We will be arriving in Frankfurt from Dallas at 7:20 am and need to get on the ICE train to Cologne with our luggage to catch a flight to Malaga that departs at 11:30 am.
The ICE trains take about 1:20-1:30 minutes to Cologne's airport from Frankfurt's airport. The ICE trains leave Frankfurt at 7:59 am, 8:14 am, 8:24 am and 8:59 am.
I am hoping we can get either the 8:14 or 8:24 train. Anybody out there feel this is an unrealistic goal?

German airport customs and security clearance can be horrible, a few nice people and many power-trippers. One actually struck my husbands crotch with the wand multiple times. Plus the Frankfurt airport is a nightmare of hallways and mazes. I suggest you start your vacation calmly by planning for the later (even latest) train. Plus, you never know if your Dallas plane will be delayed.

Passport control can take some time, or it will be fast. No one can tell in advance. Clearing customs is no big deal. You will simply exit the baggage claims area. There are only random spot controls.
No security checkpoint, though, since you will exit the airport.
Whether you will make it by train or not will also depend on the minimum check-in time for your flight from Cologne to Malaga.

My only experience with Frankfurt was not pleasant - it took a good 30 min just to get INTO the airport from the plane (had to go through security before entering the airport). We had a connecting flight so we didn't exit the airport, but I agree with humanone that the airport is difficult to navigate.

I doubt that you'll be able to clear security, go through immigration/customs and get your bag in time to make either train you're looking at. It will likely be very stressful even if you do succeed.

Having just made a very tight connection at LHR, I don't recommend it as a pleasant way to start your vacation. Plus, if your flight from Dallas is delayed at all you're up the creek.

What's security got to do with the question, and when was the last time anyone got stopped by a Customs officer entering an EU country?

The poster's problems are:
- getting through German immigration (who certainly don't use wands), and
- waiting for bags to arrive, and
- the risk of a delayed incoming flight.

You'll probably make the 0859. But I wouldn't bank on it. Unless this is all on one Lufthansa ticket (LH sometimes pretend some train journeys are flights, so if you miss your connection they might organise things for you), I'd book another flight to Malaga now, while you've got the option.

Another factor going against you if the flight gets delayed is losing the arrival gate slot. The plane parks in middle of nowhere and you need to wait yet more time for a bus to shuttle you into the building.

Hey NP,

>We will be arriving in Frankfurt from Dallas at 7:20 am ......I am hoping we can get either the 8:14 or 8:24 train.<

You are giving yourself and entire hour.

Highly unlikely if you have checked luggage, even if everything goes smoothly.

Very best of luck to you on getting your plane out of Cologne.

With carry-on lugggage, it took us nearly an hour to go through immigration and get to the airport train platform last year. And our plane was a bit early.

To accomplish what you're trying to do would be too much risk and too stressful for me.

I would re-book that ticket to Malaga if you're not ticketed the whole way through, as flanner suggests.

We flew into the Frankfurt airport at 7:20 am last month, and then took the train towards Cologne. The plane was a little late and parked where we had to take the bus into the terminal. Even though we didn't have much of a wait for our luggage and it was quite easy going though passport control and customs, I don't think we could have made a 8:59 train.

Even if you can make it, it will be stressful and not the most pleasant way to start a vacation.

"German airport customs and security clearance can be horrible, a few nice people and many power-trippers. One actually struck my husbands crotch with the wand multiple times. Plus the Frankfurt airport is a nightmare of hallways and mazes"

I second that it has got to be the worse!!!

We just picked up my son and his friend at Franfurt Airport last weekend. His flight got in at 7:40 and he states he cleared customs at 8:00, which surprised me.

Somehow we missed each other and as I was getting concerned that he had missed the flight, I asked some folks clearing customs at 8:20 what flight they were on...it was still people from that flight. It was a full big flight and it made a difference where you were seated in the plane as to how fast you made it off.

There seems to be some confusion about what happens when you land at the airports in Germany. You get off the plane, you go through passport control, then you go pick up your luggage, then you walk out the doors. If you do not have checked bags, you get out even faster. There is no "customs" check, like you get in the US. No one is going to check your bags, ask you any questions, etc.

