Lease expensive months for Munich flights?

I'm hoping to get a Z4 and I don't want to have to deal with snow & winter driving so...in the time window between June and September, does anyone have a feel for when airfares are the least expensive (in general, of course)....

Any tricks, like flying Tu through Th, staying over Sat nite, or other ideas? Yes, I can go to Expedia and go day by day or month by month, but there are a lot of permutations to guess at--experience trumps the heuristic approach!

Go to orbitz and do a flexible date search. In total, this will only be 5 searches.

Between June and September your cheapest flights will probably be in the mid to late September timeframe. However, then you've got more expensive hotels because of Oktoberfest.

Use kayak. A flexible search with 3 days before and after your chosen dates. You can also allow up to 2 stopovers and select departure and arrival times if this is important. Summer months are definitely more expensive. I highly recommend mid to late April and mid October as good times for an ED. The summer months also have some of the worst traffic because of all the Europeans on holiday.

Late October (after Oktoberfest) and early November should have cheaper flights/hotels with very minimal risk of snow/ice.

If you want to do Euro Delivery at the absolute cheapest time of the year for travel expenses, the week before Christmas has half price airline fares and hotel rooms. In 2005 I left Chicago 5 pm the Saturday before Christmas and I was back in Chicago Monday at 5 pm. The aircraft both ways was largely empty. The hotel was largely empty.

The bottom line is that you can't predict the weather or the airline pricing with absolute certainty. I was in Munich in early October 2003 when it snowed the last night of Oktoberfest. It melted the next day, but I would not have wanted to be out driving that night. But a few years later, October 2006, was the warmest October in Bavarian recorded history. The first half saw temps in the 60's and sometimes even the 70's (deg F). Similarly, May and June can be beautiful, but there can easily be cold and rainy spells.

Airfares usually have their peak in July and August. June and September are "shoulder" periods, but fares and load factors can vary by carrier. The recent strikes at LH and BA may make fares even harder to predict.

We went in August last year. It had it's good points, like the weather and it's bad points like crowds. When I ED again, I am going to go in June. N4s

Well, if you time it right, I am hearing from travel insider that Luf will push out some major promotion to lure customers back due to strikes. Frankly, there might be few coming since BA has strike. I am hearing Air France will strike in a coming week as well.

Originally Posted by erdoran

... I don't want to have to deal with snow & winter driving so.... does anyone have a feel for when airfares are the least expensive (in general, of course)....

The cheapest months to travel with less likelyhood of hitting snow is:

1) Mid to Early April, but NOT at or after spring break/easter.

2) first week of October (immediately AFTER the Oktoberfest) thru mid November.

Cheapest time to travel: Saturday, Tuesday ~ Thursday

Cheapear flight are usually connected thru major Gateways, LHR, AMS, FRA. Direct usually cost more.

Originally Posted by beewang

The cheapest months to travel with less likelyhood of hitting snow is:

1) Mid to Early April, but NOT at or after spring break/easter.

2) first week of October (immediately AFTER the Oktoberfest) thru mid November.

Cheapest time to travel: Saturday, Tuesday ~ Thursday

Cheapear flight are usually connected thru major Gateways, LHR, AMS, FRA. Direct usually cost more.

Not on Air France. Air France has the highest rate on flights leaving (at least JFK) on Thursday.

Try SAS connecting through Copenhagen. I had a very enjoyable experience flying out of Dulles thru Copenhagen to MUC. Nice aircraft and very nice flight attendants. Pricing was very competitive.

Thanks for the tips! I'm nailing down the details about what I'm going to order (I hope) and working on getting some quotes with enough detail so I can properly evaluate them...amazing how hard it is to get a breakdown on all numbers on a quote! My lease is up 5/6 and the up to 6 month extension runs out 11/6...but I do have my old Honda to drive in a pinch. The problem I'd have with too late ED is that I'll be driving my new Z4 back from the Performance Ctr or a dealership 100+ miles away in midwinter--I have snows that might fit on the new Z4 but no way to get them to either location!