My wife and I are flying from CDG Paris back to the USA on a Saturday in late March. Our delta flight departs at 10:30am, and we plan on checking luggage.
How early should we arrive at the airport?
Also; we are staying at a hotel nearby the Place de la Concorde, and was wondering how long it would take for a taxi/uber to drive us to the airport.
Thanks!
I would allow the standard three hours at this airport. It is not the most efficiently run airport I’ve ever been to.
And I would suggest you book a taxi and not an Uber because the one time I tried to take an Uber to the airport in Paris five minutes before it was supposed to pick me up they canceled saying they couldn’t find a driver. I now book on the G7 app and they’ve always shown up. I would allow an hour. Traffic can be bad.
If you have a VAT refund to process, you should plan for that to take about 20 to 30 minutes. It usually does not take that long but that allows some time for you to get lost trying to find the counter and the possibility of a line or having to see a customs agent as opposed to breezing through the automated system. Are you traveling in business class or first class? If so, two hours should be enough time. For economy, three hours as stated above is better.
Last time I flew out of there I was in Business... still took over an hour to clear immigration and security
Depending on the time of your flight, I LOVE staying AT, not near, the airport the night before. I typically need to be there at 8:30 a.m., three hours before my flight and it works out perfectly for me.
I am very conservative because I have barely made the plane at CDG with 3 hours. That is unusual but not that unusual. I would book a cab for 45 min to an hour before your planned 7:30 arrival at the airport. Book a G7 cab 2 days ahead. They sometimes don't have morning airport availability the day ahead. They will arrive a few minutes early so be on the curb with your luggage 5 minutes ahead.
If you get through quickly -- well get coffee or read a book in the lounge. The process of emigration can be slow and check in lines can be incredibly long. You never want to cut this too close as the stakes are high.
If you booked 10 international departures from CDG, not all would require your being present 3 hours in advance of your scheduled departure. Some, most definitely will. If you want to be absolutely sure of making your flight, be at CDG 3 hours in advance.
Airline dependent? If BA, I would definitely say 3-1/2 hours, minimum. But I don’t know how well - or poorly - Delta is staffed.
As to BA, see my report from 2023 at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/departure-from-cdg-a-cautionary-tale-for-british-airways-travelers
For us, the problem wasn’t airport security, which was comparable or even better than US airports. The problem was BA staffing and insanely outmoded and dysfunctional computer systems.
I always allow an hour for getting to CDG and plan to get to the airport three hours ahead of my flight.
That way if it only takes 45 minutes to get to the airport, you have “won” 15 minutes ….instead of thinking it will take 30 minutes and it actually taking an hour and therefore being 30 minutes later than you wanted to be.
I agree, book in advance a couple of days with G7 to go out to the airport.
Delta is staffed by Air France, Air France is of course the biggest carrier at the airport. So there are a lot of people working for the airline, but also a lot of people flying on the airline.