Having been a hotel manager in Frankfurt with a shuttle service, we had a very good idea how long it takes people to emerge through the swinging doors after picking up their luggage. Anywhere from 20-45 min. is the average. If you need to get to the train station, you need to know if you are going to the Regional trains or Long Distance trains. Both of these are in Terminal 1. If you land at Terminal 2, it is an easy ride with the monorail - Sky Line, over to Terminal 1. It runs every 2 min. and takes about 1 min. You cannot bring those luggage carts on here, (which are free by the way) so best not to use them if you don't have to.

Maybe its just me, but I find the Frankfurt airport to be efficient and organized and flights land early there on a pretty consistant basis, which is always a plus in my book. As far as the friendliness of the staff working there, they rate higher in my book then the extremely unfriendly folks at Dallas Fort Worth airport. Newark was ok, and Cincinatti is usually friendly and helpful most of the time. The absolute worst place is in Columbus, Ohio which unfortunately is where my family lives. Seriously, the place is a joke.

Anyway, if you have specific questions about the Frankfurt airport, I do know it pretty well, so ask away.

Having arrived at fra over 30 times, i agree with mainhattengirl. I have never had any trouble. jayvee

Anyone wondering why OP is flying to Frankfurt, then getting a train to Cologne if they are going to Malaga - especially as there are at least 2 low costs airlines that fly to Malaga from Frankfurt

I support what Cowboy says.

I hope there is no delay when coming from the states.

Keep fingers crossed!

Happy travels!

SV

The crucial point is whether your plane is punctual or not. Usually the planes from North America are a bit early, due to favourable back winds. But if the plane starts late in Dallas...

In Frankfurt, this will be the scenery:

- You will leave the plane. Depending on the row where you are seated, it will take up to 20 min until you will be able to leave the plane.

- Then you will go through "immigration". This will take just a few minutes. Not to compare with immigration into the U.S.

- Then you will walk from the gate to the baggage claim. This will take about 10 minutes. (Some posters have felt it had taken longer, but this is due to biassed feeling after a long flight.)

- When you arrive at the baggage claim area, you may have to wait another 10 minutes until your baggage arrives.

- Then you claim your baggage and walk through the exit. There won't be any customs check. You just go out.

- From the baggage claim you walk another 10 minutes to the ICE platform.

In sum, it will take 45 to 60 minutes to arrive at the platform at the train station. If your plane is punctual, you will get the 8:14 or 8:24 train. In case of a small delay, you get the 8:59 train which will arrive early enough at Cologne airport.

But IF your plane is delayed by more than 30 minutes, things will get tough. IMO, the risk that the plane will be delayed is pretty high. Imagine bad weather in Dallas. Or a technical problem. Or just heavy traffic at the airport..

Granted, I only have been through Frankfurt from the US once and that was in 2007, but that time we landed and did not get a gate and were bussed to the terminal. We then had to go through security before we got into the airport itself. This took at least 20 min b/c there were only a couple of xray machines/metal detectors and we were on a big Airbus. I have to say that I found the signage abysmal and it was difficult to figure out where to go.

It sounds like if you do get a gate then things should move quickly, but if not, it may be a slow process.

Came throught Frankfurt airport from a transatlantic flight last Wednesday. Passport control took 5 minutes at most, and luggage came through in no more than 10 minutes. Of course there was no wait for customs as it's simply a matter of going through the nothing to declare gate.

I don't know if this is typical, as it has been some time since I had used FRA, but I used to use it frequently in the past, and it always impressed me as an efficient airport (by comparison, for example with Charles de Gaulle and Heathrow).

I have flown into and out of Frankfurt several times a year in the last few years, and haven't had problems. I don't know about comments regarding having to be bussed in because the plane was late and didn't get a gate. Only once in the past 5 years have we ever landed at a gate - it is very common to be bussed in. And that time we were at the other end of the airport from our connecting flight, and had to run. But normally we manage to get through immigration and security quite quickly.

(I've even participated in a retinal scan pilot program they were operating, but have not yet found a gate that reads the data - but since there was hardly ever a lineup, it hasn't been a problem.)