On the Semester in Germany program students should arrive on the designated arrival date into Stuttgart International Airport (STR). Most flights from the US get into Europe in the early morning hours, from there you would hop on a short connecting flight to Stuttgart. Therefore, most flights arrive into Stuttgart before noon local time.
Your program coordinator will inform you of the specific arrival window. This is usually sometime between 9am and 2pm, which should provide for many flight options. We ask students to arrive during this window so that we can make sure the Site Director is at the airport and can pickup all the students. Arriving too early would just mean you’d need to wait for a while, but arriving too late might mean you have to make your own travel arrangements back to Reutlingen.
The airport is located about 1 hour from Reutlingen, so once everyone arrives you will get on a bus (or train, but usually bus) and travel as a group to Reutlingen.
We will meet you at the airport, but not in baggage claim or before you have gone through customs and/or immigration. We will meet you outside of these areas after you exit customs/immigration. We will then transfer you to your housing.
Your bags may decide to take a later flight (don’t panic). If the airline loses your luggage you must file a report with the airline while you are still in the baggage area. It is much more difficult to file this report once you’ve left the baggage claim area.
If your flight is delayed, please make sure to call the CISabroad Emergency phone so that we can inform our onsite team of your delay. We will do everything we can to pick you up from the airport, even if your flight is delayed, but if we cannot meet you there, we will provide you with detailed information on how to take transportation to your housing.
A Pre-Arrival sheet will be e-mailed to you, 1-2 weeks before you arrive onsite. This will contain more detailed information on your arrival as well as specific phone numbers and contact information if there are any issues with your flight or airport pickup.
For extra information on airports around the world, including maps and estimated arrival times, check out the website, Flightstats.com.