Nina66

My friend (who is not online) is taking a barge trip in Paris. She has been to Paris numerous times and speaks French, but this will be her first solo trip.

The barge agency booked her Air France flight from SFO to arrive at CDG on a Tuesday at 11:50AM. Her connecting AF flight to Lyon, departs at 1:10PM, where she will be picked up by the company IF she arrives on schedule.

She is worried, and I agree with her, that one hour and 20 minutes, IF her initial flight is on time, will not be enough time to make the connecting Lyon flight.

How far apart is AF's International Terminal from their Domestic Terminal? Will she clear immigration in Paris - probably yes?

She'll kill me when she reads this, but she is 79 years old and her OJ running through the airport days, are in the past.

She is not flying with a group and will be all alone at CDG if she misses the connecting flight and hence her pick up in Lyon.

She is going to try to change her flights that the company booked, but since she is already ticketed, it may be too late.

Can she do it under the best of circumstances?

She knows to pack her mascara in her check-in

Nina

Nina66

Major correction.... the barge trip is in early October in Burgundy - not Paris.

These are not the flights that she initially had. She originally had an optional add on of a few days in Aix, but the company didn't have enough people going, so they cancelled that portion of her trip.

Unbeknownst to her, they rescheduled her flights to Lyon and THEN notified her the other day, of the changes.

Does anyone know how many flights AF has daily from CDG to Lyon?

A later flight seems to be the answer. She wants to know as much as possibly before calling the company and being told that she is stuck with what _they_ gave her.

Nina

WallyKringen

It is tight. But in her favor: Air France can be very good at chaperoning somebody through the maze for a tight connection if the arriving and the connecting flights are both Air France flights.

Since I understand that she is booked on Air France all the way, the company will acommodate her on a later flight if she gets in late - that is standard.

There are three more flights out of CDG to Lyon (16:00, 18:55, 21:30) and a few from Orly.

What she must absolutely do is talk to the flight staff and firmly request that she be given assistance of some sort, just so they know she needs to make a connection and so on, rather than stay quiet and take a chance. But she will get to Lyon.

kerouac

AF are excellent with "their own" connecting passengers (AF to AF), and if the passenger is elderly, they will be even better.

Nina66

Thanks so much for the answers.

Should she ask AF for assistance via phone from her home, while on the plane, or will she have to go to an AF desk to ask?

How far apart are their International and Domestic Terminals?

Nina

Christina

I've never needed assistance, so am not sure where she would go for that. But there isn't just one international and one domestic terminal. Well, I think AF uses terminal 2 for everything, but there are about 6 sections of it (A-F), which many people think of as different terminals, and can be far apart. I think many of the domestic flights go out of E or F, and international arrivals are often B or C. But you never know. I think my last flight from US was scheduled to land in E, but really came into B.

kerouac

Yes, Air France is all over the immense terminal 2, but there are shuttles when the distances are big. You friend can just mention that she is an "elderly passenger requiring assistance" to Air France reservations, and they will take care of everything.

Nina66

Thanks Kerouc, I don't understand if she should call AF reservations from home, or go to the AF desk at CDG, which obviously would cut into her time considerably?

Nina

kerouac

AF reservations where she is will enter the details into her "PNR" reservation file, and it will come out as priority information regarding passengers on that particular flight. So they will be ready and waiting for her when she arrives.

Patty

SFO-CDG is scheduled to arrive at 2E and CDG-LYS departs out of 2F1. In between she'll need to go through passport control and security. I've never asked for assistance so I don't know what that entails.