twosassyk

We land in Frankfurt from the U.S. at 10 :00 am on US Airways which ends one reservation / set of flights. If it makes a difference we are in business class and could possibly try and NOT check luggage if needed.
We are planning to try and take a flight from Frankfurt to Vienna on the same day on Austrian airlines at 12:45 pm. Will this give us enough time to clearn customs, etc after we land from our flight in the U.S.?
Will we have to exit with our bags post customs / baggage retrieval if we do indeed check bags and go to the ticket counter for Austrian air to get boarding passes and back through security?

CarolA

My rule of thumb is no less then 4 hours. That gives you some leeway if flight one is light

CarolA

I hate auto correct

Above statement should end with "late". Sorry

J62

You will be able to check your bags all the way to Vienna. You will go through immigration at FRA, which I've never seen take more than about 10 or 15min.

I think 2hrs 45min is plenty of time. I've made connections as short as 50min, although I have missed 90min connections at FRA when the incoming flight is late.

twosassyk

Thank you both - I am thinking 2 hrs 45 min should be enough. The other option was to stay at the Frankfurt airport until 5:30 pm which I think would be very long and not so fun after flying all night from the U.S.

J62 - not sure it we can check our bags all the way to Vienna if the U.S. flight to Germany is on U.S. Air into Frankfurt and then separate ticket and carrier (Austria Air) from Frankfurt to Vienna.

J62

Yes, you can check your bags through. The flights don't need to be on the same airline or even the same ticket.

Done it quite a few times.

RoamsAround

Pose your question regarding the luggage directly to USAir (after all they will be the ones handling the luggage) - ask if they have a baggage handling arrangement with Austria Air. In many instances when you are booked on different airlines on different tickets you can still check your baggage through to your final destination. Usually, all you have to do is show your "on going ticket" to the agent when you are checking in and they'll tag the luggage to the final destination. We've done just that many times on international flights but not on the airlines you'll be using - so ask the airline to be sure.

Now, I don't know if you have to claim your bags in Frankfurt to clear customs - when we traveled through Frankfurt last year we just had carry-on. After deplaning it took us only about 20 to 25 minutes to clear customs/immigration and get to our connecting gate. We did, however, have to wait a bit to deplane and be bussed to the terminal (we deplaned on the tarmac) so overall I'd say we needed 45 to 50 minutes to make the transfer.

Upshot is, 2.5 hours sounds doable.

Gardyloo

US and Austrian are both Star Alliance members, so of course they have an interline baggage agreement. Just give your connecting flight information to the US person when checking in, and they ought to be able to tag your bags through to Vienna.

Both Germany and Austria are in the Schengen zone, so you'll go through immigration at FRA but collect bags and do customs at VIE. I'd allow sufficient time if on two tickets; 2h 45m ought to be more than ample.

Also note that there are quite a few daily Lufthansa flights from FRA to VIE (another Star member) so you needn't limit yourselves just to Austrian Airlines.

Cowboy1968

Print your boarding passes for the Austrian flight before you head for the airport in the US.
I'm not sure you need to do that to get you bags checked thru (probably not) but it's one thing less you have to think about when transferring at FRA.
Just to give you an idea.. Few passengers, even those with luggage to check, who just fly FRA to VIE will arrive sooner than 90 mins before departure. Most a good hour before departure. So you will have enough time to clear immigration, go through security, and get to the gate. FRA is not a very easy to navigate airport, so when in doubt that you are still on the right track, ask some airport personnel for guidance,

CarolA

Actually you may not be able to check your bags through. Airlines are shying away from this if it is not one ticket due to liability issues.

rkkwan

I am not sure what CarolA's comment is based on, or what it means. The airlines either have interline agreement or they don't.

CarolA

Even with an interline ageement the airline is looking at the Ticket you check In on. If it only goes to FRA that is as far as they will check your luggage. They won't interline if you have 2 tickets. At least one airline has made it official and reports keep popping up that the trend is spreading

The airline that checks your luggage originally has the "liability" regardless of who lost it. Airlines are trying to limit that risk. So they only check through if they are obligated too and that only happens if you have one ticket.

Cowboy1968

Actually, Carol should be correct.

Interlining does not mean that you show up at airline counter A and wave around any ticket for connecting flight with airline B to get your luggage checked through.
It's one step before that, when you book tickets.

If you have ONE itinerary, e.g. from an online travel agency or ticket broker, that sells you a United flight from JFK to LHR and the connecting flight from LHR to MAD with British Airways, this would be a connection with two seperate, not affiliated or not code-sharing airlines with an interline agreement. But it will result in ONE ticket. With the guarantee that United will check the bags through to Madrid.

But if you book two legs seperately, which results in TWO tickets, it will be the courtesy of airline A to check the bags through. In real life, it could have been the case that many signature or legacy airlines did it without making a fuss. But, in my understanding, this is slightly beyond of what an interline agreement is about.

In THIS case, however, as US Airways and Austrian are both members of Star Alliance, and both legs probably could have been issued even as code-share flights, I would assume that US will have the courtesy to check the bags thru.

But even if not, in a a worst case scenario, the almost 3hrs of OP will be more than enough time to claim bags at FRA and check-in landside again with Austrian.

Kathie

I've never had any difficulty checking my luggage through even on two tickets, on two different airlines.

twosassyk

I will call US Airways chairman's desk and ask and I have a friend that works at my local airport for US Air so I will see what information I can get ahead of time

alanRow

Why? What information you get makes no difference as to what happens at check-in. All US Air are contractually required to do is check your luggage to FRA. If they check it to VIE it will be a courtesy that they aren't required to do regardless of whether an interline agreement exists

CarolA

I once had AirFrance refuse to check my bag onto Delta....

And not only are hey in the same alliance why it was one ticket

And playing "see who I know" isn't really helpful. LOL.

alanRow

Is flying to hub airports and booking separate tickets onwards fashionable this year?

I ask because I've seen a number of such cases in the past few months on this and other (yes there are other) travel websites.

Can OP explain why they booked to FRA when they really wanted to be in VIE.

twosassyk

We booked on US Air from the U.S. into Frankfurt using miles (there were no options into Vienna with seats available even looking 8 months before our trip) because that was the best option / city to get over the water. We then searched out the best times / flights to pay for a flight from Frankfurt to Vienna.
Also I have found when booking flights within Europe it's MUCH cheaper to do one ways rather than multi city pairings - I have no explanation why. Even when the same airline is involved this has still been true...