Iad to Budapest
 

Flying to Budapest next June, looking into flights. We have to fly economy, which airline would be best. Lufthansa, Klm, or Brussels ?

"Best" is a relative term: best seats, best food, best departure times, best connections, best price? Only you can decide what is best for you.
LH vs KL vs SN in economy will all be pretty similar.
One consideration for "best overall experience" might be which airport to connect in: Frankfurt or Munich for LH?, Amsterdam for KL? or Brussels for SN?
You could also try OS (Austrian) via Vienna. Very easy connections.
LH will have two daily departures from IAD via FRA and one via MUC.
KL will have one via AMS
SN will have one via BRU
OS also one via VIE

Thank you! I think first would be making connections, and then comfort on plane!! It's stressful to worry about making connections. I'm leaning towards LH, connecting thru FRA. It's only a one hour 10 min time. We will be returning from Prague! Doing a river cruise.

We have flown to Budapest from the US about a dozen times now and find that connecting in Munich seems to work best for us.

We have also connected in Brussels and Frankfurt but prefer Munich.

A couple of options you did not mention that may be helpful:

LOT will start direct flights to Budapest in spring 2018 flying from Chicago and JFK. It may be easier connecting in the US.

Another option is Air Canada direct flights to Budapest from Toronto.

VIE and MUC are better airports for connections than FRA.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...on-thread.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...ad-merged.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...onnection.html

Thank you all so so much, this will be helpful when choosing flights! We are flying out of Washington, Is there one airline that is better as far as delays, and comfort on plane? Or are they all pretty much the sameWe can't afford to do business.

Going, all the earlier flights ( getting into Bud earlier 8:40 AM) connect thru FRA, the ones connecting thru MUC are much later, 400 and after☹️ would really rather get in earlier.

How is connecting thru Brussels ? United has flights connecting thru Brussels, getting in 11:20, How is United? Sorry for all the questions! Have not flown over the pond in many years, and have some stress with flying, so trying to make this as stress free as possible. Thanks so much to all!

I flew jfk-gva-bcn and bcn-gva-ewr this past may for $497 on swiss with 2 flights operated by united. swiss ftmfw, whilst united, well, BLEH.

Googe for "iata matrix" and put in your dates...be flexible and try other departure airports from near you and you'll l be surprised. the same routing from iad/was easily well over $1400 when I was looking.

note that iata matrix is only a search engine and you can't purchase from them. I used iata matrix for flights and purchased directly from the airline.

lmk if you've got any ?'s

BRU is fine for a connection. MUC is probably my favorite, as others have mentioned. For BUD, I've always taken the UA flight ORD-MUC, then LH from MUC-BUD.

For someone who is nervous about connection time, I wouldn't recommend FRA. It's a very nice airport, but one of the most unpredictable in terms of the connection time, in my opinion. I've had a 70 minute connection from the US like you mention where I've made it to the gate just as boarding was ending...closer than I prefer after a 9 hour flight from ORD.

You mentioned that flying overall causes you some stress. You'll get lots of advice here about what is possible and "best", but realize a lot of it comes from those of us who do it regularly. I'd suggest, to ease the stress, find a flight with a single connection (in Europe), and with a connection time of 2+ hours. That way if you arrive a little late, you aren't stressing as you deplane. 2+ hours is comfortable for any airport, but even better if you can avoid FRA.

Edit to add: You asked about United. It's fine, they'll get you there. It's not luxury, but no US airline in economy will be. I'd go with whatever gets you the best itinerary and price.

Thank you!!

One other option I found was Australian airlines, connect thru vie, any opions on that route?

If *A isnt a necessary, DL flys JFK-PRG non-stop so you can do for the way back PRG-JFK-IAD or DCA or even BWI depending where you live and how youre getting to the airport. To BUD I dont know what DL will pull up to avoid a 2 stopper youd need to fly AF or KL out of IAD. Advantage to DL back is you clear C&I @ JFK and walk out from IAD or DCA as if you just flew in from LA.

Could be an OTA using multi-city will come up with that DL connection back and a *A there

I already mentioned OS (Austrian NOT Australian) via VIE as an option.
If you look at the LH forum you'll find lots of information including http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...ght=OS+economy and http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...ght=OS+economy
and http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...ght=OS+economy

Wow, just wow.