seafox

I have long been an advocate of allowing 2+ hours for a connection in CDG. I'm faced with a connection this Fall that is one hour. Not sure I want to book it. The flight is Air France Athens to CDG and then connecting to JFK on Air France as well. Terminal change between 2E and 2F. Luggage should be checked through (I hope), but we will have to go through customs I assume. Looks like there is a bus between terminals within security. Does anyone have experience with this tight connection...any thoughts (other then questioning my sanity)...thanks in advance!

jamikins

Why would you have to go customs? If you stay airside you just need to change planes.

AJPeabody

Your wariness on a one hour CDG connection is valid. The deciding factor: What will you have to do if the plane from Athens is late or the connection takes more than one hour? When is the next connecting plane? Will you be able to get on it? If the consequence of a missed connection is a disaster, don't book it.

danon

The last time we flew CDG was in Nov Last year...it was a mess...everyone had to go the passport control, practically exit , a then get to your other terminal. Our flight from Madrid was late., we had to connect to overseas flight..
..we were running all the way. Hope you have better luck..it is tight.

suec1

"Past performance is no guarantee of future success"! but really you do have several facts in your favor - first, both are AF flights, so if you miss your connection hopefully the rebooking would be fairly painless. Second, altho 2E and 2F are different terminals they are connected (check out map) and you can walk between them. I know some people have complained about the signage but I thought it was decent. I would not bother with the bus, a brisk walk, you should be OK.

Yes the passport control can jam up but most times, not. So you will probably be OK - hopefully your flights are not late in the day so you could be rebooked for the TA flight later the same day and not have to overnight. But hey, on overnight in Paris might not be so bad and with the more stingent EU rules in favor of passengers, would AF pay for the hotel?

pdx

I've seen this question come up before so if you search under Air Travel "terminal 2e" you'll see a bunch of posts. Also saw one with your name on it regarding a terminal tunnel collapse or some such from 2004!

LowCountryIslander

I completely understand how you feel, I generally allow 2+ hours at CDG too, but here is my experience from last August.

I was flying Air France from St. Petersburg, Russia and had a connecting Air France flight at CDG to Atlanta. I had about 1 hour and 20 minutes for the connection (I know 20 more minutes than you, but I was very "antsy" about the amount of time).

Fortunately the flight from Russia arrived on time, I did not have to go through passport control, I did that in Russia (maybe it will different for you coming from Greece), but I did have to go through a security check point. I was very worried about that because on previous connections through CDG the security check points had always been the hold-up, with long lines. But in this particular experience I got very lucky and there were no lines at security (hard to believe I know!)

I was at the gate for the Atlanta flight within 25 minutes of de-planing from the Russia flight, so it can be done, but there are factors out of your control, flight delays or long lines at the security check-points could be a problem.

I will agree with suec1, that I found the signage at CDG to be much improved over the last few years.

jamikins

As both Greece and France are in the Schengen zone I still dont understand why you would need to go through passport control? Wouldnt you just stay airside and change planes? I havent done this at CDG so maybe its different...?

socialworker

Every time I see a post like this I feel I must tell my story again....So sorry that I have nothing reassuring to say.

We were on an AF flt from Rome to Paris, changing to another AF flt Paris to Boston. There were at least 15 people w/the same itinerary. We were delayed ~45 min. on the tarmac in taking off from Rome. An AF ground attendant in Paris led us from where we landed to where we needed to go. The plane to Boston was STILL at the gate, but they had closed off the jetway. ALL of the passengers had to be rebooked, some to the next day. (We were 2 of the lucky ones who got on a later flt the same day.)

I will not even consider a 1 hour change time even within the US. Too many things can go wrong...

kanadajin

FWIW, I did go through CDG with 1 hour connections on at least 2 occasions (I believe it was 3 actually). Each time from 2E to 2F or vice versa, and on connecting AF flights. While a bit on the tight side, I have always managed to make it. I also always walked in between terminals as they are next to each other, and not very far really.

jamikins, the OP will need to go through passport control as they are exiting the Schengen zone from Paris, so they will get their exit stamp there as that flight is to JFK. The Athens to Paris one is, as you rightly point out, considered a "domestic" flight, i.e. within Schengen.

Patty

Your connection is from 2F to 2E. You will need to go through passport control to exit Schengen. There are 3 parts to 2E (K, L and M gates) connected by train. The L gates are also directly connected to 2F. I've done this transfer on one hour connections but there's no room for delay.

http://ompldr.org/vZDFrZg/Hub2012-AF-en.pdf

LowCountryIslander

Here's a website that you may want to consult when transferring through CDG

http://www.easycdg.com/1/passenger-i...s-cdg-airport/

Patty

The first thing you want to determine after deplaning is which set of gates your flight to JFK is departing from. This will determine the best route. As you can see on the maps, both K and L gates are directly connected to 2F via 2 different passageways. I haven't taken the blue shuttle myself but could see using that if your departure is from the M gates. Your alternative would be to walk to the K gates and take a train from the K gates to the M gates. Do not take the yellow shuttle as that goes the opposite direction you want and will take 20 minutes to get around to the M gates. K, L and M are connected to each other by a frequent and quick train so all is not lost if you end up in the wrong part of 2E

jamikins

Gotcha! I definitely wouldnt be comfy with a 1 hour connection then! At any airport...

seafox

I chickened out and booked the direct flight from Athens....cost $250 more!

pdx

I wish we could have some insider information on this connection because when I was researching it there were posts on various websites dating years back. It's obviously been an issue and I wonder if anyone has CDG statistics on these one hour connections. It seems that if it didn't work they would have phased those out.

socialworker

To my way of thinking, $250 is a very reasonable price for one less worry.

We often fly to Los Angeles from Boston and we would not hesitate to pay an extra $250 not to have to make a connection.

kerouac

Easy connection. All you have to do is stroll of the Athens flight since it is "Schengen domestic" and walk across to the other terminal, which is very close. Too bad you wasted the $250 because even if you had missed the flight, Air France and its Skyteam partners have tons of flights to New York every day, so they would have put you on the next flight, maybe even upgrading you to keep you happy.

pdx

I was looking at a Barcelona flight at the time, so I'm sure there are a variety of destinations that are run through there with those one hour layovers. It's hard to consider that a 'layover.'
I would hesitate for $250, especially for two of us. I would check for what the options are if I missed my flight and make decisions from there.

socialworker

But, kerouac, easy connection or not, what about all of the other things that can interfere? One of the reasons that we are always willing to pay extra to avoid connections, is the unpredictability of the weather. It may be fine where you take off and fine at your (ultimate) destination, but if your connecting city has weather issues, then you are out of luck and that is not even a place where you wanted to go to begin with!! I still think that $250 extra to be on a plane that is going where I want to go is well worth the price.