isabel

I'm looking into schedules for flying from New York to Barcelona and then back from Marseille to New York. Air France has a flight with only an hour and twenty minutes to connect at CDG and I know I've read horror stories here saying that's not enough. There are at least two more flights later from CDG to BCN. But what's the worst that can happen? If I book the earlier one and don't have enough time, won't they just put us on the next flight? I could book the later flight but why spend three hours at CDG if I don't have to?

There are some similarly priced flights on UA/Lufthansa connecting in Frankfurt (about and hour and a half) or on Alitalia through Rome (hour and a quarter). I'm not sure either of these would be any better and they take you out of the way adding time to the total trip.

Anyone make connections in CDG in that amount of time?

Nikki

Worst that can happen? You make the flight but your luggage doesn't. That has happened to me. Just be prepared with necessities in the carry-on.

ira

Hi i,

We had 90 minutes at CDG for an ATL/BOD flight.

The plane landed on time somewhere in Roissy. They took us by shuttle bus to CDG2E.

90 minutes after landing, I was running for the gate for the BOD flight, hoping that they would hold the plane until my Lady Wife could arrive.

Fortunately, the plane left 20 min late.

>If I book the earlier one and don't have enough time, won't they just put us on the next flight?<

Not if it is full.

>..why spend three hours at CDG if I don't have to?<

To ensure that you and your luggage get to Barcelona as planned.

wliwl

You have about a 10% chance of making this connection. Don't do it.

In June, we were on a bus JUST to get from the plane to the terminal for at least an hour (it may have even been longer), while it sat in a tremendously long line of buses that SLOWLY unloaded.

martytravels

I agree with the other posters. 1:20 would be fine in well-organized Amsterdam Schiphol, but not in the sprawling, confusing mess that is CDG.

janis

everyone else has given you good advice. Just remember - 90 mins MIGHT be possible on an intra-European connection. You would not have been on an overnight flight and would probably be functioning on all cylinders.

But in a jet lagged daze and running mostly on adrenalin, with all that can go wrong at CDG, 90 mins would be almost impossible

Nimrod

At a "normal", civilized major airport where trans-Atlantic flights pull up to a gate/jetway at the terminal you would have a good chance of connecting. At CDG where many AF flights from North America park way out in the hinterlands of the tarmac and wait on busses to take passengers to the terminal, then it's a crap-shoot, maybe a long-shot. Like Ira, it took me 90 minutes just to get to the terminal via bus recently. On the return, it took 2 hrs 50 min from the time I boarded the bus until the plane took off. Absurd.

francophile03

Our flight from the US taxied to the arrival gate for 20 minutes leaving us with about half an hour to catch a regional flight to eastern France. It's good we were not dropped onto the tarmac so we avoided taking one of those infamous shuttles.

In a way we were lucky that the terminal was just across the street. But that meant running and/or walking quickly anyway. There was a handy escalator which was out of order so we had to take the stairs at one point. So be prepared for non-working escalators and stairs and I'd suggest taking backpacks as carryons as they are easier to run with.

francophile03

Made a mistake. It was actually more than half hour to connect, maybe 55 minutes or so. I remember it was not enough time.

isabel

Hmmmm. Well, maybe it's not such a good idea. I figured many people would tell me not to do it, but I thought at least a few would say they'd made a connection like that. I mean, it IS on AirFrance's own web site so they must THINK it's possible. I'm not concerned about lost luggage as I usually only do carry on (at least going over). But I guess it comes down to booking the four hour layover and knowing at least I'll definitly get to Barcelona that day, versus the hour and a quarter layhover which might mean I'd spend days in CDG waiting for space on a flight to Barcelona. Oh well, thanks for the input.

francophile03

All airlines want us to believe that the connection times they list are doable. It looks good onscreen but in reality it's not. If you argue with them they say it's a legal connection time and it would not be posted if it weren't.