International Transport at Frankfurt (FRA) to a different airline with luggage

Be sure to check if Condor has a luggage code-share with either or both of those connector airlines - if they do, you'll be in cruise mode for your transfer through FRA.

Will do, thanks!

How far in the future is this? Are you flying to Heathrow or London City?

Condor has an interline agreement with Lufthansa, so it should at least be a theoretical chance of having your luggage checked through.

Late May 2024. Reward flights to Europe go fast. It looked to me like there were a mix of flights to LHR and LCY.

Thanks Badger

If not on the same ticket, I think same-day flights are very risky. For my last three international flights, only one was on time. One was canceled and we arrived 24 hrs later, and one had a six- hour delay. Since COVID, flight cancelations and delays seem to have increased. Would you consider a day in Frankfurt, and going to London the next day? There are hotels actually inside the Frankfurt airport, which makes life so much easier.
Perhaps use FlightAware to check the on-time performance of your intended flight?
Of course, if both flights can be on the same ticket ( codeshare) you remove a major stressor.
I understand how great using miles for business class is. Good luck!

Another consideration is that airlines seem to be making schedule changes much more often since Covid, so Condor could two months from now or six months from now change your flight time. As there are likely many options FRA to London I would at least wait until closer to your travel date to purchase the tickets for that second segment.

Thanks Pat and Laurie Ann - risky for sure, but hoping to book closer to travel date with miles there to lessen risk/make tickets more flexible.

If you do have to pick up your luggage, you'll have to go through Schengen immigration to get to luggage retrieval, then, since England is not a part of Schengen, you'll have to go through security and emigration to get to your out-of-Schengen gate.

This might be a good time to learn to use carry-on only. That way you can stay entirely in the transit part of the airport.

Hmm. Condor uses the C concourse of Terminal 1. That concourse is devoted to out-of-Schengen flights (the doors of the in-Schengen cars on the SkyLine don't even open at the C concourse), so maybe (?) you won't even have to leave the transit area to get your bags (but you probably have to leave it check them for your next airline). Better hope you can check you bags all the way through to London.

Check to see if Condor flies from FRA to London.

Has anyone ever flown Condor to FRA? Does anyone know what the inside of the C concourse is like? I think the in-Schengen hallway between Terminals 1 and 2 goes through the C concourse building, so maybe there is a way to get out of the transit zone from inside the concourse. Otherwise people who arrive in FRA on Condor have to take the SkyLine to T1 or T2 to go through immigration.

since England is no longer part of Schengen

Never was part of Schengen.

Thanks Lee - this is the response I was looking for. I was leaning towards carry-ons only for this reason.

It doesn't look like Condor flies from Frankfurt to anywhere in the UK, so the thought of continuing on to London on Condor doesn't work. You will have to transfer, probably to Lufthansa or BA. That means getting on the SkyLine and going to concourses Z or B (Lufthansa) or D/E (BA). It looks like you can do that entirely without leaving the out-of-Schengen, transit zone. Only the out-of-Schengen cars on the SkyLine pick up passengers in the C concourse, and they drop you off in the out-of-Schengen part of the stations in the Z, B, D, and E concourses.

First the good news. Condor business class from the U.S. to Frankfurt is quite nice. Good food, comfortable layflat bed and bathroom kept tidy. The bad news is that FRA is enormous and not the most easily understood airport to transfer at. My flight from Seattle arrived at a remote gate. Which meant having to get on a bus from the tarmac to the terminal. Then you follow the crowd to immigration. It's a fairly long walk. I would not be comfortable with anything less than 3 hours for transferring at FRA.

Thanks to everyone that has responded! Very helpful. I think the plan (for now) is carry on luggage only so we can stay in the transfer zone and not have to pick up bags and skip security/immigration(emigration?!?) until we get to London so this will remain all non-Schengen to non-Schengen. From the FRA website:

You are arriving from outside the Schengen Area and your destination is in a non-Schengen country: Usually no passport check is mandatory, provided that you do not leave the transit zone. Depending on your nationality, you may require a transit visa. If in doubt, please contact an embassy or consulate of your country.

Then allow at least three hours (so either a 8 am or 9 am) for transfer departure. I've reviewed the Lufthansa site and it looks like we can book changeable tickets (up to an hour before departure) and even the option to get on earlier flights, if available. So best case scenario, we jump on the 7 a.m. flight. With Lufthansa flights leaving almost hourly until 4:30 or so p.m. that will allow time for delays. If I am wrong or missing something, someone please let me know.

I forgot that your final destination was London. So you are correct, you should not have to go through passport control at FRA especially if you are doing carry on only. The only thing to be mindful of is Lufthansa's rather restrictive carry on limits. As a business class customer on Condor you "should" be able to use their more generous limits. But I wouldn't count on a gate agent agreeing to that reasoning. Also bear in mind that since Lufthansa has so many flights between FRA and London the aircraft might be smaller and may not be able to accommodate a 55x40x23 roller bag. You can look at Flightaware to see what aircraft Lufthansa is using on that route.

@ Trotter - thanks. The Condor and Lufthansa flights are being booked separately since I'm using Alaska miles which only transfer to Condor. However, I will be buying the Lufthansa Flex Economy tickets which includes checked bags so should hopefully be covered there if we have to gate check.