Originally Posted by
uiucengineer
I'm leaning heavily toward MUC for several reasons:- It's the only destination in Europe I've seen so far that I can book premium economy through AA for ~$2K
- I'll get a day in Munich!
- For only a little more I can fly out of my home town CMI instead of driving to ORD, which is amazing. Departing CMI will actually pay for itself in parking fees! CMI-ORD-CLT-MUC will be a little crazy but it's worth it, I can't stress enough how much I Iove CMI!
- The outbound train will be a little shorter as I'm actually headed for Klatovy. There is actually a direct Munich-Prague which I'll probably use for the return after spending a day in Prague.
- The train ride might actually be kinda cool
- The way the flight times work out I leave earlier and return later and I don't think I actually lose much time at destinations to the train.
So I really appreciate the recommendation to look at MUC. I'm stoked and I'm about ready to book! Still open to other ideas though.
My earlier remarks were based on the false assumption that you would be travelling directly from MUC (the Munich airport) to central Prague. Travelling from central Munich to Klatovy is much quicker than the times I indicated. For the day I checked (next Monday, though the trains noted below run daily), there are two good options: 1) Leave Munich Hauptbahnhof at 9:24 AM, change at Plattling and Bayerisch Eisenstein [last station in Germany], and arrive in Klatovy at 1:16 PM. 2) Leave Munich Hauptbahnhof at 10:43 AM, change at Domazlice [first station in CZ], and arrive in Klatovy at 3:10 PM. Special fares as low as 29 Euro are available under certain conditions.
Spending even a day in Munich makes this option more attractive.