C'mon, how bad is CDG, terminal 1, for arrivals?

I landed at CDG terminal 1 (Iceland Air) when I traveled a few years ago (2012). I had no problems and nothing sticks out in my memory so it couldn't have been too bad. I wasn't transferring to another flight so I can't speak to that but found no issues getting to the train station. Don't remember horrible lines getting through passport control but it's probably worse now with enhanced security, etc.. A lot may depend on what time of day and what day of week you arrive.

EDIT I might add that some people just abhor airports period and if anything in their process is less than stellar they will rant till the cows come home. Best advice I give everyone is to expect time delays and issues and build that into your itinerary, usually things go better than expected and they are happy.

It is all relative - There are a couple of worse airport - Philly comes to mind.

I specifically planned my vacay in 2015 so we would fly into CDG rather than out of. If I recall, we didn't have a very long wait at all (arrived about 9:30am from Montreal). I think I've had longer waits at Gatwick. I don't recall which terminal we arrived at.

(Edit...looks like Air Canada arrives at term 2)

Now - that being said - when we emerged into the airport itself to go find the RER...complete chaos. There was construction going on, so spaces were tight. Really long lines of people waiting to check in and dump their bags - all I could think was...I was right to fly into and not out of CDG.

OK - I am just looking back on my travel blog - apparently, we arrived at a lull, as I have written that we got thru passport in 3 min flat!

We flew into and out of Terminal 1 at CDG last month and it was way better than SFO re: lines and wait times. We had no issues either way, no lines, no waits. We've flown into and out of CDG maybe 6 times prior and have never had any kind of problem, ever.
I don't like the airport only b/c it's old and ugly with not enough signage and the bathroom is always on a different floor than the one we're on (why aren't there many bathrooms on every floor??) but other than that, it's always been easy for us.
There's been threads about this many times over the years, and the majority have said they really dislike CDG, always have problems there, and avoid it if possible... we've always been lucky I guess.

I use Terminal 1 at CDG a good bit. In fact, I will be using it again this May. I don't get all the complaints about CDG and I don't get the specific ones about Terminal 1. I think the circular design of CDG throws people off and the general stereotype of the French as "rude" feed into it. Don't forget that about 70 million passengers passed through CDG last year making it the 10th busiest airport in the world and when you have that many people going through a place, there are bound to be some complaints. One of the bad things about review sites is that you rarely hear from the people who say: "Yeah, I landed at CDG. It took me 5 minutes to get through passport control and the agent helping me smiled and wished me a nice day."

Yes, Terminal 1 is fine, a big circle. Keep walking and you will end up where you started. United & Swiss use it. When it was built, it was the space age future, now looks a bit dated. Interesting situation a few years ago when I had a fellow traveler who had fear of riding on elevators bordering on a phobia. "Fine, we'll use the stairs." Well, there aren't any. Between the ticketing level and ground level there are absolutely no stairways, at least not open to the public unless in the case of an emergency evacuation. The only way is to use an elevator.

Something JHK said got me thinking... the only nice airport employees, including security, I've ever encountered at any airport have been at CDG.

Arrivals at CDG don't bother me. But...HATE flying out of there. They really need someone from Disney to show them line control. That could also apply to several Paris landmarks.

no big deal life goes on
this is about nothing
a waste of energy fake stuff

Is fake stuff anything like fake news?

Terminal 1 is fine, but yes, a bit 60s or 70s space age looking. Luckily they've at least modernized the fittings over the past few years. I do find the cross-over escalators in the heart of the concentric circle rather amusing.

I arrive and/or depart through CDG each year and have never found the waits for security control or declarations to be long at all. Staff have been patient and helpful when I have had questions and one time reps even invited me to go thru though I was ahead of the approved check in time. Sure the areas are rather sparse especially if comparing one as arty as Vancouver's airport but, CDG is clean, adequate signage, seating and coffee bars. And it's in Paris 💓

I'll answer your question practically. First of all, forget these horror stories you've heard about CDG. I've heard some too, but so what? Of course, there are airports easier to navigate than CDG (eg, London LHR), but as long as you don't need to connect at CDG, which could well be taxing but up to now, I've manage to avoid that, no problem for me landing at CDG after an 11 hr flight from direct from SFO. A French woman friend living in Calif tells me that she has no problems flying into CDG from SFO directly or making connecting flights then at CDG to elsewhere in France, her assessment not based on a single experience

My most recent experience with CDG was that in May 2015 landing from SFO since I chose the open-jaw option. It did take me longer getting out of there but part of it was my own dilly-dallying after the baggage pick-up. .On time spent in front of Border Control, I don't measure it , I just stand and wait, unless it is very tedious and seems (totally subjective) to take forever. I don't recall having such a singular tedious waiting experience upon arrival at CDG. My longest experience (one hour or more?) in waiting was once at LHR. I attribute that to landing there in the afternoon.

