DeGaulle Airport
 

Hope you can help. End of April -we are traveling from JFK to Paris to Naples - My flight comes into Paris at 8:30 am. I have a connecting flight to Naples leaving at 9:40 am. Will I possibly be able to make the connection? Do I have to clear customs or go through passport control? Thanks so much.

Pasport control - yes. You are entering Schengen

Customs - no. That will happen when you land at Naples and retrieve your bags.

Will you make it -- who knows? Maybe.

If it is one booking, then you are protected and they will put you on the next available flight.

Whether you have enough time or not has to do with how you booked the tickets and whether you can check you luggage through Napoli. Have you bought JFK-NAP ticket where CDG is just a layover? Or did you buy JFK-CDG on one ticket and CDG-NAP on another presuming you can make the connection?
The best case scenario is you getting all the boarding passes at JFK and check luggage all the way to NAP. The worst case is if need to retrieve luggage at CDG, and check-in at CDG to get your boarding pass and check your luggage again.

Customs, even if you have to go through, is a no event. If you have nothing to declare, it takes less than 5 seconds to walk through the "nothing to declare" door. I presume you have an image of taking 3 hours going customs at some third world country airports?

Yes - It is booked as JFK to Nap with CDG as a layover. I'm just concerned that I only have one hour (if the flight is on time!!!). Can I get off the plane and get over to the next flight before it takes off? Thanks so much.

Think I have to go from 2E to 2 F.

If you are going from 2E to 2F review the information at http://www.easycdg.com/1/passenger-i...aulle-airport/ and you will have directions ahead of time and a sense of how much time the walk will take.

What greg said...but you'll probably make it CDG is a horror, though. Familiarize yourself with the layout of the airport before you go.

Most transatlantic flights from the U.S. arrive at least 30 minutes early. The schedule has a lot of extra time padded into it to avoid paying obligatory delayed flight compensation as per EU aviation rules.

CDG layover is not to be taken lightly. The terminals are spread out and they make you exit the secure area and reenter again with general passengers.
I had a layover at CDG this September. Our plane arrived about 30 minutes early, and I was about to say hurray when we got an announcement that the ground control will not give us the gate until our scheduled arrival time! So we just sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes!
The signage is excellent with directions to target terminals written in huge letters assuring you at every turn that you are heading the right direction. Nevertheless, you are in for a quite a trek to be done quickly.
Double check your connecting flight at the departure board located at the end of the long walk.

Making it even more complicated is that the 2E has gates K,L, and M with different approaches to 2F. Look at the .pdf maps listed by JAMH. My last flight was from 2E gate M to 2F. This transfer required taking a tram.

Good advice about making yourself familiar with the layout of CDG.

I think it's an utter maze and my least favourite terminal of all. I'm a bit astonished to also read the signage is "excellent" because I think it's ghastly! But there you go....

As your bags are checked through already I think you'll probably make it, but you'll need to walk fast and know exactly where you are going. ( I couldn't bear the tension, but maybe you're stronger than I am!)
Good luck!

Since Kerouac actually worked (works?) for an airline, I would trust him BUT you could be delayed by weather, by your plane arriving and being parked at a remote hard stand from which you are bussed to the terminal, etc.

Prepare yourself mentally for delays, and you will be delighted if you don't have them.

You have done what you can do by booking the entire trip on one ticket. They have to get you there if you miss the connecting flight. Take a change of clothing in your carryon in case you make the connection and the baggage doesn't (or vice versa). Don't dawdle in the terminals.

CDG is extremely well-signed, and I don't find it particularly confusing, but you will be tired from your overnight flight.

2F is in a stand-alone building, and is for commuter airplanes. Last year when I changed airplane in 2F to Pisa, they did not start boarding passengers on the commuter airplane until 10-min before take-off.

You have already been given very good advices. I would print out all 3 PDF directions and then depending on which gate in 2E you land, follow the correct one to 2F in a hurry.

1 hour is very tenuous based upon my two experiences. The worst was arriving from Boston on time. We were disembarked on the tarmac and had to bus to the terminal. We were on the last bus. When we got to the terminal there must have been 10 buses ahead of us from many flights.

Went in the door and up the stairs to find the police making an impromptu passport check of everyone (hundreds of people) By the time we got in the terminal itself we had only 20 minutes and security lines were jammed. Asked airport personnel for help getting to the front and they said stay put. Of course we missed our flight by a wide margin.

We had booked on air france through to Nice and so they gave us the next flight. But their demeanor was telling. They laughed when we explained what had happened. Got to Nice 4 hours late which then delayed all of our other plans.

As stated by others you may make it but 1 hour is real tight at CDG. I would never do less than 2 hours there.

David J

We made a "55 minute" layover that was 75 minutes because the flight arrived early.

Our bag made the next flight.

You wil have to go through Immigration at CDG and how long that will take depends in large part on how many international flights have landed at the same time. If you are on an early flight - you have a better chance - by 9 am the airport is mobbed. I have had it take 10 minutes to get through Immigration (at 6:30 am) up to 40 minutes.

If it is one flight you are protected if yuo don;t make your flight - they will put you on the next - but you need to check NOW to see when that would be. Also - you need to be prepared to defeat CDG:

Sit as far forward in the plane as possible - those at the back lose 15 minutes at least waiting to deplane

Make sure your carry-on luggage can easily be picked up - so you can jog with it (a bunch of carry-on stuff will delay you considerably)

Once off the plane spring (as much as comfortable) the distance to Immigration (it may be long) to gt ahead of everyone else pouring off your plane (some people will be close to running)

Don't mean to be scary - but I am risk averse - and would never do this without at least a 2 hour window.

The only time we had a 1 hour change at CDG had Mrs. P and myself running alongside an Air France guide who piloted us from passport control to the departure gate, which closed when we were less than 50 feet away. She stopped, sent us to the rebooking desk, where we joined a few hundred others being booked on the next flight tosomewhere.

We got to Nice 3 or 4 hours late. I immediately went to rebook our return connection with a change of 3 hours instead of one. Short connections a CDG are a gamble.

You have been warned.

Reading54,
What you described is 2G not 2F. 2F is directly connected to 2E via two different corridors. One from the K gates and another from the L gates. The M gates are connected by train to the K and L gates.

Oops! Patty you are right.
I had to go from 2E to 2G last May when I transferred to Pisa at CDG. 2E to 2F is much closer. Glad you point it out, so that I did not mislead anyone.

To go from 2 to 2F can take 25 minutes??
Thanks so much to everyone!

2F is quite far from the other terminals, but there are no obstacles for the shuttle buses going there -- so it is really a very quick transfer, and you can board the flights there up until just a few minutes before departure.