Enough time in CDG

Sounds like two separate tickets? And would this be with checked bags or without? My instinct is that if it's the same ticket, it would be enough time, but on two separate tickets you might be right to be wondering. When things are running smoothly it would probably be okay, but CDG isn't always smooth.

As a heads-up, your assumption about passport control is unfortunately incorrect.

Even though you have a layover in LHR, you won't actually clear passport control in LHR and will have to clear Schengen passport control in Paris, as the UK is not part of the Schengen area. You don't have to clear immigration in LHR because the UK (unlike the US) does not normally require you to clear passport control if you're just in transit; but when you land in CDG you are coming from a non-Schengen country (the UK) and thus need to clear entry passport control.

As Andrew pointed out, you will not have cleared immigration. However, flying in business class, you will have access to the priority lane for immigration which usually saves a lot of time and gets you through passport control in about 15 minutes. I won’t dwell on the one time that I landed at CDG from Ireland and they shut down the priority lane and it took 90 minutes to go through passport control and they would not let us switch over to the non-priority lanes. That being said, will you have checked luggage? How long is the layover at LHR? I used to fly BA all the time from SFO to Paris. My luggage made the connection (90 minutes) about 40% of the time, which meant we had to deal with the luggage service at CDG. It was fine for us because Paris was our destination and BA delivered our luggage to us but this could be an issue for you because it can take a long time to figure out that your luggage is not arriving and to get it resolved and BA would not be obliged to forward your luggage to Italy.

Andrew,
I completely forgot about the UK not being Schenegen! So thank you for reminding. I'll forgo the 1:20 flight and consider a 2:35 flight.

Amanda

JHK,
We are checking baggage. Our layover in LHR is 2 hours. We are now looking at a 2:35 flight on Air France to Rome or a 3:10 flight on Vueling (but out of terminal 3).

Amanda

And Terminal 2 at CDG is huge. It depends on which sub-terminals you land and from which you depart. Some connections could require a 40 minute (or more) walk.

You would have about 3.5 hours but it is tight even if everything is on time. You will to go through immigration, recover checked luggage, customs, check-in for next flight, security, and finally boarding. Some of the airlines, especially discounts will close the check-in counter 45 mins prior to flight so you really have only a two hour and 45 min widow. That could be real tight if your original flight is late. Personally would not do it.

Odds are you will land in 2A and depart from 2F. Here is a page that shows you the estimated times and how to move between terminals: https://easycdg.com/airport-guide/travel-between-terminals-move-around-paris-cdg-airport/on-foot-terminal-2/ Let’s say your flight lands on time and it takes you an hour to disembark, go through passport control and collect your luggage. Add to that 20 minutes to get to 2F and you are there at 12:10. I would not book the 2:35 flight because I am risk averse but you may have a different risk tolerance. I usually give myself at least 4 hours between unprotected connections.

We flew out of CDG in June, and a couple of flights on our airline were late arriving. Ticket lines were horrendous with four 787 airplanes at once piling in there. And the security out at their mini-terminals was no fun. Then the a./c was hot. It was just miserable of a place.

JHK,
I think we are going to book the 2:35 flight. We plan to check in online before departing the US and print our boarding pass/baggage tags, this way we just have to drop our baggage off before going to security. Air France's website states that for Schengen zone countries, arrival time is suggested to be 90 minutes prior to departure. That gives us a 1pm time, about 2 hours to get through immigration / baggage claim.

Amanda