My wife and I are flying to Frankfurt via LHR and we have a couple questions about customs. We're not checking any bags.
A) Will we have to go through customs both in FRA and LHR? Or just one? Which one?
B) How long can we expect the transition to take in LHR? Both flights are through Terminal 5. Our layover is 3 1/2 hours, will we have enough time to make use of lounges in the new terminal when factoring in any customs time?
Actually it is immigrations and not customs and, I believe you will not do that until Frankfurt. Should have plenty of time.
You have plenty of time to make your connecting flight. You will not go through immigration/customs until you arrive in Frankfurt, but you will have to go through a complete security screening at Heathrow.
I did the exact routing last year. Other than the volume of people at Heathrow the checks were really just a quick passport check.
At Frankfurt it was even quicker. No lines at all, the officer just looked at my passport and stamped it without ever saying anything!
From the time we got off the plane to the time we drove out of the car rental garage was about 30 minutes. It was awesome.
I would be prepared to do both passport checks and security screening in LHR, depending on arrival and departing terminals I have had to do that when passing through. Frankfurt will just be a quick passport check.
