If I "accidentally" miss my flight at CDG ...
 

We're flying San Diego to NY, then NY to Paris, Paris to Rome, using FF miles. We are then taking the train(s) to Sorrento the same day.

After booking the tix, realized it would have been much easier to fly into Naples instead of Rome, but of course, can't change it now without a hefty fee.

We have a really tight connection in Paris at CDG (1 hour). If we "accidentally" miss our Paris to Rome flight, the next flight out to Rome is another hour, BUT the next flight out to Naples is in 2 hours.

How likely would Air France be willing to put us on the Paris to Naples flight if we miss our original connection to Rome?

I don't know the answer, but with the possibilities for delay (San Diego, New York, Paris) you might miss the "really tight" connection anyway.

They will know whether or not your original flight arrived in time for you to make your connection, and if it did arrive in time and you missed it anyway, that will be considered your fault. If you truly are delayed and you miss your scheduled flight, they will put you on the next flight to Rome. If you are so delayed that you miss the next flight to Rome, then you might have a chance of rebooking to Naples. But don't make this your plan, because they will know the truth about whether or not you could have made your flight to Rome.

Also keep in mind that your luggage will be checked to Rome, so you might not see if for a few days if you fly into Naples.

Why not call Air France and ask them that question very nicely. If the rep is in a good mode they maybe very helpful in providing you this information. It's worth a shot anyway.

I believe if it's all ticketed on Air France, they are obliged to ticket you at no cost on the next available flight. I had researched all of this before I left as we had the same tight connection using FF miles, and they said they would re-route us as necessary.

Air France will put you on the next flight if it is not your fault.

P_M explained it best - if you miss the flight because of the airline - they will put you on the next available flight to Rome. If you miss it because of your own fault - then you are on your own.

The important point is that they will put you on the next flight TO ROME -- not to Naples.

Also be aware that if you fail to show up for your booked flight to Rome -- even if it's their fault, and they put you on another flight themselves -- there is an excellent chance that any further flights on Air France that were booked at the same time -- like, say, your return home -- will be CANCELLED.

If you don't make that flight, make SURE you confirm your future tickets again as soon as possible, to avoid some unpleasant surprises at the airport on the way back.

Even if they do agree, won't your luggage already be enroute to Rome on your original flight? How will you get it?

Also if you do the swap and have to sit around in the airport for 2+ extra hours are you really saving anything? Eurostar or InterCity/InterCity Plus train reach Naples in less than two hours.

You might want to compare the change fee (usually $100 or so, although I fly United) with the bus/train fare to Sorrento from Rome versus Naples....

Looks like either way you'd get thereat about the same time.

" about the same time"''That's the important part--much ado about nothing

I seriously doubt you will make your connecting flight in Paris with only an hour layover. If you need to change terminals forget it!

If you fly into Rome you'll have to take a train into the city, then switch to a train to Naples.

If you fly to Naples, you'll have to get yourselves to Sorrento, either into the city to the train station for the Circumvesuviana or to the port for a boat to Sorrento.

Option 2 is a little bit better, but not hugely.

Have you looked into a private transfer from Rome airport to Sorrento? (I don't know one to recommend but it's possible; weight the cost vs. the cost of the train tickets and time spent).

such as..
http://www.slowtrav.com/cl/detail.asp?l=1659

Tripadvisor forum/ rec of above driver:
http://tinyurl.com/3as5ft

I would not do this. As others have mentioned you could lose your return trip. It happened to my dh and I on the way back from the Bahamas. We did not "intentionally" miss the trip - we missed our connection from ft. lauderdale to Bahamas - we got a hotel and they were going to fly us out on their first flight which was later in the day. I booked a flight earlier with another airlines - not thinking that it would cancel my return trip. It did.
We had no reservation returning from the Bahamas when we got to the airport... not good.

Hello monica007. If you do wish to pursue hiring a private driver from Rome to Sorrento here is a website you might want to check out. I have not hired him but Francesco use to post on Fodor's (always very informative and pleasant posts) and I remember reading some Fodorites did use his service and were quite pleased. I don't know if you could pull up the threads using the Fodor's Search box or not.
http://www.francescomarrapese.com/index.htm

Another excellent car service is Tour of Italy. We used them from Naples to Sorrento--but they will transport to/from Rome.
They went out of their way to accommodate our needs, which included a flight delay of several hours.

Naples airport to Sorrento bus
www.curreriviaggi.it

All subsequent flights will be automatically canceled. Do not do this!!!

Your luggage will be on a flight to Rome, you won't be.

CDG will be VERY happy with you as they find your luggage on the plane and take it off. They may decide to "examine" it which could leave it in a bit of a mess.

in any case if you are a no-show for thr fligth to Rome all the subsequent fligths on that ticket will be cancelled.

Trying to be clever could end up costing you thousands of dollars.

OK, thanks everybody. The FF miles are actually through Delta, and on the return we are flying a combination of KLM and Delta (although I think KLM and Air France have merged?)

My real incentive is minimizing the connections: train from airport in Rome to Termini, train to Naples, then train to Sorrento: 3 connections, versus 1 connection: bus from Naples airport to Sorrento (and trying to do this in a jet lagged haze).

I think with all the new airline safety regs, they have to match up bags/passengers, but not sure if that really applies in Europe.

There's 4 of us traveling, so the change fees really add up. We tried calling Delta and asking nicely, since they've themselves changed around our flight times from our original times, but no go.

I guess the best I can hope for now is that the NY to Paris flight gets delayed, and then ask very nicely for a flight to Naples.

Thanks for the all the advice!

It is not going to happen, because there are more flights from CDG-FCO than CDG-NAP. If you miss your flight, they'll put your on the next CDG-FCO.

