Although we have done a decent amount of travel in Europe (LHR, FRA, MUC, BRU, etc.) and have been to CDG airport years before, I had read many times how bad things can be at CDG. We had a mid morning direct flight on Air France from CDG to PHX leaving at 10:10AM. We stayed the night before near the hotel at the Holiday Inn Express. The hotel was quiet and very convenient. Off the airport automated shuttle (CDGVAL) at stop Pr (the CDGVAL shuttle runs on a loop to Terminals 1, 2, 3, Pr and Px) and a flat, well "signed" walk to the hotel.
Doing the math and not wanting to miss anything I'm thinking we need to leave the hotel around 630AM to make sure we get to the airport 3+ hrs ahead of time since we couldn't get the boarding passes online and although we didn't have to, we were going to check 2 carryon bags to make room for some gifts (mostly chocolate/biscuits) for friends to carry onboard.
Since I usually stress over stuff and was tired from the 17 day trip (back on the east coast for family and then to Europe) I decided to splurge on an VIP airport service. I saw Air France offered an escort for $500+ which I thought was a bit too much. I did some research and found a company called Swift VIP Services who provide help at CDG and Orly airports. Talking to them via email and whatsapp their cost was under $300. That isn't cheap for a service you can do without but I stress over things, and we were already looking at a 17 hr day (flying for 10+ hrs, to/from the airports and boarding times) I decided we could afford to try it.
The lady met us downstairs in the hotel lobby just before 7AM. Note that the service said we could have met later such as 8 or 830 but I was thinking that would be pushing it but it turned out we could have done that.
She took our 2 wheeled bags and led us down the path to the CDGVAL, through the airport, handled almost all communications with airport staff at passport checks, checkin, etc. Seemed to bypass most of the lines showing some ID badge and we got to the duty free shops/gate area in an hour.
Turns out the reason we had issues with the boarding passes was that I had used FF miles to get 2 business class tickets (the seats/service were excellent) and I had moved us to the middle 2 seats in row 1 (supposedly even more room) but one of the entertainment screens was not working so we had to change the seats.
After she showed us the location of the AF lounge and where our gate would be, I told her she had done enough and could leave. She did wait for us to finish shopping. She spoke French, English and a couple of other languages and obviously spends a lot of time working at the airport.
For those that can afford it or can afford to splurge once in a while, I thought it was worth the money. It might be most useful if you need assistance on connections, or have older passengers that need more help/direction to get through airport hassles.
If there were flight issues, I don't think they can do much for that. They just facilitate moving through the arrival, connecting, departure process. Whatever ID they have, they can go through much of the airport with you but cannot enter the AF lounge.
An hour from hotel to gate (in our case to the lounge and that included 10+ minutes of shopping) exceeded my expectations.
For some this would be a colossal waste of money and for others would be quite useful. I don't splurge on a lot of stuff like cars, jewelry, etc. but things that can save me time and stress, I will do so at times.