Due to the ratcheting up of security measures instituted by the TSA at airports worldwide, passengers bound for the USA are being asked to arrive at the airport earlier than normal to account for the extra scrutiny.
Specific to Lufthansa, it is asking passengers flying to the USA from Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, and Munich to be at the airport at least an hour prior to their flight if flying in Economy or Premium Economy, and 40 minutes prior if flying in Business or First Class. LH is referring to this as the minimum time needed for ‘Check-In Acceptance’.
It may be a good idea to make sure you check in to your flight before coming to the airport. Easy to do via Lufthansa.com or the LH App. This way you can bypass the check-in process at the airport and head straight to your gate.
According to LH, this additional time requirement is not being instituted at any other airport where Lufthansa Group flights depart for the USA. Their press release also suggests that your small electronic devices may be subject to additional scrutiny before you are allowed to board your flight. That however, is a small price to pay for the ability to at least take your electronics on board.
Minimum connection times at the affected airports will not change.
The release did mention SWISS flights from Zurich, and is asking passengers bound for the USA to show up in ZRH at least 3 hours ahead of departure.
ZRH mentions to be at the Airport 3hrs before departure but check-in for Y closes 75min and for C/F 60min before departure and dear LHFlyer ZRH is not at all not well equipped or unorganised.
Based on my past experiences in FRA I definitely AVOID transiting FRA.
I guess we’ll have to disagree, I much prefer FRA to ZRH as far as origination points.
Not sure if this isn’the meant to be on top of the already suggested ariport arrival times. Even business/first class check in can be quite time consuming in Fra. and hard to make it in 40 min. in any case.
You might have a point. I was working off only the press release from LH, and it’s not unusual for them not to explain the details a bit better.
I had heard that on-line check-in might not be available for US bound flights to make sure passengers DO go to the check-in counters….or if you do on-line check-in you will automatically get the SSSSS secondary security check.
3 Hours at ZRH?
Wow
yep, 3 hrs for ZRH for some reason, but likely because it’s not as well equipped to handle a ton of passengers to begin with. I didn’t hear about the OLCI not being allowed for US bound pax. That would suck!
Why 3 hours for ZRH but only 1 hour or 40 min for FRA, MUC and DUS?
good question. They didn’t address why, but I suspect because ZRH is no where near as well organized as FRA and MUC are as far as processing departing passengers.
When passing through FRA last week ex US the security folks were being quite thorough with electronics. I mentioned that I’d come from US. Perhaps just pride, but I was told that they had more confidence in their own screening that that of TSA.p, citing a number of items then found that should not have made it onto a US plane. Anyway, expect queues to be a little slower.