Munich Central Station, platform 11, just after 7 AM. I'm standing there with a 40-liter backpack on my shoulders, an Interrail Global Pass on my phone, and fourteen days of Europe ahead. Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Berlin. Five cities, five countries, one bag.
Quick heads-up before we start, because it matters: one of the three airlines in that title doesn't fly anymore. Play Airlines shut down at the end of September 2025. More on that below, but I'd rather tell you now than send you through 2000 words first.
10:15 PM, Düsseldorf Airport. Our three-year-old was lying face-down on a suitcase, screaming because he couldn't find his stuffed animal. The five-year-old asked if we were there yet. The flight to Cancún was boarding in 80 minutes.
74,100 tourist flights are departing from Germany this summer. That's 9.4 percent more than 2019, before the pandemic. Record summer? Absolutely. But there's a catch most headlines skip over.
Florence, month fourteen. Cobblestones in the old town, 28 degrees, and I'm dragging our medium suitcase behind me. One wheel wobbles. Not catastrophic, but I notice it immediately. That was the moment I knew this luggage set had peaked.
94 percent of Eurowings pilots voted for a strike. The union ballot ran until March 16, and the result was overwhelming. 82% turnout, near-unanimous support. Talks between the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union and Eurowings management over pension contributions have stalled. No specific walkout date...
Last year at Stuttgart Airport, my buddy Matze packed his brand new LED flashlight and two spare batteries into his checked bag. Tucked away at the bottom, between hiking boots and a sleeping bag. Then came the announcement at the gate: "Passenger with bag tag XY, please report to security." The...
Flights to Mallorca, Crete, or Antalya cost up to 15 percent more this summer than in 2025. A WirtschaftsWoche analysis pins the blame on jet fuel shortages tied to the Middle East conflict, rising carbon taxes, and demand that refuses to slow down. Summer 2026 flight prices are up, and there's...
I was standing at the breakfast table, phone in hand, trying to book a cheap Lufthansa flight to Lisbon. Five years since I'd flown, my first flight after Corona, basically. 2021 was the last time, empty airport, mask mandate, terminals that felt half abandoned. I figured I could do this in my...
Airlines mishandled 33.4 million bags globally in 2024. According to SITA Baggage IT Insights 2025, that's 6.3 bags per 1,000 passengers. If your luggage just went missing, here's what you need to know: since December 2024, you're entitled to up to 1,900 EUR in lost baggage compensation. But only...
Düsseldorf Airport just released its summer 2026 flight schedule, and the Düsseldorf Airport destinations list is hard to ignore: Over 60 airlines serving roughly 160 destinations across about 50 countries. Around 3,300 weekly takeoffs and landings, running from late March through October. For...
My buddy Dave from Austin texted me three days before his flight. "Dude, should I book a hotel near the airport? Reddit says people waited 7 hours in Lisbon."
