Teen transferring in Frankfurt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This summer has been even more of a nightmare for delayed and cancelled flights due to summer storms. Make sure you leave a lot of time to connect.

Our connecting flight out of Frankfurt was cancelled due to this. Had to make unexpected hotel arrangements.

What would a 16 year old do?

Go to a hostel that you've found in advance that take 16-year-olds. You may need to have a parental permission letter.

Throw themself on the mercy of airline/airport staff to stay overnight in the center used for kids traveling in official unaccompanied minor programs. Even though the kid is traveling as a regular passenger, I've heard that they'll help out stranded kids.

[Anonymous]

People have some good suggestions for things to consider but bottom line is I would. Especially assuming the kid has a phone— it’s not like they are cut off from any contact at all.

[Anonymous]

Maybe book with Lufthansa or another European airline and use their care service.

“The care service can also be booked by parents for unaccompanied children from the age of 12 up to 17. This ensures that the child receives support, especially in the event of a disruption to their flight, such as a delay or cancellation.”

https://www.lufthansa.com/au/en/unaccompanied-minors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frankfurt can be a bit of a pain. Instead of jetways, they often load you on a bus and make you drive a long way to and from the plane.

This! I had to go through Frankfurt from IAD to Poland. I gave myself 4 hrs of a layover between flights, thought that it was a lot of time. But our plane was 45 minutes late to arrive in Frankfurt and there were crazy lines for people from US and other countries( Outside Schengen) to wait in line for about an hour. Then you had to take elevators/buses to the smaller plane. Honestly, I don't think I would let my 16 year old go through this hassle. Try to book direct flight.

[Anonymous]

There’s a direct SAS flight from Newark

[Anonymous]

I missed a connection in Frankfurt once even though we could see the plane as ours was arriving at the gate. They refused to let us try to make it. Needed an overnight there but the hotels were all full so we had to stay in the terminal all night. Make sure you’re prepared for that.

[Anonymous]

The only direct flight from the US to Oslo is on SAS, and the currently fly it from both Newark and JFK, but they will phase out the Newark flight soon because they changed airline alliances.

As long as there's at least 2.5 hours connecting time in FRA, that will be perfectly fine. Another thing to try is there are 3-4 flights a day from Dulles to Frankfurt. If he's on an earlier one, then he'll arrive to FRA pretty early and if for some reason he misses his connection, there's likely another Oslo flight later the same day.

The main advice for transferring in Frankfurt is watch the _letter_ of the gate, like A, B, Z. The signage is decent, as long as he goes by letter, and doesn't confuse gate A12 for gate Z12.

He'll be fine. As for English, everyone in Frankfurt airport speaks English with the possible exception of some of the cleaning staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only direct flight from the US to Oslo is on SAS, and the currently fly it from both Newark and JFK, but they will phase out the Newark flight soon because they changed airline alliances.

As long as there's at least 2.5 hours connecting time in FRA, that will be perfectly fine. Another thing to try is there are 3-4 flights a day from Dulles to Frankfurt. If he's on an earlier one, then he'll arrive to FRA pretty early and if for some reason he misses his connection, there's likely another Oslo flight later the same day.

The main advice for transferring in Frankfurt is watch the _letter_ of the gate, like A, B, Z. The signage is decent, as long as he goes by letter, and doesn't confuse gate A12 for gate Z12.

He'll be fine. As for English, everyone in Frankfurt airport speaks English with the possible exception of some of the cleaning staff.

You can't say he'll be fine. Every flight I've been in recently has been cancelled and the rescheduling was messy. I've had extra nights in hotel in different parts of the world.

[Anonymous]

Have him stop in Reykjavik. Iceland air is a great airline, the Reykjavik airport is very small and easy to navigate. Frankfurt is fine and I'm sure he'll be okay but the layout makes it feel much larger than Reykjavik.

[Anonymous]

I've missed two connections (each was >3 hours) in different years in Frankfurt because my summer evening IAD departure was delayed due to thunderstorms.

