RSSmith

I know there have been several threads recently with the conventional wisdom seeming to be that 90 minutes is the bare minimum time after arriving from the States in order to (hopefully) catch your connecting flight. My question is, does the same rule of thumb apply on the return to the US or is a quicker connection acceptable? We are confronted with either 1:05 connecting time between flying into CDG from Marseilles, or sitting around for over 4:30.

RSSmith

sorry, title should read "CDG"

janisj

Actually a connecting flight TO the USA usually needs even more time. I would NEVER try CDG in just 1 hour.

noe847

We had an hour connection at CDG in January for our flight back to the US. Our first flight was 45 minutes late, we missed the connection, and spent 24 hours in Paris - without luggage! We did a whirlwind nighttime tour and had some great meals. Now I can say I've had a peek at Paris.

We have a 2 hrs 10 minutes connection on our return from Romania in October, and I sure hope that's enough, or we might get another short view of Paris.

Robespierre

There are a few direct TGV trips every day that take 4 hours or less. The elapsed time from your hotel in Marseilles to CDG wouldn't be much more than flying - and a lot more fun.

Having said that, I would add that I always spend the night before flying home in a place where I have backup ways of getting to the plane. In your case, I would come into Paris the day before and sleep close to the RER B line in the Ve or VIe arrondissement.

Suspaul

Last fall we flew Air France to Athens, connecting in Paris with only a 55 minute connection, complete chaos! When the reservations were booked and subsequent phone calls to AF, we were assured that this was very doable. We did not check any bags as we were so concerned that they would not make the connection and with good reason, many people on our tour who connected thru Paris ended up with no checked baggage for up to 6 days. We landed out on the tarmac, had to take the shuttle bus to the terminal and literally run to the gate, having only minutes to spare. However, once at the gate we were told the flight was delayed about 30 minutes. The return to the States, again thru Paris was even more stressful, however, there was an Air France rep waiting for those with the connecting flight to Houston, we were driven in a van and escorted thru the airport as the plane had already boarded, whew, never again will we try to make such a tight connection. Next time I'd definitely take a later flight, no matter what the airlines said.

PalQ

Does your connecting flight come into the same terminal that your trans-Atlantic flight will leave from? If not, say you land in terminal 2 from Marseilles and you leave from terminal 1, from which many trans-Atlantic flights save largely for AirFrance departs from then you have a 20-minute ride on the shuttle bus after waiting for it to get to the other terminal. If so one hour is highly unrealistic.

Patty

Traveling MRS-CDG-US you'll need to go through passport control, change halls, and go through security. You need the same amount of time coming back as you do going. A MRS-CDG flight won't arrive at the same hall as a CDG-US flight.