TRIP REPORT: Lufthansa, Frankfurt - Belgrade

TRIP REPORT

Earlier this week I flew Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Belgrade. I arrived from another international flight at Terminal 2 at around 7 PM, and since I had the Frankfurt - Belgrade sector on a separate ticket, I had to pick up my suitcase and proceed to check in at Terminal 1. The process was quick. There was no one at the passport check lane at arrivals and the bags were delivered very quickly. Afterwards, I caught the train to T1.

I have flown through Frankfurt many times, but this was by far my worst experience. Lufthansa has a separate area for business and first class check-in and what seems to be the only area where there are actual staff doing the check-in rather than self-check in machines. However, the process proved quite long as the check-in agent seemed to be having some system problems, even though I could not understand him as he spoke to me in German the entire time.

After check-in I proceeded to passport control at the Z departure gates. There were just three booths open, and it took a long time. The police officer that checked my passport was chatting on her mobile the entire time. Then the line for security took around 20 minutes to get to the security screening machine, then you have to wait another 5 minutes for trays to appear as they don’t have enough, then you have to queue to go through the body scanner, which is shared by two separate lanes then you have to wait for another 5 minutes for your bag to appear. It took a very long time since they manually check the majority of the bags after they are screened, and they don’t xray the others until the bags are manually checked. The only upside was that they no longer require you to take out liquids and electronics and I was lucky not to have my backpack manually searched as well. Must note that the majority of the staff seemed really rude at the security checkpoint and were yelling at people.

I proceeded to the Lufthansa lounge at the Z gates afterwards. I forgot to take a photo, but the lounge is large, has a good selection of food and drinks and wasn’t busy at all at that time of day. It was around 9PM by then. There are also nice apron views from the lounge since it is a level above the boarding gates.

On my boarding pass it said boarding for the 10PM Belgrade flight would begin at 9.30 so I proceeded to the gate. As I was walking down the corridor, I noticed a rat running down the side. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it, only to notice there are rat traps all the way down the corridor. Crazy to think one of Europe’s busiest airports has a rat infestation problem and this was the best idea they came up with to get rid of them.

I noticed we were supposed to have a “Yes to Europe” painted Lufthansa jet for our flight but at 9.50PM the boarding agent announced over the PA that the plane that was supposed to take us to Belgrade would no longer be doing so and another plane was being prepared for us instead. At 10.20 we were told boarding would begin but that we would be taken by bus to a remote stand. So, we all walked down the stairs to get on the bus only to spend the next 10 minutes in a 30C corridor waiting for the bus. People were getting irritated and started knocking on the door to get the attention of the agent on the other side to open it since there was no ventilation, but he said he couldn’t open it and that his colleague had to do it from the other side. Eventually the boarding agent came, opened the door and we were bussed to the plane.

We got a Star Alliance painted A320. As we boarded, the pilot immediately came over the PA to tell us to sit as soon as possible because we would miss the 11PM curfew and would not be able to take off. We still had to wait for another group of passengers to come on another bus. They eventually showed up at 10.45 and the crew announced over the PA for everyone to sit down. They said passengers could hold their bags on their laps and that they would deal with putting it in the overhead bins after we took off. The doors closed at 10.50 and thankfully we had a very short taxi and managed to take off at 10.57.

The plane was full in both cabins. Three rows were dedicated for business class with the middle seat blocked and all seats were occupied. Interestingly, I noticed a lot of Spaniards (or Spanish speaking passengers) on this flight. Shortly after take off the crew served dinner, which was made up of some chicken salad, which was tasty and they came around with a warm selection of bread and drinks. The crew was polite and after clearing the trays they again asked if anyone wanted any drinks. They then passed around with chocolates. The lights were dimmed afterwards as we made our way to Belgrade.

This aircraft had wifi and the pricing was decent in my opinion. You can also pay using miles. As I was bored, I purchased the premium option, and the WiFi was fast and loaded pages quickly.

We landed around 35 minutes behind schedule which wasn’t bad considering the original delay. I saw Austrian, KLM and Air Montenegro parked at remote E stands, so I was hoping we would not be joining them and thankfully we didn’t. The entire B remote stand was filled with Air Serbia ATRs, many of which were boarding passengers at the time of our arrival. We parked at the A9 gate. Then came the long walk to passport control, which at a quick pace takes at least 10 minutes. There were no lines at passport control and the bags were out quickly too.

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