For the first, there were lots of flights to my destination and it was automatically rebooked. But... there were knock-on issues (because we missed a train that was fully booked for the rest of the day). The second, there was only 1 flight/day to my destination and it was extremely dicey whether we'd get there the next day. (Like, we spent 6 hours in Frankfurt talking with the rebooking agents about options and didn't know if we were going to get on the next day's flight until late evening).

Important to know your kid and how he might cope after an overnight flight if things go sideways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have him stop in Reykjavik. Iceland air is a great airline, the Reykjavik airport is very small and easy to navigate. Frankfurt is fine and I'm sure he'll be okay but the layout makes it feel much larger than Reykjavik.

I would avoid this airport for connection. It’s too small to handle the numbers that are now going thru Reykjavik. I can only imagine how that would work when flights are canceled and people are clambering for hotels.

[Anonymous]

The answer is simple. Take the SAS flight.

What camp in Norway? Does your son speak Norwegian? Are the other campers primarily Norwegian? If so the language could be an issue. Yes they all speak english but if he’s the only one that can’t speak Norwegian, he’ll be excluded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only direct flight from the US to Oslo is on SAS, and the currently fly it from both Newark and JFK, but they will phase out the Newark flight soon because they changed airline alliances.

As long as there's at least 2.5 hours connecting time in FRA, that will be perfectly fine. Another thing to try is there are 3-4 flights a day from Dulles to Frankfurt. If he's on an earlier one, then he'll arrive to FRA pretty early and if for some reason he misses his connection, there's likely another Oslo flight later the same day.

The main advice for transferring in Frankfurt is watch the _letter_ of the gate, like A, B, Z. The signage is decent, as long as he goes by letter, and doesn't confuse gate A12 for gate Z12.

He'll be fine. As for English, everyone in Frankfurt airport speaks English with the possible exception of some of the cleaning staff.

You can't say he'll be fine. Every flight I've been in recently has been cancelled and the rescheduling was messy. I've had extra nights in hotel in different parts of the world.

Then you're really unlucky. Frequent flyer here. I've done 15 flights so far this summer. Yes, some were delayed a bit by weather, but things worked out. I ensure ample connection times when booking, and avoid the last filght of the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only direct flight from the US to Oslo is on SAS, and the currently fly it from both Newark and JFK, but they will phase out the Newark flight soon because they changed airline alliances.

As long as there's at least 2.5 hours connecting time in FRA, that will be perfectly fine. Another thing to try is there are 3-4 flights a day from Dulles to Frankfurt. If he's on an earlier one, then he'll arrive to FRA pretty early and if for some reason he misses his connection, there's likely another Oslo flight later the same day.

The main advice for transferring in Frankfurt is watch the _letter_ of the gate, like A, B, Z. The signage is decent, as long as he goes by letter, and doesn't confuse gate A12 for gate Z12.

He'll be fine. As for English, everyone in Frankfurt airport speaks English with the possible exception of some of the cleaning staff.

You can't say he'll be fine. Every flight I've been in recently has been cancelled and the rescheduling was messy. I've had extra nights in hotel in different parts of the world.

Then you're really unlucky. Frequent flyer here. I've done 15 flights so far this summer. Yes, some were delayed a bit by weather, but things worked out. I ensure ample connection times when booking, and avoid the last filght of the day.

Ample connection times or last flight of the day aren't always the problem - there was only one flight a day from some of these countries and the planes have broken down and/or the crews timed out. We've been put on a replacement plane eventually, which they've sometimes pinched from the next day's fliers, who were then cancelled themselves. The airlines' apps have been less than helpful.

I pack enough to keep me going in my cabin baggage, and I schedule for mail delivery to restart a few days after our expected return. The same issue has happened multiple times with my husband, kids and friends from various cities - Warsaw, Frankfurt, Heathrow, LAX, Sydney, Tokyo, Houston, Paris, Toronto, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Iceland and so on. It seems to be a feature rather than a bug at this point.

[Anonymous]

I would not have a connection in a foreign country. I would find a connection in the UE and fly direct from there.