I know there have been lots of posts about connection problems at Frankfurt Airport. I'd like to report the incredibly easy transfer we had there yesterday.
I admit upfront that this was Lufthansa to Lufthansa, and we were already in Schengen, flying Copenhagen to Frankfurt to Philadelphia, and thus this experience will not hold for all.
Anyway, we arrived A26, walked sterile to Z19. Took 12 minutes total from plane door to next gate, walking slowly, and even stopping to check directions to get to next level. All this while person in next seat on 1st plane told us we'd have 45 minutes at security.
As for the stepped-up security to the US, which we first heard about while we were already abroad, all we were asked to do was show our passports and get them stamped when we arrived at Z level, which I suspect has always been the case. I was curious about this and had time to kill, so I went back and asked. Security guard explained that had we come there a different route we'd have had full scan and such, but arriving from another plane he was just checking passports and only pulling people for extra screening if they looked suspicious.
Now the flight's exit from the airport, that's another story. That the plane was not at the gate and we were bussed to it was not a delaying factor in itself, but the plane was parked as far west as possible while still remaining on airport grounds, and of course the runway was the east to west runway. Even with pushback exactly on time, it was a 1/2 hour by the time it could taxi and be airborne. We were about 12 minutes late to PHL, and I heard some passengers concerned about making their connection here timely as PHL has always handled its immigration lines badly, and in fact it was 30 minutes before we could call our daughter to come from the cell-phone lot.