I need advice on the best way to get from Augsburg to Munich airport (MUC) to catch a 9:30AM flight.
Spend the night in Freising. Seriously!
I would recommend that you get to the Munich airport by at least 7 AM, 2½ hours early. I allow 2 hours, but I am familiar with the airport.
According to the German Rail website, there is a connection (ICE to Munich Hbf, S-Bahn to the airport) leaving Augsburg at 5:32, getting to the airport at 7:06. The fare would be €25,50 pP.
There is a slightly slower regional connection leaving Augsburg at 5:02, changing at Munich Hbf, and getting to the airport at 6:46. With that connection, you could use a Bayern-Ticket, €28 for up to five people, €20 for a Single.
A bus from Freising leaves the Bahnhof at 6:45, arriving at the airport at 7:02. Earlier buses leave at 6:05 and 6:25, arriving at the airport at 6:22 and 6:42, respectively. The bus fare is €2,40 per adult.
By train you can leave Augsburg as early as 04:39 and arrive at MUC as early as 06:15. You will need to make one connection (either at Muenchen-Pasing or Muenchen Hbf). For timetables go to www.bahn.de and click on the drop-down flag menu for English. Enter Augsburg Hbf as your departure point and Muenchen Flughafen Terminal as your arrival point. After you get summary timetables, click on the arrow to the left of each departure time to see the connecting point.
Unless you take the S8 through town and around to the east to the airport, you can't do Augsburg to the airport with only a change a Pasing. The S1, which heads out of town to the west, goes off to the north, to the airport at Laim, the stop before Pasing. You can change to any inbound S-Bahn at Pasing, go one stop to Laim, and catch the S1 from there.
Just want to say thanks for the recommendation to stay near the airport. Definitely the way to go. I ended up taking the train to Munich Thursday night and caught a shuttle to a hotel in Erding. Then I just had a 10 min shuttle ride Friday morning to the airport. This was certainly much more trouble-free than trying to hurry to the airport Friday morning.
Thanks!