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Frankfurt Airport Stopover Questions

Posted by (Pacific Northwest) on

Hello! My party of four will be traveling to South Africa via Zurich and Frankfurt. We arrive ZRH on Swiss Airlines, but depart on Lufthansa (flights booked with United Airlines).
Does anybody know, will our baggage be checked through to Johannesburg or will we need to retrieve it and re-check our luggage with Lufthansa?

We will arrive FRA at 3:40 pm, but we do not depart until 9:50 pm. We would like to leave the airport and see some of the city.

I know we will go through an immigration checkpoint, but will we need to clear customs in order to leave the airport?

Our plan is to buy a group ticket for public transportation (Gruppentageskarte inkl. Flughafen) and travel to the area of Romer Square for a couple of hours. How long should we factor in for transport to/from Romer Square? If we plan to be back to the airport by 7:00 pm, will this allow us sufficient time to clear security, pick up our carry-on bags from storage, and make it onto our 9:50 flight?

Thanks so much for your help!
MF

Posted by
21145 posts

If I'm reading you right, you arrive from N.A. at ZRH and change to a Lufthansa flight to FRA, then have a 6 hour layover at FRA. Look at your ticket. If it is a unified itinerary, your luggage should be checked through to Johannesberg. In that case you can leave the airport as soon as you pass through immigration. The S-Bahn goes to central Frankfurt every 15 minutes and takes 15 minutes to Hauptwache. So you might be able to get 2 hours in.

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks for your help, Sam!
Yes, it appears our flight itinerary is unified, so there shouldn't be any hassle with moving luggage. Two hours will be plenty of time for wandering the city in November. Probably just long enough for us develop hypothermia :-)

Posted by
5456 posts

Since you asked, yes you will 'clear customs' but unless you have anything to declare (highly unlikely) it will involve walking a short distance down a corridor and nothing more.

Posted by
9219 posts

I have quite a few posts on the forum about how to do a layover in Frankfurt, so if you use the search function you should be able to find those for some more helpful suggestions. How to get tickets, what to see, etc.

One piece of luck you will have is that the last flight out of Frankfurt is at 22:45 as they have no night flights. So, security lines will be almost non-existent.

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