Transit at Frankfurt--again, this airport is a joke

Ignoring Rick's advice to pack light?

I think of Frankfurt as a super efficient airport (enables some really tight, seemingly impossible connections... at least in the past) and would not hesitate to go through it again. Sounds like you had a bad day, but Frankfurt is so much preferable to JFK, for example.

Living in the DC area, l am used to non- functioning escalators and similar but l just tune it out and make sure l can handle the luggage even on stairs.

I haven't had any problems with Frankfurt when going through there. Hope it's better for you next time.

Sure, it's big, but there's nothing "wrong" with their operations. I've been there many times, and have never had to handle my own luggage during transit. That's because I buy open-jaw tickets with the second segment at little or no extra cost. That's not a "deal", it's the way the flights are ticketed. And when you go off the grid and pair tickets you buy separately yourself, you are exposed to difficult transfer times, as well as additional obligations on the carrier to deliver you to your final destination.

I've gotten excellent service at FRA, including being paged at the gate by Lufthansa when I misunderstood the need to check in for a flight for which I already had a boarding pass. Many Americans, perhaps (?) influenced by GI relatives, mistakenly think that Frankfurt is the best place for entry into Europe. It's just an airport. Sometimes it's the right one, sometimes not.

Never had any more issues in FRA than any other airport. I went through while there was a massive reconfiguring of the transit areas and, other than going through security about 6 times (maybe my own fault?) still found my way without problem.

It was just another airport.

Every time I fly through Frankfurt, I swear I will never do it again. My wife just smiles at me. The Airport is always in the process of a major construction. We have been through over a dozen times since 2006.

In 2019 I arrived at the airport on an Sbahn (running several minutes late) from the Hauptwache. The normal stop for this route was under reconstruction. (No surprise there.) Fine I thought, I will just catch the bus that circles through the airport. The signage was good until I reached an outdoors area with several buses and the signs disappeared. I walked around trying to determine the right bus. Then a bus pulled away from the curb, exposing a small temporary sign. I had just missed the bus. At least I knew where to wait for the next.

When I reached the check-in area, I learned that they had a new system. Check-in counters were not readily grouped by airlines. I had to walk about till I saw a digital sign for my flight. It worked but there was a learning curve. There is always a learning curve at the Frankfurt Airport.

The sky tram has been down a couple times that I was there, the buses were packed to the gills.

We have always made it through. It was never a dull experience. I do like several things in the greater Frankfurt area. I will probably relent and pass through the Frankfurt Flughafen again. I am trying to keep my sense of humor about it.

That is an interesting rant about Frankfurt. Truthfully it surprised me. There are a couple of other airport that I would put will ahead of Frankfurt when it comes to disorganization. It is huge but I always thought it had good signage. It is run with the typical German efficiency. Something else has to be going on with Bark... From the other posters her experience is not typical. Frankfurt and Amsterdam have always been my preferred entry airports to Europe.

Well, I guess I was just comparing FRA with better alternatives, such as Zurich and Munich. Outside Europe and the US, there are nice airports in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

I have not been to the brand new BER, and therefore would be interested in knowing how it's like to transit there.

I just returned from Frankfurt last week. I flew in and out of this airport for this trip on United. It was my first time to FRA but I have been in and out of most all of the other major airports in Europe. I thought the signage was fine and I did not get lost. There was a lot of construction going on and escalators not working, but I packed light and was able to get up and down the stairs no problem. I would definitely say the construction was needed as parts of the airport seemed old and dated. The one thing that I saw that sorta made me laugh a bit were the moving walkways, which were only about 50 feet long so I was thinking why even have them if they are that short? Despite those minor nit picky comments, I would say FRA was above average and I would and do plan to fly into that airport again.

You'd probably like Duesseldorf. Not nearly as big as Frankfurt, newer, with everything in working order. My only pet peeve is that in order to ride the monorail to the long distance train station, you have to buy a short trip transit ticket. At least you are supposed to, but I would guess they get a lot of Schwartsfahren.

