How long is it taking to clear customs and are ready to leave once you have arrived in CDG? How early should you arrive in CDG to get to the gate if traveling with carryon on?
Posted by
1371 posts
Someone on the "France Level 4 Travel Advisory" thread wrote:
"*To fly home (CDG) we arrived 2 1/2 hours before our flight time and only got on the place during final boarding! Our return flight originated on Lufstansa (even though all the flights were booked through United) and the ap did not allow us to upload our Covid results nor purchase luggage check, so there is a huge line at the airport to do all this when you first arrive. That alone took over 1 1/2 hours, plus TSA, etc." https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/france-level-4-travel-advisory
Posted by
Minnesota
484 posts
This is an excellent guide to CDG: https://easycdg.com/
Posted by
Paris
9584 posts
Clearing customs isn’t an issue, it's clearing immigration.
In normal times, I usually allow an hour from the time I disembark the plane to the time I am out the front door of the airport. My guess is that it is longer than that with controls now.
For departing from CDG, current advice is to be at the airport 2 hours ahead for a flight within France, three hours ahead for a flight outside of France, and a little more for a trans-Atlantic flight.
It's a biiiiiiiig place with a lot of controls currently and everything is slowed down by the need to manually check for negative Covid tests for those departing for the States etc.
Posted by
Morton
40 posts
I don’t know what airlines you are on, but we were on American Airlines and used their VeriFLY app for submitting our Covid test results. We did this several days before we went to CDG for our flight home. All we had to show at check in regarding Covid test results was the approval in the app. Others airlines may have a similar process or app. The whole process from check in thru security took about 40 minutes. Obviously this can vary depending on time of day and number of flights.
If you flying out of terminal 2A, there was very limited food and retail sales places open once you pass thru security.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thank you for the updates. It's been a few years since I've flown through CDG and I didn't know what COVID and short staffing had done to the whole process. I usually fly American but I'll be on Air France this time if the EU doesn't change U.S. status from green to orange.