The "Joy" That Is Frankfurt Airport

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Geo: 39.0095, -77.4647

When I originally booked our award tickets for this trip, there were multiple connection options for our return leg, to include Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Munich, and Frankfurt. I'd selected Brussels for the overall time savings, not to mention its easy connections. I purposely avoided Frankfurt, as connections there can be so cumbersome. For our rerouted return, beggars could not be choosers, and I was happy to have seats at all. Our connection now stretched to nearly 4 hours, which we would need, as the distances within the Frankfurt airport can be extreme, and then you have to factor in the second full security screening, which was understandably extra thorough in light of the still-recent Brussels attacks.

We passed the time shopping and reading, and then ultimately dealing with the masses at the gate. As we boarded, the United agent stopped us and sent us back to the desk, as it turns out our passport information was not in the Homeland Security system. This was an artifact of our having been rerouted, and we soon saw several other people turned aside for the same reason. No harm, no foul, and we were soon back in line and then onto another bus bringing us out to the plane.

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