I've never traveled in Europe before, and am flying on United from California to Venice, then on the return, flying from Split, Croatia, through Paris, to San Francisco.
I have a 15 hour layover in Paris.
Will I need to get my luggage from the Split flight and recheck it for the flight to California, or will I be free of the luggage until I get back to the USA. I'm hoping to be Paris at night with my wife and daughter, and am hoping I won't have to deal with any luggage.
The eternal question, which cannot be answered without a follow-up question.
Is this trip Split - Paris - San Francisco on one ticket or two?
If it is one, your luggage gets labelled direct to San Francisco and you won't see it until then. If it is two tickets, you need to collect it in Paris, and later do a new check-in for the second flight, handing over your luggage again.
Given that it is 15 hours between the two flights, I guess it is two tickets.
But, airports have left luggage places, so you don't have to haul your luggage into Paris and back again. Assuming of course both flights use the same Paris airport.
Like Chris above a 15 hour layover sounds like you have separate tickets Split to Paris and then to California. In that case you will have the bag.
This is a single ticket on United that has a layover in Paris. At least, it's all one reservation for myself, my wife, and my daughter, so I assume that's one ticket. I didn't book the flights separately, all at the same time. I haven't traveled overseas before, and I booked these tickets on mileage - my first time for that also. But I think the luggage will be checked through to San Francisco.
Did you call United and ask them? The bag would normally be checked through, but I wonder about the 15 hour layover (overnight?).
Looking at UA site it shows a SPU-CDG-SFO single ticket with a 15 hr 45min layover.
As Croatia is non-Schengen, OP looks to have to go through the whole immigration process which will eat into his touring time.
And with a 6AM ( to be safe) airport arrival time to go through the departure processing it will be a really quick visit.
If I had to do it, definitely stay at a hotel AT the airport
Can someone tell me for sure
Yes, UA
As for the luggage, I would confirm with UA that they will hold the luggage overnight.
OK, I'm trying to reach United re bags and customs.
Has anyone had this layover before and were you able to make it through customs and see Paris? I imagine 5:30 pm might see customs backed up a bit, but I'm just guessing, seeing as I haven't traveled overseas.
I have another flight option which might be safer and easier: Split/ Munich (2 hours) Chicago (4 hours) then into LAX.
Johnny,
Customs is the check on goods, the contents of your luggage. If you aren't picking up your luggage, they can be no customs check on it. Even if you do, both Croatia and France are in the EU, so no customs coming from Croatia.
Immigration (aka passport control) is the check on people, whether they are allowed into the country. and for how long. If you choose to go into Paris, you will have to go through immigration because Croatia is not (yet) part of the Schengen Area. Immigration could take 30 minutes, or 90, it is totally random.
The sequence at an airport is: Land - disembark - immigration - luggage reclaim - customs - exit to public area.
have another flight option which might be safer and easier: Split/ Munich (2 hours) Chicago (4 hours) then into LAX.
I probably would choose this option, even though it is one extra stop. The overnight stop in Paris really does not allow a true visit, just a lot of back and forth travel, to/from airport and added expense for a hotel and the travel.
My $0.02
Thank you all for your helpful guidance - I've decided to take a different flight and not go through Paris, based upon the comments and suggestions of the Rick Steves team. By going through Munich, I actually save some $, and get back to my home airport about 8 hours earlier. Also, I'm sort of a worrier when it comes to flight times, and I can imagine that had we given it a try, I would have been awfully anxious about everything.
