connecting flight frenzy?
 

My daughter is going to Austria on her own (first time traveling alone) and will have to take a connecting flight from FRA-Frankfurt Intl, Germany landing at 10:25 to KLU-Klagenfurt, Austria departing at 11:40. She will be using a carryon for her luggage and will need to get to the connecting flight and speaks only english. How concerned should I be that she will miss her connecting flight?

If the plane is on time a snap but planes are not always on time - too short a connection time to be guaranteed connection. Why did she not put more time in between flights?

Is the connecting flight on the same airline? In which case the connection may be held up - if not no.

she should make it but realistically chance not IMO

Presumably her arriving flight is on Lufthansa (from LAX?) and her connecting flight is on Austrian AL.

She will go through Schengen immigration (passport control) at FRA but should have no trouble making the connection. Obviously if flights are delayed, all bets are off, but if her arriving flight is late she'll be "protected" for the next flight to KLU, which leaves at 4:20.

International > international minimum connection times at FRA are under an hour - as low as 30 min. in some cases. Her flights show up as "legal" connections on the Star Alliance timetable.

... and no, English will be fine.

Hi W,

75 min is tight for any airport.

There is a good chance that she will make it. She should tell the flight attendant about her connection f the plane is running late.

If she is booked on one ticket, the airline will put her on the next available flt if she doesn't make it.

Don;t worry. She'll be all right.
((I))

Is this all the same airline? (If so , they will try to do everything they can to get people from one plane to another.)

Is it all on one ticket? If there is a problem the airline will then have to sort this out for her.

If it's separate tickets and she misses the second fligh she's on her own to get a new ticket.

Have you checked the on-time record of the first flight? Can you get her on an earlier flight by changing now?

(I've made flight changes in Frankfurt in only a little over an hour with luggage. But my incomng flight was the first of the day and landed early.)

Separately, you don't say how old your daughter is. Is she a child? Or an adult? Will she have access to the finances to buy another ticket if necessary (I assume so - since it doesn't sound like she's traveling with a school group.)

And speaking only English is not an issue - so will everyone else in the airport.

I did the exact same connect.

But, the plane was late from FRA and we had to wait for the next flight.

We flew Austrian air from FRA to KLU and they put us on the next available flight. The only problem was that the next flight was not for five hours.

The schedules may have changed of course.

I think normally that would be enough time, although I myself do not find that airport easy to find my way around if she must change terminals.

What I would suggest you do and what I didn't do was to ask for assistance from ground personnel. I found them to be very helpful.

Rules of flight in the EU have changed since I did it. So she should check if she is delayed for longer than four hours. She may be due some compensation.

Thank you for the great input. Very helpful. My daughter is a college student with a worry wart mom who has never been to Europe and so it is not clear to me what her obstacles will be. Thank you all so much for your comments -- it has helped tremendously. One question for PalenQ... What is "IMO"?

In checking her itinerary it Gardyloo is correct - it is Lufthansa from LAX and she gest on Austrian but it says they are operated by Tyrolean Airways. Is that still the same one you connected to? It seems they are two separate airlines...?

IMO = in my opinion


i know, I'm not PalenQ

I have to admit that I only had to use connecting flights in the U.S. once so far (with a huge 4hr wait), so I have no clue what a "good" connecting would be in the U.S.. But the connection your daughter got is absolutely standard procedure in Frankfurt.

As gardyloo pointed out, min. connecting time is 45min, and many connections will get just that min. time - so the 75min will give your daughter lots of time to go thru passport control and find the gate for Klagenfurt.

IF her flight from LAX should have a late arrival, the LH flight attendants will brief the passengers appr. 30min prior to landing if their connecting flights will be waiting, or if they had been automatically booked on a later flight.
In the latter case, she should go to one of the many Lufthansa information desks and tell them to call the people who want to pick her up in KLU, to let them know.

The only "good advice" I may have would be to double check the dep.gate for KLU once she will be in FRA.

The only time I get nervous with min. connecting time is when I have to connect from a domestic flight TO a flight to the U.S. - as you will have to go thru extra security control (which your daughter will not have to do on her way to Klagenfurt).

Have your daughter look at the Lufthansa Board book that will be in the pocket in front of her seat.
She will find a map of the Frankfurt Airport- usually toward the back of this book.

Most Lufhansa flights will provide information regarding connecting flights of on- board passengers prior to
landing - this will give destination departure time and gate number via the entertainment screen. often it will show arrival gate or flight attendents will know it. Thus she will easily be able to see on the map her route to the connecting flight.
Tyrolean Airways ( Austrian Arrows)is a subsidiary company of Austrian Air.
She should be able to get her boarding pass for this connecting flight in her originak departure city.
If not transfer desks are found in many places in the terminal. She can go there for a boarding pass if she does not already have it.

For most arriving flights, Lufthansa personnel will be at the arrival gate to assist and answer questions if needed.

Most Tyrolean flights( Austrian) involve smaller aircraft . She will probably be bussed to the plane rather than board by a jetway.
If arriving plane is on time- the connection should not be a big problem in my opinion- but often means a long walk.

I can't stand such short connections. As suggested she should study the airport map likely available in the plane magazine, see if the cabin crew can tell her what her connecting gate will be, hope the first plane lands on time. One thing not to be concerned about is speaking English only. I have yet to find that a difficulty within airports.

The biggest potential obstacle is if the first flight does not land on time, or ends up landed but having to wait for a gate to deplane. As long as it's on the ground and everyone gets off on schedule I'm guessing she'll be OK.

Looking at the FRA site,

http://www.airportcity-frankfurt.com

FRA-KLU flights seems to all "OS" flights departing from Hall A.

I have used both Hall A and B -- when I fly Lufthansa to/from US, I always ended up in Hall B.

I don't like Hall B to A transfer because:
1. It involves going through carry on luggage check -- the German inspection is very thorough and time consuming.
2. Hall B to A involves a long underground connection -- even with people movers. At both end you either wait long time at elevator or take 3 flights of stairs.

Delays can be cumulative. On one arrival at FRA, there was no available concourse, so the airplane sat additional time on taxiway for a shuttle bus -- extending already late arrival.

So it seems she will be OK, but Greg, you are suggesting that it can get tricky in the customs line..? She is not checking any luggage only using carry on bag. Will that help her. Terminal 1 is landing and departing, does that make a difference for her? How will she know if she needs to go to Hall A or B?

<How will she know if she needs to go to Hall A or B?>

You'd find it on your boarding pass or look on the flight monitors in the terminal for gate location?