My husband Bill and I recently took our first cruise. We needed to find an airline to get us to and from different ports of call at the beginning and the end of the cruise. We ended up flying Air Berlin to Oslo, Norway and from Stockholm, Sweden. We chose Air Berlin for a simple reason; it offered the best combination of price and convenience. Overall, our experiences with Air Berlin were adequate.

Planning our flights

We booked Air Berlin through Expedia.com. As we were making our travel arrangements, it became very clear that our trip north was going to be expensive! Since we've been living in Germany, I've become spoiled by the availability of cheap flights to great cities. I wasn't able to find such great deals going to Scandinavia, particularly because we couldn't book round trip tickets. Air Berlin still beat out Lufthansa and Scandinavian Airlines by a mile, as long as we were willing to take an early flight to Berlin en route to Oslo. We got our tickets for approximately $635. A day or two after booking, the airline refunded the money, then charged us again for about $645. I'm not sure why they did that. There was never an explanation.

Airports

Ordinarily, we would use the airport in Stuttgart, but Bill had a conference in Garmisch-Partenkirchen right after our cruise. I came up with the bright idea to stage our travel from Munich, which is much closer to Garmisch than Stuttgart is. We found a park, sleep, and fly deal offered at the Kempinski Hotel in the airport in Munich, which would make it easy for us to make our 6:20am Air Berlin flight.

Checking in

We arrived at the airport in Munich about an hour before our flight. There were many people trying to check in. We got our boarding passes from an auto-check in machine and checked our two bags. Mine weighed a little more than the 20 kilo limit (I had packed extra clothes for the following week). Ordinarily, that would have resulted in an extra charge, but no one said anything about it. Maybe it's because Bill's bag was so much lighter.

After we checked in, we were greeted by a huge line to get through security. As Bill was putting on his belt and collecting his keys, Air Berlin was calling for us to board immediately. We managed to get on the flight in the nick of time and had a very smooth flight to Berlin.

The seats

There was 3x3 seating on all four of our Air Berlin flights. The seats were upholstered in leather. Being a bit wider than I'd like to be, I often worry about being too big for the seats on airplanes, but this wasn't an issue on Air Berlin. The seat was a little snug, but I fit without spilling over and the seatbelts were plenty long. Air Berlin also had noticeably generous leg room. I'm not a tall person, so leg room isn't usually an issue for me, but I did notice a couple more inches on Air Berlin. I was glad to see that the planes were all clean. All four of our flights were quite full.

Monitoring our progress

On three out of four of our flights, there were monitors hanging at three seat intervals. The monitors showed the flight's progress toward the final destination. The monitors were also used to show the safety demonstration, which was presented in German with English sub-titles. The monitors weren't available on our flight from Stockholm to Berlin, so the flight attendants did the safety demonstration in German and English.

Food and drink

Air Berlin provides all passengers with a free non-alcoholic beverage and either a snack or a sandwich. Passengers who want something more substantial than a sandwich can purchase a small meal. We were given sandwiches on the flights to Oslo and from Stockholm. Bill enjoyed his cheese sandwich, but I didn't care for the turkey sandwich I got and ended up skipping it on the way to Berlin from Stockholm. On the way to and from Munich, we were offered chips or cookies. Beverages were served in small plastic cups. Supposedly, on flights within Germany, free beer is offered, but we didn't experience that. I was also a little disappointed when there wasn't any Diet Coke on board the flight from Stockholm.

A little trouble in Munich

Coming back from Stockholm, Bill and I had a very tight connection in Berlin. Tegel Airport in Berlin is old and rather inconvenient. Because we were switching from an international flight to a domestic one, we had to change terminals, which involved a brisk walk. Thank God we knew where to go, since we only had thirty minutes between flights!

As we were boarding, I looked at Bill and said, "I bet our bags aren't going to make it."

Ever the optimist, Bill said, "I've heard that on these tight connections, your bags are more likely to make the flight than you are."

I didn't believe that little anecdotal pearl and, as it turned out, my hunch was correct. Along with a couple of other unlucky travelers who had come from Berlin, we were left bagless and crestfallen at the baggage claim. Bill spoke to the fellow running the baggage tracking office, explaining that our final destination was Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The baggage tracking official said the next flight would be arriving in a couple of hours; but there was no problem, they would drive our bags down to Garmisch for us. We were pleasantly surprised by that, since Garmisch is a bit of a drive. The baggage tracking agent gave Bill a reference number and a phone number to call to check the progress.

We went to our car, only to find that the battery was dead. As we were waiting to have the battery replaced, I remarked to Bill that we should just stick around awhile longer and collect our bags. But Bill was confident that they would get to Garmisch in time for us to go to bed...

As it turned out, it was a lucky thing we had a small carry on from the cruise that morning. Our bags arrived in Garmisch the next day. I should also mention that Bill tried to call the number the baggage tracking agent gave us, only to find out that the office closed at 6:30pm. The flight our bags were on didn't land until 6:50pm. However, once we got to Garmisch, Bill was able to track the bags' progress on Air Berlin's Web site.

Overall

Despite the hassles we experienced, I think we would fly Air Berlin again. Aside from a rough landing or two, our flights were generally pleasant, albeit packed with people. We would just be sure to allow a little more time between flights or just use them for non-stop flights.

Air Berlin offers flights all over Europe for reasonable prices, yet they aren't completely bare bones. If it came down to price or convenience, I would still probably choose Air Berlin over another airline. However, I definitely think there's room for improvement.

For more information: www.airberlin.com

Recommended: Yes