I booked a flight from ORD to MUC in early December on United. I want to go to Vienna, but United does not fly to Vienna. I would have to take Austrian or Lufthansa. I cannot book the entire trip through United and must book them separately.
The flight arrives in MUC at 9:35 and the Lufthansa flight to Vienna leaves at 11:15. I know I have to pass through immigration, secure my bags, then check into Lufthansa. Is this possible oir a pipe dream that this can be done ?
I go on google flights and put in chicago to Vienna and get multiply flights including united/austrian, a united partner. Some go through zurich others through frankfort. Do you have to pass through Munich?
How willing are you to buy a new ticket if you miss your flight to Vienna?
It sounds as if you have checked luggage. So, you'd have to go through passport control, collect your bags, walk through customs, recheck the bags in for your flight to Vienna, go through security, and then walk to your gate.
If the higher powers are on your side, you might make it. But I doubt it.
Is your flight from ORD going to arrive on schedule at 9:35? Can't tell me that, then how do you expect me to tell you if you can make the transfer on time?
I'm curious as to how you got yourself into this situation. You say that you cannot book the entire flight through United, but I found the entire flight on Expedia, as a codeshare flight with Lufthansa.
I'm pretty familiar with MUC, and I believe an hour forty minutes will be enough time if, 1) your flight is on time, and 2) both flights use the main Terminal 2 building, that is, neither of the flights uses the Terminal 2 satellite building. On two tickets, assuming you can get your boarding pass in advance, you will still have to go through Schengen immigration (hopefully with no long line), then go to the baggage claim room, which is out-side of security, get you bag and re-check it, then go back through security and get to your gate. (whew)
United has mileage pooling where up to five people can contribute miles into a pool, then miles can be withdrawn for flights. I started the pool with my daughter. Neither of us had enough miles for two tickets. We could have each bought separate tickets with miles, but I thought it better we travel together on a single booking number, so we pooled our miles. When I looked at everything, booking through United involved using flights from both United and either Austrian or Lufthansa.
So we pooled our miles and tonight I went to get our tickets. That is when I discovered that using poiol miles, you can only use United flights and not their partner airlines. This left us in Munich. I then looked to fly from Munich to Vienna, then back again a week later. That is where I got the flight times. There are later flights, but either they are not non-stop and entail four hours for a one hour flight, or they are much later and at a considerable higher cost.
My fault for not reading the pooling agreement a lot closer. Anyway, I have our tickets for ORD to MUC and back. Now I have to figure how to get to Vienna. A train takes 4 1/2 hours and costs almost the same as flying
I don't need to tell you what perils there are flying from ORD in the winter. Counting on being on time might be a tad optimistic
With checked bag(s) trying to do that in under 2 hrs in 'pipe dream' territory. Even with carry-on only, it is extraordinarily optimistic.
Walk up train fares look to be $95-$125. Walk up airfare $400+.
Booking the 340PM flight in advance is about the same cost as the walk up train fare.
Buying a train ticket after arrival and departing around noon, or plan on the 340PM flight, look to be the reasonable options. You end up in Vienna about the same time with either choice.
Good luck
And the 3:40 flight will probably be what I do. Thanks to all who replied
Once Dave decided he wanted to see his favorite Austrian band outside Vienna as part of a long weekend trip to Europe. Delta could get him to MUC on the cheaps, but VIE was far more expensive. So, Dave bought a round trip Delta flight to MUC and a round trip MUC-VIE flight on Austrian. I left about 4 hours between flights as insurance and had only carry on luggage. Also, on the return flight from VIE, I had the first flight of the day. Everything was on time. I waited quite a while between flights, but it was worth avoiding anxiety if a flight ran late.
