I was wondering if anyone else ever flew through Munich who might share their experience. Planning a trip to Rome Italy ( from the US ) and one of the flight pairs I’m considering has a 1:30 connection time from the arrival to the departing flight to Rome. Offhand, that seems like it’s cutting it too close, especially if my inbound flight is even just slightly late.
90 minutes is somewhere between tight but doable on a good day to hopelessly naively impossible. Which it is depends on a few factors we here don’t know. How about these questions:
-
Are you flying on the same airline into and out of MUC? If so are you sure they’re really the same airline and not just code-share partners?
-
Are you checking luggage or only carrying on? If checked, how many pieces how big?
-
Are all persons in your party an able-bodied adult? No kids, no elderly, nobody with walking issues? Can everyone jog a half-mile dragging their suitcases if needed?
-
Have you asked the airline whether you will need to clear German customs / immigration to connect between these two flights? If not, ask them that question now. What did they say? If you do need to process through German customs / immigration, does no one / anyone / everyone in your party have an EU passport?
-
What type / size of airplane are you riding from the US to MUC?
-
When roughly on the calendar is this trip? Mid-January or mid-April are very different experiences.
-
When roughly on the clock is this connection? Passing through MUC at 4am vs 4pm are very different experiences.
-
For safeties’ sake you’ll want a hip pocket plan for a second flight on the MUC-Rome segment. How much after the planned flight is the next flight to Rome on your chosen carrier?
MUC would be the entry point to the Schengen area, which includes both Italy and Germany (and about 25 other countries), so they would pass through immigration here. The flight between Germany and Italy would essentially be a domestic flight, followed by collecting checked luggage and walking through either a green door (nothing to declare) or a red door (if they have something to declare).
Immigration should be quick, but we went through Frankfurt in July and it took more than an hour. I’m doing a similar trip to Italy in March via Paris and also have 90 minutes between flights.
When we flew from the U.S. to Switzerland, and connected in Frankfurt, the airline transferred the luggage. We only had to deal with immigration in Frankfurt, and then customs in Switzerland. Switzerland is also part of Schengen, but not part of the EU, so I’m not sure if it would be different.
Know this. Should be plenty of options. If your flight from the US is earlier or later than scheduled, so that it comes in at the same time as other flights, rather than being staggerred, there may be a backup at immigation. If you have EU passports, easy-peasy.
At least you didn’t arrange a 50 minute layover in Munich like I did. First time solo international traveller. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I booked - but maybe that was the only option at the time without an extra day?
I was a little worried about it, and a friend of a friend who was a frequent international traveler told me that notably the Munich airport will do everything they can to get people to their destination.
Anyhow, naturally, my flight out of Warsaw departed 45 minutes late.
On arrival in Munich the plane sped to the gate. The guy next to me, also connecting to O’hare, said he had done this trip ten times in the past month (!) and had never seen taxiing that fast before, Then an airport staffer met everyone connecting to Chicago on the tarmac (8 of us, including two small children), put us all on a van, drove us to a passport check, then back on the van, back inside through a musty corridor, up an elevator, through another passport checkpoint, and into the terminal near our gate, boarding in progress.
My luggage even made it home…
Yes, same airline.
Yes, will be checking luggage, and being the same airline will transfer it in a hopefully timely manner.
I am, the others, while categorically fully ambulatory, may not be up to a half mile hurry.
Yeah, that’s the chippy. Wondering if we’ll need to pass through immigration here or later, and I’ll definitely find that out.
Will be arriving on an A350, but in business class, so we should be among the first people off ( and running! ).
Arriving smack-dab mid-summer. Busy travel season I know, but due to other factors, it has to be then. Arriving mid-morning.
Definitely I’ll look into a later connecting flight. I’d rather be bored stiff for 4+ hours than live through even 30 minutes of anxiety. That’s just the way I am.
Thanks very much for your input. 
Not really. If it’s an international frontier, which MUC is, you’ll retrieve your checked luggage at the baggage claim area within the customs checkpoint, drag it past the nice customs agents, then drop it back on another conveyor to be loaded onto your next flight.
So you won’t be waiting in any lines to deal with airline agents, but you will be waiting at the carousel to retrieve your bags, then pass through the customs checkpoint.
The “good” news is that normally you have to wait in line at the immigration checkpoint for longer than it takes the airline to get your checked luggage off the plane and to the carousel. So once you do clear immigration and move on to the customs hall, your baggage is probably already circling for your immediate pickup. Then you join the next line to see a customs agent.
At least that’s the normal process at most international airports. I can’t speak specifically to MUC.
Not within Schengen. Unlike the Canada, Immigration and Customs are separate. Bags will not need to be retrieved until the destination airport.
Yeah, as said Schengen works completely differently.
Cool. I have no personal experience with Schengen. Sad to say the last time I was in Europe was before that was invented.
Which is why I asked the OP whether he’d checked w the airline.
A question then about Schengen. I’m gathering from you folks that Schengen rules and the common multi-country area applies to immigration only, but not to customs? So an e.g. German with an EU passport flying to e.g. Italy will not be showing anyone a passport, but they will still need to have their luggage inspected by an Italian customs officer when they arrive in Rome?
Or are the passenger flows segregated somehow so upon arrival in Rome on the same flight from Germany the Schengen area people like our example German can just collect their luggage and leave, whereas a non-Schengen person like our OP coming from the USA via Germany will need to clear their luggage through Italian customs?
Just chiming in to say that I think the signage at MUC for connecting flights was very confusing.
My advice is to double check all signs before heading off in possibly the wrong direction.
What happens is this:
If you check your suitcase inside Schengen, the luggage tag will have a green stripe. This stripe indicates to customs officials that it is not to be inspected.
So let’s compare two situations: In one, someone flies from Germany to Italy, entirely within Schengen. In the second, a person flies from the US to Italy, connecting in Germany.
In the first case, he has the green stripe on his luggage tag. When he arrives in Italy he goes straight through the nothing-to-declare line.
In the second case, he does not have the green stripe on his tag. In Germany, he goes through immigration control to enter Schengen. His suitcase is transferred automatically, he doesn’t see it. In Italy, he takes his suitcase through the appropriate line: Nothing to declare, or something to declare. But at this point, Italian authorities can inspect his bags if they wish.
Thanks all for the informative replies…I’ve learned a lot so far.
I assume this is because Schengen and the European Union aren’t quite the same thing, and Schengen is about immigration, while the EU deals with customs and trade.
Which explains why, when I flew from the US to Oslo with a connection in Stockholm, I went through immigration in Sweden, but then everyone on my flight to Oslo had to go through customs. Sweden and Norway are both part of Schengen, but Norway isn’t a full member of the EU, while Sweden is.
Meanwhile, when I flew from Athens to London (pre-Brexit), I had to show my passport, but didn’t need to go through customs and my bag tag had that green stripe* next to the ATH-LHR portion (I didn’t know what that stripe meant until now). Because while the UK was in the EU at the time, they were never in Schengen.
*That was actually the last international trip I took before COVID shut things down, so that tag still on that suitcase, which is how I confirmed it had the green stripe.