Connection through Frankfurt (FRA)

In April we are on the Viking Star - Venice to Barcelona. We arrive a few days early in Venice and made our own airfare plans via Lufthansa. So it will be Denver to Frankfurt with a 1.5 hour layover connecting to another Lufthansa flight (not a partner) to Venice - tickets say both are Terminal 1. Will I be pressed to make the next flight and get through security / immigration check. etc. in 90 minutes? Guessing I won't have to handle my checked bag and it will just flow through from my FRA flight to Venice / Marco Polo.

Anyone out there with personal experience related to this?

First you need to realize that you are going through one of the busiest airports in the world - and since the airport has had its share of terrorist activity in the past - security is very tight. However, if you are landing in terminal one and departing from terminal one then you shouldn't have to go through security again. To be honest, I haven't been through the airport in four years but I doubt things have changed that much. You should be OK (if it were a different terminal then you might have problems).

In April we are on the Viking Star - Venice to Barcelona. We arrive a few days early in Venice and made our own airfare plans via Lufthansa. So it will be Denver to Frankfurt with a 1.5 hour layover connecting to another Lufthansa flight (not a partner) to Venice - tickets say both are Terminal 1. Will I be pressed to make the next flight and get through security / immigration check. etc. in 90 minutes? Guessing I won't have to handle my checked bag and it will just flow through from my FRA flight to Venice / Marco Polo. Anyone out there with personal experience related to this?

Something similar but not the same. We had to check our carry-on bags in Kiev (worst airport I have ever flown through) for retrieval in FRA and then get boarding passes for our next flight and then make our way to the gate in under 2 hours. I was in tears (anger and frustration!!!!) and enlisted the help of the Lufthansa cabin crew the moment that we got on the flight. All I wanted from her were instructions of where I had to go for each step of our adventure. "Okay, don't worry." Ten minutes later she was back to report. "I have arranged for you to be met at the gate. The people at FRA will take care of you"--and they did! They took us, on a golf cart, to baggage claim, got our bags, took us through security twice, went to a special desk to get our boarding passes, passed us off to a different ground agent (border control) and got us to our gate with time to spare. If I had had to walk it on my own and figure out where we had to go, especially to avoid check-in lines, we would not have made out flight back to the US.

DON'T GUESS!!! I think you have some unanswered questions about FRA. In some airports, if you are passing through border control, you have to retrieve your luggage, walk it through customs and then give it back to the airlines to transfer to the airplane. Will you have to do this in FRA? Will there be enough time for your bag to make it to your plane?

Keep in mind that the doors to your flight will close at least 10 minutes before the departure time on your ticket. You may have less time than you think.

Consider having a full change of clothing in your carry-on bags, in case your luggage gets held up.

I haven't been there but in Dulles on the way home from my cruise you would have missed your connection with that timeline. It took 3 hours and 15 min.. Plane to plane.

i suggest the OP go to Cruise AIr forum on Cruise Critic main page.

There you will find answers from the expert flyers from all over the world.

Good luck.

We went on the same cruise last October and flew from Orlando-FRA-VCE. Our connecting time was 1:25. I was concerned also but Lufthansa said it was a legal connection so I trusted them. We made it to the connecting gate about 15 minutes before boarding began. We flew premium economy so had a slight head start deplaning.

When you deplane, after a walk, you will go through immigration. One set of desks are for entry to Germany and the other is for connecting flights. Be aware.

You then go through TSA type security. You then will want to take the tram to the connecting gate terminal. I'm not sure whether security was first or the tram ride. I didn't sleep on the flight so was I wasn't 100%.

If you have any other questions about our experience I'll try to answer them.

Enjoy the experience.

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i suggest the OP go to Cruise AIr forum on Cruise Critic main page.

There you will find answers from the expert flyers from all over the world.

Good luck.

Thank you for the advice. I headed over there as well as the OP.

Just asking the question here in case someone can set my mind at ease. We are flying from Oslo to Frankfurt and then on to Denver. We have a 2 hour layover in Frankfurt. We've been there before coming in from Budapest but for the life of me I can't remember the process. Is that enough time? My TA said that we will not be going through immigration because we are not staying in Germany. Do we still have to gather our luggage and go through some sort of screening? Sure would be nice if my memory was still intact and I could remember what we did the first time, LOL.

Thank you for the advice. I headed over there as well as the OP. Just asking the question here in case someone can set my mind at ease. We are flying from Oslo to Frankfurt and then on to Denver. We have a 2 hour layover in Frankfurt. We've been there before coming in from Budapest but for the life of me I can't remember the process. Is that enough time? My TA said that we will not be going through immigration because we are not staying in Germany. Do we still have to gather our luggage and go through some sort of screening? Sure would be nice if my memory was still intact and I could remember what we did the first time, LOL.

No, you are flying from one Schengen country to another and there is no border control within the Schengen Area. Your baggage will be checked through to Denver and you won't see it again until you land in the US. OP on the other hand is flying from the US and will have to pass through immigration and customs when he lands in FRA, his entry point into the EU.

Thank you so much!

We flew from Houston to Frankfurt to Venice for our cruise back in December. We did not have to get and recheck our luggage. It was checked through to Venice.

Side story: We specifically asked when checking our bags in Houston if we needed to get our bags in Frankfurt and were told that we did need to do so. We also had a 1.5 hour layover in Frankfurt. We ended up clearing customs, waiting for luggage that didn't appear (because it was checked through), and ended up going back through the main security and running to our flight. My wife and I are younger than the average Viking cruiser, but it was still a long run to the gate. There was not a golf cart to be found. We ended up at the gate in time to be notified our flight to Venice had been delayed by 30 minutes. Fun times.

Went through FRA yesterday - Newark - FRA - Rome. Landed and departed Terminal 1. Did not have to go through security again. If your flight is on time, you should have no problem. Hope this helps

Went through FRA yesterday - Newark - FRA - Rome. Landed and departed Terminal 1. Did not have to go through security again. If your flight is on time, you should have no problem. Hope this helps

Thanks, this is very reassuring for our upcoming Philadelphia to Frankfurt to Athens and the return Venice to Frankfurt to Philly. One question, when I look-up terminal assignments for our flights, I can only find them for the current day's flights, not future ones. Do those assignments generally remain the same? If so, we are terminal one in Frankfurt each time, so that makes me less concerned about making our connections.

Don't know where you can find out about future flights - contact the airline?

One more thing about FRA terminal 1 - both customs and immigration were quick and easy when we went through - early am.

As in all airports, actual gates change often. You will be fine with the time though.

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We've flown through Frankfurt and found it to be a large but decent airport in which to connect to a second flight. We had to go through 2 security x-ray checks, but there weren't many people in front of us, so they were fast.