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CDG, will United accept luggage the night before a morning flight?

We are using only carry-ons for a 3-week trip to France. On our return home we will take the TGV to our CDG hotel the night prior to our morning departure.

Would we be allowed to check a bag with United that night prior to our morning departure? When checking in online the night before departure, with only carry-ons, we go straight from the CDG hotel through security to boarding the plane.

I have a collapsible duffle bag to fill with dirty laundry, etc on the return trip so if we make purchases, we can place them in our carry-ons. But, if we must go downstairs to check in, to drop off 1 bag for the early morning departure, we’ll leave the duffle bag at home.

Anyone with experience on this situation?

Posted by
6713 posts

I would check on this with the airline, I doubt if anyone here can give you a reliable answer. I wouldn't check a bag the night before a flight if I wanted to be sure it would be there for me at the end. The one time I ever lost a bag was due to checking it too soon (not with United and not in Paris).

Posted by
5429 posts

According to a couple of Google sources, you can't drop off luggage more than a couple of hours before your flight. Makes sense when you think about the massive amount of luggage they have to keep track of daily.

Posted by
3984 posts

As said above, call United. I can tell you that in a similar situation at another airport, United told me that it depends on the airport but that typically, you cannot drop luggage off more than 6 hours before your flight departs.

Posted by
30 posts

Thank you. Hopeful thinking about checking the bag 12 hours prior to take off. I'll leave the collapsible duffle bag home. Merci.

Posted by
10621 posts

No matter what, United may not allow you to print your own tickets before the flight to the US, meaning you have to check-in.

Unlike the US where you show your passports to the airline employee, in France, you check-in, go through passport control, and finally go through security. At some point, the computer will determine if you are SSSS for further security control, something you would encounter when boarding the plane. It's randomly selected.

Posted by
7146 posts

Our experience with U.S. airlines is you can’t check luggage more than 3 hours before a flight. Even then, my wife and I don’t like checking it that early for fear it will be set aside and not make the flight.

Posted by
30 posts

Thank you for your post. We stayed at the Sheraton in the CDG airport a few months ago. At that time, while in the hotel room, we checked in online with United and downloaded our tickets to our phones. No longer necessary to receive paper tickets. From there we went through passport control and on to security. It went smoothly. Hopefully it will again.

Posted by
2702 posts

United allows you to check luggage up to 4 hours before your flight. I do not think United has counters open at CDG in the late afternoons or evenings.