easy jet

I love easyJet! I will be flying with them again in about a month. Three hours is plenty of time.

I have flown Easyjet a number of times and never had a problem with time, but have rarely had a connection issue. You should be fine, however a few considerations. CDG is a huge and (to me) a rather confusing airport - and don´t necessarily trust the online terminal maps. It may land on time but it can be some time before you get into the terminal, then you need to clear passport control and collect your luggage. If there are delays and you miss the onward flight, you will be on your own, so you should have a plan B. For me it would carry some risk.

A word of caution. The rule of thumb is to be at CDG a full three hours before a flight across the Atlantic. By the time you've cleared immigration/passport control, collected your luggage, and found your way to the Terminal from which you will fly home, you easily could be down to two hours. Not worth the risk, IMO. You might find a better departure time for Nice-Orly on easyJet. If so, take Air France bus #3 directly from Orly to CDG. Or take the Orlyval driverless shuttle train from Orly to the Antony RER station and the RER B from there to CDG. Be aware that the RER B line divides northeast of Paris. Be sure to get on a train that is going to CDG.

Annette, Just something to consider....Keeping in mind that I really like Easyjet, in 2010 our daughter and I had reservations for the Pisa to Orly flight. We were boarded on the shuttle to take us out to the plane, waited on it for 15 minutes or so then told to get off. No idea why but for some reason, they needed to get a new crew so our flight was delayed 2 hours! That would be a real problem in your situation. I always recommend arriving the night before at the city of an international flight departure.
Sorry to throw in a different concern but just wanted you to be aware of what can happen!

I have used Easyjet a few times , so no expert, but found them no different then other airlines.. All airlines suffer from unexpected delays etc,, and personally I would not hook Nice to CDG and then home from CDG on same day..
I would arrange to arrive night before.. International flights if missed are a huge bugger and expense to replace,well worth being extra cautious about .

Thanks all for sharing your experience with me. I guess it's a crapshoot / unlikely to go wrong but what a mess if it does! I was trying to maximize our vacation time but will look and see if I can take an earlier flight into CDG on the morning of our transatlantic flight . Would you say that Air France is more reliable than Easy Jet?
Thanks again!

Rather than relying on the small sample of experiences from posters here, you can check one of the airline rating sites for a larger sample. Then, you'll have a better sense of the airline's record and how they deal with glitches. Only you can assess how much risk you can tolerate. For me, it would be a no-brainer. I absolutely would be unable to enjoy that last day for worrying about missing my international flight.

Annette, The reason I suggested that you consider flying to Orly was so you could save money by sticking with easyJet and still get to CDG in plenty of time for your flight home. If you don't like the idea of having to get from Orly to CDG, then take an earlier Air France flight directly from Nice to CDG. The 10:35 AF flight gets to CDG at 12:10. The next AF flight doesn't give you any more connection time than the easyJet flight to CDG. Since your flight home leaves late in the day, I wouldn't think it too risky to take a morning flight to Paris rather than arriving the night before. However, things can and do go wrong. On my first trip to Europe my flight out of Minneapolis on Delta left three hours late because of mechanical trouble. If I had had a ticket on a flight out of London Gatwick on an airline that wasn't a code share partner with Delta and I missed that flight, my ticket on that flight would have been worthless and I would have had to buy an expensive full fare ticket at Gatwick. On that same trip I took another kind of risk. I was living in North Dakota at the time and drove over 500 miles from home to the Minneapolis airport on the same day the flight left. It was a route I could drive in my sleep and I allowed plenty of extra time in case I had a flat tire. Some people would say that was foolish. I didn't think so.

annette, I've found EasyJet to be very reliable, and they're my preferred budget airline in Europe. I tend to travel with them every year, sometimes on several flights. I've never experienced the delays that someone described in an earlier post, but of course any airline can have problems of that type. Given that your return flight to the U.S. is departing from CDG, I'd probably take a chance and use the EasyJet flight. Three hours should be adequate and when you arrive there, it shouldn't take long to transfer to the departure terminal for the U.S. flight. If you're really concerned about the time, EasyJet has departures from Nice at 09:00, arriving CDG at 10:35. I didn't see any arriving at 15:15, but I'm not sure which date you're travelling? Orly is certainly another option, but that's going to add to the time and aggravation. I was there a few weeks ago, and it does take some time for baggage retrieval, buying tickets and getting to the OrlyVal and then transferring to the RER. You'll be travelling almost the entire length of the RER "B", as Orly is on one end of the line and CDG on the other. I'd rather endure the hassles of CDG, rather than sit in a hot and muggy RER coach all the way to CDG. Happy travels!

Actually there are Nice to Paris flights arriving at Orly or CDG depending on what time you choose. Also I would never suggest staying at an airport hotel when it is so easy to get to CDG in 1/2 hour. Personally, I would NEVER feel that a day is wasted in Paris!

Thanks again for all the input1 Easyjet's reliability looks pretty good so I think we will opt for a relaxed brunch and then head out to arrive in CDG on Aug 4th at 3:15 pm.
Annette

annette, What date are you travelling? I don't see ANY EasyJet flights that arrive at CDG at 15:15. Have you booked them yet? One point to note is that they usually allow only ONE carry-on item per passenger, of the approved size (and they DO check). That doesn't mean "one plus a personal item such as a Purse or Laptop case", it means ONE ONLY! Cheers!

