Adequate time for connecting flight through Munich?

What if your flight is 30 minutes late? Is this one ticket?

Lufthansa all the way thru, but I agree if departing flight out of Boston is late taking off (and what are the odds of that happening), then we are in trouble in Munich. Will also check next flight from Munich to Bari in case we go ahead and end up missing our connection. We are not familiar with Munich airport so thank you for responding.

We fly out of Boston for all our international flights. Though the chances of it happening in September are less, we were held up for an hour and a half past the departure time due to thunderstorms in the area in June last year. Fortunately we were on a non-stop to LHR. Another couple we were waiting near had enough time to their destination built in so the Boston Lufthansa staff made arrangements for them to be met at the gate at LHR to be taken to their transfer on to Greece as it was going to be close. This is something that would not work for you though. We have transferred through Munich only once and found it easy to do but I would not book it with a one hour layover.

Thanks, Don. Lufthansa has a flight to Bari a few hours later but just on Sat and Sunday. We're trying to move
our departure date to Sunday. Sure hate to waste almost a whole day of vacation in the Munich Airport.

Lufthansa uses two buildings in the T2 complex, the original one closest to the MAC (airport center) with G and H gates and the T2 Satellite terminal, out in the middle of the tarmac, gates K and L. If you are arriving at an H gate and departing from a G gate or arriving at an L gate and departing from a K gate, you'll stay in the same building and just go through immigration and go downstairs to the other floor (in-Schengen gates). However if you are transferring from H to K or from L to G, you have to go down to the basement and take the shuttle train to the other terminal, which will take a little longer.

And you will also need to do the EES set-up as you arrive in Munich at immigration.

If this is on one ticket then Lufthansa must get you to Bari. Passenger rights are quite strong in Europe.

So what can happen?

• Your flight from Boston might arrive early. That is not unusual for Eastbound transatlantic flights.
• If it ends up that the connection becomes tighter Lufthansa might just bus you directly to your next flight, with a quick stop at passport control to process you in.
• Otherwise they will either have to put you on an alternative flight. One of their own, or one provided by another company (even a competitor). They may route you via another airport.
• If they cannot get you there on the same day they need to provide you food and accommodation

And if you arrive with a sufficient delay at your final destination you get a nice compensation.

Misconnecting passengers are very costly for the airlines. So they really want you to make your connection. LH has special connection managers at their hubs, whose job it is to make sure you make your connection. So do not worry to much. Those short connections are offered because the airline market in Europe is very competitive, and the incentives for the airline to get you to where you need to be are very high.

Munich airport is efficient. I had a delayed incoming flight one time that left me only 20 minutes to get to my next one, including immigration, and I made it (although my checked bag did not and came on the next flight).

I, on the other hand, had a bad experience at Munich when I only had an hour to connect. This was a few years ago, but it has made me always try to have about two hours to make a connection. I was flying Lufthansa, on my way to Venice, and for some reason I had to go through security in Munich. There was a huge crowd in the waiting area, no defined lines, and no staff to ask questions of. I was confused because I didn’t think I would have to go through security in Munich so I backtracked to see if I had made a wrong turn. Nope, went back, and got in a line. By the time I got through security I was being paged, and running to find my gate. When I got on the elevator to get down to the bus to get to the plane another woman came sprinting on behind me. She had been on the same flight as me. The flight was on time. It was the mess at security that made us late. On my return trip, I had two hours, and had no problem, but I also didn’t have to go through security.