Checking a bag to Paris?

My sister flew to Paris recently and returned on Monday. She told me do NOT check a bag.. it was awful…
We are going to Europe later this summer.. we will not check an bag.. we always have checked just for convenience.. Not this year.

I dont know about strikes, but if you haven't been following international travel news for the last several months, you're likely unaware that there are varying degrees of chaos in many of the large international airports in both North America and Europe. Flight delays and cancellations are almost the norm. And so is delayed luggage- the fault could be at the departure airport, a connecting one, or the arrival airport.

So the message is: monitor your flights frequently for changes, and bring carry on only whenever possible.

If you have a through ticket then it is rare for your bags to not be checked thorough to your final destination. If you have separate tickets / bookings then you are of course on your own and have to check everything in again separately.

One of the big exceptions is the USA where international arrivals for a connecting flight have to collect their bags and carry them about 50 meters from baggage collection to put it on another conveyor belt rather than it happening automatically even though the original tag included everything through to to final destination.

If you can avoid checking a bag anywhere this summer, do it. Not CDG specific but luggage has been a major complication everywhere- The whole world is understaffed. Not having to worry about luggage is one less potential complication in a tricky travel summer. We flew back from CDG about 1.5 weeks ago and it was fine but it was crowded. At a minimum, it would add one more long line.

I purchased an Apple Air Pod for our trip to Amsterdam and then on the East Africa for a safari.

Flew EWR to CDG on June 28 and returned CDG to EWR on July 14. Was pleasantly surprised how smoothly everything was at CDG. We heard all of the horror stories, but our experience was quite good... We checked 2 small bags which were retrieved quickly with no issues. Maybe we are the exception, so good luck!!!

I purchased an Apple Air Pod for our trip to Amsterdam and then on the
East Africa for a safari

Great! You can listen to music on your trip. You might also want to invest in a couple of Air tags for your luggage. Then you'll know where they are if you discover they aren't taking the same trip you are.

"My sister flew to Paris recently and returned on Monday. She told me do NOT check a bag.. it was awful…"

@TravelNana, did your Sis say what was awful about it? Just looking for details...sorry, lol.

WSJ is pretty obsessed with travel woes this summer, another article today about this exact subject - lost luggage. People who still don't have their bags WEEKS after returning home. One couple, using the aforementioned Apple Tags, was able to trace their bags to a third party warehouse where the airline (BA?) was hoarding them.

If you do choose to check, no medicines! Nothing essential to life and limb! Perhaps a nice iPod.

We are flying Air France Premium Economy to CDG in month. I know we have priority baggage check in. Any comments regarding getting luggage from the belt and immigration?
TIA
Monica

We are flying Air France Premium Economy to CDG in month. I know we
have priority baggage check in. Any comments regarding getting luggage
from the belt and immigration?

Priority check in for PE just means a separate line to wait in at the counter.

Luggage pick up comes after passing through Passport Control, just like regular economy. There might be expedited Immigration lines just for BC or FC, and their luggage would have Priority tags, ostensibly meaning theirs would be first down the chute. The rest just stand around and wait. And hope.

the handlers at CDG apparently delight in offloading priority baggage last. We have observed this twice recently. Once we were flying business class and all the priority bags came out so long after the economy bags that we feared they were lost. WE flew premium economy last time which is not usually tagged priority and we noticed that the priority bags had not come out when we got ours. I believe this is an FU by the baggage handlers who certainly know how to manage priority bags.

We've never had any issues on direct flights but when we fly with connections we cross pack at least one cube with an outfit in each other's bags, so we have a change of clothes. And with connections I also carry an outfit in my messenger bag. I always carry underwear and a clean shirt in my messenger bag even on a direct flight and we also carry our meds and a minimal dob kit on board.

I've never seen a pattern to bags appearing on the carousel, it seems quite random. I've decided it really comes down to when and how they were loaded onto the plane. Last in, first out?

In the US priority bags always come out first; handlers KNOW how to unload an airplane and manage priority tagging. That they don't at CDG is intentional.

Update: We had a direct flight and no connections. My husband needed to check a bag as his carry on's zipper broke, so I decided to check a bag, also. Bag checking went smoothly on both flights with no problems and minimum bag-related waiting. The lines at passport control, though, were an entirely different story!