Quick question.... quick answer!
Generally speaking, how early (hours) should one show-up to check in flight? I've seen some long long lines before.
Air France to Dublin Ireland..... 2hours 3hours 4 hours? it's a 0935 flight on Air France on a Wednesday, NO baggage check-in, just need to scan boarding passes @ the kiosks. Will be taking the train from NORD to CDG.
thanks guys
My husband had an item in his bag that didn’t make it into his 311 bag. He was unaware. The TSA agent worked at a snails pace and went even slower when we told him our flight was boarding. This happened after we stood in a long line just to get to the scanners. We barely made our flight. Allow plenty of time. You never know!
We took this flight in July 2017 only it was scheduled for 9:47 AM. We arrived at the airport at 7:30 AM. We had plenty of time but I would still recommend arriving at around 7:30 AM because of having to go through immigration. I have found that for later flights there is a lot more chance of delays. I usually fly from Paris to another European city and for flights within Europe, including to Ireland, arriving around 2 hours before departure has been fine. I have had to spend some time (anywhere from 30 minutes to about an hour) waiting in the boarding area but I prefer that to racing through the airport and worrying about missing my flight. For flights to the US, arriving anything less than 3 hours before departure time is risky IMO and literally anything can happen. About two years ago, I was traveling from Ireland with access to the priority lane for incoming passport control when they closed those lanes for an emergency and then would not let us switch over to the non-priority lanes. Total wait time for passport control in the priority lane was almost 45 minutes and it is usually less than 5. Another time, flying home, priority passport control had a 45-minute wait as well but the regular line was even longer. That's why you should allow exra time just in case.
This past Monday we arrived at CDG at 9:45 am, 3 hours and 15 minutes prior to our international flight and barely had enough time to visit the restroom prior to boarding our flight. I’d err on the side of earlier rather than later.
The reason you are not getting a consistent answer is that there is nothing consistent about the airport experience at CDG. It can go smoothly with no problems or you can find yourself with one slow down after another. We arrived at CDG with a few others that had traveled out in the same car service from our hotel. We went through the entire process fairly quickly. The others in the group which started at the exact same time, took an hour longer. I don't know if there is a way to accurately predict what to expect.
My personal preference is that I would rather be waiting ready to board for longer than necessary, than stressed out worried about will I be able to board.
I would aim to be on a train leaving Gare du Nord at 6.30 AM. That way, you have some buffer against RER delays (the trip normally takes 30 minutes, but can inflate), and airport security delays.
Flights within Europe are similar to domestic flights in the States. Two hours is normally good. Maybe a little more for CDG because it's so big?
