Attnymom

We are leaving for Paris in a few days and will fly from Chicago to Frankfurt to Paris. Although I've been to Europe several times, this will be the first time where I haven't flown directly from the States to my final destination.

My question is will we have to retrieve our luggage when we land in Frankfurt to go through customs, then re-check it for our flight from Frankfurt to Paris? Would it be easier to just carry on our luggage so we avoid the retrieval/recheck process (if that is how it works) in Frankfurt?

Any advice is appreciated!

Thank you,

A

xyz123

Like many, you are confusing immigration procedures (passport control) with customs. They are two separate things but in any event in this case, provided your luggage is checked through, as both France and Germany are part of the Schengen agreement, you will clear passport control in Frankfurt. You will then go to the gate, which might mean using internal transportation in the Frankfurt airport which is large (you'll look at the monitors to see where your connecting flights is leaving from), most likely go through a security check once again. Upon arrival in Paris, there will be no immigration inspection (frankly although it doesn't concern you, I have arrived in Paris on a direct flight from the US and the immigration examination was very cursory, as soon as I held up my passport, they waived me through. One time, there was no French immigration officer in the booth, we all just walked through) and will clear French customs which usualloy means looking for a line with a green symbol or nothing to declare (rien a declarer I suppose in French)...

Just to show the difference; if you were connecting in London since the UK is not part of the Schengen agreement as far as immigration is concerned, you would not go through immigration or border controls...you would still check your luggage through, you would follow the signs for flight cvonnections and upon arrival in Paris, go through French passport control, if they're not lazy that day as noted above.

Hope that helps.

waggis

On Lufthansa, we checked our luggage directly to IST via Frankfurt. Went through customs in Istanbul. Are you continuing your flight with the same airline?

socaltraveler

If you are flying on one ticket, with connections, your luggage should be checked through to the final destination. You are not going through customs, you are going through in-transit immigration. If you booked your Frankfurt to Paris connection separately, then you will most likely have to retrieve your luggge and re-check it. For example, in June we flew on BA from Los Angeles to Prague, with a stop over in London. Our bags were checked through to Prague and met us there. We also changed planes in London, to be clear.

J62

xyz has it correct, the others only partially.

Istanbul and Paris aren't the same. The latter is in the same Schengen immigration treaty zone as Frankfurt. The former is not.

You do not need to be on a single ticket in order to check your bags to your final destination, which is Paris. Just be sure to tell the checkin agent in Chicago that Paris is your final destination.

Attnymom

Thank you all! I knew it wasn't Customs - I meant where they check your passport. This heat (105 degrees here today) has gone to my head and I'm obviously not thinking straight!

We are booked on Continental, but our flights from Chicago to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Paris are on Lufthansa. It sounds like we'll be fine to check our bags through to Paris.

Thanks for the help - I appreciate it!

Best,

A

Jennifer_Scutari

I hope the Frankfurt airport is faster than Berlin. We took an hour to get from one plane to our next gate. We had to board a bus after getting off the plane, go through immigration which herded us outside the airport, come back into the airport and walk to another terminal where our connecting flight was, then go back through security. Thankfully...we didn't have to worry about baggage, and luckily, our connecting flight was late or we'd have missed it.

greg

Frankfurt airport is huge and the gate assignment is very dynamic. The gate assignments printed on the boarding passes issued at other airports have all been wrong for my flights. The only gate info you can trust is what is posted on the digital display. But that does not happen until about an hour before the flight. So far, once they told me it was concourse A or B, at least they stuck to that concourse. This is a good thing as the concourse A to B change in terminal 1 means a long walk on a people mover or a tram ride plus carry-on security check.

Ackislander

"Frankfurt airport is huge and the gate assignment is very dynamic."

Words worth remembering. If your connection is tight, Lufthansa personnel will shepherd you in a group. I don't know about other airlines.

DevonW24

Hello! I need some help and advise with some regarding flights etc. Me and my boyfriend are looking to go to USA to visit family from the UK and are deciding to fly through Paris. Now I'm unsure flying back from the US to Pari would we need to recheck our bags again or in US would they be sent to our final destination which is the UK. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

bvlenci

Devon, your question has been answered on the new topic you started.