Billigste

September 17, 2012 8:55 AM

I need cheap tickets to Berlin from Durham, NC ASAP.

I'm looking for as cheap as I can get. If it means flying to Hamburg then taking a cheap European service to Berlin, that's fine. I need round trip, beginning of October. I'm only staying a week or slightly more than a week.

posted by outlandishmarxist to Travel & Transportation around Berlin, Germany (8 answers total)

Either use www.kayak.com and search a whole bunch of options (maybe expand the "nearby airports" to 100 miles if that's an option or something?). That or call a travel agent and maybe pay a bit more for their expertise, and hopefully still less than $1500 direct round trip or whatever the expensive rate you're seeing right now is...
posted by Grither at 9:14 AM on September 17, 2012

Oh, and in particular, you could try Kayak Explore.
posted by Grither at 9:17 AM on September 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Looks like you can get to Prague for $940, and then train from there to Berlin maybe?
posted by Grither at 9:18 AM on September 17, 2012

Our last trip we flew into Munich on IForgot and then took AirBerlin to Berlin and back for a couple-day trip. Saved hundreds per person over booking to Berlin through IForgot, and I imagine that last leg to Berlin would have been on an AirBerlin flight either way.
posted by chazlarson at 10:59 AM on September 17, 2012

Best answer: Google/ITA has their Matrix search site that can do complex searches like this. It can also play loose with dates and durations to help you find a decent fare.

I told it to roundtrip TXL to RDU for a week starting 10/1, and it found an itinerary for €653 (USD $856) using KLM and Delta (TXU->AMS->DTW->RDU)

Play around with it and good luck!
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:04 AM on September 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also consider flying into any European airport and taking a budget flight from there. I flew London - cologne that way last summer.
posted by dd42 at 12:02 PM on September 17, 2012

Note that European budget airlines are not included in kayak, matrix, and other american aggregators. You might need to check ryanair, easyjet, etc. separately.
posted by dd42 at 12:08 PM on September 17, 2012

I suppose I should have mentioned that IIRC the Munich-Berlin round trip was something like 100 Euro per person. Buying AirBerlin tickets in the US was a bit of a challenge that involved, I believe, calling the counter at their only US presence in Florida and giving the gate agent my credit card. That was 2009, so of course YMMV.
posted by chazlarson at 12:38 PM on September 17, 2012