clearing customs in europe
 

hi all.
im flying singapore jfk-fra then connecting to malaga spain on lufthansa a united award ticket,im wondering, when i get to malaga do i have to clear customs, as im coming in on a inter eu flight??
thank you

Yes. You will clear immigration in FRA but customs in Malaga.

but if my travel would have originated i fankfurt there would be no customs?so a few passengers go through costoms and the rest dont?the separate the luggage by orgin?

I flew to Malaga via CDG 2 years ago and cleared customs in Malaga. But, the experience was almost transparent to the pax...no big deal at all and didn't slow us down by more than a minute or two. Malaga is a pretty laid back airport.

but if my travel would have originated i fankfurt there would be no customs?so a few passengers go through costoms and the rest dont?the separate the luggage by orgin?

They should have a separate area for you to pick up luggage for pax flying in from outside the EU. As previously mentioned, not that big a deal, really.

RE: Clearning customs in Europe
 

"Clearing" customs is a relative term in Europe, at least at the airports I frequent. Mainly, it's a matter of going through the door that says "nothing to declare" and walking by a customs agent. The door generally leads straight out into the main airport area.

I flew LAX-FRA-MAD a few months ago and I cleared immigration in Frankfurt. I didn't touch my bags at all -- they were transferred from my UAL flight from LAX to the LHR flight to MAD. When I got to Madrid, I walked straight to the luggage belts; my bags were the first off the plane (someone paid attention to those UAL "Priority" stickers) and I then "went" through customs, which basically meant that I walked by two customs agents chatting between themselves and out an automatic door to the taxi stand.

Perhaps the best answer would come from the Travel and Dining -- Europe forum.

Don't travel anything like as much as I used to within the EU, but the baggage tags for flights originating in the EU have a green edge. Some airports (e.g. LHR) have a specially designated customs area for passengers arriving from another EU country - the Blue channel - and there are (of course) the usual red and green channels.