Why I hate Frankfurt Airport

This is a departure from my Disneyland reviewing, but there are two good reasons for doing that. One is that I am having computer issues. Among other things, this means that I do not currently have access to my photos, and I have some good photos of A Bug's Land that will help make my points, so waiting a week, by which time I hope everything will be resolved, should be helpful.

The other reason is that my hatred of Frankfurt is really strongly in my brain right now.

Frankfurt is a major hub for the Lufthansa line, which is a big chunk of one's options for European travel. We have passed through there every time my mother and I have gone to visit her family in Italy, just coming back from the third time on Wednesday.

I knew they were bad from the other times, and had hoped to go through Amsterdam via KLM, but when I was searching, I believe it was an extra $300 per ticket, which I could not manage. Well, I guess you get what you pay for.

The first problem is that they are very large. That doesn't have to make for a bad airport, and I don't think it's their only problem. Our first issue with them was that they were under construction and they kept changing the gates without any notification. This is worse than it would be because their customer service is truly lacking in friendliness and helpfulness. It was frustrating, but not that awful for the 2006 trip.

In 2008, Mom's knees were really starting to bother her, and she could not move quickly. We had a bad time on the outbound trip getting through the enormous labyrinth that is Frankfurt. We made it, but we had an even shorter layover on the return, and I was worried. At Verona I asked if we could have help at the airport, and they said yes, but no one was there when we arrived at Frankfurt. I did try asking a few people as we made our way through the airport, but everyone said it was not something they could do.

We came so close to missing our flight. The only reason we didn't is because two kind passengers in front of us when we were in the (second) security line said they would run ahead after making it through security and hold the door. They did better than that, actually, because they found a cart on the way and sent it back for us. They really did close the door just as we entered.

(Those two men would have had to run anyway, and there were many other people in a similar situation. That happens with large, poorly organized messes.)

The important thing about this is that we did have someone help us in San Francisco (the connection), and that was great, but it was also a much more organized place. The customer service was better, and that's good, but organization is huge.

As I booked the 2013 trip, and saw that issues of time and money meant that we were going through Frankfurt again, I was worried. This time as I booked the ticket I put down that Mom needed a wheelchair, so that was just part of her ticket. We did not use it in Portland or San Francisco, though we could have. There was a girl waiting at Frankfurt, but she was asking questions about whether Mom could do stairs or not, because there were two options, and she was being very brusque and dismissive.

Mom decided not to wait for her. She just wanted to go to the bathroom and sit down, and the girl had told us to wait in this entry way with no bathrooms, chairs, or fountains. We had a 7 hour layover this time, so I thought, okay, I'll humor her.

Time was not an issue here. We did have to stop and rest twice on our way, and again, you are in a maze. I think we had to go up and downstairs about five times total. We were going to the Z gates, and that was always the sign we were following, but suddenly we were in the middle of shops, and then down to a bare and sterile place, and it's passport control, and then back up. I could not tell you what level we ended up being on, or why we needed to change levels so many times. It was never obvious that any of those things were going to be necessary until the last one, a long staircase to the ground where you boarded a shuttle that drove you out to the plane that you then walked up steps to board the plane. Regardless, we made our gate, we had waiting time, and they did change the gate, but only to the one next door.

Obviously, I was concerned about our way back, when we only had a two hour layover. This time we were going to use the wheelchair no matter what.

Once again, there was a woman waiting. She was friendlier, and what she asked was if Mom needed to actually be wheeled, or if she could ride a cart. The other girl had asked if Mom could do stairs, and we had asked how much, and she couldn't tell us. After all the up and down it made sense, but it was hard to answer at the time. Mom can do some steps, but long distances and lots of steps are an issue, because she has to go slowly and gets fatigued. Wheelchair versus cart as a question to figure out what was needed made a lot of sense, except it was not the full story, as we found out.

Saying the cart would be okay, we were told to wait for her colleague. Once again, we were waiting in a place with no bathrooms or water fountains, though there were seats, so that was a nice change. There was another older woman there with a daughter and son-in-law, I think, and an older couple.

We were there for over an hour. Mom did want a bathroom, and it was nerve-wracking watching the time pass. Other people were coming and going and I did ask for an update. She said that they were busy, but they knew our flight time and they would not let us miss it, and we would not need to go through security, only passport control. We continued to wait.

Finally, about fifteen minutes before our flight started boarding, Someone came, and we got in the elevator to go up. Yes, we were boarding the carts upstairs, where there were bathrooms and fountains, but they had kept us waiting down below.

Because there were seven of us, there were two carts and two drivers. They only take you up to passport control, and do not go through it, but they assured us there would be another cart on the other side. That was true. There was one cart, with one driver, who was very rude about only taking the woman in the other party. They ended up having to walk behind us.

Okay, technically I did not have a wheelchair pass either, nor did I need one. However, in a busy airport, where many people will not speak the primary language, or maybe their cell phones won't work, and there is the stress of travel, does anyone really think the able-bodied members of the party are going to feel comfortable separating from the more vulnerable ones? Really?

When we got to our gate they had already started boarding. The lines were long, so we went to the bathroom anyway, and I saw that the other two people had made it, which was good. However, we were quickly directed out of our boarding group to another line, which was basically acting as a security line. No, they had no scanners, but they asked the questions about if you had been given anything or your bag had been out of your possession.

That part may have been a United thing, not a Frankfurt thing, but on top of everything else, it was so annoying. We have not been outside of the security checkpoints. If we had, we would have gone through security again and gotten a real scan. And also, could you maybe indicate that going into that line and getting the stupid sticker was necessary, rather than sending tired, frustrated people back and forth?

And again, San Francisco was so much amazingly better. We did not do the wheelchair, but I know they handle that well. Passport control and customs are near the debarking area, and clearly marked, and there is just a natural flow through everything you need to do. And as I went to verify our gate, there was a man who asked if I needed any help. In fact, multiple airport employees asked if I needed help. I didn't, but it's nice to feel like if I did, they actually cared and would do something.

I realize that being big and busy makes coordination hard, and it has challenges, and Frankfurt could well be bigger than San Francisco. However, one of the largest airports in the world is also one of the best-rated (Singapore), and besides, that's your job, you do it. It may not be possible to prevent long waits, but having people wait in a hold when they could easily wait upstairs, where there are more comforts available, is just common sense. Keeping a party together, and getting the numbers right, is just common sense. Actually, it's more than common sense; it's common decency.

For professionals, there is no excuse.