We checked in and were pleasantly surprised that there was a Lufthansa Business Lounge where we could enjoy some coffee and pastries before boarding. As with our KLM flight from Amsterdam to Istanbul, we were disappointed by the business class configuration – 3 standard seats together with the middle seat blocked off, no extra legroom and no entertainment system. Service and food though were very good.
We arrived in Frankfurt and were hoping we could simply transit to the next gate without going through customs or security. That was not the case though, we arrived in another terminal and had to take the train, but regardless, the gates we departed from would have required us to go through customs and security even if we had arrived in the same terminal. It seems the days of making it easy for transiting passengers on international flights are a thing of the past – one country simply does not seem to trust the security procedures of another country.
Do not let anyone convince you that anything less than 2 hours is a minimum connecting time for international connections in this day and age. As we found out with our missed connection in Amsterdam, even if you do not have a major delay, a small delay can cause you to miss your connecting flight, especially at large airports where there is often a long walk between gates, and lineups for security and customs. We had recently obtained Nexus cards specifically to avoid the long lineups, but none of the airports we were at on this trip offered a Trusted Traveller line.
We had a very comfortable wait in the Lufthansa business class lounge, plenty of food and beverages offered. Also, a pleasant surprise that we did not expect – the boarding gate for business class for our flight was right inside the lounge!
