RichardNYC

About how long should it take to go through immigration when arriving at CDG around 7:30am on a weekday morning (US passport)? I've seen some posts saying well over an hour, but more recent ones suggesting e-gates have speeded the process.

janisj

Welcome to Fodors. Unfortunately ther is no way to guess how long it might take untll you are there. Some days everything works great and some days its a s#it show. Unfortunately the early morning bank of arrivals includes MANY long haul arrivals so it is about the busiest time of the day. If the e-Gates are working normally it can be quick, but if some aren't working, or there are other glitches it can take forever.

RichardNYC

Thank you.

Would you know if business class customers get priority access that might speed things up? Air France if that matters. On a previous trip on another airline we got a much shorter line, but I wasn't sure if that still exists.

StuDudley

If you have checked bags, it really does not matter how long immigration takes. We had 2 weekday arrivals this year at about 10:00 and I don't think we had much of a wait at all. But we had about a 30 - 40 min wait for our bags.

Stu Dudley

RichardNYC

No checked bags.

janisj

Definitely yes -- can still be slow-ish sometimes . But passengers in the pointy end of the plane disembark much faster. Sometimes I'm through immigration before those in the back of coach haven't yet left the plane. Maybe tell us why the timing is important to you -- to catch a train? to book a car service? to catch another flight? Because there might be situations where the timing really doesn't matter. (Like a car service for instance -- just a regular run-of-the-mill taxi would be just as good and time wouldn't matter)

kerouac

It is extremely variable, but yes, the e-gates have speeded things up as people learn how to use them.

RichardNYC

Getting a feel for current timing is important because if it's likely to take a long time to get through we'd consider a meet & greet service that avoids the line.

Even if we're off before everyone else on our flight, there could be other flights that came in a bit earlier.

The plan is to take a taxi into Paris. The only issues we've had with those are morning traffic and suspiciously non-working credit card machines.

In the past few months we've gone through LHR, FCO and MXP. They were all pretty fast. Staff would help those having problems and direct others to gates which were not backed up. Maybe we were just lucky.

StuDudley

We fly Business Class Air France. Four landings in past 2 years. We are almost always the first or second off the plane. If you are seated in rows 3-5 - you will be too!!

Stu Dudley

RichardNYC

Even if you're first off the plane, other planes may have landed shortly before your flight, so the lines already may be populated. That's my main concern with a morning arrival.

La Premiere tends to get priority, but those pax get escorted through lines, similar to what the meet & greet services offer.

janisj

Unless budget is no issue at all I honestly think you are way over-thinking this. The AF meet&greet costs €220 for two passengers. On a good day it might save you 10 minutes at most. On a bad day -- it would save more but I'd sure have 200+ places in Paris where I'd rather spend €200+

StuDudley

As I indicated - we have landed at CDG 4 times since early Dec 2021. Twice in late August, once in early June, and once in mid Dec. There was almost no wait at passport control.

Stu Dudley

kerouac

Getting through immigration quickly with no checked bags and then taking a taxi is totally foolish at that time of morning unless you don't mind adding 2 hours to your trip.

Christina

I was through there in mid Sept and it took maybe 45 min from landing to getting in a taxi and that included getting my bag at baggage claim. I didn't fly business. This was around 7 am weekday. What difference does it make about traffic given there are flat rates now. Meet and greet won't change traffic and doesn't do anything about the taxi, as far as I know, so I don't understand that.

janisj

Meet & Greet is only for at the airport -- from the door of the plane to immigration (and possibly to the taxi rank, arrivals hall to meet one's hired driver, or RER station -- that wasn't clear when I looked up the cost). Does nothing to expedite the trip into the city.

Now IF I was flying La Premiere and the limo ride from the plane, private immigration clearance and chauffeur into the city -- which is all included in the airfare - it would be a no brainer. But that is a whole different magnitude of service AND cost.

RichardNYC

What time of day did you land?

RichardNYC

Two hours sounds like the high end of drive time at about 8:00am. I'd have though closer to about 1:15 drive time compared to maybe 45 minutes on a packed RER.

RichardNYC

From what I've seen elsewhere, there's essentially no line for arrivals in the approximate 6-7am range, then it can quickly become a mess.

StuDudley

10:50 AM

Stu Dudley

rouelan

I recently traveled on AF from US. Our arrival gate was in 2L, meaning we had to ride LISA (automated train) to reach 2K where you go through immigration and belts.
Queues were not long at immigration and bags were waiting for us. Plane was at gate at around 11 and we were on the RER platform at 12. It took much longer time to walk from the gate to LISA platform, wait for the train, ride, then walk again to immigration, than to go through immigration.
for AF, by far, the busiest arrival bank is the early morning one. For a long time, it had been hell to go through immigration at that time of the day (around 6am). Now I couldn't say. Have Aéroport de Paris succeeded in their plead to staff with more Police agents? Do the automated gates make the job?