I've been through FRA several times, had some confusion on some of those transfers but mostly OK. Last time was very easy, I hope next week will be too. I've had worse experiences at CDG, not to mention several US airports.

FRA is the largest air transit hub in continental Europe. However, there are better choices--Zurich, Amsterdam, and Munich.

I am not saying FRA is the worst airport in the continent. What I mean is that, as the biggest hub, it's not good enough.

I have landed in and departed from Germany over the years using FRA several times on United, Condor and Lufthansa, never had any problems but never had to connect through FRA either, no problems with curt or rude staff, always spoke German with them. It was also my final destination from SFO. The best way to fly to Germany non-stop from SFO is SFO to FRA.

Given a choice between FRA and Munich, I do admit that MUC is a much more "attractive" airport, however, one wants to define it.

Most complaints on airports in Europe focus on Paris CDG, which I 've seen regarding its negative aspects. The main question is whether these negative aspects of CDG bother you or not. They don't bother me, ie., no problems with CDG either.

My favourite is London Heathrow..

CNN recently reported on the Skytrax World Airport Awards for 2021. Frankfurt came in #16 worldwide: https://www.worldairportawards.com/worlds-top-100-airports-2021/

@ Gary Mc - My uncle was an international airline pilot back in the day. His assessment was that "every airport in the world is always under construction."

I've never had a problem with a transfer in Frankfurt. It is i huge airport, there is not way you can get around that. But I've always found it well organized and easy to find your way. Never encountered any rude staff either. However, Germans (and in general people in germanic countries) are usually very direct. Something that Americans, used to speaking in euphemisms, can have trouble handling and interpret as rudeness.

But it is a huge airport, and if possible I prefer to transfer in smaller airport. My favourite is without a doubt Copenhagen. Least favourite is Heathrow.

However, Germans (and in general people in germanic countries) are
usually very direct. Something that Americans, used to speaking in
euphemisms, can have trouble handling and interpret as rudeness.

Very true. :D You have a cultural difference there, with us having the cliché of the always (insincerely) smiling American at the opposite end. ;-)

Least favourite is Heathrow.

Oh yes. Haven't stopped there often enough to claim a statistically significant number of experiences, but each experience was unpleasant. The last one was trying to catch a connecting flight with what we thought was a very comfortable time cushion, and the security kept us waiting so long for no apparent reason that we almost missed our flight. It wasn't simply that the line was so long - that wouldn't have been their fault - but they kept us waiting forever in a separate place until they deigned to do the extra check they deemed necessary.

I was really mad at them because, to top it all, we were traveling with a disabled person who needs some extra time to get around, and they were being neither helpful nor friendly.

If you don't like FRA, you'll absolutely hate CDG. Although it has gotten somewhat better in the past few years (since it couldn't possibly get worse), CDG is a huge pain in the ass to navigate. It would make things so much easier if they renumbered the terminals 1 through 11 rather than having terminals 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E gates K, 2E gates L, 2E gates M, 2F, 2G, and 3.

My favorite airports for entry into Europe are AMS and ZRH. Both are easy to navigate and are pretty efficient overall. Although the bathrooms in AMS seem abnormally small given the amount of traffic they see.

My issues with FRA stem from going through security. It took what seemed like forever on a couple different trips. A few more shops and restaurants by the Z gates would also be nice. The one bakery and the early closing hot dog stand aren’t enough. Interactions with employees were pleasant and I had no problem getting to where I needed to go.

If you have some pointed, constructive criticism, I would seriously consider giving them direct feedback. It's a lot more useful in getting the issues resolved than complaining to third parties (I doubt anyone here will actively avoid the airport since it may be the best or most cost-effective routing to their destination). Email for feedback below....

https://www.frankfurt-airport.com/en/contacts/general-contacts/contacts.html
Feedback
Phone +49 180 6372 4636
feedback@fraport.de
https://www.fraport.de

I once changed flights in Düsseldorf. I was on a Schengen flight from Munich, changing to a non-Schengen flight to Chicago. The change was absolutely simple. There was on hallway between the gates with emigration in the hallway.

