slawecki

that sounds great, however, if one does not sign up in advance(days in advance), and have a keeper, one is not allowed to use elevators(in my experience).

also, one can only sign up at the FRA airport on their telephone line.

renila

Coming off an overnight international flight and trying to find the next one in Frankfurt is a nightmare. Walk, walk, walk...

That said, I can't believe no one mentioned my home airport.

Every time I return to LAX I'm grateful that at least I don't have to transfer.

alexdown

like in any american airport, I reckon

like in any american airport, I reckon

like in any american airport, I reckon

redanman

J F K

eefor jfp

picked up my wife at LAX this weekend. She was in biz so one of the first off her plane and it still took her almost two (2!!!) hours to walk to the immigration hall at TBIT and clear immigration and customs. There were lines for scanning her US passport, lines for getting the printout stamped, waiting for luggage, and then huge lines for handing over the customs form. I don't think I've ever waited that long at FRA on the worst of days.

BKKBOS

As a Star Alliance Platinum card holder, I look forward to reasonable layovers at FRA. The LH lounges there are among the best in Europe: decent food, immaculate showers and a dorm style nap room.
The only annoying problem I had there was I needed to copy some documents and fax them. My bad luck, the machine was down at the LH business lounge so I had to exit airside, go through Immigration and down to the first floor concourse to find a copy shop. Took a couple of hours and I almost missed my connection.

wurblefurtz

I'd vote for my home of Perth, Australia. The decision to send someone down the green/red channel to have their baggage inspected by quarantine is made by a single person. So the throughput is as fast as that one person can decide.

LondonElite

Welcome to FT!

Star Alliance has platinum status! Who knew!

Bakpapier

I do not think FRA is such a terrible airport. It's like AMS, you just have to walk and walk and walk but eventually you get where you need to be at. And unlike AMS at least they have a train.

However the security crew is very rude. When I passed security the metal detector went off, and they pointed at my belt and literrarily said: 'AUFMACHEN !' . I felt like I was in a WWII war movie or something.

When speaking of terrible airports in the developed world, I would say that BRU and LIS are far worse. LIS involves endless and endless bus rides in a packed bus, BRU involves having to wait extremely long for security. And BRU has a very shiny tile floor which for visually impaired people like me is extremely annoying as you don't know where you are walking anymore.

dj_jay_smith

FRA is my local airport, so I know it well enough but sometimes it helps to see it from a different perspective and I got this a couple of weeks ago when I travelled with my family including my daughter who was just under 2 at the time.

We had a pushchair and 2/3 bags (2 on outbound, 3 inbound) and this was our experience.

We arrived by train in the regional bahnhof, and we had to walk all the way to the far end of the train station to use a lift.
Only half of which were working (2 out of 4).
Take the lift up, then we have to walk through the underground area towards departures. First time, we ended up in a place with no lifts, so had to back track. Then we found the next set of lifts. Pressed the button, after 2-3 minutes with the lift not moving we searched for another lift which came in a few seconds.

Then we had to walk through departures to take the train to T2. This means 2 more lifts up to the platform.
Then on the train, which is as away ram packed.

At T2, we then had to wait about 3-4 minutes before we could use the lift to get down to departures (others were ahead of us).

Check-in was fine.
Passport control (non-schengen) was fine, because of a family line. Although there were several in front of us, the wait was not long.


Due to the layout in T2, we decided to go through security ASAP.
Security was slow (it is always much slower in T2!), but OK.

Then we are in the gate area and we discover that the only snack shop is closed! So now we can not get anything to drink, or eat, for us or our daughter!!
If we had known, we would have got something before. Eating was not really an issue, but we were all very thirsty and had to drink water from the toilets!


Boarding was slow but OK

In bound, we were bussed to the terminal. Despite this, then requires us to take a lift up, walk for 5 minutes, take a lift down (to same level we started on) just to get to passport control. Here took some time, with no priority for parents with young kids.

Then we had the walk and all the lifts back as when we arrived.


So, having gone through this then I would agree with the 3rd world airport statement!

Ken Sanford

I would say Heathrow Terminal 3 is almost as bad. Especially if you arrive between 7 and 10 a.m. That is when most of the flights from North America, Australia, Singapore, Bangkok and India arrive. In Sep. 2016, it took me 2 hours in the immigration line because they never have enough staff to process all the passengers arriving in that time period. This was a record for me... the previous record was 1 hour & 50 minutes at Terminal 4 in the same time period.

There are no seats or benches so you just have to stand in the line, which moves very slowly. They have a bunch of automated machines, which I guess are only for UK citizens, which were not being used at all.

I filled out a complaint form and sent it to Border Force, and got a reply which says they are sympathetic, but they didn't say they are going to add more staff during the peak morning period.

oaken

My outstanding memory of FRA is walking forever, and when descending the concrete stairs, being pushed by the crush so that I fell and sprained the top of my foot that I rode like a sled over the steps. Getting x-rays and medical care in an unfamiliar territory as well as not being able to dance later at a long-awaited wedding really ruined my trip. Hate that airport!

jsn55

Kinda reminds me of Heathrow, where signage is obviously very expensive. It's the only airport in the world where I once had to ask someone where to check in for my fight, as there was one sign waaaaaaaaaay down yonder. If you're able-bodied it's just annoying, but if you have a new knee and still use a cane, it's important to conserve your energy and not wander all around a terminal looking for your destination.

Bakpapier

Though that's a very unfortunate accident it could happen at any major airport or train or subway station when walking down stairs. I prefer to hold the supports when walking down stairs, also because I am visually impaired and there are always odds that I do not see a step and trip and fall.

I really hate it when they don't put yellow or reflecting strips at the end of every step, as to people who are visually impaired the different steps can be hard to see. What is also terrible is overly reflecting floors etc.

mandolino

I just transited FRA again yesterday and still can't see what's so bad about it. Everything was smooth and simple, as good as most international hubs.