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Tight connection for flight home at CDG, flight from Madrid

Posted by (Chelan, Wa, USA) on

Our flight back home on Delta to Seattle leaves CDG at 10:30 am. . we will be flying in that morning from Madrid and I have two flight options and wondering which is better for getting us to our gate on time? :

  1. Vueling, leaves Madrid at 7 am arrives CDG at 9:05 or
  2. Air France, leaving Madrid at 7:10 arriving 9:15.

Will we need to go through customs when we arrive CDG or will our checked bags be automatically transferred to Delta?

I am thinking that the Air France flight may arrive at the same terminal and thus be closer to the international Delta flight? Does anyone know. Thanks in advance for your

Posted by
10208 posts

If this isn't all on the same ticket you risk losing you flight home as a no-show and you'd have to buy another ticket. That's not enough time for CDG which is a huge airport. If the tickets are separate, you need to fly in the night before and stay either in an airport hotel or Paris.

On the other hand, if it's all booked as one itinerary, the airline will put you on another flight/route/itinerary and get you back to Seattle somehow. You can have Delta book you through on one itinerary from Madrid with their Air France partner. That way Delta would be responsible to get you back, as you have a good chance of missing your flight with such a short window.

We've missed planes there and had close calls. You need more time than that.

Posted by
77 posts

Neither of those options would be my choice for multiple reasons.

CDG recommends a minimum of 90 minutes for connections between certain terminals which you won't meet. The other thing since you aren't on a common itinerary/airline then there is a possibility you may need to claim your luggage at CDG. Hopefully not but I've had problems getting them to check baggage through to final destination with some flight combos and itineraries. But if you have to reclaim luggage then there is no way you would make that connection.

I also believe you will need to go through security again at CDG, again that can be a roulette wheel. Could be 5 minutes or 45 minutes depending on the time etc. I'm very wary of security delays in france anyway given the recent events.

The way I always look at connections for my business travel is that on an international flight they are going to board about an hour before the departure time. So your flight home will board at 9:30 am.. And assuming you arrive at 9:05 or 9:15 most likely by the time you make it through security again you will be in the middle of boarding. So if you have any delays in your Madrid to CDG flight you will be hurting.

Personally I never accept any kind of connection less than 2 hours (and I target about 3 hours) through a major European Hub (LHR, CDG, FRA).. It is just too stressful.

But the other issue as I think someone else noted is that if you are on different itineraries then if your flight is late getting into CDG an you miss your CDG to SEA flight then too bad. When you've booked together on a single itinerary (i.e in your case on a SkyTeam) then at least the airline will accommodate you in rebooking and rerouting. You could possibly have done that with the AirFrance and Delta combo (SkyTeam). Once you break those itineraries up you are more or less on your own when it comes to missing flights.

Personally I'd not do what you are attempting. I would make other flight arrangements or time things or if you are already fixed to the CDG to SEA flight stay over a night near CDG. You can take the subway into Paris and have dinner if nothing else.

Good Luck.

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