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50 minute Frankfurt layover

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Old Aug 22nd, 2003 | 04:23 PM
  #1  
arr
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50 minute Frankfurt layover

We are booked on a Lufthansa flight from Philadelphia to Munich with a 50 minute connection in Frankfurt. Our return flight also has a short connection in Frankfurt. My travel agent said that is a valid connection time , otherwise Lufthansa would not have allowed it.
For anyone who has had a layover in Frankfurt, is this enough time? I know luggaged would be checked through Munich, but what about going through immigration and security checks. Any advice would be much appreciated. Many thanks.
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Old Aug 22nd, 2003 | 05:52 PM
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We were booked on Lufthansa from Newark to Munich with about a 1-hour layover in Frankfurt. All I could remember on both legs was run & hurry to get to the connection.

Frankfurt is the worst airport to make transatlantic connections from in my opinion. You have to go thru security all over again to make the connection and change terminals.

Our luggage never made it to Munich, so my recommendation would be to bring your toiletries, change of underwear and clothes in your carry-on. We arrived in Munich in the morning, and our luggage was delivered to the hotel at midnight.

We went thru Frankfurt on our trip to Paris, and it was all the same. Our luggage never made it to Newark on the return flight. Good Luck!
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Old Aug 22nd, 2003 | 08:57 PM
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The Lufthansa phone reps. told me the same thing last year. We had a layover in Frankfurt en route to Paris. I didn't realize you deplane on the tarmac and had to take a shuttle bus to the terminal but that's how it is there. We had enough time but yeah, you really have to go at a fast pace. It's too bad it's not more than 50 minutes because that's not too much time in my opinion.
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Old Aug 22nd, 2003 | 11:49 PM
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A 50 minute connection is way too short in my opinion, especially in Frankfurt AND with Lufthansa.

We fly Lufthansa all the time from Kuwait-Frankfurt-US and back and they have the bad habit of "misplacing" our luggage even when we've got a 2-3 hour layover.

I recently rescheduled my Chicago-Frankfurt-Kuwait flight because I felt the connection time was way too short. Insane as it sounds, I opted for a seven hour layover instead of a 50 minute layover. I plan to get a day room, take a nap and a shower before my connection to Kuwait, and hopefully allow Lufthansa enough time to get my luggage on my connecting flight.

As much as I dislike sitting around airports, I'd much rather do that than chance missing my connection, which would force me to spend a night and most of the next day in Frankfurt as there's only one flight a day to Kuwait. It also prevents the potential loss of my luggage, which can take several days to re-appear and cause many headaches on the Kuwait end.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2003 | 02:35 AM
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ira
 
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Hi arr,

I think that 50 min is cutting it close for connections on any airline in any airport.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2003 | 02:44 AM
  #6  
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Unless you are planning to change flights and incur the almost inevitable change fee looks like you're going to have to move fast...but it can be done..depends on the time of day, which gates the two planes are using, etc. Emphasis on the fact that it is POSSIBLE...you just can't spend a lot of time fooling around.
 
Old Aug 23rd, 2003 | 05:40 AM
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We had to deplane on the tarmac also. The horror story with Frankfurt was having to go from one terminal to another -- down 2 flights of stairs (elevator doesn't hold many people), trot thru the tunnel, and back up 2 flights of stairs. Either before or after, I can't remember, we had to go back thru passport control, and then the long lines for security screening.

I will avoid Frankfurt as all costs on future flights.
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Old Aug 23rd, 2003 | 12:11 PM
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arr
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Thank you for all your responses. I was able to change my flights, with longer layovers in Frankfurt.
arr is offline  
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