Madrid to Paris Flight Connection to Miami --- +/- 2 hours enough time??

Posted by migalo (Wellington, Florida) on 04/04/17 12:28 PM

Good Morning everyone! We are starting to get into the nitty gritty of my family's vacation plans and appreciate your input. We will be at a family reunion in Galicia and flying out of Paris on our return trip to the US. There are no good train options so we are looking to drive back to madrid and fly into CDG and back out to MIA. Our CDG to MIA flight leaves at 11:45am. There is a MAD - CDG flight that arrives CDG at 9:00am. Assuming we travel with carryons is 2 hr 45 min enough time to make our connection?

Thanks for your help....

Posted by Elizabeth

L'Occitanie, France

04/04/17 12:43 PM

10627 posts

Under normal circumstances, yes you have enough time. If it is all booked on the same ticket and the first flight is delayed causing you to miss the second one, the airline will put you on another flight but you may have to spend the night in Paris. If it's not on the same ticket, it's your risk because things happen: storms, mechanical breakdowns, delays and then people miss their flights.

If it were my flight and not on one ticket, I would fly into CDG the night before and stay at an airport hotel. The Chris Elliot website is inundated with letters for help from people who had something go wrong on what should have been an easy connection. It can be costly.

Posted by Philip

🏝️ Hobe Sound, FL⛱️

04/04/17 12:55 PM

3279 posts

A lot depends on the "IF" factor. IF your plane arrives on time, IF you can remain airside, IF you can deplane and get to the gate in time.IF you actually are off the plane in 30 minutes. CDG is large and at that hour of the day very busy. It's advisable to arrive there at least three hours early for an international flight since check-in and security lines can be very long.

Instead of driving back to Madrid (unless you can change your CDG departure to MAD), I would fly from Santiago De Compostela or Vigo to CDG the afternoon before and spend the evening in a hotel in or near the airport. No way would I risk missing the flight back to Welly World!

Posted by janettravels44

Chicago

04/04/17 01:44 PM

8554 posts

Always be in the city of a high stakes flight the night before. If this is not on one ticket, it is not enough time. So much can go wrong and missing this flight means expensive walk up one way tickets. If it is on one ticket then no problem because if it doesn't work, they still have to get you home.

If your plane is late you can't even cancel the onward flight because you are on an airplane so the airline can't even resell the ticket; the odds they will cut you any slack are probably about 0

Posted by migalo OP

Wellington, Florida

04/04/17 01:48 PM

16 posts

Good to know....thank you all for the information. These would be on separate tickets so I think I'll play it safe and book a room by the airport for the night before. There seems to be limited flights out of Santiago de Compostela or A Coruna for 7/26. We will probably just drive down to Madrid and fly out of there the night before. We definitely want to be in town for the St. James Festival 7/25.

Thanks again....