Please recommend a route back from Berlin
 

We are planning the last leg of our trip back from Berlin, and I would like to obtain recommendations on whether we should fly back 1) from BER or alternatively take an excursion to either 2) FRA or 3) MUC.

We live in Midwest flyover country but have plenty of daily feeder flights to ORD. The outbound trip has us flying into MUC via ORD, and we'll spend ~3 days in München and surrounding area before traveling to Berlin. The return trip is a bit more complicated, as there's no direct flights to ORD from BER. Were we to 1) take UA 963, we'd have 4 hours to burn after clearing CBP and rechecking our bags (6 hr layover overall). I'm informed by helpful forumite that dozing is frowned upon in the regular UA lounge, so there goes one of my plans for passing the time (i.e. eat something, do a bit of reading, doze, read again, eat again, and then board flight home).

Alternative would be flying back from either 2) FRA or 3) MUC. We get to FRA at two days before departure, tour Köln on that very day, Heidelberg on the following day , and then fly back. But this would overall be a trip made solely to make our trip home a bit easier. I guess we could also spend some more time in München proper (perhaps with a day trip to Nürnberg). Regardless of 2) or 3), the layover at ORD would be only 2-3 hrs, which is a lot more manageable.

I'd like to get a sense of just how bad option 1) above is, in particular re: the 4 hours of waiting in the terminal. If it's really that bad, then I would need to evaluate option 2) against option 3). I've heard FRA to be one of the major transit hells, but perhaps that reputation is undeserved?

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

Edit to add details.

Routing choices are:

Itinerary 1 would be BER-EWR-MSN (my wife's only request is no 2-layover routes)
Itinerary 2 would be FRA-ORD-MSN
Itinerary 3 would be MUC-ORD-MSN

We are paying cash for the trip. No status for either of us. Prem. Econ. fare on the way back, and purchasing UC lounge access if doing itinerary 1.

If you're doing MUC on the outbound I'd do FRA on the return. Enough to burn 2 days around FRA and enjoy it. I don't hate FRA airport as much as many on these boards but take that with a grain of salt.

What you haven't said is if you come back through FRA do you shorten your trip in BER? If so I wouldn't do that. BER is, by far, the most interested of the three cities IMO. If you aren't shortening your stay in BER and can still do FRA go for it. Otherwise take the longer layover on the return from Berlin and, yes, you can nap in the UA Club. Just good luck finding a quiet area to do that.

-RM

I am confused. Doesn't UA 963 go to Newark?

I would fly from BER to FRA to return to ORD. I find FRA easy transit (when you are leaving Europe back to the US) and there are HOURLY flights from BER to FRA. I would get a ticket that went BER-FRA-ORD-XXX.

Unless you wanted to see Frankfurt (and I like it there) I see no need to get to FRA days early. I don't know if you are paying cash or points, but you can buy a ticket on UA that would be Feeder City- ORD-MUC and BER-ORD-Feeder City, the first segment from Berlin to FRA or MUC would just be on Lufthansa. Or it might route you through Zurich on Swiss, or Vienna on Austria. There is no reason that it all has to be on United metal.

There are advantages to having all flights on one ticket.

As for a 4 hour layover, the last time I arrived in Chicago from Zurich, it took 2 hours to get through border control, get my luggage, go through customs, recheck my luggage, and then get to the United Terminal. And that was with Global Entry. So, I would be completely comfortable with a 4 hour layover knowing that its a nice time margin.

I think they are saying that they are considering BER-EWR-XXX as the return, with a 6 hour connection time, to avoid the BER-FRA-ORD-XXX double connection.

Very astute observation. Yes, going to FRA would sacrifice time spent in BER.

Out of the three, I would put BER up there as well. I could probably spend a week plus there and still not run out of sights to see.

As for Rhine region, I guess I could always make another visit when going to the Benelux.

Sorry for not being clear.

Itinerary 1 would be BER-EWR-XXX (my wife's only request is no 2-layover routes)
Itinerary 2 would be FRA-ORD-XXX
Itinerary 3 would be MUC-ORD-XXX

We are paying cash for the trip.

I think I would then maximize my time in Berlin and fly home through EWR.

Sorry I was confused. I wouldn't have a problem with a 6 hour layover in EWR. It sucks but it beats the hassle of repositioning to FRA a few days before.

(a) For heaven's sake, talk to her about this. By far the best possible option is a two-layover route, especially if you'd be scheduled to arrive more than three hours earlier than the existing EWR-XXX nonstop. If you get lucky, you might misconnect and hit the EC.261 jackpot.
(b) If that's really nonnegotiable, take BER-EWR-XXX anyway. Four hours at the airport isn't nearly as bad as you're making it out to be. :)

I would agree for any airport other than EWR.

Not to wade too far into the battleground that is commenting on EWR, but...

The OP doesn't say whether they will have lounge access at EWR, either through Polaris or Star Alliance Gold, or... That would make a huge difference. I would certainly pick the Newark connection with four hours in one of the UCs or the Polaris Lounge. YMMV and others on this board would/will strongly disagree with me.

Agree - I would suck it up and connect via EWR -- the new UC's are solid... EWR gets slammed a lot -- which is mostly deserved -- but for the most part things operate pretty well most days -- the issue is when things go bad -- they REALLY go bad.. Last night there was a dusting of snow that caught EWR off guard -- our flight to Paris was a you know what show -- we were very lucky to even take off - we landed massively late and for the first time in a decade we were put at a remote stand -- arrived at hotel four hours late and lost any shot at some rest before work...

Depending on where in flyover country, you could consider a nonstop from FRA or MUC to DEN and then on. I have GE and it's an easy reentry.

Sorry, should have provided more info.

Prem. Econ. fare on the way back, so no comped lounge access regardless of the route back. We are both peons in terms of status. There's actually a lot of PZ space available even 2+ months out (which is wild to see), but not worth it to us, as we can get quite a bit of solid sleep even in steerage class when flying westward (different story when going the other way, as I tend to exhibit princess-and-the-pea tendencies).

If going through EWR, we'd purchase lounge access for access to United Club.

Fra. Definitely connect in Europe and not USA. I hate clearing customs in USA and then going from international to domestic - especially if the international flight was late.

with fra one can really enjoy hanging out near Frankfurt and then using train etc. Granted I used to take train from Nuremberg or dortmund to Frankfurt which was a longer journey…

else enjoy more of muenchen and fly muc-ord. Ah the days when that was flight 906 / 907 before it became ord>sfo!!

Regardless of whether or not FRA is included or not, once back in the US, they will need to do an international to domestic connection

I feel like if we knew what XXX is, many of us could offer the best options for you.