We just got a killer deal on a round trip flight in and out of Frankfurt in late November/early December and are using it as a jumping off point to travel to Praugue and Budapest. I'm running into some trouble booking our return to Frankfurt as there seems to be no direct way to get there that isn't crazy expensive. I'm considering flying from Budapest to somewhere else in Germany serviced by a budget airline like Cologne or Nuremberg the afternoon before and then taking a train to Frankfurt the morning of our 2 pm flight. Any thoughts? Or alternatives that I might be missing?
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
How are flights from Vienna ? Easy train ride from Budapest.
Posted by
Pacific Northwest
2622 posts
I've run into that before....Lufthansa is pricing it, right? They're expensive for that leg. I've gotten around it before by buying my flights from Condor from SEA to FRA and they they will also sell me the FRA to (Prague) in my case at a much better price. Have you tried pricing FRA to PRAGUE and BUDAPEST to FRA as an open jaw ticket with Lufthansa? Lufthansa is cheaper if you buy a round trip, and open jaw counts as roundtrip.
I priced random dates...end of Nov from Frankfurt to Prague and ten days later from Budapest to Frankfurt. Their cheapest fare...no seat selection and carry on bag only...came to under $175 per person. That's not bad for Lufthansa.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
17908 posts
Check the cost of a Round Trip Frankfurt to Budapest. There is a very good chance that it will be substantially cheaper than a one way ticket. There are also some cheap nonstops from Cologne to Budapest if you want to work in a side trip, then train to Frankfurt.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
WIZZ air flies nonstop from Budapest to Hahn airport but in November-December it only runs 2-3 x/week. There's a direct bus (operated by DB) between Hahn airport and Frankfurt airport (1.5 hours), shown in train schedules.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
17908 posts
I picked two random dates in November and got Lufthansa Round Trip for $176 or one way, Budapest to Frankfurt on the same flight with Lufthansa for $289. Yes, that's right, round trip is cheaper.
Posted by
PA
2738 posts
This is interesting, because we have found that we can get substantially lower prices on Lufthansa open jaw round trips from Philadelphia through Frankfurt that have Budapest as either the end of the outward leg or the start of the return leg, as opposed to Lufthansa round trips to most other places.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
Thanks all! Our R/T is through Iceland air so that makes some of the Lufthansa suggestions a little trickier but overall it is very helpful to know open jaw or roundtrip pricing makes things much cheaper while traveling within Europe.