CDG airport, 2 tickets
 

In my naive planning for my trip that leaves in 2 days, I bought a ticket on American Airlines leaving JFK with arrival CDG terminal 2A at 6:45 AM and then a SECOND ticket on Air France that departs CDG terminal 2F at 9:45 AM for Rome. I thought that since I am not checking a bag and would print my boarding pass prior that I would be able to "connect" with ease. I NOW know that I am doing NO such thing since I have a second ticket (and thus not a true connection, so I cannot follow the signs for connection/correspondance).

Is this the process? 1) Head to passport control/immigration as quickly as possibly in Terminal 2A which will dump me out into non-secure area. 2) Take N1 shuttle (or run) to 2F terminal heading straight to security since I have my boarding pass and do not need to drop a bag. I know that passport control can be long, and security can be long, and that my initial flight could run late. That said, if I know where I am going and COMMIT to the journey, is this doable?

1) You go through passport control regardless of whether you are traveling on a single or two tickets.
2) The Paris airport sites describes how to transfer: http://www.parisaeroport.fr/en/passe...ecting-flights

Were American or Delta JFK-FCO direct flights not attractive?

Terminals 2A and 2F are more than 1 km apart...

Can it physically be done? I would say yes.

However, the real question is; what would be the likelihood that, on any given day, I could make the second flight given the circumstances as they have been explained? That would be difficult to determine and I might surmise that if you did this ten times, you probably would be successful on most of your attempts.

<i>The Paris airport sites describes how to transfer:</i>

This reference is only for connecting flights. Two separately purchased tickets do not qualify as connecting flights. These are two independent flights and nlgln is required to completely exit after Immigration, proceed to the check in counter for the second leg, (though early checkin with no checked luggage might eliminate this step), pass through security, and proceed to the second departure gate.

There is a sizable risk in purchasing tickets this way as there is no misconnect guarantee.

Yes, it's doable. No checked luggage and a pre-printed boarding pass will be very helpful. I'd say the odds are good that you will make it in your scenario but if you don't just buy a ticket on the next flight to Rome. There are several flights per day. It'll probably cost around $400. And the thing is that even if you had a true connecting ticket, you would still have to go through passport control and after passport control make your way to 2F and go back through security there.

I hit send too soon. I meant to add this: The difference is that the connection would be protected and the airline might help you get through long lines faster and would be obligated to get you to Rome at no extra cost to you.

On the bright side, it took me 15 min to exit last time I was at CDG.
And it took me less than 1 hour from entrance to my gate.
So 1 h 15 in your case. You ahve 3 hours - quite doable, actually the Gods must be against you to miss it - but Suffice Eon to be a contrary ...
The likelyhood of Union being on strike is about the same I'd say ;-)

I really hope that your incoming flight isn't late, you're not seated at the rear of the plane, there isn't a long queue at immigration and you get stuck behind That Family, there are no long lines at the ticket counter, and the line to get back into the secure area isn't slowed down by That(Those) Passenger(s). Or any combination therefor.

What you did this trip? Don't do that next time.

It must have been a helluva savings to buy a ticket like that instead of a normal ticket to Rome. I it doesn't bite you in the keister.

Thanks, all. Very helpful. Ticket to CDG was frequent flyer, but had very limited options for my miles. Couldn't get to Rome at mileage I had accrued. Found the Air France tickets very reasonable, and did not realize three hours would be so tight. So, yes, saved $3000+ for my wife and me, but gained some stress over it! On way back, we have 2 days in Paris to kick around before departing to US. 20th anniversary trip!

You can very likely check in and print out your boarding pass for your AirFrance flight before you leave JFK. I'd actually recommend getting the AirFrance app for your smart phone, and you can load your boarding pass there. If you do that, then there's absolutely no need to go to the check-in counter in Paris if you don't have luggage. Just exit after customs, reenter the terminal, and go directly to security at 2F

That's not a bad idea.

I don't personally think 3 hours is that worrisome at all, I've made connections there in 45-60 minutes. Granted, they were AF to AF, but still, 3 hours is a long time. I never arrive at the airport before that for a flight to begin with and this is a flight within Europe. If I were just going to CDG for a flight from CDG to Rome, I would arrive about 2 hours pre-departure and that's being generous.

Sure, if your flight is late it's a problem, that's always true, my flights to Paris always arrive early, actually, by about 30 minutes or more, on AF. I know I've never taken more than an hour to get out of CDG when I arrive, so then you'd be at 2 hours as if arriving at the airport. Sure, anything could happen but this wouldn't worry me that much.

Nothing you can do about it now, anyway.

Thanks, all! Very helpful! Here's hopin' . . .

OK - this is very likely doable although there are no guarantees.

But there are a couple of things you can do to make it easier:

Sit as far forward as possible on the incoming flight - this can save you at least 15 minutes deplaning.

Move as fast as possible - jog if you can - from deplaning to Immigration. There are a lot of flights from the US and other international destinations arriving then. The faster you get to Immigration the fewer the people in front of you.

Have the route you need to take to the next flight fixed in your mind. CDG can be complicated and a wrong turn can waste a lot of time.

Usually flights from the US arrive early due to the strong tailwinds - but obviously there are a bunch of potential causes for delay - from weather at the departure airport, mechanical delay, not having a gate available in CDG and busing in from a distant area of the airport.

AT this point I don't expect any changes are possible - so you just need to be positive and concentrate on moving quickly.

nytraveler - just how strong are these tailwinds? And if seasonal winds are not already accounted for in the schedules, are we to assume that all of the westbound flights will be late?

>>> are we to assume that all of the westbound flights will be late?
You can find actual historical flight times at flightaware.com. You will find that the flight path changes daily to take into account for the forecasted jet stream patterns.

Just another thought: I am nervous about connections and all my trip details, so in your case, I might have a list of flights and walk up prices to get to Rome.

Forget about tailwinds as they are factored in scheduled flight times.
Published MCT for CDG is 1h. You would be very unlucky to miss your flight to FCO.
You Can check-in on AF 30 hours before departure. So Just do it before departure. After immigration, walk to 2F (very close, on your right, cross 2C, There were Will be signs).
For security check at 2F, they scan your boarding pass before the queue and if You are short of time, You are directed to the express lane.

Sorry - we have arrived in europe early - often by 20 or 30 minutes. (When the pilot does their little announcement about 30 minutes out they frequently mention we will be arriving early due to strong tail winds.) Have never arrived late unless there was a significant delay on the departure airport.

Yes, I know that those are the prevailing winds at all times but some days they are much stronger than others.

Have also arrived late going west a couple of times - again I assume when the prevailing wins were stronger than usual.

Scheduled flight times are based on historical data (taxi and airborne time). So in terms of probability, you should however better chances to arrive early than late because Airlines play safe by scheduling flight times based on 80% median time.