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Honestly, even as an EU citizen who has been to/from/through FRA countless times, I avoid any connection of less than 2 hours. Yes, they are achievable under optimal circumstances, but I walk very quickly and have never had more than a handful of people in front of me at passport control but I still prefer that cushion if at all possible.

And then there are things which can cause more delays such as the stairs at the end of the transfer tunnel if using it. If one doesn't want to climb the stairs the elevator waits can be very lengthy indeed.

I honestly don't mind bus gates and find deplaning actually relatively quick, but I always build in time for connections.

(Of course, the best advice I can offer is to avoid FRA completely if possible and transit via MUC) :D

Landing on an internal LH flight at around gate A32 or so, then walking 200m and up the escalator, through outgoing passport control and to where UA900 departs is easy and you can do it in less than 15mins.

But they like to start boarding UA900 about an hour before departure, and you'll have to front up with your boarding pass, and have your passport checked. So 1hr 15m is workable, as you will have been checked through to SFO.

I do this regularly from Zurich, and departure for the US is so much easier than arrival from the US.

As noted by others, you land at a remote gate, come in to the terminal on the bus, go up the escalator through passport control (often a crush), down the escalator through security/xray/patdown (ALWAYS a delay there) and then through the tunnel (negotiating two elevators) and you end up coming into A16 or so. If you are at A30, you have quite a walk. I'd say 2 hours minimum.

Regards,
Metralla

Connecting Time
 

The Lufthansa lounges in FRA are pretty good, especially if you have *Gold. I would shoot for a two hour connection and enjoy a draft beer and German pretzel and potato salad.

Paris flights are apt to arrive reasonably nearby, and UA 900 is not the last flight to SFO, and you are likely to get a UA boarding pass at CDG, so I think both your options are pretty good.

Based on my experience last week, a 1:05 connection is possible but stressful. Overcast weather in FRA may lead to your CDG flight being delayed (for what we call flow control at SFO), then you are screwed.

Assuming you arrive on-time, you need to plan for passport control at the top of the escalator. I've seen it without a line, or last week, with a line going all the way back to the top of the escalator. I arrived on LH 4213 (scheduled 1:55 connection but 50 minutes late due to weather at FRA) at gate A30-something, first off the plane, then hoofed it over to the escalator (which was not operating) to the level 3, high-A gates, walked up the stairs and was stopped short by the line, which took a good 20 minutes to get through.

As luck would have it, UA900 was boarding by bus which seemed to cause enough delay that allowed me to make the flight. My colleague who was on LH4215 (1:05 connection) arrived more or less on time, found a shorter line at passport control and also made it on UA900, albeit on the last bus.

Also, I had checked in on line and did not get a BP, only an "International Card", but that was good enough to get through the LH desk prior to passport control. CDG check in could not print me a United BP, but in my experience, even if you have a BP, you often have to stop at the gate desk before boarding to get a new BP printed anyway. YMMV.

Linking up at Baggage Claim in Frankfurt?
 

My wife and I have been planning a rendezvous in Europe for several months. We are scheduled to meet in Frankfurt next Saturday Aug 14 as I return from a working trip to India.

I will be arriving from DEL into FRA at 7:10 AM on Lufthansa 761. My wife will be arriving from IAD into FRA at 7:10 AM on United 916 . The timing is perfect! We are planning to meet up at the baggage claim area.

This morning I suddenly had a thought -- Might we be arriving into different terminals and/or different baggage claim areas at the Frankfurt airport?

From the information that I can find online it looks like we would both arrive into Terminal 1 and would be at the same baggage claim area. However, I cannot confirm that definitively. Can anyone confirm that one way or the other?

Thanks!

Why not agree to meet at the baggage claim area for one of your flights? Wouldn't that be easier? This would ensure one person stays put while the other goes in search ... :confused:

Terminal 1 has a single well-marked designated meeting point on level 1, which also has the only baggage claim area in T1.

You can check out the map at http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/con...port_maps.html .

There are four marked baggage claims (A, B, C, D), which are all right next to each other in the same general area.

Yes, that's the general idea. However, if the baggage claim area is in a separate terminal (or in a separate building within the same terminal), then that greatly complicates the matter.

That's the information that I was looking for.
Thanks!
FRANK

There are 3, not 4 baggage claim areas in T1 (see the map in the link). These are not attached to each other.

Keep in mind, you need to go through customs (not a big deal) to get to the meeting point. Also, there is nothing preventing anyone from entering the baggage claim areas. So if you know where the flight is coming into, you can meet the passengers in the area they will be waiting by going into the same entrance they go into.

BDL-FRA is right. The map is too simplistic. Baggage claim areas B and C are practically in separate buildings. Arrival gates of longhaul flights are so unpredictable in FRA, I don't recommend any meeting points based on where flights might arrive.

This thread in the Germany forum

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/germa...a-flights.html

may give you some idea of what's available but a better option might be to use this site.

http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/con....0.before.html

There is a Segafredo cafe close to the baggage claim area B which might be a suitable meeting place. Click on the name of the cafe, then the location (e.g. Terminal 1, Section B, Level 1) and a pop-up map will appear.

After traveling through FRA a hundred times, I'm ashamed to admit I've never focused on where the UA transfer desk is.

We flying VIE-FRA-ORD (LH to UA) on separate tickets and have plenty of transfer time at FRA. I'll try to do OLCI for the FRA-ORD segment, but my success rate is about 50% for this.

Since the flight from VIE will be Schengen, I'm assuming no border controls until we get to the area for US departures. Is the transfer desk there? I'm also asssuming that LH can't print the UA BPs since it isn't on an LH itinerary, either at VIE or at the FRA Senator lounge.

There is a UA transfer counter next to the LH transfer desks in the B Terminal (parts of terminal 1 overall).

1:10 enough time in FRA for connection?
 

Planning UA926 to LH 4458. US 926 scheduled to arrive at 1500, LH 4458 scheduled to depart at 1610. Both are *A, but what are the transit security lines like today?

You also have immigration as you arrive in non-schengen and depart from schengen zone.

There is no guarantee your departing flight will use A non-schengen zone, and some chance it will use a remote stand (which means boarding starts and finishes early relative to departure time).