CHEAP FLIGHTS TO BERLIN IN JULY?
Have a question? Ask our expert Simon Calder
Q I want to take the family (wife and two children) from Heathrow or Gatwick to Berlin for a few days in the week beginning Monday 30 July. Are there particular dates/times when we can get the best deal?
DB
A Tuesday is the lowest-demand day of the week, and therefore an excellent day for flying. On Tuesday 31 July, Eurowings, Lufthansa’s budget brand, has a remarkable fare of £50 one-way on the 8.50am departure
from Heathrow to Berlin on Tuesday 31 July. (And for the children, it will be only £37 because they don’t pay air passenger duty.) For a flight from Britain’s busiest airport at a humane time, that’s a remarkably low fare. Given the high departure charge from Heathrow, the airline is making only a few pounds on the flight, so I suggest you lock into it soon.
The flight lands at Tegel airport, in the old West Berlin. Unlike Schoenefeld across the city in East Berlin, Tegel has no rail station, but it is closer to most points of interest and has decent bus connections. Coming back, once again Eurowings is looking cheap – surprisingly so, for a prime-time, Friday evening hop back to Heathrow. The fare is only £32 (though with no child discount) on the 5.25pm Friday evening trip on 3 August; it gets in at a civilised 6.30pm.
If Gatwick is marginally better, easyJet has some fares around the £40 mark from Schoenefeld airport, the former East Berlin gateway. But all else being equal, I strongly suggest the Eurowings deal to and from Heathrow. I calculate that the whole family of four can get there and back for under £300 in total, remarkable for nearly 5,000 person-miles of flying in the height of summer.