First trip to Europe - Customs question
 

Hi All:

I am going to Europe (Vienna) next weeek. I am taking Lufthansa from Houston to Frankfurt, then Air Austria from Frankfurt to Vienna. My question is this: when I land at Frankfurt, will I be required to get my checked luggage and go through customs there, or will my luggage go to the next carrier (Air Austria) and I will deal with customs in Vienna?

Sorry for the newbie question, but i need to know.

You can check your bags all the way through. You'll go through immigration in Frankfurt and customs in Vienna.

Thanks very much for your reply!

In my experience, if your journey is all on the same ticket, then you should be able to check your bags all the way through.

If you purchased the two legs of the journey separately (i.e. two different tickets), you'll probably have to collect your luggage and check in again at Frankfurt.

It entirely depends on the first airline. Many will through-check regardless of one ticket or two. BA won't and many of the low cost airlines won't, but I've usually had no trouble w/ most major airlines checking my bags through to the final destination.

That's true, it does depend on the airline.
If the OP is travelling on two separate tickets I'd definitely recommend finding out whether the airline will check bags all the way through before setting off.

So the answer is, probably your bags will be checked all the way through. But you should ask at the desk when you check in.

Thanks to all for your replies. The 2 flights were purchased together-plus I am told Lufthansa and Air Austria have a contract whererin Lufthansa will forward the luggage from their plane to Air Austria.

Cajun - just a heads up. We've taken that IAH - FRA flight several times. In our experience, LH has been very strict about carryons. They measure, weigh and count. If OK, they put a "Cabin Approved" sticker on the bag(s). Go to their web site and get the latest info on carryon requirements.

I know this might not apply elsewhere and maybe not all the time on IAH flights, but thought I'd mention it just in case.