MelJ

I know. I thought about that. To go one step further, NO country stamped my passport. I have no record on it of having traveled into France or Italy!

DalaiLlama

"NO country stamped my passport. I have no record on it of having traveled into France or Italy"

That has happened to me a lot, when travelling to Western and Central Europe on an American passport, I have often been waved through, no stamp, just maybe a quick look and a quick question that I may have answered in the local language (F-G-I) or not...

But on returning to the US one time I had a border agent take five minutes scrutinizing every stamp on every page of a very full passport to find a trace of my just completed trip, and I couldn't help her, there was none... Just to help matters, I produced a receipt from lunch at CDG before boarding, I think it helped, I got in...

But I think that was before 9/11.

seafox

Schengen aside, it's a very tight connection under any circumstance. if you are doing this, be prepared. Have a good airport map handy, be prepared to be pushy with the AF staff and know the options for flights. Don't be afraid to tell them, you missed your flight and you want to be re-booked on X flight. make sure your luggage can easily be identified so it can be pulled and transferred....use a big yellow ribbon on the handle....

rkkwan

There is a huge difference between no getting a stamp from no going through immigration.

Who would you feel if somebody fly into the US from Canada without going through US immigration at all?

Christina

Lots of places don't stamp passports, I don't think that is so important nowadays. I think there are records and they are in the computer.

I haven't done this for a few years, but I am pretty sure my experience is exactly the same as MelJ's. I've arrived at CDG in transit to another country or part of France, and I don't remember going through any security or "immigration", either. I am sure neither MelJ nor I did anything improper at all, CDG and Air France or whatever other airline you are connecting to knows what they are doing. I think the issue is that if you are just in transit, you are not really considered to have arrived or to be in that country, that's why. YOu go through all that at your final destination, as long as you dont leave the airport and go in the corridors they tell you. I also have transferred by shuttle bus within CDG.

I do remember one guy glancing at people's passports as you went by this corridor and down some steps (you just held it open for him), so perhaps that is what you would call immigration, but the point is, as far as the OP is concerned, it is not the same thing as going out into the main part of the airport and standing in those long lines at the booths, as you would if you were staying in Paris.

I don't remember exactly about security, but I don't think it was the same as someone coming in off the street, either. I have transferred to another city within France this way and to the Czech Republic (also in Schengen), so those are my experiences.

Christina

I just read several past threads on this issue, and they verified that you do not go through passport control/immigration at CDG if you are just in-transit and do not leave that airside shuttle or whatever it is called -- if you are transferring to another place within Schengen. I think you do have to if you are flying to a country outside Schengen.

Not sure about the security, but even without a lot of that stuff, 55 minutes is still bare minimum for a transfer, as folks said. I've done it, but it was close.

rkkwan

Christina - You have it reversed.

SCFoodie

Went through CDG last month - flew in from Atlanta and were connecting to a flight to Florence. Can't remember which terminal we landed at, but had to go to terminal G for our connection. We went through what I thought was immigration as we left the terminal to get the shuttle to terminal G - an official checked each person's passport. After arriving at terminal G we had to go through security to get to our gate.

The line at immigration was really short - only took about 2-3 minutes to get through. There was no one else at the security check point and we breezed through. And that was a good thing since we barely made the flight. I don't know if this is the usual situation or if we just got lucky.

We had one hour to make this connection. Lost about 10 minutes due to our inability to find the way to terminal G. If there had been any line at all at immigration or security, we would have missed our flight.

IMO, 55 minutes is really taking a chance.

socialworker

To Barbara, you were really lucky! Our AF flt from Rome to Paris w/a connection to Boston was late b/c it was sitting on the ground for >1 hour in Rome, b/c of air traffic control problems. We, too, were met by an AF agent who whisked us between terminals---there were 10-15 people all making the same connection---only to get to the gate to find that they had closed the doors even tho the plane was still there. *All* passengers had to be re-booked, which in many cases meant not going out till the following day!!

I would never book a close connection at any airport but especially not at CDG.

Judyrem

Last time through CDG, we ran like OJ through the airport with an 90 minute layover! The plane was late and the lines were long. I would not do it.

davidjac

Last time I flew thru CDG to Nice, we were bused to the terminal too 15 minutes juts on the bus then went thru 2 security checl points, one in the middle of a stair case into the terminal. Both were jammed with absolutley no help from any personnel. We had 1:15 hours to make the flight and never did.

CDG is a mess. Do not accept a 55 minute time under any circumstances.

David J

linda_hoagland

I wouldn't recommend trying it. I have traveled through CDG many times (unfortunately) and it is without a doubt the most disorganized terminal I have ever been in. A couple of times they had a person standing there checking passports as you exited the plane. Another few times I was shown a long hallway where I scooted down and didn't have to go through customs even though I was staying in France. Several other times I was pushed into long lines through customs when I was transitting to another country. It depends!

firstlake

I agree with previous posts --we missed our connection because of the tight connection thru Air France --had a 4 hour wait for the next flight.

scrb

I've done it many times, going to Italy and Spain on AF. These are all within Terminal 2.

But I've also missed the return connection twice, usually because the flight from Italy takes off too late and I prefer a non-stop CDG-SFO flight which runs once a day.

In those cases, AF has put me up at an airport hotel and I just take the RER into Paris.

I think with renovations, it seems you're less likely to have to take a shuttle. I've cut across the big new hall.

I haven't tried the new tram or whatever they call it.

travelgourmet

I would look at what your options are if you miss the connection. If there are more flights later in the day, then I say give it a go. As long as it is one ticket, then you should be protected.

AF schedules tight connections all the time. I can't imagine they would do that if most people didn't make them.

Now, going the other way, I would give myself more time. Chances are, there are very few flights to your US destination, so a missed connection might mean a major delay. Then again, if you are flying into New York, you may have plenty of options.