Re Gare du Nord....same old story. What all these "414 irate travelers" say is irrelevant, be they wrong or perceived to be wrong. Why are these 414 arriving at the same conclusion? More importantly, should I share in that conclusion? True, one has to pay attention, be alert at Nord, and you have to know what you're doing. In the summer there are tons of people, chances are some up to no good.

Bottom line is I have no problems with CDG basically, arriving or departing, some it could be refurbished, some of it has been. I'll be going to Gare du Nord in July too.

If you are flying Icelandair then you won't have to queue either direction for immigration. I think most of the complaints concern the big double decker planes like Thai and sometimes more than one can come/leave at the same time overtaxing immigration and waiting areas.

After a horrific experience making a connection at CDG on my first flight to Europe I won't ever do that again, but arriving and departing last year was very smooth.

My experience, Sept 2016, was not great but not worse than many other airports. The walk to ground transportation was pretty long, signage sometimes gave me pause but it's not horrible.

I didn't/never check bags which is often the biggest issue people have with airports. If that's why CDG has such a bad reputation, I'm glad I was able to skip it.

I boarded the tram to get to a different terminal. These things could show a little more sense of urgency both with their speed and length of their stops. I had purchased a ticket for Easybus(?). 2 euro to get downtown but comes with an appointment time I needed to make or risk losing the value of my ticket. I got to a place that seemed exactly as described, but no merchandising or signage to indicate I was in the right place. I waited until it was clearly past my appointment, with no sign of the bus I was waiting for, then went inside and asked at an information booth. Apparently I was in the right place and the busses run about every 45 minutes. My ticket is only good on the next bus on a space available basis, so I skipped it and headed to RER. These busses, I believe, are now discontinued.

The signage was somewhat confusing for finding the RER. I boarded the tram that takes you between terminals. Does it really want me to get off at parking lot B (can't recall exactly which parking lot) to take the RER? Yes, apparently so.

No line to buy an RER ticket from an agent, but I'm no tourist so I wait for a machine instead - then can't get it to take any of my cards. Now a really long line at the ticket window. I decide to try the machine again, this time with success, but at least a half hour lost to the process of getting in line twice for the machines and using the machines twice. I was somewhat surprised that my 10 euro ticket to Gare Nord doesn't transfer to the rest of the metro system. I had to buy a carnet and use a second ticket to get across town.

Yes, it did take me longer to get out of the airport than I normally take but not all of that was the airport's fault. Ticket/toll machines having trouble accepting your card seemed to be common everywhere I went in France.

My one experience with Terminal 1 last year was fine -- better than the other terminals. I've generally found that arriving at CDG isn't all that bad, but departing or transferring can be horrible.

There are a couple of worse airport - Philly comes to mind.

Yes, based on my one experience there, I'll agree with that.

I've been in Paris via CDG twice in the last year, and both times on arrival it took two hours to get through Passport control.
Go to the bathroom as soon as you see one on landing, and bring snacks to pass the time; as once you're in the lineup there's no way out.
I saw a woman faint last time in the line up.
That said, I'm glad for the extra security.

The beauty of flying IcelandAir is that you go through passport/immigration control in Reykjavik, not Paris. Once you land in Paris, you're free!

Edited to add a bit more detailed info:

Once you land in Reyjakvik, look for the gate that your Paris flight is leaving from. Then just follow the signs for that gate and you will be fed into Passport control. When we went through last April, we waited in line for 5 mintues, which was the longest we've ever had to wait! They quickly stamp your passport, and you're off to your gate. When you land in CDG, you can just head straight into Paris. If you're taking the RER into Paris, take the CDGVAL (follow the signs) to Terminal 3 and catch the RER B from there. Here is a really helpful link. http://parisbytrain.com/airport-to-paris-terminal-1/

I hate Terminal 1. The crowd control is abysmal and the circular design is extremely confusing. About 15 years ago when I was there, they closed off access to the departure level for 15 minutes. When it reopened, there was such a crush that the staff didn't even check passports for passengers ascending to the departure level. I wrote an angry letter to the CDG director about that incident and he actually wrote back and apologized. I've never been back to Terminal 1 since.

