Bonjour!
Flying home from Paris to Detroit with connection in Amsterdam. Is 1 hour and 20 minutes enough of a connection time? Feels tight to me in case there are any hiccups with first leg
Update
Thanks to everyone for the replies. I found a flight with a longer connection time. I preferred the other departure time but I feel less stressed about connection.
Merci beaucoup!
If it's a single ticket on a single airline (or a partnership like Delta/Air France/KLM) you'll probably be OK, and if not they'll get you home as soon as possible. But you might also consider the Thalys train from Paris (Gare du Nord) directly to AMS (Schiphol), taking about three hours and sparing you all the complications of flying from Paris. No trip to CDG or Orly, no need to arrive there early, a comfortable mostly scenic ride.
I agree. You’ll probably save time & exasperation by taking Thalys train from Paris Gare du Nord directly to Schiphol. Plus it will be more comfortable. I would do anything to avoid CDG or ORY.
HOWEVER, if you have everything on one ticket with Delta/Air France/KLM (or any other airline) and you don’t board the first leg of the trip in Paris, the airline might consider you a no-show and may cancel the remaining leg(s) of the trip. So don’t just take the train and expect to board the plane in AMS without making arrangements with the airline first.
You’ll probably save time & exasperation by taking Thalys train from Paris Gare du Nord directly to Schiphol.
We've taken that train and it is a better experience than trying to fly between the two cities. But we did it to go to the next part of our vacation in Amsterdam.
However I would not advise waking up in Paris expecting to catch a flight that same day at Schiphol without several hours of padding between train arrival time and the flight. Personally I would not do it at all. Too much can go wrong. For example see https://nltimes.nl/2022/07/30/thalys-passengers-stranded-hours-delays-expected-saturday
It may depend on when you are traveling? If it’s soon, it seems like AMS has been better for transit passengers than for those needing to start their journey in AMS. Do you have a choice of a longer transit time?
Agree there can be unexpected delays on Thalys. My train journey in late April was delayed by 3 hours leaving Gare du Nord. It didn’t matter to me because I wasn’t trying to catch a plane but it certainly would have had an impact otherwise!
Is 1 hour and 20 minutes enough of a connection time?
IF it is a single ticket, it should be doable. Delta is selling a CDG-AMS-DTW ticket with a 1 hr 15 m transfer time
If you are still in the 'shopping' stage for a ticket, choosing something with a bit longer transfer time would reduce the stress
Since there is no way I know of to book a Thalys train ticket out of Paris and a flight ticket out of Amsterdam as a single, "protected" connection, there is no way I would take the train first! At least not without spending a night at Schiphol beforehand.
Amsterdam is usually efficient for connections, so an 80-minute connection would not bother me too much. The airline will take care of you in case of delays on the first leg. The picture changes if you MUST get to the US that same day.
We had to deal with the Schipol Airport congestion twice on our way to our Safari in Africa we had one night at the Airport Hilton in Amsterdam then a week in Amsterdam before we returned to the USA.
Schipol Airport had serious problems with understaffing earlier in the summer with many people not getting their luggage and/or missing flights. We managed well, but arrived at the airport four hours prior to departure. We made just fine, but it took us 2 1/2 hours both times just to go through checkin, security and immigration.
I don't recommend doing the train, especially if you have your ticket already.
Since you won't have to leave security, you should be fine with that connection time. Check for what terminal your flights arrive and depart. If you don't have to leave security and reenter, you should be fine.