Annette, It really doesn't matter how reliable easyjet is. Even the most reliable airlines have occasional equipment problems, delays due to weather, late flight crews, etc. You have to decide if the risk (even if it is small) is worth it to you. You have to decide if you are willing to accept the consequences that could occur if your easyjet flight arrives too late for you to make your transatlantic flight. If your flight arrives on time, you should be able to make your transatlantic flight. If your flight arrives late and you miss your transatlantic flight, your transatlantic carrier is not required to honor your ticket. In the worst case, you could be required to buy a new ticket. That is the risk of traveling on two separate tickets. The reason that many people advise flying the night before or allowing more time is not because they are paranoid ... it is probably because they are concerned about the consequences (potentially having to pay a lot of money for a new ticket) and thus they choose to minimize their risk by allowing more time. George is very lucky that he has never had a bag lost or missed a connecting flight. I've experienced both situations multiple times.

@ Ken--there is a 13:40 that departs Nice on 4 August, arriving CDG at 15:15, currently for €84.

George, I repeat, I think you are very lucky. I've also been flying for 25+ years, although most of my travel has been in the last 15. I've also had years where I have flown weekly. One year I went through passport control more than 40 times. Unfortunately, "the system" hasn't worked so well for me. Lufthansa, Alitalia, SAS, and Air France have all misrouted my bags. I've missed transatlantic connections multiple times (at least twice at Heathrow alone). I've been diverted for refueling to Montreal due to weather at JFK. I cannot even count the number of times I've been delayed an hour or two. I've sat in London City airport for hours while the entire UK air traffic control system was down due to a computer problem. I've had a Swissair transatlantic flight canceled due to equipment problems. I could go on and on ... that is how the system has worked for me. So forgive me if I think you are lucky because you've never missed a connection or lost a bag. I have no qualms about a short connection on a single ticket, but the risk is different with separate tickets. I just wanted to make sure that the OP understands that a flight delay could have consequences so she can decide if she is willing to accept the risk. Odds are the first flight will arrive on time, but if it does not, there are consequences.

Laura, forgive me, but I hope I am never on a flight with you.

@Darcy, Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know which day the OP planned to travel, so I was using an arbitrary date and searching mid-week flights. The flight you listed seems to only occur on Sundays. I'd probably still take a chance on it and hope there were no delays. Cheers!

As long as you are arriving at CDG, you should be fine. I've taken Easyjet several times and they seem pretty reliable. Do check the carry on rules. As for luck in travel, I do think George is very lucky. I've suffered through: 52 hour "flight" Toronto to Vancouver (and I was on my way to get married!) - started with baggage handler putting a hole in the plane,overnight delay, then fog in Vancouver caused flight to divert, Calgary airport too full with planes diverted from vancouver, diverted to Edmonton (too small to have facilities for 747 - ok it was 1975!), overnight in Edmonton, no planes available to fly passengers to Vancouver the next day, could wait one more day in Edmonton, or take the bus for 14 hours. Opted too wait another day in Edmonton. Flying from Greece to Canada on 9/11 - you all know what happened then. Stayed unexpectedly in London until flying started again Lost luggage between St. Louis and Toronto via Detroit - luggage took so long to show up, I picked it up on my next trip out of Toronto to Montreal two days later Flight from Nice to Rome delayed 5 hours, waited 90 minutes to get bags in Rome, missed last high speed train to Florence - took the night train and arrived at 2 in the morning I could go on. Hopefully Laura and I will never fly together because it sounds like it might be a real comedy of errors.

Statistics and anecdotes, I'm afraid, don't translate to one specific incidence. If everything goes swimmingly then annette has no worries. If something goes wrong then annette may be in the queue either begging to go on the next or sometime soon flight; or getting out the credit card for a full fare flight. Nobody here knows what will happen on the day involved. I certainly don't. Averages are based on many data points. We are only interested in one. Nobody here knows how much of a gambler annette is, or how risk averse. That's for her to weigh the options, pay the money, and take the chances required.

I have to concur with Laura and Shirley that George has been very lucky, and add that his experience is pretty much worthless to you. He is promulgating a flawed logic, often seen on this site; e.g., in the form of "I have never experienced _____ and; therefore, you don't need to worry about it." Reliability ratings give you a better sense of an airline; but they, of course, are no guarantees in any one case. Even if the only glitch is that your luggage is delayed (can't remember if you are checking), you would lose a chunk of time filling out paperwork. At the very least, give yourself a decent margin of time to deal with such minor problems. And, it bears repeating, CDG is a huge, confusing airport, with weird -- at least the last time I was there -- connections among the terminals.

Thanks so much. y'all. We will book earlier on the day of our planned flight home just in case! Happy travels and if you have been to the Riviera please join the conversation about family with young adults in South of France.

Probably a good thing that you booked the earlier flight. I flew from CDG to Toronto twice in the last 8 months. I had two different experiences in the same terminal with the same airline. It's a terminal used by several airlines flying to North America. And El Al flies out of that terminal also. It's 2A. Sept 2012 - took 90 minutes to check bags (and I was in Business Class), and go through security. There were 6 independent checks of my passport before actually finishing through security. June 2013 - took less than 30 minutes to check bags and clear security - same airline, same business class ticket type, same terminal. Two passport checks were done. I think there was some kind of security alert in general on the day I was flying in September of 2012 hence the extra checking and slow passage through security. So it all depends and with more time you won't stress.

A couple of practical issues that may have got lost in the arguments: One, easyJet will not transfer your bags. You must claim them and take them to your trans-Atlantic airline for check-in. Two, easyJet now requires advance check-in by Internet, not at the airport where you merely dump you bag. They will notify you a month ahead of time so it's not difficult.
I am a fan of easyJet but make it an absolute rule, for every trip, to read all the way through their rules which are clearly spelled out on their Internet site.