I’ve flown to or via Europe many times over the past 55 years, but until last month, never to or through Frankfurt. I’ll never again schedule travel using that airport.
For this year’s holiday gathering with our son and his family, who live in Zanzibar, we aimed for something roughly half-way between; someplace that was not overly cold; but also someplace where our grandchildren could experience snow, which none of them had done since the oldest started walking. One of guys with whom I play pickup soccer mentioned the Sierra Nevada de Espana, outside Granada, and we settled on three weeks in Andalucia, starting out in Seville; then to Granada, culminating in four days of skiing and other winter sports in the Sierra Nevada. It sounded like a great compromise.
But Seville proved to be a hard destination to reach from DC. So in checking around, we ended up with a three-leg flight which took us through Charlotte and Frankfurt, making the reservation through Travelocity and American Airlines. What a nightmare!
Our American Airlines flight landed in Frankfurt on the morning of December 17 pretty much on time, but the plane then sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes waiting for a gate to open up; apparently, the bad weather throughout Europe was playing havoc with airline schedules. When we were released from the plane, we were directed to the border control queue, in an area which was marked with signs indicating that this was for exit from the airport. At that point, we had perhaps 90 minutes left to make our connection. But there was a long line, snaking back and forth across the room, in the modern way that is intended to give those in line that they are making progress toward the front. not moving at all, exacerbated by the fact that, so far as I could tell, there were only two or three border security officials checking credentials. There was only one person out near the line, but she was mostly unhelpful when people approached her with questions. I wanted to know whether we had to go through the this security line even if we were making a connection. Finally she pointed to a stairway to the far left side and said that we could make our connection by ascending those stairs.
So that is what we did, and thus learned that our connection was at a specific gate in a different terminal, which we would reach by taking an airport train. But when we arrived at the new terminal, we found that we were outside airport security and would have to gave our bags and selves rescreened – and that line was also moving slowly because most of the screening machined were shut down. And, we had at that point less than an hour to make our flight. Well, we begged, and pleaded, and many of the people in the security line took pity on this older couple who were asking again and again to be allowed to move in front of each layer of the snake. At last, we reached the security checkpoint, and then the passport control on the other side of the checkpoint – at that point, less than 20 minutes until our flight. We dashed through the duty-free shops that are always interposed between security and the gates, and finally made it to our gate, twelve minutes before departure time. But the gate was closed with no Lufthansa personnel around to whom we might plead to be allowed to board the plane
Luckily, a Lufthansa customer service section for the gates in this terminal was not far from our gate, so we rushed over there for help. Well, not so lucky: none of the desks were occupied. There was only a security guy at the entrance to service area, answering questions from stranded travelers. Hearing our question, he checked an electronic device and told us that not only could we not board at the gate, but our flight had already left, and there are no more flights to Seville today And, he said, there are no other customer service areas inside security. So. to rebook, we would have to go outside security.
So, that is what we did. But there was a HUGE line at the Lufthansa desks, longer even than the line to get through baggage security. The line was barely moving: from what I could see, only two or three of the many Lufthansa desks actually was attended. We stood on line, and we stood on line. And then Nancy got a message on her phone indicating that our flight to Seville had not left yet – it had been assigned to a new gate and was now scheduled to leave! Had we known the new gate while we were inside security, we could have caught the flight – but the new gate had not been posted while we were there, and the security guy outside Lufthansa customer service apparently didn’t know about it either. And we couldn’t just go to the gate – there was that interminable security line. We were screwed!
Given that there was only one direct flight to Seville each day, I was worried that, by the time we got to the front of the line, there might be no seats left on that flight. And we HAD to get there on the same flight the next day – if not, Sam and Nafisa and the grandchildren would arrive without our having yet checked into our AirBnB! I took another look on my phone while we were standing in line, and there were only a few seats left on the flight. So I booked seats while waiting on line – nearly $800 right there. But we stayed on the line to make sure that our bags would be shifted to the new flight. Meanwhile, I scavenged around the airport to find chairs so that we and other travelers could sit on line instead of standing online.
It was four hours later that we finally reached the front of the line. Had we waited to make a reservation, there would have been no seats left on the flight to Seville the following day. We got our bags switched to the new flight, but the representative was unable to credit us for cost of the new reservation I had made; and although she consulted her supervisor, she also was unable to provide a voucher for a local hotel or dinner. We found a hotel near an indoor shopping mall called The Squaire to which we could walk through indoor passageways (heavy coats having been packed in the suitcases), but that cost us yet another two hundred dollars. There were two separate Hiltons available. We stated in the Hilton Garden Inn, which was adequate. The hotel’s own restaurant was closed, but we ran into a pair of US tourists who had been in Frankfurt for a couple of days and who suggested that we try a restaurant in The Squaire called the Alex, where the schnitzel was not bad, and reasonably priced. So that was our dinner.
The next morning, we rose early and walked to the airport. The security line was short, and by early afternoon we were in our Seville apartment, beating our Zanzibar family by about an hour.
After I posted online about our travails in Frankfurt, I heard from several friends whose work or family lives frequently bring them through Europe, and every one of them said that our experience at the Frankfurt airport was typical, saying that they avoid transit in that airport if they possibly can to so.
And getting refunds for this mess? No luck so far. Travelocity says that it is American Airlines’ fault. American provides only a web based complaint system that limits responses to 500 characters. And Lufthansa has no record of our reservation (it was made through American, after all).
No comments:
Post a Comment