How to find cheap flights to munich

I show you how to improve your searching skills for cheap flights to Munich. Get lots of tips and tricks for hunting the best airfare.

At the moment, we’re living in a travel wonderland. Twenty years ago, plane rides were very expensive and therefore you had to save your money for such trips. Intercontionental flights were even more expensive and nearly unaffordable. Nowadays, things have changed. The prices for a flight ticket are quite low, even for long haul flights. But these prices can be lowered if you follow some rules when searching. Here I want to share my tips and tricks with you to find the best airfare to Munich, so you can enjoy Bavarian hospitalitiy, tradition and heritage and explore the city with me.

The lowest prices for flights to Munich can’t be found during the summer, Oktoberfest and Christmas Market season. Tickets are bought and planes are filled without a fare war. This because many people want to visit Munich when it’s convenient for them and the city has a lot to offer and attracts tourist the most. This is regularly (early) summer (May – Sep), the Oktoberfest (late Sep./early Oct.) and the Christmas season (December).

So here is the first tip: Avoid the high and ultra high season of Munich!

But what to do if you have to book during the high season, because of your family, job or othercommitments?
Try to fly to Munich at the beginning of the high season or at the end. Usually the prices are lowered a bit. But keep in mind that in Munich there is a high season not only because of tourist attractions. it’s also about the weather. Check out my article about Munich’s weather to find the perfect month for your journey to Munich [coming soon].

Cheap airfares are not available during the most touristy time - Tip No. 1

Try to avoid weekend flights - Tip No. 2

Most travelers try to book from weekend to weekend´, so they can go back to work on Monday, get home on Friday or Saturday to spend time with their familiy or they just don’t want to split a week.

Avoid this behavoiur att all costs. The prices for flight tickets are higher on weekends (Fri-Sun).

My next tip is: Try to book unusual flight days. Usually the best ticket prices can be found on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Unfortunately flight ticket prices are calculated by complex algorhytms considering thousands of different variables like school vacancies, price of jet fuel, events at departure and arrival destination (think of Oktoberfest, exhibitions or trade fairs, music festivals), airport usage fee (more expensive when lots of flights want a slot) and many more.

Therefore sometimes prices are not predictable. But the rule of thumb here is: Look for mid-week flights first.

I know it sounds inconvenient taking a one stop flight to Munich, especially when it’s a transcontinental flight. You will have to add a minimum of two and a half hours travel time compared to a nonstop flight. But often, the additional time leads to significant lower ticket prices.

For example a return flight in Economy Class from New York (John F. Kennedy Airport – JFK) to Munich International Airport for two weeks in the peak season July costs 695$ with a stop of one hour in Iceland. The nonstop flight on this route costs 1.626$. Thats more than 900$ more for a time advantage of 2:40 hours.

But of course the extra tip here is to find one-stop flights that are convenient. A six, eight or even 21 hour stop is not convenient if you only safe a few bucks. Especially when it comes to intercontinental long haul flights, try to find one-stop flights with a stopover of max. 3-4 hours.

Here are some examples for good stopover airports with a short stopover time for flights coming from the West (North & South America):

Reykjavik, Keflavik Airport (KEF), Iceland

London, Heathrow Airport (LHR), Great Britain

Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport (AMS), The Netherlands

Dublin, Dublin Airport (DUB), Ireland

Madrid, Adolfo Suarez Airport (MAD), Spain

Lisbon,Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS), Portugal

Paris, Charles-De-Gaulle Airport (CDG), France

Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Airport (DUS), Germany

Frankfurt, Frankfurt Airport (FRA), Germany

Here are some examples for good stopover airports with a short stopover time for flights coming from the East (Asia, Australia):

Doha, Hamad Intl. Airport (DOH), Qatar

Dubai, Dubai Intl. Airport (DUB), United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Intl. Airport (AUH), United Arab Emirates

Singapore, Changi Airport (SIN), Singapore

Istanbul, Istanbul Airport (IST), Turkey

Vienna, Vienna Intl. Airport (VIE), Austria

Frankfurt, Frankfurt Airport (FRA), Germany

Helsinki, Vantaa Airport (HEL), Finland

Consider a one-stop instead of nonstop flight - Tip No. 3

Always delete your browser cache, cookies, etc. before searching for airfares - Tip No. 4

Researchers found out: online travel booking sites tend to show higher prices when you already searched for flight tickets.

This because of cookies and browser history. According to Wikipedia, a cookie “(also called web cookie, Internet cookie, browser cookie, or simply cookie) is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user’s computer by the user’s web browser while the user is browsing. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember stateful information (such as items added in the shopping cart in an online store) or to record the user’s browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited in the past).”

So if you looked for cheap flight tickets to Munich on websites like Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, or similar, these Websites stored a cookie on your computer and will now recognize you and your wish flying to Munich.

The chance is now very high you will see higher prices than usual.

So here’s my tip about online research of airfares:

Always delete your browser history, cookies and other website data stored in your browser before navigating to a travel booking site.
Use the “Incognito-Mode” of your browser (“InPrivate-Window in the Edge browser, “Private Browsing” in Firefox, “Incognito Window” in Chrome) while searching fopr airfares.

More tips, tricks and hints coming soon!