Meldeschlusszeit for MUC-DUS-JFK? 90 min or 30 min?

I am flying to New York on Wednesday. The routing is MUC (Munich) to DUS (Düsseldorf) with Air Berlin and then on to New York JFK with LTU.

On my booking confirmation it says in bold that the latest possible time to check in ("Meldeschlusszeit", counter closes) for flights to the US is 90 min (and they recommend for me to be there three hours before).

However my first sector is domestic, and on the Air Berlin website (which operates the first leg) it says that you have to be there 30 min before departure by the latest.

So I wonder what is it now? 30 min or 90 min? Because this determines which bus I will take and how early I will have to get up...

Of course I'll aim to be there one hour earlier than the closing time of the counter for queuing and possible delays, i.e. 89 min before departure time if the latest check in time is 30 min like Air Berlin says...I e-mailed them (LTU) but no answer so far...I'll stay at a friends house in a hamlet near Freising the night before so even if the bus won't come I'll have the option of a cab.

I remember that I had this question before (actually the question was, "Do I check in at the domestic or the international counter for ORD-MIA-LPB (Chicago-Miami-La Paz)", but I can't remember what the answer was...

BTW, there are still a few places left at 298 € for Germany (multiple airports)-JFK return with AirBerlin/LTU.

30 minutes for the domestic leg and 90 minutes for the flight to the States.

I would leave lots of time for the American flight check-in. I spent a few hours in Munich airport twice this year and there were repeated announcements for passengers going to the States to go early to security.

MUC->DUS is a domestic flight with 30 min and DUS->JFK an international flight with 90 min...

"Meldeschlusszeit": Haven't come across this so far, likely to have something to do with those passenger-details that have to be sent to the US prior to take-off? Just guessing, but wouldn't mess with these times.

BTW, if I'm not mistaken, LTU have been bought by AirBerlin recently, maybe you can check through?

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<hr>MUC->DUS is a domestic flight with 30 min and DUS->JFK an international flight with 90 min...<hr></blockquote>

Thanks, that's what I would have thought too - if only because Air Berlin's counter won't open until two hours prior to the flight (unlike LTU's counter, which will probably open three hours prior to the flight for those passengers beginning their journey in DUS)

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<hr>those passenger-details that have to be sent to the US prior to take-off?<hr></blockquote>

No, those passenger details are something else, you download a pdf file, fill it out and bring it to the check in counter.

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<hr>LTU have been bought by AirBerlin recently, maybe you can check through?<hr></blockquote>

Yep - it's one ticket, you buy it either on the LTU or the Air Berlin website.

The funny thing is that you get the MUC-DUS leg thrown in totally free. I wonder why they don't fret about opportunity costs because the flights MUC-DUS-MUC I will take on my way to/from JFK if booked today would cost 274 Euro, but the whole flight MUC to JFK return would cost today 504 Euro - so LTU gets only 230 Euro for taking someone across the Atlantic if they are arriving from Munich? But the same 504 Euro if they started their journey in Düsseldorf...who can do the math?