RobynFrance

Greetings,

We are arriving in CDG at 6:30 on a Delta Flight (codeshare with AirFrance) and continuing on a flight to Bordeaux at 7:30, also AF. I cannot remember if one has a delay with luggage id at this point for customs or if that is only for those who have Paris as their final destination. We usually bypass Paris when arriving in France by connecting in London to our final French destination.

It is apparently a legal connection, but not much time if there is a lengthy immigration check at that point. Can someone please refresh my memory on time and procedures at CDG? Many thanks.

gracejoan

I have arrived at CDG and connected to Marseille, and my luggage was checked to my final destination...that was where I picked up my luggage.

taggie

I believe you only have to go through passport control, not customs.

Laidback

We are doing a similar thing this fall but with a longer layover. We arrive at CDG on an American flight and have to transfer to an Air France flight. We have been told our luggage can be checked through to Florence, but we have to go to Air France to get our boarding passes since they do not codeshare. I guess this means we have to go out of security and get the boarding passes and then back through to get to our gate. Has anyone had experience doing this?

MorganB

If you can check your luggage through I dont see why you cant take the airside shuttle and have the boarding pass issued at the gate. You will go through passport control in Paris but will not have to reclaim your bags. They only snag I can think of is if Passport Control wants to see your boarding pass. Perhaps carry a printout of your travel receipt as proof.

jody

I might be wrong, but even with bags checked thru to a final destination, we've always had to claim them at the first arrival point in a country and recheck them for the ongoing flight. There may not even be a customs and immigration officer in Bordeaux if it is not an international arrival point.

AnneO

What about if flying Delta to CDG, then connecting to AF to Venice? I'm assuming you have to do immigration and passport control (i.e, pick up luggage at CDG, then recheck). Is that correct?

Thanks!
Anne

Christina

I don't know about that particular flight, but no, you do not always have to collect your baggage at the first airport you land in. I have flown to Paris and then had connecting flights to other parts of France or foreign countries, and my bags were always checked through, I did not have to collect them at all in Paris.

IN fact, I didn't even go through customs on my last flight to Paris where Paris was my final destination. There was no customs check at all in-between collecting baggage at the carousel and walking out to the main area. I did go through immigration, of course, where you show your passport before you go to the baggage claim area.

jody

You can go thru the Green Channel or Nothing to Declare lane and not be stopped for a check but that is at the whim of the agents on duty.

I have never switched from an international flight to a domestic flight that I did not have to claim my bag and then hand it to an airline agent after exiting the customs hall.

flanneruk

The standard procedure in the EU is:

1. When you arrive into a Common Travel area, you go through Immigration at the arrival airport. You don't go through immigration again on flights within that area. There are two, mutually exclusive areas: Schengen and UK/Ireland and there are also countries in neither. So if you're changing at London for Dublin, you go through immigration at London: if you're changing at Paris for Rome, you go through immigration in Paris. No further checks normally, though any country can re-instate checks, and occasionally some do.
2. If you bags are through-checked to a country outside the Common Travel Area, the norm in Europe - and virtually everywhere else in the world outside North America - is that you go through neither immigration nor customs if you're changing planes and departing that day from that airport
3. Generally speaking, if you're changing planes at an EU hub for another EU destination (whether in the same Common Travel Area or not), and your bags have been through-checked, you theoretically go through Customs at your final destination.
This is the one that confuses people. If you're changing at Heathrow for Manchester, or at CDG for Nice, taking an ongoing domestic flight from that airport and have your bags through-checked , Customs happens at Manchester or Nice. In practice travellers never notice it, but all EU scheduled destinations have Customs facilities, and all bags from outside the EU are tagged to indicate that they are liable to be inspected at Manchester or Nice.

Some hub airports aren't quite set up for this (so I think I'm right in saying the more conventional system applies at Gatwick. But even there, all through-checked baggage to anywhere other than UK or Irish destinations sails through)

Airlines are often hazy about this. US-based staff are just ignorant, but often humble enough to accept they're wrong. UK-based staff are better informed about all this, but convinced they're infallible. Latin European staff are more often right, but invariably obnoxious.

ThHe best place to check the rules is the hub website. In the two examples above, (DL/AF codeshares to Bordeaux and Venice through CDG), immigration is at Paris. Customs will be at Bordeaux and Venice (though almost certainly undetectable)if the agent in the departure airport through-checked it.

OK? There'll be a test on this later

gracejoan

Maybe my earlier post was not clear..although I did not say the airlies..I fly Delta and codeshare Air France. I have gone from ATL to CDG and connected to an AF domestic to Marseille. My luggage went to my final destination..I did NOT have to pick it up at CDG, only at my final destination, Marseille.

Sjoerd

Flanneruk gave the correct answer. So to RobynFrance: you will have to clear immigration at CDG (you will automatically pass an immigration checkpoint on your way from your arrival gate to your departure gate at CDG) and customs (for checked bags) at Bordeaux. No need to pick up your bags at CDG.
Similar for AnneO to Venice: immigration at CDG, customs at Venice.

italyss

Your bags will be checked all the way through. CDG can be confusing the first visit. Make certain you follow the signs for transfer, NOT customs. If you do not have a boarding pass, go immediately to correspondance and get one. Then, continue on through the transfer hall, where you will have to show your passport. Then go down the escalator/stairs to catch the little bus to your correct terminal. On your plane ticket cover, or in the back of the flight magazine, keep the little map to get your bearings. I have seen many people make the mistake of waiting in the customs line when Paris was NOT their final destination. In CDG the best advice I can share is hustle, because every second counts if you want to make that connection.

RobynFrance

Flanneruk and others who have responded--thanks so much. I have in fact done this before to Nice, but not Bordeaux, so thanks a million. We will hustle along and hope to make the flight, but I believe we must get our Bordeaux boarding passes in Paris--not issued in the US. If we miss the first flight, we can take the next--happens everywhere but I do hope we can make it.