Connecting in Frankfurt

Ballard

Along the lines of a similar thread about Dubai, I’m connecting through FRA next week with a 1hr 20min connection time. LHR-FRA-BOG. I’ve checked which gates I will be using and it’s apparently a 17 minute walk between them. This should be fine if the London leg leaves on time but a half hour delay would make things hairy.

Being as there’s only one BOG flight per day I’m rather hoping that I don’t miss it and there’s always the chance of another Lufthansa strike.

Does anyone have any (hopefully comforting) experience of transiting in Frankfurt? FWIW I’m travelling business so should at least be one of the first off the plane.

Voyager2002

My experience of that connection is out of date (1994) but not exactly comforting...

Towards the end of my flight into Frankfurt I asked BA cabin crew if they could find out the departure gate for my onward connection. The only answer I could get was that we were going to arrive early and so I did not need to worry.

Anyway, all the information in the arrivals area was about where to find the Frankfurt base for each airline, and since Avianca only flew from there once a week and so did not have a base there was no mention of my flight on any of the monitors. I asked a member of staff, who rather condescendingly told me how to use the monitors and could not conceive of a flight not being listed there...

I cannot remember how I found the number of my departure gate, but getting there involved a train ride and three separate security checks.When I reached the gate they told me as I was very late, but allowed me to board anyway.

In sum: if you know your departure gate and can find out in advance how to get there, and prepare yourself for security checks, you are likely to make your connection. On the other occasions when I have connected through Frankfurt there have been no major issues, but it is a very large airport and so getting around takes a long time. It is still far more convenient than CDG (which is not saying much).

bradders1983

Googling the flight number on landing should tell you the flight details and gate if it has been allocated (usually)

Ngozi

Pretty much if everything runs on time, you should be ok, but you need things to run on time.
Just silly things like where you land in relation to where you want to be, but there is frequent buses and a train (Skyline?) running between terminals.

You'll have access to priority lanes for connecting flights and presuming BOG is Bogota in Colombia, you'll have to do passport control/check again, that can be a lottery in terms of amount of staff on etc...

As you're flying Business, first off and make use of any bus/train I reckon you should be fine.

Unless they strike again, which I think they were discussing today again?
I don't know how their Unions work over there, if they have to give x-amount of days notice before going on strike or not.

Ballard

Thanks for the replies.

I should have mentioned that I’ve downloaded the app for the airport which gives gate numbers and even shows the route that I will need to take between gates so I’m reasonably happy that I won’t have to spend too long searching.

martindow

I would try to get an earlier flight to FRA to avoid the stress and possibility of missing the plane. Is it possible for them to put you on an earlier connecting flight?

I think Avianca stop in Munich on the way. If that is right another possibility is going from LHR to MUC with a more generous connection time.

bagand96

If you haven’t already then download the Lufthansa app. That will be updated with gate information so you’ll be able to start planning as your first flight is taxying in.

I had a 1hr 20min connection through Frankfurt earlier this year and it was very tight. I made it but only just. Problem was my flight parked on a remote stand (Embraer aircraft). The buses to the terminal were prompt... but on arrival at the terminal, all the buses were queuing up to drop their pax off. Took at least 15mins waiting on the bus.

I doubt that will be a problem for you though, I expect the Heathrow flight being an Airbus will get a contact airbridge stand.

If you get out of Heathrow on time you should be fine. Just plan ahead (the app) and be savvy.

Ballard

Thanks for these replies.

I can’t really get an earlier flight as getting to Heathrow much earlier than I am already would cause it’s own problems. Other than that I don’t have flexible tickets anyway.

I do have the Lufthansa app which together with the one for Frankfurt airport should be useful. The plane is an Airbus so I’m not expecting to be bused to the gate.

onwards&upwards

This won’t be comforting, but I connected there last year and had two gate changes between landing and boarding.

There weren’t nearly enough departure boards around either. We realised when the little screen at the gate suddenly changed (no announcement was made) and then had to go hunting for one. It was not my favourite airport.

Although as i’ve Just read that you can’t change your tickets, you’ve already fully decided to take the risk. Good luck!

Ballard

As it turned out the gates in Frankfurt were close enough together to make it easy in Frankfurt. Unfortunately this was of no consequence as we had a medical emergency on board before taking off from Heathrow and had to wait about an hour for a paramedic to tend to her.

We arrived in time to see our onward plane depart and ended up with a four hour wait for a flight to Munich and a couple of hours there before Avianca took us to Bogot!.

The way we’re looking at it is that we spent a few hours eating and drinking in a few lounges and I slept well on the plane so all’s we’ll that ends well.

The unwell passenger walked off the plane unaided so you’d have thought that she’d have been able to do that immediately sparing us the lengthy wait. That’s not to say that safety first isn’t the priority and Lufthansa did the right thing.

HillsandDales

We bought Lufthansa flights from Manchester to Dallas, with a change at Frankfurt. We had one hour to get from one gate to the next and our connection was already boarding as we arrived in the terminal. The race across the airport was very long and involved a train at one point. Then we saw the queue for security. The staff took us downstairs to a supposed 'fast track' security which took 45 minutes. We stood there listening to the last calls. It was another 8 minute dash to our gate. Our luggage had been unloaded and we were put in a hotel for the night. Could have done without the pointless stress - we could never have made that flight.