Cheapest European city to fly into

Continental is usually one of the cheapest and they fly from Columbus (CMH) via Newark to London, Frankfurt (FRA) and Zurich (ZRH). Frankfurt shows being less than to London right now in October. See "continental.com" or a good one to check all airlines is "kayak.com"

Rachel, Frankfurt is consistently the least expensive western Europe destination. Though it doesn't affect you because you are going by rail, car rentals are also usually the most reasonable there. Frankfurt is also very central, and you can get to Austria and Switzerland easily from there.

Delta is running some specials to edinburgh, Shannon Ireland right now til July 10.

Frankfurt seems the most logical, but try Munich, Zurich, and Vienna as options. It is highly dependent on partner airlines (Lufthansa, Swiss Air, Austria Air) as to who may be running specials. An often mentioned strategy is the "Fly to London then Budget Airlines" route, but that can be more hassle than benefit. Of the departure airports, Cincinnati probably is best since it is a major Delta hub

Continental and Delta also fly into Düsseldorf (DUS) and Cologne (CGN). However, I assume that since there are nonstop services between Cincinnati and Frankfurt and Pittsburgh and Frankfurt that need to be filled those routes should end up being cheapest.

We are also thinking about a trip to Germany. I found roundtrip fares from Raleigh to Frankfurt for $613!!

I just learned about yapta.com. Enter your trip and it will notify you when the price drops. Check it out.

I'm looking into open jaw itineraries like Rick recommends, but so far the one-way fares are wildly expensive.

"I'm looking into open jaw itineraries like Rick recommends, but so far the one-way fares are wildly expensive".

Heather - I have found that if you book an open jaw ticket with just the one airline it costs very little more if that.

Heather....most of the airline sites and airline ticket websites, like Kayak, Orbitz, etc, will let you choose something like "multi-city" or similar. You enter your departure city, your arrival city for your outward bound trip...then enter the departure city and your arrival city for the homeward bound leg. This will get you an "open jaws" fare that is far cheaper than trying to book two one-way tickets.

There is no non-stop service from Pittsburgh to Frankfurt. That flight was cancelled long ago. The only non-stop from Pittsburgh is to Paris on Delta. Last time I checked (a couple of weeks ago), the price was $608 round trip in August and September. July was up to $700 because the flights were starting to fill, and June was well over $1000 because there were very few seats left.

Does Swiss Air fly out of any of your airports of choice? I booked a Swiss Air flight from LA to Florence through Zurich in October for $579 from the airline directly.

We've found good fares on Delta to Stuttgart in the past--that's flying from Atlanta.

I think it all depends on what specials you can find. In late March, I bought roundtrip tickets to Italy for $387 round trip...TOTAL (included taxes & fees). Chicago to Pisa was cheaper than Chicago to Rome even thought I was on the same Chicago to Rome flight then had to catch a Rome-Pisa. Though rome as a base would have been nice, I based our stops on flying into & out of Pisa, and it worked out beautifully.

I found my tickets through Travelzoo.com. I'd check & sign up for e-mail notification on the discount travel sites.