Immigration in DUS before flying Eurowings on to Paris - timeframe?

Honest reply.

Good Luck.

On an non-protected connection you have not given yourself ANY breathing room. Research your options if you miss the Eurowings flight which could easily happen. I would give you 50/50 odds on making the flight. Not great. Flight stats shows this flight is on time 64% of the time with an average delay of 22 minutes Today's flight is running 22 minutes behind

(And generally on budget carriers gate checking is not the same as prepaying so expect a new charges)

Tx. Next flight to Paris was three more hours so after a ten hour flight thought we would chance the first flight. Forgot about immigration though. We do have to do that before heading to eurowings correct?

I changed planes on my way back to the US in Düsseldorf a few years ago, and it was a breeze. It's a small airport, and the international gates were on the opposite end of the same concourse from the domestic gates. I just walked down the corridor and went through emigration, which was just a checkpoint in the corridor.

You will have to go through Schengen immigration (passport check) in Düsseldorf.

Now, both of my flights were on Lufthansa. I don't know if there are other concourses used by other airlines or if Air Berlin and Eurowings share the same concourse. But an ever bigger issue is the flight from LAX. It's easy for a flight that far to be an hour late, but as long as both flights are on one ticket, they should accommodate a late arrival and a missed flight.

Thanks so much. I just checked this flight today and it landed on time from LAX.....so crossing fingers. No, it's a separate ticket as I booked the LAX-DUS in October, planning to rent a car and drive around, then got a rail pass instead of a car, so added a short hop on Eurowings to Paris. They have another flight three hours later, so......if Air Berlin flight is at all on time, sounds like we should be OK with the info you have from your experience. We can hope!

Since you're on business class, you should have a quick exit from the plane. If there's also first class, maybe if you tell the flight crew of your short connection, they'll be able to get you off even faster.

If there's a long line at immigration, you can also ask people if you can go ahead, explain that you have a connecting flight.

You will have to check in for your flight. It looks like you may be able to do that with a mobile app, otherwise, at the airport check-in counter (or self-service machine, if available). You will probably have to go through at least one security check at the airport.

Remember that you probably don't have 90 minutes. Gates close a few minutes before takeoff. Once they're closed . . .

yes there is just one upper class, so we expect to exit the plane promptly. Does anyone know about Eurowings carry on procedure? Do we just roll up to the gate and check in and they eyeball our carry on bags or actually weigh and measure them? Surely not.....hoping to roll right off our plane and onto theirs :) Looks like check in is as easy as any other airline, I can use the app.....or their self service counters at DUS. Thanks for the check in link, will peruse the info. So I'm basically dependent on AB to get us there on time - then we have a good shot it looks like.

Both Air Berlin and Eurowings say they have the same limits for carryon luggage, 50 x 40 x 23 cm (21-5/8" x 15-¾" x 9") and 8 kg (17.6#).

yes but guessing AB is a little lenient for business class travelers traveling from the US vs. inside Europe......we are close anyway, maybe a pound or two off......it's the inside Europe flight that concerns me, guess we will see how strict they are. At least it's not mid summer when the flights might be jammed and they might really want to weigh everyone's carryon.......I hope. ;) Their website says they allow two hand carried items (purse, backpack) in addition to the carry on suitcase in Business, so seems rationally lenient, we will see.....

Thanks. I already have two paid bags checked on the ticket - I already paid for them back when I was planning on a "real" suitcase and a car - now a carryon and a rail pass :) But I'd just as soon lose that money (they won't refund it of course) and carry on if possible, just to ease our arrival in CDG. Worst case I will check our bags, as I have already paid for them. I guess I will also hope that the flight is on time and if not that Eurowings can just put us on the next flight to Paris three hours later. My choices were 90 minutes or five hours layover in DUS - so I went with 90, optimistically! We may pay for that in hassle if our plane is late of course. DUS is tiny, so barring a really late arrival from LAX we can make it to our Eurowings gate in a matter of minutes, it looks like......also barring long lines at passport check of course. At this point just crossing fingers......

Your assumption that Eurowings can just put you on the flight three hours later has some problems.

Technically they don't have to do anything. You missed the plane. End of story. It's now your problem how you get to CDG. They can, and probably will, offer to sell you a new ticket assuming there are seats available when you show up. But they don't have to put you on the next flight

I do this a lot. My rule is 4 hours between non-protected connections and an understanding of my back up plans if I miss the plane.

Thanks again......as a newbie Europe air traveler, this is good info - too bad I didn't have it before ;) I've never flown within Europe before - we always just fly in, get a car and go, so this is new. I'm still hoping for the best but my current backup plan is to get on the Thalys train to Paris if need be. Of course my rail pass activates a week later, so I will have to buy the tickets, but at least we'll get there that night! Waiting for a quote email from DB Bahn on pricing, for some reason can't get the pricing on their website, but it's a moot point - we'll just pay whatever we have to. I'd almost rather do that than fly Eurowings later in the day if we have to pay them again......taking the train to Paris Nord sounds pretty relaxing at this point vs. dealing with the airlines and the mess at CDG. Thanks for the info - next trip I'll know better. (I did query a Swiss friend who flies inside Europe all the time, and she said I would likely make the 90 minutes, so I did try to get some opinions up front!)

Per the German website, there are only 2 trains, at 4.18 and 6.18 p.m. from the Dusseldorf train station, looks like a 10-20 minute journey from the airport to the bahnhof. The French website, sncf.com, shows prices of €133-160.

I believe that the flight is scheduled to land around 2 pm.

After that, there's a train at 6.58 pm, with transfers in Cologne and Brussels.

I don't know what "mess" you mean at CDG. You're flying within Schengen, you should just walk out the door and get transport to the city.

Yes checked out trains. Was able to get a 70 euro second class fare on Thalys from HBF for both of us. 30 days advance purchase no refunds of course. But for peace of mind might buy it. Cheaper than another set of air tickets. Also working with eurail to possibly reissue my pass so it's valid that day. But 70 euros seems like cheap insurance to be sure we get there.....for CDG I meant just the hassle of retrieving our possibly checked bags then finding the RER etc to downtown. Train takes us straight to Nord and we'd avoid all that. If I buy the train then we have two confirmed ways to get to Paris and for 70 E I can sleep at night :). Live and learn. Pretty cheap lesson!

Pay attention to what Carol says. Your Swiss friend must hAve thought you were traveling on a through ticket that an airline had sold you, not that you yourself had bought two separate tickets on different airlines.