Connection in FRA
 

We are flying from the US to Paris on United connecting in Frankfurt to a Luthansa flight. Our connection time is 50 minutes. Does United and Luthansa share the same terminal? Are we required to clear customs at FRA with our checked bags?

That is a tight, but legal connection. United and Lufthansa do share the same terminal, although it is rather a sprawling thing. I am assuming that this is all on one ticket and that your luggage is checked through. If this is the case, you have a decent chance. If this is two separate tickets, try and get your luggage checked through.

You have to clear immigration - i.e. The Schengen border in Frankfurt, your hand luggage will clear customs in Frankfurt, but you probably won't notice as the process is just walking through the appropriate channel. You will have to clear transfer security, as you are on a very tight connection look to see if your flight is cleared for the fast track channel. If it is, use it. With a 50 minute connection, you will not have time to dawdle, shop or have a look around, check the Information Display for your gate number as soon as you arrive, follow the signs and head straight for your gate. Your luggage will be transferred to the Paris flight and will be collected and pass customs there.

Should you miss your connection, then as long as this is one ticket, Lufthansa will put you on their next Paris flight that has available seats.

Thanks for that info. Our itinerary is all on one ticket. We'll make a b-line for our gate. Can you elaborate on "the fast track"? How do we determine if our Lufthansa flight is cleared for fast track?

If you have less than 30 minutes to get to your connecting flight, you may use the Fast Lane at the security checkpoint. There will be a monitor showing eligible departing flights by the checkpoint as you will see on Frankfurt Airport's website.

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You may also want to check the FRA connection guide in the Miles & More forum.

Well I guess now I'm also concerned about the Luthansa crew strike. I checked a long list of current cancelled flights and none of them involved the Frankfurt-Paris route. Of course, that can change and I'll keep an eye on it. As a back-up, I reserved a Air France flight which I can cancel if not needed

When flying PHL-FRA-LHR with US and LH, I did not go through any customs, etc. in FRA. Just walked to my connecting gate. It was just walking, and the luggage gets transferred anyway.

That's because you didn't enter Schengen. You arrived in Germany on an international flight and departed on an international flight. Had you flown PHL-FRA-CDG, you would have had to pass through passport control in Germany.

Think of Schengen as the "united states of Europe". You go through passport control when you first enter the area but once inside there's no further passport control. Note that the UK and Ireland are not in Schengen.

Not the best comparison since the US doesn't really allow international transfers without going through passport control as Schengen does. So think of it as a more convenient version of the "United States of Europe" :P

I was comparing travel within the US and within the Schengen area e.g. FRA-CDG as in the example quoted. International to international transfers without going through passport control is quite common in many countries of the world and not just in Schengen countries. The US is an exception.

How tight is a 50 minute connection in FRA LH->TK?
 

We've booked a United ticket on two LH flight numbers, LHR-FRA-IST, with the second segment operated by TK.

It looks like LHR-FRA generally arrives into gates in 1A and FRA-IST generally departs from gates in 1B.

The inbound arrives at 1050; the outbound departs at 1140.

This is apparently a legal connection (UA suggested it and was happy to ticket it), but is it doable? If we misconnect, who rebooks us -- the ticketing carrier (UA), marketing carrier (LH), or operating carrier (TK)?

50 minute is a tight connection, but you don't have a passport control, so I think it's doable. For rebooking you have to ask LH, if you can't make the connection.