Mob scene at Frankfurt Airport

The British are more famous for forming proper lines than we are. :-)

Nonetheless, I'm curious: What is your definition of a "mob scene"? When I read your caption, I thought you were going to tell us about some kind of a riot.

So a large number of people were waiting to get their papers checked without forming a proper line, and standing way closer than they should be during a pandemic... that's all?

CAjan, I feel for you. The same thing happened to us several years ago in Zurich. Pure chaos. My husband can't walk very fast and people were in your face pushing through. Next time I will be requesting a wheel chair for my husband just so the airline is responsible for getting us from point A to Point B on time.

How much of a connection time did you have?

About a month ago, I took the first flight out of Berlin on a Tuesday morning and arrived at Frankfurt at around 7:30 to find a very light crowd (and I use the term "crowd" loosely) at the airport. I spent some quality time at McDonalds drinking a soda and working on laptop stuff as I waited a couple of hours to transit immigration for my 11:50 departure.

Mob scene = about 200 in a small roped off area, more people joining all the time at the back. When it was finally my turn, one of the 4 Lufthansa employees left with some one, leaving only 3 people to process everyone’s COVID paperwork. People jammed together moving inches at a time. Like photos I see of rock concerts, but people weren’t pushing.
Lufthansa had booked our two flights. About an hour for transit time, but our first flight was about 20 minutes late. There was no time to stop at a MacDonalds let alone use a bathroom. We were running, dodging people, carrying our carryons, wearing masks. That’s a lot harder to do when you are 69.

You didn’t mention whether you had checked bags. One advantage of doing so is that if they have any of your luggage in the hold, they will make strenuous efforts to get you on board. I was once on a plane that had a missing passenger. After multiple calls for him over the PA system, we were informed that the we might be delayed while his luggage was found and removed. Fortunately for the rest of us, he did show up before that process was begun.
Just fyi, there is no customs when you are leaving. I do remember, more than once, making that run to the gate for a connecting flight and the additional document check there. They have so cleverly forced you to pass through that large area of cosmetics and booze vendors.

About an hour for transit time

That's not much. We have missed planes with more transit time than that and no delay in the incoming flight.

Tight connection for changing from domestic to international flight! Congrats on making it.

A good reminder that short transit times are even more challenging with COVID paperwork checks required for many countries. I don’t think airlines have factored this in very well.

I was on a flight from LAX to Costa Rica, where paper printouts of both your boarding pass and your health screening approval were required for boarding. I was well aware of the requirement and came prepared. As soon as an employee appeared at the gate, I approached with each person’s required documents sorted out (passport, boarding pass, health screening). The gate agent was so appreciative that I had my $hit together. She mentioned that most people just shove a pile of papers at her. There was one person to check the entire plane in. After she checked us in, she made the overhead announcement for people to approach the gate to have their papers checked. Most people hadn’t even printed out their papers, making the process all the longer and obviously more frustrating for the employee.

Dear Roslyn
There is passport control to leave. Maybe not the same as customs but you have to show your passport and answer questions before they will let you into the Z terminal.

CAjan,

I passed you in the airport on Saturday morning, my flight landed at 9:30 am and it was quite busy in the Z terminal. I did not connect to another flight, just through immigration in about 15 minutes and a walk straight through customs.

We are planning a trip from the US to Dubrovnik and are considering going through Frankfurt. I have a couple questions. Hopefully someone has some current experience!

1. We have 2 hours 35 minutes between flights. Is that enough? 2.What are the current COVID requirements/restrictions for getting out of Germany and into Croatia per the above itinerary? Do we need to get tested in the airport (I hope not)).

thanks

@CAjan
No maybe about it. Customs and passport control or immigration are totally different. It would be pointless to have customs checks for departures, as most passengers would have things in their checked baggage, where they could not be inspected. The point of customs is to ensure that you are not bringing forbidden substances INTO the country. It varies from place to place, but at SFO they ask about things like live plants, meats, fresh cheeses. There are sniffer dogs roaming around on the lookout for those things as well as illegal drugs. But, every European country I have visited simply has two exits at your final destination. There is no check at the one labeled, “nothing to declare.”
Immigration control happens at both arrival and departure. Countries want to keep track of the whereabouts of non-citizens’ comings and goings. Passport control in a Schengen country has a special function. They actually total up the number days non-Schengen residents have been in the zone. It’s very strict. Go over 90 days and you might be sitting in jail rather than on a plane. The airlines have a vested interest in making sure that passengers on flights to the U.S. have the right to enter, as they have to transport anyone who doesn’t back to the place from which they boarded. Every country I’ve ever heard of checks the documents of everyone arriving on a flight of foreign origin.

Customs and passport control or immigration are totally different.

Absolutely. If you went through customs at Frankfurt Airport, you were in the arrival area and not in the departure area.

To add comments about FRA:
In my experience, it is one of the least pleasant of major airports in the world, actually quite awful on most points. To be fair, it is also one of the busiest in the world. However, it is amazingly efficient. We once had to change planes there after a flight from Zagreb. Our late departure cut our transit time to 45 minutes. Not only did we make our flight to the U.S., but our luggage did, too.