Not to worry, Glen - I'll act as your agent and drink one for you. :D

(Recently re-read Mark Twain's wonderful book about his travels in Europe, A Tramp Abroad, in which he -- via an agent -- does some mountain climbing. Also gets involved as a second in a duel in France -- and darned near gets someone killed, and decides to ride a glacier into town. What a great humorist!)

A clear imposter. No agent of mine would talk about ONE drink. ;)

Oh, Ozstamps, I am sooooooooooooo sorry you won't be able to make it. It won't be the same without you. :(

Can you use points? We are actually using mileage for this one, as we had planned to do for our trip to SYD before my nephew's wedding thing came up. We haven't cancelled our SYD tickets, still hoping that we can squeeze a trip in before they expire in September.

Hoping you can make it to DUS. :)

Along For the Ride
 

25.06 ZRH - DUS LH 3765 arrives 14:20
27.06 DUS - ZRH LH 3766 departs 14:35

Regrettably, I'm going to have to drop out as well. I've been tracking fares for the last two months and I haven't seen prices drop below $1400. LAX-DUS is currently pricing out at $2800. Had I been a savvier traveler (I'm purely domestic), I would have known that summer is peak season for Europe and snagged a F award ticket like SkiAdcock did...which is what I'll do next year.

oh dear. yes, i booked F award but alas, even i knew airfares are high in the summer - next year book award or just book in jan/feb for the summer when rates are still less. bernie's good about posting the actual do in advance.

Even this late I see SFO-FRA economy class (V fares) as low as $910 (flying Friday, returning Sunday). Surely, there must have been fares in that range, for more desirable (i.e. nonstop) routings and dates, within the last two months?

Were you looking ONLY at fares to DUS? If so, why?

yes, as kathy mentioned check going into fra only. you can either take the train to dus or book a separate ticket fra-dus if you want to fly (although train's probaby cheaper & faster).

Not being rich I find even spending $900 + a train ticket for less than 24 hours in DUS to be dear.
But we having been long time travelers to Europe we always buy the tickets when inexpensive and save our miles for when they are expensive.
Condition One has stated that is what they will do in the future and I for one hope to meet Condition One in the future under the stated terms.
Of course if your financial situation is different than ours and the amounts are OK for you then we will meet sooner.

Umm, I think you're missing the point.

The poster said he/she didn't see fares drop below $1,400, over a two-month period of checking. I said that EVEN NOW, you could fly roundtrip to FRA for around $900 on some dates. The point being, such a fare (around $900, maybe less) would almost certainly have been available, for a better routing and longer stay, if the poster had checked for FRA fares. It appeared that he/she ONLY checked fares to DUS, without considering other alternatives, such as FRA coupled with train ride. FRA is a huge major hub and therefore fares are likely to be a lot cheaper than to DUS.

Condition One - I agree with you. If you just enter LAX and DUS into united.com for say Jun.24-27, the lowest fare you will get is $1730.64. However as KathyWdrf points out, SFO-FRA and also LAX-FRA are available on expedia.com for $913.98, although not a direct flight unfortunately. It does seem though that LH charges an arm and a leg for the 116 miles FRA-DUS. The cheapest I could find with times that might connect was 151.69 euros.

bernie - I regret that I probably won't be able to join you at DUS IV this year. :( Unfortunately I'm a member of the working class. Only if someone else at work decides to cancell their scheduled vacation that weekend, would I be able to attend. Perhaps you better downgrade me to the "depressed and envious" category.

isn't UA currently running a cheap introductory fare (UA connections in the USA -) IAD - ZRH for weekends ex USA (they do so for trips starting in ZRH and I thought I have read here similar promotions ex USA).

ZRH - DUS is, for that weekend, on LX (swiss) just SFr 149 + tax = total of SFr 205 which is about US$ 159 all incl (Gisela and I did book such tickets for this event at these prices). - similar weekend fares are offered on LH (for direct flights ZRH-DUS).

If that is the point than I can find LAX-DUS fares at ITA on UA/LH (Fare Basis VJSN8E) for $941.1) Adds a travel agent fee
2) Elimates the train tix
3) Gets you directly to DUS

And we now return you from this special announcement of the MR forum back to your regularly scheduled Community forum. :D

And whatever Condition One decides this year or next hope to meet you in future travels.

Thanks for the help guys. The dates I was looking for were June 23/24 - 28th. I looked at the $900 fare, but it's just not feasible for me on a variety of fronts...not to mention it would only be for 24 hours.

I was really looking forward to my first DO too. But at least I know what to do next year. Hopefully I won't have to wait until the next DUS DO to meet you guys. And I'll be looking forward to reading your trip reports!