Flying to Venice from Denver through Germany?

Google flights is always a great resource for what’s available. Denver is a United Hub looks to have direct flights to Frankfurt and Munich with connections to Venice.

It looks like your best bets are BA or United through London or Lufthansa or United through Frankfurt. It looks like there are other services like Air France through Paris but they don't fly every day. Our options out of San Diego are largely the same, but next year KLM is going to start Amsterdam service 3 days a week.

Having done this London on BA is not a bad option - they fly a lot of places in Italy and Europe - but Heathrow is hit or miss. It's huge so if you have to change terminals it can be a pain and even Terminal 5 has A, B, and C concourses so you may have to transfer even within Terminal 5. We have friends that do the Frankfurt route and say that it's really manageable in terms of connections and seem to like it.

My only caution is that flying out of Venice presents logistical challenges so avoid early morning flights out of there if you can. The BA options are really early to make the connection back to San Diego in London so after doing it twice I won't fly out of Venice if connecting the same day. Also on cruise ship departure days can be really busy days for a relatively small airport so if you can fly into Venice and out of somewhere else it's usually a better option.

The reality is that you'll probably have to stop off at some airport on either the east coast or the front half of Europe to get into Italy or the smaller European airports.

Good luck,
=Tod

It’s been a long time since we did that, on Lufthansa. As mentioned, United also flies through Germany from Denver International, to either Frankfurt or Munich. Our main airline for years has been British Airways, which completely avoids an east coast connection, but that involves a transfer in London.

American Airlines (booked thru their partner, British Airways) has been an occasional carrier for us, when the BA flight on our date was already out of frequent flyer seats. That involved a connection in Dallas/Ft. Worth (ugh), but it worked. Not sure what the Germany options are from Dallas/Ft. Worth.

I'd pick flying through Munich as it is a better airport than Frankfurt (IMHO). If you go through London, i believe you will have to get an ETA for the UK at a cost of 10 GBP.

Since SFO is also a UA hub I also fly to Italy via Germany often. Both UA and LH have direct flights to FRA and MUC. Between the two I prefer MUC as FRA is bigger and there are often long walks required on the T1. Check Google Flights or Kayak and enter from DEN to VCE and see the options for your dates of travel. It looks like that both LH and UA (both partners in the Star Alliance) fly from DEN to MUC or FRA. That means that some flights are operated by UA while others by LH (probably at least one each every day at different times of the day). I prefer those operated by Lufthansa.

I would avoid Frankfurt if possible

It’s funny how people can have such different experiences at airports. I have been through both Frankfurt and Munich, and Munich was where I had a problem, and almost missed my connecting flight to Venice. I had to go through security again, and only had an hour. I found myself in a large room with a LOT of people, no marked lines, and nobody to ask a question of. It was an unorganized mess compared to what I experienced in Frankfurt and other airports. It was a few years ago, though, so maybe it has changed.

Yes based on several flights through Frankfurt and Munich as a frequent Lufthansa customer, Frankfurt is one I actively avoid. You need a longer layover there than what is typically offered because bus transfer is often required for connecting flights.

If you arrive with United/Lufthansa, you will also fly Lufthansa to VCE and I don't think you need a bus at Frankfurt as it's all done in T1 (just flew through FRA recently). You can see the map below. You may need a bus if the plane doesn't dock at the terminal and instead stops in the apron in the tarmac. In that case a bus will bus you from the plane to the terminal. That may be the case since FRA is superbusy in summer and the new additional terminal on the south side of the runways is still under construction (or at least it was this past summer when I was there).

Terminal 1 is the one used by UA and LH. The arrival gates from the US are the Z gates on level 3. As you can see below T1 is shaped like a pair of scissors. The Z gates are on the 3rd level of both blades of the scissors. The departure gates for EU flights are from the A gates, which are also on both blades of the T1 scissors but on the 2nd level. So basically A gates and Z gates are on top of each other. To go from the Z gate of arrival to the A gate of departure you must first walk to the "pivot" of the imaginary scissors (the passport control is there), then descend the escalator to the level below (the A gates or 2nd level) then walk to the A gate of departure. The two "blades" are very long (almost 1/2 mile each). So if you arrive at the very tip of one blade (for example the Z69 gate, which is the last one on the very tip of one "blade") and your departure gate is A40 (at the very tip of the other blade), you will need to walk the entire length of the two blades, or almost a mile. There are moving walkways to ease the pain of the long walk but still it's a walk. You may be lucky if both arrival plane and the departing plane are at gates close to the pivot of the scissor (for example you arrive at Z52 and depart at A20) in that case it's a short walk to the pivot (for passport control) then down the escalator to the A gates level, and another short walk to the A20. For example today the LH flight from Denver arrived at FRA at gate Z50 (which is nearest to the 'pivot'), while the next available flight to VCE departed from A40 which is on the level below but at the extreme tip of the other blade. So whoever flew from DEN to VCE today, had to walk at least one kilometer (0.6 miles) from one gate to the next.

https://www.frankfurt-airport.com/en/airport-guide/orientation/airport-map.html

Munich is easier but only if both flights are in the original T1 terminal. In that case the same principle explained above applies. The flights from North America arrive at the upper level (H gates) while the EU flights depart from one level below (G gates). T1 is not shaped like scissors, it's shaped like a straight ruler. The passport control is in the middle of the ruler. So for example today the flight from Denver arrived at H2, on one end of the ruler, while the first available flight to VCE departed from G33 on the opposite side of the ruler, but not near the end. Therefore in this case the walk consisted of about 600 yards, including going down one level after the passport control.
Things get a bit complicated if your European flight departs from the new Satellite T1 (gates J,K,L) in the middle of the tarmac, which unfortunately now it's my case when I go to Florence. In that case one needs to take the underground people mover (which travels under the tarmac) to go to the satellite. Even though I now have to go to the satellite T1 (which involves the people mover), at least in my experience for my flights to Florence, it is still less walking than Frankfurt. But again it depends on which gates your flights use.
I don't think there are security controls after the passport controls anymore at either Frankfurt or Munich (I flew via Munich in 2023). However I think there is an additional security check and additional passport control before boarding flights to the US on the return trip.