My worst CDG experience was arriving at no terminal. Your Terminal 1 seems like a cakewalk compared to the no terminal CDG option. Our aircraft parked at some remote apron where a portable stair was rolled up to the aircraft and we were herded into buses. As each filled, we were bused to to some remote building where we very slowly moved through first a passport inspection then security check. Then we were reloaded onto airport buses that came every few minutes that seemed to circle the wrong way to get us to our departure terminal. The scheduled 85 minutes layover was a close call.

"The beauty of flying IcelandAir is that you go through passport/immigration control in Reykjavik, not Paris."

Also WOW Air.

Norwegian doesn't fly through Iceland, at least not from Oakland/SF.
It does have other plus points, however!

I edited my post based on Sharyn's.

"Once you land in Paris, you're free!" Le jour de gloire est arrivé. It makes no difference if I have go through Border Control at CDG, waiting ten minutes or one hour, or waiting at Baggage Claim, although, admittedly, a couple of times that taxing experience of waiting at Baggage Claim did seem to take longer than normal. But I am there, c'est ça Paris!

I'll but in here to ask: what are people's experiences of getting from CDG terminal 1 to the CDG SNCF station to catch the TGV there?

My take on it is different than others who say SFO and Philly are worse and CDG was a breeze or a very minimal wait. Never had a single problem with excessively long lines in either SFO or PHL and I've flown in and out of both very regularly. But I've had problems with long lines before at CDG. Most recently, landing at CDG this past June I saw an endless line of people waiting to get through and get passports stamped.

Now on this trip, I was traveling with friends who will only fly business class and had talked me into purchasing a seat with them in business class. And even though we got really great fares and seats that recline into a bed so I could actually sleep, I was still thinking I could have just flown coach. But then I saw that line which was, without a doubt, something that was easily going to take a minimum of 2 hours to get through. So I instantly felt a whole lot better about having spent more on that business class ticket as I got to use a separate line and walk right past all those people to get my passport stamped. In fact, the agent behind the desk asked me no questions and barely looked up at me. She just stamped my passport and handed it back.

Flying back from Paris almost 2 weeks later was much the same. Lines for anyone traveling coach class were ridiculously long and slow, but for anyone holding a business class or first class ticket, it was no waiting. Next time I may just get myself another business class ticket if I find myself needing to fly in or out of CDG. And if I do take coach class, I'll at least remember not to expect to go anywhere fast.

Never been in a line at CDG. Flying out of SFO in Feb... a 1 hr line for security. Landing back at SFO a 1 hr 30 min line for passport control, and a 1 hr 20 min wait for bags to start coming out. I, family and friends, have never not been in a minimum 1 hr line at SFO. Just shows how different all our experiences are. You just never know if you're gonna be lucky or not.

Waiting at Border Control or baggage claim is in and of itself tedious. Regardless of the airport, be it SFO, AMS. LAX, FRA, LHR, and we mustn't omit CDG since that one always produces the most partisan comments, whether justified or not, there is a certain amount of time I am willing to wait, unless you're the lucky one to see your bags thrown out within the first ten or so. But what if your luggage is among the last ten?

Luckily, in 22 trips, ie 44 baggage claim pick ups, my one or two pieces were never among the very last thrown out. At Border Control I am prepared to stand and wait ten to forty minutes, preferably ten but after forty or so, it's attrition, likewise with baggage claim especially, your bags happen to with 2-3 other simultaneous arrivals. Bottom line: When I get to a place, going or returning, I expect lines at Border Control and baggage claim. I expect to wait. If I luck out, all the better.

I have gone through terminal one twice in the last two years. Both times i got through passport control in a short amount of time both coming and going. Though not a lot of people were waiting with me at 6:30 in the morning. I think I spent more time in line waiting to check in at the United counter.

However, it did take almost an hour to get my luggage and I ended up missing my train. Flight was also 2 hours late so that did not help. But it is not any worse than SFO and you don't have to stand in a second line to get out of the airport with you luggage.

If at all possible, I will pay more to fly from another airport. I hate CDG. This summer, I am paying more to fly from Orly to Inverness, just to avoid CDG.

John B

It is all a matter of priorities, no way would I pay more only to avoid landing at CDG. I don't know which airport is the cheapest to fly into, only don't fly out of LHR. True, I do prefer not departing from CDG, much rather land there after the 11 hr flight from SFO.

After a terrible experience with a transfer at CDG coming from Johannesburg with lots of confusion on our part and construction making it even more difficult, we now fly into and out of LHR and use the Eurostar between London and Paris. It helps that we always love to visit both cities on our annual excursions. The Eurostar is a delight to use since it goes from city center to city center and hassle free customs/immigration happens prior to boarding the trains. Works for us.