Cheap flights to
Germany

Killer deals on airfare can drop at any time, but years of watching prices fluctuate have taught us that there’s a sweet spot before a trip when the cost of a plane ticket is usually at its cheapest. It’s 1-3 months before a domestic flight and 2-8 months before an international one. We call this the Goldilocks Window.

There are, however, a few situations when we’d recommend you add a few months to that equation. If your travel dates are set in stone, for example, or if you’re flying during peak season or over a big holiday, you should plan to buy your tickets earlier than the aforementioned windows. And, whatever you do, be sure to click that buy button before airlines raise ticket prices as the departure date looms—they routinely do so 21, 14, and 7 days before a flight.

Sometimes a travel “hack” is complicated enough that the extra work hardly seems worth the savings. And while the Greek Islands Trick does require a little more attention to details when planning, we think it’s straightforward enough that it’s always worth checking out if airfare is higher than you’d ideally like to pay.

The gist is to find the cheapest long-haul flight you can that gets you relatively close to where you ultimately want to end up. Then, you’d make up the rest of the distance by train, boat, or a low-cost flight. It’s practically required for the Greek Islands, hence the name, but it works equally well for destinations all over the world.

You might look at flights into Münich and be a little disheartened to find they’re $800 or more roundtrip. By flying into Berlin, however, you may score a roundtrip ticket that’s closer to $300—so even if you have to buy a separate train ticket for $80-100, you’re still saving a good There are lots of low-cost airlines that serve airports all over Germany, too, so if a 4-hour train trip isn’t appealing be sure to check on flights.

With the Greek Islands Trick, the “hack” is all about looking at different options for your arrival airport. With this tip, it’s all about different options for your departure airport. People who live near multiple major airports probably already do this to some extent, but we find amazing airfare deals from airports all over the place—so looking beyond your usual departure airports can be a very good idea.

Even if you’re checking all three of the airports around Washington D.C., you might still find that flights to Berlin are around $800. If you take a wider view of the map, though, you may find a roundtrip fare on a nonstop flight from Newark to Berlin that’s closer to $300 or less. We suspect that, for many travelers, a savings of $500 or more makes the train trip from D.C. to Newark well worth it.

One of the best ways to save money when you travel is to be flexible in the planning stages. At some point, of course, you need to pick dates and buy tickets—but if you choose dates before you look at the cost of airfare and hotels, you run the risk of locking yourself into a more expensive trip. Not everyone has the luxury of flexibility, though, not least because things like school vacations dictate travel planning, but there are a few things you can do to save a little on a trip.

If you’re limited by school or work schedules to travel during the peak summer season, look at the first two weeks of June or the last two weeks of August for flights. The start and end of summer are sometimes a bit cheaper. Thanksgiving is notoriously expensive for traveling in the United States, but it’s something of a hidden cheap week for flying internationally. You can also schedule flights on the days when they tend to be cheaper (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays), avoiding the more expensive days (Fridays and Sundays).

Your email inbox may not be your favorite place, but this is a money-saving tip that may make you genuinely excited about getting new messages. Because searching for cheap airfare can be something of a full-time gig (ask us how we know), it’s a challenge for people who already have full lives. By signing up for fare alerts on specific trips you’re looking into, you’ll then be notified via email when the price drops into the range you hope to pay. Just remember that if you’re considering multiple trips you’ll have to set up multiple alerts. Or, if you want to hand off the whole project, join Going and we can do the searching for you.

The busiest airports in Germany and its main international gateways are Frankfurt (FRA), Münich (MUC), and Berlin (BER). We regularly find deals on airfare to all three, plus a number of other airports around the country. There are so many low-cost airlines with hubs in Germany, and that kind of competition frequently means savings for you. Not all of the deals we find are on nonstop flights, but if you don’t mind a layover, you can sometimes save a great deal of cash.