100s and an open jaw into Frankfurt and home from Munich to Salt Lake is high $1100s. Or were you looking at internal flights in Germany? Need a little clarity. We fly open jaw on most trips and rarely find open jaw to be more expensive and sometimes cheaper. The difference in the above example was only $50/person more expensive for the open jaw. Our typical experience.

If it is the intra-Germany flights that are giving you trouble it's likely that it's just a busy week for business travel. I've had similar experiences when trying to book an open jaw flight with a departure from Dresden. The cost was 500€ more than expected so in the end I just took a train to Munich (it was a weekend) and flew out of there. Saved me a few hundred euros plus I was able to visit some friends in Munich before I left.

DJ

Could be just the dates that I picked. I did follow prices for a couple weeks while my wife was getting her vacation nailed down. We do fly Delta Comfort - but that was consistent on all flights that I priced. We have been going every year, I guess I will see what happens next year.

Thanks for the replies.

It may be even cheaper (and faster) to fly roundtrip FRA and then take the DB from the airport to Stuttgart or Munich.

I think it also might be dependent on your departure and arrival locations. I've yet to find an open jaws that I liked, so I just backtrack a bit and have no issue with that, because I enjoy trains. I keep watch for the open jaw deal anyway.

We too fly SLC direct to/from AMS, CDG, or LHR with an attempt at a connection to an inter european city. There has been a slight increase in cost with various routes that have included the open jaws. Multiple connections costs are equal with round trip, no real savings. Prefer to avoid JFK. I await a "Sale". Price bumped $500 after the fire at ATL. Frankfurt Airport to Munich by train is very easy, buy early, it is a busy route.

Some years ago, I flew into Frankfurt and out of Munich, but the Munich to Denver flight had a connection in Frankfurt. The fare was about the same as the RT fare to Frankfurt, so the Munich to Frankfurt fare was essentially free. Four years ago we flew into Frankfurt and out of Munich. At the time the open jaw fare was about the same as the RT fare to either FRA or MUC.

The trouble with using the same airport (say FRA) coming and going but going on arrival to a final destination (say MUC) distant from the arrival airport is that the full fare train ticket can be expensive and the less expensive SparPreis fare requires the use of a specific train, which could be missed if your incoming flight arrives late. However, Lufthansa has a deal in conjunction with Deutsche Bahn called "Rail&Fly". For 33€ per person and rail connection, you can go from your arrival airport to any Bahn station. There is no specific train requirement, so you don't have to worry about a late arrival. You book the rail segment when you book the flights on Lufthansa. The rail segment is always 33€; the fare doesn't go up as tickets sell out, like SparPreis tickets do. Not sure if Delta is a Rail&Fly participant.

By the way, as of a few years ago, Delta had the only flight from the US to Stuttgart. It left from Atlanta.

Thanks for all the suggestions. We have ridden the Atlanta - Stuttgart route twice. It was our first choice this year but Frankfurt will work.

Once we knew that we were locking into to FRA-FRA, we just changed the itinerary to fit. There are always places that we like to revisit and others that we want to see for the first time. The circle route will be as follows:

Aschaffenburg
Rothenburg o.d. Tauber
Würzburg
Bad Mergentheim
Tübingen
Speyer
Mainz

Even when we cross state (Land) lines, it is to towns near the border and we can use railroad Länder Tickets. It is easy and cheap.

I was just writing to see if the airlines were changing pricing policies. Thanks again.

One thing that can cause a big difference in prices at the various airports is school vacation. Because it is staggered in Germany, flying into Frankfurt may be cheaper than into Stuttgart, etc. because they may not be on vacation at the same time. Spring/Easter break is in April this year.

Always check school vacations when planning your trips. You can change this to Sommer Ferien, Herbst (fall), etc. for the different Länder (states)
https://www.schulferien.org/Schulferien_nach_Ferien/Osterferien/2018/osterferien_2018.html

Nice itinerary, Gary. A good example of traveling around southern Germany without visiting too many large population centers.

If I might make one suggestion. Since you probably go through Würzburg on the way from Aschaffenburg to Rothenburg, why not do your Würzburg visit on the way to Rothenburg, then avoid backtracking by going from Rothenburg to Bad Mergentheim by bus via Creglingen and Weikersheim? I did this on my Romantic Road trip in 2007. There is an interesting palace at Weikersheim with extensive gardens. From Weikersheim to Bad Mergentheim you can either go by bus from the town square in front of the palace or by train from the Bahnhof, which is a short walk from the town square.

Thanks Lee. I was originally going from Würzburg to Ludwigsburg on a B/W Länder Ticket, not possible from Rothenburg, When I changed my itinerary, I kept the order and the Würzburg to Bad Mergentheim ticket costs even less.

I intend to take a day trip from Bad Mergentheim to either Weikersheim or Wertheim/Miltenberg.

Agree that it's probably the intra-Germany flight that's messing with the pricing. For a big trip a few years back, Delta wanted something like $2700 per ticket for a USA-Edinburgh, Edinburgh-London, London-Munich, Paris-USA ticket. We separated out the intra-Europe flights, and it was something like $1200 per ticket for USA-Scotland and Paris-USA open jaw on Delta, and $80 and $150 on BA for the two intra-EU flights to fill in the jaw. (Munich-Paris was by train)

I suspect that you're hitting a wall with Delta's Sky Team alliance partners (Air France/KLM/Alitalia) not having the prime and cheap options in Germany like you would if you were a United flyer and it synced better with Lufthansa/Eurowings domestic operations.

When I did Rothenburg to Weikersheim in 2007, the fare was 4,70 (per my expense report). When I got on the bus in Weikersheim, the fare computer wasn't working, so the driver didn't collect a fare, just let us on, so I don't know what the fare to Bad Mergentheim would have been. Obviously fares have changed since 2007. Today I can only find the fare for Rothenburg odT to Holdermühle (VGN, 5,95€) and from Archshofen (Creglingen) to Bad Mergentheim (VRN, 7,40€). That still leaves Holdermühle to Archshofen (about 2½ miles), but that fare can't be that much. It's still a little more than Würzburg to Bad Mergentheim, but if you want to see Weikersheim anyway, probably less.

The point is you don't have to use only Länder-Tickets. You can use local point-point tickets.

I don't know what you plan to see in Bad Mergentheim, but I found the Deutschordensmuseum very interesting.

For internal European one-way flights, www.skyscanner.com

My constant fiddling turns up multi-city itineraries to many areas of the globe that are just about the same price as a simple round trip. I am always careful to use a multi-destination search function and let it determine what the routing for connecting flights can be.