The one thing I remember about that airport was that people who were starting at Düsseldorf had green tags on their carryon bags to show that they had been cleared at check-in for size and weight, but those of us transferring had not been similarly checked. The guy sitting next to me had a huge "carryon" bag - it must have been at least 28"; it filled the bin, and I had to use the bin next to it (fortunately). He had to work to force it into the bin, and it was the only bag in that bin.

It's size must have somehow jammed the latch mechanism, because when we landed in Chicago, he couldn't get the bin open. I didn't stay around to see what happened (I had a connecting flight to catch), but when I left he was waiting for a mechanic to come take the airplane apart so he could get his bag.

On the issue of directness , or even bluntness, on the part of Germans and other Germanic peoples (and the French too)
considered as rudeness, that is irrelevant . Have I seen that in France and Germany? Quite often, but then so what? The main question is does that sort of mannerism bother you. For me no problem.

I've used FRA more times than any other airport in Europe. I can't say I've ever had a bad experience there. But I've mostly just flown into or out of Germany at FRA.

Only once did I have a transfer. I was coming from Munich before they had non-stop flights from MUC to Denver, so I had to change planes there for a non-stop flight to Denver. I came into an A gate and went out from a B gate and used the tunnel between the concourses. There was a lot of security along the route, because it was just 4 months after 9-11, but other than that, the change went smoothly. As I remember, I had an hour for the change and made it with time to spare.

I've only used the Sky Line once. That was in 2000, my first post-1900s trip, flying Northwest Airline, which used Terminal 2. I arrived at the airport in the Regionalbahnhof, which led me to Terminal 1, so I used the SkyLine to get to Terminal 2. The signs were a big help, and I made it without any problems.

My worst experience, if you can call it that, was in 2013, when we arrived in the extension wing of the A/Z concourse at, I'm pretty sure, gate A69, the farthest gate out on the concourse. The walk from there to immigration, at the base of the 'V', was half a mile. It seemed like it would never end. Then, although we had no checked luggage, we were led out onto the "arrival level", at baggage claim. I had never seen that level before; always before I came out into the departure hall and I was familiar with how to get to the Fernbahnhof from there. But I was not familiar with level 2, so I was sort of lost. Fortunately the signage was good and I found the way to the Regionalbahnhof, and then to the elevators to the bridge to the Fernbahnhof.

So, overall, No, I would not avoid FRA. I thought I was familiar with FRA in 2013, having been through there 10 times since 2000, but, due to changes in the interim, I did get a surprise. Since then, I have made an effort to become as familiar with FRA as possible, and would not be averse to using the airport again.

just to mention if you're flying Star Alliance (i.e., United, Austrian or Lufthansa), you will likely deal with FRA

I think I would agree that Munich's airport (MUC) is easier to navigate than FRA. I used Terminal 1 once in 2002 for a domestic flight to FRA. I think that was before they built Terminal 2. I think now T1 is only used for intra-Europe flights (BA, AF, probably KLM from AMS); I think all non-Schengen and Star-Alliance Schengen flights in Munich use Terminal 2 now. I've used Terminal 2 in Munich half a dozen times since 2003.

Terminal 2, the only one most of us will use, it's fairly well laid out, two linear concourse, G gates (level 4) for Schengen and H gates (level 5) for non-Schengen. So when you go from Schengen to non-Schengen, you just change levels (and go through passport control). However, each concourse is fairly long 6/10 mi, ~1 km, end to end). On our last flight from MUC, we had to walk half a km from security and emigration in the middle to the United gate at the far south end of the concourse.

MUC now has a satellite terminal for Terminal 2. It has the same Schengen/non-Schengen layout with separate subways between the two levels of each terminal.