LA to Paris to Florence, worried about catching connecting flight, help!

I would not worry about it. That could affect how your time in Europe is enjoyed.

If you miss your connecting flight, I would guess you can get on another, later one without too much trouble. Check the later Air France flights out of Paris before you go and see how many there are.

Also, someone said that if your flight is late, it is too short a time between flights. But being late can also be true about the connecting flight - it also could get delayed. The shorter flights seem to be the ones that get pushed back most often.

In Paris you will have to go through immigration but not customs. You will also have to change terminals and possibly go through security again.

I don't think an hour is long enough especially if your flight into CDG is late.

Are you booking this as one flight from LAX to FLR or are you putting the itinerary together yourself as two separate flights?

One hour between flights usually isn't enough time to catch a connecting flight a CDG. But, Air France has six non-stop flights a day between CDG and Florence. So if you miss your original flight there is a good chance they can put you on a later flight, or connect you through another city with a partner airline. If you've already booked your tickets I wouldn't stress-out about it. If you do miss your connection don't panic, be flexible, and AF will get you to Florence.

Yes, Frank, I made the reservations quite a while ago without even thinking about the fact that there was only an hour in between flights. So it is a done deal, I don't think that there is anything that I can do now. But, lesson learned, next time I will definitely be more aware of time between flights.

Micheal, thanks for the info about the other AF flights. I am trying not to panic but really wanted to get into Florence on time because we had scheduled a couple of places to see as soon as we arrive. As it is, we are currently not arriving until 2pm.

What I was trying to get at was that if you booked it as a LAX-Florence flight with a change of planes in Paris, you'll be fine because if you miss your original flight, Air France will put you on the next flight.

If you bought two separate tickets, LAX-CDG and CDG-FLR, you might have a problem if you miss the flight.

Frank, regarding your comment: What I was trying to get at was that if you booked it as a LAX-Florence flight with a change of planes in Paris, you'll be fine because if you miss your original flight, Air France will put you on the next flight.

That is exactly how it was done so yes, Air France is responsible for getting us all the way to Florence. And with a little luck our flight to Paris will be early and the one to Florence late.

I found something interesting on the Air France page; at the lower left corner they give you a link as follows:
Travel with peace of mind Plan your airport transfers in advance. See your transfer route between the different terminals at Paris-Charles de Gaulle 2.
see your transfer route

This link goes to a cool map of the terminals and complete directions for getting from one to the other. After checking that out at least I know where the terminals are in relation to one another, and the traveling time between terminals. So I am not going in completely blind. I thing the Gods will have to be with us for us to make the connection but we will see how it goes. Worse case scenario, we will have to sit in the Paris airport, drink a glass of wine and people watch.

Here is the link to that Air France page with the map of the Terminals at CDG airport:

http://www.airfrance.co.uk/cgi-bin/AF/GB/en/local/home/home/homepage.jsp;jsessionid=0000dYx0JKAr-I_psOrp6g5sMmM:140ufna3a

Jamie,

I am flying next April with the exact same situation. I am also on Air France going to Florence but from Washington DC. Air France has given me one hour to go from Terminal E to Terminal G at 6AM in the morning. I called Air France and spoke to them and it appears that the 1 hour is their standard procedure. At least I am coming in early and can catch any one of the 6 other flights to Florence. When you looked at the map, did you get the impression that immigration is near Terminal E, in that "security" area marked on the map? Or do you think that we have to go to another terminal for immigration and then back to Terminal E to catch the bus to Terminal G?

At least we know about this in advance and know that we will get to Florence one way or another...

Kim, if that is standard for Air France then they must consider it doable. In any case I would be happy to let you know how it goes for us so that you can gain from our experience. Just remember to reopen this thread towards the latter part of October and I will share my experience.

Thanks Jamie! I would love to hear how this turns out for you.

Kim

We recently transferred at CDG for a flight from the US to Milan. I was shocked at how quickly we got to the gate for our connecting flight - it was definitely less than thirty minutes after landing. At passport inspection, there was a shorter line for people who were making tight connections. I think you'll be fine.

Jamie, you write, "we had scheduled a couple of places to see as soon as we arrive. As it is, we are currently not arriving until 2pm." For your own sanity you might want to back off that schedule for your first day. Maybe you just plan to check in and take a stroll around, but if you have some serious sightseeing to do you should reschedule.

Thanks to all for your answers. It is good to know that it is possible to get thru that airport so quickly. Of course, made even quicker by using carry on luggage.

Karen, I hear what you are saying and since this is my first flight overseas I seriously have no idea what shape we will be there when we get there. But since we were walking past Santa Maria Novella we thought we'd explore it and possible make it to Medici-Riccardi Palace before it closed.

We'll have to see how we feel when we get there.