So, just stop this idea/plan/dream or whatever right now. Not going to work.

And it's crazy to hope for your flight to Paris to be delayed. Would you know how long the line may be at the AF counter to rebook your flight? Would you know if they'll re-tag your bags correctly? Would you know how many hours you have to endure to get on the next flight to Italy?

Last thing you want to happen is your NY-Paris flight gets delayed.

Plan and deal with the FCO-Sorrento transfer now. BTW, I believe there's a direct bus for that route, though not very frequent. Instead of taking three trains.

And even IF they would consider it - They won't go dig through the luggage to find yours and re-tag it for Naples.

Just relax and forget about "asking nicely" - you are going to Rome . . . .

Sorry, no bus direct from FCO to Sorrento. With 4 people, you may want to check out a price for a shuttle van.

I agree that they are going to fly you into Rome because they have more flights there, even if you did miss the connection. Also, the baggage problem -- they won't fly you somewhere with your baggage flying somewhere else. I think monica wasn't afraid this would happen, she was trying to miss the flight intentionally to get a flight to Naples instead of Rome. That's why the accidentally was in quotes. Trying to fool around with airlines and missing flights to trick them is a bad idea.

I am surprised that Delta won't let you change reservations, unless there are no other FF seats available. I used NW FF miles to go to Amsterdam a few years ago. I changed my return date two times (after getting to Holland) by calling NW in Minneapolis. No penalty, no charge. When I finally decided to come home I went to the airport and was told by KLM check-in that my flight left the day before! They put me on the plane anyway. No penalty, no charge.

Sigh, I think you're probably right. No incentive for AF to book me to Naples. I've contacted Francesco and requested rates for a ride to Sorrento from the Rome airport.
Any websites for any other shuttles or rides to Sorrento?

Nobody knows the answer to your question <i>How likely would Air France be willing to put us on the Paris to Naples flight if we miss our original connection to Rome?</i>

But if you behave like wimpers in CDG it is possible that you will get the sympathy you need. You may even be bumped to business class.

Yikes, looked up Tour Of Italy, and transfer from Rome to Sorrento is 300 euros (and hopefully, that's not per person). I think the train option adds up to about half that (for the 4 of us)

I'm sorry I have no creative solution, but as others hopefully have convinced you monkeying with the airlines is NOT a good idea. You could end up 4 people in a very stressed out situation. When you have tickets to Rome, you're not going to be flown to Naples.

Leonardo Express + Alto Velocita to Naples is 44&euro;. Circumvesuviana to Sorrento is 3.2&euro;, I think.

300&euro; for 4 people is about a 50% premium. Only you can decide.

I will admit that the car service was a little bit of a luxury for us. But; having someone meet us at the airport, not having to worry about keeping an eye on our luggage, not having to worry about a train strike (that happened 1 week later), and having the option of taking a nap while someone else drove, was priceless.

You don't want to miss your flight, of course, I wouldn't be checking luggage anyway, so that point is a non-issue. The way airlines over-book flights now it may be two or three flights before you make it to Rome. Only one time have I be re-routed to a differing location at my request, &amp; it literally took me all day to get from JFK to CLT. We left @ 6am &amp; I got home @ 10pm, I could have driven faster. In that case I returned straight to CLT rather than Greensboro, where my flight had originated.

OK, thanks everyone. I checked with Delta yesterday, and there are absolutely no seats available, FF or otherwise, on the Paris to Naples flight, either on AF or Alitalia.

I looked into hiring a private driver, but the rates seemed really high. Then I had inspiration. I have my own private driver already, DH.

I called up Auto Europe, and they were able to get us a rental car for a 3 day (72 hour)period, picking up at Rome Airport and dropping off at Rome downtown, for a total of $207 (this actually covers 4 days for us). Our hotel in Sorrento, Il Nido, has free parking, so hopefully this will all work out. DH is a pretty good driver, so I'm confident about his driving. I know the road to and back from Sorrento gets crowded, but at least on the way back to Rome, we're traveling on a Sunday morning, which should be traffic lite?

So thanks again everyone, will now be on hyperalert at CDG to NOT miss our connection.

you are flying overnight SD &gt; NY &gt; CDG &gt; Rome -- and then driving??

I agree with BigBlueMarble, I think it is close to impossible that your group can clear French customs, take the CDG bus from the international terminal to the intra-Europe terminal and make your scheduled flight to Rome in one hour, even if your flight to CDG is on time. So that means you will almost surely have a (agonizing) delay at CDG. Even if you do make the connection, you will all (including your driver, DH) be wiped out by the time you arrive in Rome. I don't think it will be safe to drive from Rome to Sorento in that state of exhaustion. I'd either reserve a room in Rome for the arrival night or hire a driver to take you to Sorrento.

It's not impossible to make the connection. I had a 65 minutes for my connection 1.5 years ago to IAH-CDG-FCO on Air France and I made it. That includes waiting over 20 minutes in line to clear immigration.

I don't know what's the situation is right now with the new S3 satellite, where most AF US arrivals use. You probably still need to clear immigration at the main 2E terminal. After that, just walk to 2F for the Rome flight. Don't use the shuttle bus.

Rome to Sorrento isn't THAT far a drive. I don't think it's that crazy to drive.

I didn't mean the distance was too far - but that after about 17-20 hours in transit overnight and probably 30 hours awake, driving anywhere is pretty risky

<b>hopscotch</b>,

you are confusing 2 different issues. Most award tickets allow DATES change for free, not destination changes.

and

we do know the answers or haven't you read the replies?

No amount of whimpering will get the OP to Naples when her final destination is Rome. PERIOD!