I'm sorry to ask a similar version of the same question, but I'm still trying to figure out the correct answer. I'm starting out in Bilbao, Spain and flying to San Francisco through CDG. I am supposed to land at CDG at 09.00 in terminal 2G and my flight to SFO is scheduled to leave at 10.35 from 2E. Both are Air France flights. My big question is, am I going to have to go through customs or immigration at CDG, even though Spain is part of the Schengen zone and with only just over an hour and a half, what are the chances that I make it?
Sadly, this will all be on a Saturday morning which I can only assume with complicate things further. Thanks so much for any hell you all can give me.
Posted by
NYC
922 posts
See this page, under the section Immigration for Connecting Passengers: http://www.easycdg.com/1/passenger-information/connecting-flight-connections-paris-cdg-airport/informations-pratiques/
Posted by
Auburn, Alabama
1064 posts
I assume you already have your ticket. What will you do if the answer to your question, is no or probably not? Pay the airline a high fee to change your ticket? Go ahead and take your chances because some make it and some don't, hoping you are one of the lucky ones? More questions, are there other flights to SF that day that Air France could put you on? Are they likely to have empty seats and will you be the first to be offered one? If that fails, are you prepared to camp out at the airport like in a Tom Hanks movie. Others will disagree, but CDG is the most arrogantly dysfunctional airport I have ever experienced. Three times. Each time, there were only two, impossibly slow officials at passport control, causing long lines that extended past the barricades into mass confusion extending down the hall. Unlike Amsterdam, which in addition to speedy checks, opens additional windows whenever lines start to get long, CDG always left the additional booths empty. For me, that led to a 90-minute wait in line and a successful flight to the U.S.; roughly two hours, literally, in two crowds/lines and a barely caught flight home; and two hours and a missed connection to Luxembourg. (Thinking back, that first time was only about 30 minutes in line after an hour of wandering around.) In your case, I would probably take my chances this time rather than pay the change fee. Next time, I would skip the aggravation and route through Amsterdam.
Posted by
Portland, Maine
2916 posts
"Others will disagree, but CDG is the most arrogantly dysfunctional airport I have ever experienced."
I certainly won't disagree. We recently flew back from CDG, and while we were fine, because we got there well in advance and had checked in online, I do know some people missed flights (like the wife of a passenger on our flight, who almost missed the flight himself) because of delays at passport control. And the lines at the check-in counters were also massive, which we avoided by having checked in the night before. And I almost didn't check in on-line, because I didn't have access to a printer and we had bags to check, so I figured simply checking in wouldn't speed things up. But it enabled us to use a self-serve machine and getting our bags checked without waiting in a line.