Changing planes at Charles De Gaulle - HELP

Having just flown through there, you might want to give yourself closer to the 3 hour time-frame, rather than 1.5 hrs. It's a big airport and immigration might take some time - or not, it just depends. Better to have some extra time rather than having to make a mad dash.

Simply book the 3 hour layover.
Do not book the 1 hour 30 minute layover.

You will not go through customs. You never go through customs. Customs is where they check your luggage and assess if it is allowed into the country, and if any taxes (customs duties) are to be paid.

Assuming this is one through ticket, Your bags will be labelled through to Copenhagen and will reclaim them and carry them through customs there. You just walk through the "nothing to declare" door, it takes less than 1 minute.

You will go through immigration (passport check) in Paris, as that is where you enter the Schengen Area. There will be no immigration check in Copenhagen.

If this is one ticket, it is then the airline's problem to put you on the next flight if you miss it because of delays in Paris or if your first flight is late. That said, and allowing for Charles De Gaulle being a big and complicated airport, I would prefer 3 hours rather than 1 hour 30 between planes.

Is your flight to Copenhagen on one ticket? if so, your luggage will be checked through to your destination.

We will be flying on one ticket (through to Copenhagen from Atlanta). Our bags will be checked through to Copenhagen, but we have been told that after going through passport control we will have to claim our bags and then recheck them before going on to our connecting gate.

but we have been told that after going through passport control we will have to claim our bags and then recheck them before going on to our connecting gate.

That is unusual. Who said that? The airline said that?

Our bags will be checked through to Copenhagen, but we have been told that after going through passport control we will have to claim our bags and then recheck them before going on to our connecting gate.

That is a bit of a contradiction. If they are checked through to Copenhagen, then you will not see them until then.
If you need to pick them up in Paris, then they will be labelled only as far as Paris.
Luggage from inside the EU is labelled differently, so customs at Copenhagen can tell intra-EU bags from non-EU bags.

I think whoever you were talking to is confused, and does not know about the EU and the Schengen Area,

We would take the three hour layover simply because CDG is possibly the worst airport to make your way from one flight to another. We always check our bags through. We HATE CDG and do all we can to avoid going through it, even if it means we take an extra hour or two to get where we are going in Europe or getting home. There are many opinions,we know, but we have met very few people who have anything good to say about CDG.

I have never heard of luggage being booked through to the final destination in the Schengen Zone that has to be picked up at the airport where the connection is being made and both legs of the fight are being operated by the same airline. It's possible that the flight from Atlanta is sold through Air France but operated by another airline (Delta) and in that case, you might have to transfer the luggage upon arrival. Did you get the information from an Air France employee? It sounds like something a Delta employee would have said because here in the US, you would have to pick up your luggage at your first arrival point and transfer it to your ongoing domestic flight or it could be that Delta does not transfer luggage to Air France at CDG. I don't know. I don't fly Delta. If after you double check, you confirm that you will have to pick up your luggage, go for the 3 hour or longer connection time.

As to the 90 minute versus 180 minute layover, I usually make the decision about connecting flights based on how many flights there are after the connecting flight and how many people are traveling with me. So going to Copenhagen, I would take the 90 minute connection if I did not have to get my luggage and am not on the last flight of the day and am alone but going home, I tend to give myself a longer connection time because often there is only one nonstop flight per day on Air France or United to my destination (SFO) and I have never seen an empty seat on one never mind the four I would need if traveling with my husband and children.

It took us over 2 hours in line at passport control. Add to that, the time it takes to walk there (our arrival terminal was quite far from the passport control point, ), and the time it takes to go to your connecting flight. Based on our own experience, I would opt for 3 hours between flights. I would rather spend my time relaxing at the gate, than having to find an alternate route due to missed connections (even if the airline is responsible to coordinate). You may have better luck.

You pick up your bags in Copenhagen...NOT at cdg.

Hi,

I would book the connection with a longer layover at CDG, one reason should any contingencies arise, no need to cut it close. the other reason, I like CDG anyway. I must have lucked out at passport control at CDG since there was never a 2 hour wait for me. My only blatant experience at waiting a long time at Immigration was one time at Heathrow in the afternoon.

On 9/20 we transferred at CDG. We had 2 hours and when we finally made it through passport control, we ran for our flight and made it with 10 minutes to spare. Return flight on 10/1, we had 1:45 to connect. We only made our flight because they held it for the over 40 people who were delayed in the passport control line. I wouldn't do a layover of less than 3 hours.

Take the longest one because any time after 8 a.m. lines can get backed up, even priority lines. We arrived at 7:20 a.m. yesterday and breezed through check in and passport but bogged down at security. Looking behind us, we saw the lines had already trippled for check in by 7:45 a.m. It gets much worse as the day progresses. You won't need to check back in, but you will need to go through passport, security, and chage terminals--an endeavor in itself. Our Detroit-bound flight was held for people connecting from Nice and Marseille who had to change terminals and go through security, as well as all those with random extra screening (not a factor in your case.

CDG is huge. Terminal 1, 2, and 3 sounds easy, but T2 has 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G. Within each of these, which are full-size terminals, you may have to be bused or transported on a shuttle train. For example, T2E has Gate K and Gate L to which you take a shuttle, but each of these has 30 gates. JFK looks like a piece of cake next to CDG. And I've been using CDG since the year it opened. It's become a bear.