Transferring at FRA, any tips?

arrivals are most often a V-gate

There are no 'V' gates at FRA. One of the concourses of Terminal 1 has gates for out-of-Schengen flights, which would include trans-Atlantic flights arriving from the US, and those gates are designated as 'Z' gates. Perhaps that was what you thinking of.

The Z gates are on the upper levels of the building with 'A' gates. A gates are on the level below the Z gates and are for flight to/from other Schengen countries.

It is entirely possible that you will arrive at a Z gate and leave from an A gate, in which case you will go through immigration (passport check) while going down to the lower level.

All the gates (A and Z) in Terminal 1 are within the same security area. You can move between gates and levels without having to go through security.

A flight coming from/ going to a Schengen country will not use a Z gate. A flight coming from/going to the US will not use an A gate.

The Terminal 1 area also has a building with 'B' gates. B gates can be for either in-Schengen or out-of-Schengen flights. There is a tunnel between the building with B gates and the A/Z building. You will go through security if you move between A/Z and B.

I don't think the C gates building is often used, so I won't discuss it.

Terminal 2 is the building with D and E gates, both in-Schengen and out-of-Schengen. Access to Terminal 2 from Terminal 1 is primarily via the Sky Line shuttle train.

Lufthansa and Star Alliance airlines use Terminal 1. Other airlines, such as American and Delta use Terminal 2.

We flew on Condor air in June from Seattle to FRA connecting to a Lufthansa flight. We had the same amount of time.

We had to take a bus to the terminal. We went through immigration, but not security. We had checked our bags all the way through to Munich. This is VERY important. If you are checking bags, make sure they go all the way to Zurich. A woman on my same exact itinerary (small airport to SEA to FRA to MUC) was not allowed to check her bag through and had to pick it up in FRA due to some computer issue. She made the flight but said she had to claim her bag, check in again, and go through security and barely made it.

We had plenty of time in FRA, probably at least an hour more than we needed.

ATMs are called Geldautomat in Germany.

Here's an airport map showing ATMs and currency exchanges. Avoid Travelex if you want to keep costs down. I see a couple of Deutschebank ATMs and also Reisebank, which I don't know. You won't find a bank with no fees, and I wouldn't count on especially low fees at an airport. But the convenience may be worth it.

Since you don’t need the Euros right away (since your first stop is Switzerland), you might want to wait to get cash ( Swiss Francs) in Zurich. Every airport or train station will have at least one atm.

Lee - Thanks for all the info. I think the v-gate may refer to a tarmac location, not sure though.

travel4fun - I will definitely check how the bags are tagged!! When you were bused to the terminal, where did unload? thanks!!

Dick - Thanks for the map. I will probably wait to use an ATM as travel4fun suggests.

The used terminal (1 or 2) depends on chosen airline and the arrival gate most times on where the airplane is heading next.

Areas A, B, C and Z are in the same terminal building 1.
2 1/2 hours are comfortable for transfer.

This page gives you a map, an overview and some tips for transferring at airport FRA.

Tip: If you arrive in B it is comformatble, scenic and often less stressy to use the Skyline train to A and Z - even the walking distance is not huge.

Have a good journey.

We flew Dulles to Frankfurt and then connected to Milan last year. It was really easy. Our bags were checked through, so all we had to do was go through immigration (we maybe waited five to seven minutes in line) and had time to get a pastry and water while we waited for our flight. We had to take a bus out to the plane which was actually quite the drive! Overall, the process was smooth and painless.

We are flying Dulles to Frankfurt later this week, but that is our destination (we will get the train to Berlin from the airport). Have a great trip!