Info needed on departing from FRA

I usually figure 2½ hours for arrival before flight time. But I have only carryon luggage, and I fly Lufthansa or United, which use Terminal 1. A British airline (I assume that is what you mean) will undoubtedly use Termainal 2, which will take another 15 minutes or so to get to via the Skyline.

Which station you arrive at depends on the train you take. Most connections from Mainz Hbf to FRA are regional connections (RE, S-Bahn) and they arrive at the Regionalbahnhof, right under the building across the access road from Terminal 1. Come up the stairs and look for signs to the Skyline.

If you do decide to take one of the ICEs, it will be faster to the Fernbahnhof but more expensive, and any time saved will be used getting in to Terminal 1 from the farther out Fernbahnhof. I'd take the S-Bahn.

The Skyline goes from the top floor of Terminal 1 to the top floor of Terminal 2. Of course, you'll have to go all the way down to the ground floor of Terminal 2 to check in. There are also buses from the street in front of Terminal 2 to Terminal 1. They are potentially faster (the bus takes about 5 minutes) and you avoid all the escalators, but the schedule is irregular (it could be a 1 minute wait or it could be a 15 minute wait), so it could take longer.

Thanks so much, Lee. I'm glad I asked. It is quite the convoluted airport! BTW, is there any way to avoid lugging our bags up stairs? I tend to look for elevators for ease of baggage handling.

British Air uses terminal 2.

If it is an Inter-Europe flight, you only need to be there 1.5 hours before departure. If your flight is to the US, they usually recommend arriving 3 hours before if you are checking luggage.

Coming from Mainz you would want to take the S-8 or S-9 which comes into the Regional train station on track 1. There is a major lack of elevators in this airport, especially from the train station. If you want to have fewer escalators, then take the bus from terminal 1 to terminal 2. The bus runs every 10 min. Follow the signs to the buses once you get off the train. This will be a total of 2 escalators up to the street level from the train platforms.

There is good directional signage at the airport, don't let the size of of this place overwhelm you. Just follow the signs and give yourself enough time to find your way. People tend to get stressed when they don't have a sufficient cushion of time to make up for things like getting on the wrong train, finding a WC, getting lost, etc.

This airport map might help you.
http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/en/flights---more/transfer.detail.suffix.html/article/flights-and-more/terminal-transfer/terminal-maps.html

This is super helpful, too. Thanks so much!

Only the S8 comes in from Mainz Hbf. The S9 comes in from Wiesbaden Hbf. They both use the same track and stations from Mainz Bischofsheim in.

I seem to remember elavators to the Skyline in Terminal 2, but that was over 15 years ago. There are also elevators from the Regional Bahnhof to the first floor (our second floor) of the building across the street from Terminal 1 (over the Regionalbahnhof). From there you come across the pedestrian street to the Terminal 1 mezzanine and I think you can follow the mezzanine around to the escalators/stairs to the Skyline.

The buses between T1 and T2 are not really a shuttle, just regional buses coming through the airport. There are 6 buses per hour (average 10 minutes), but sometimes they are 6 minutes apart, sometimes 16 minutes.