stargazerann

Hi, I have just purchased tickets to Italy on Air France. I will be leaving from LAX and changing planes at De Gaulle to Venice. There is an 1 1/2 hour space between my flights...I plan on only having carry-on luggage. Will I need to go through immigration/passport checks in De Gaulle or in Venice....I saw on one message that I should contact Air France to have them escort us but am not sure how that works.

rkkwan

You go through immigration in CDG. Then transfer to the new gate. You may or may not need to change terminal. Depends on the flights you're taking, and sometimes you may arrive at a different terminal at the last minute.

Keep and read the boarding pass jacket you'll receive at check-in. It has detailed directions and diagrams how to switch terminals.

eurotravlr

Most of the time the passport check at CDG is pretty long, even early in the morning. Depending on how many immigration officers working at that time you should be fine.

Woody

Last November, we had a similar flight schedule on Air France: Los Angeles to De Gaulle, then De Gaulle to Venice. We had 1 hr. 25 min. between the scheduled arrival and departure times in Paris.

Our experience with making the connection on Air France was very positive. It was run very efficiently and the alotted time was more than adequate.

Here's our experience on AF flight 069, connecting to AF flight 1926:

Before arriving at CDG, a flight crew member made a PA announcement of our arrival terminal and gate, and connecting flight information (which gates, etc.).

Upon arrival, there were several Air France staff members at the end of the jetway directing people to the correct terminals and gates.

Our departing flight was at a different terminal, so we took the <b>bus for arriving passengers,</b> which was at the bottom of the jetway. This is the bus that circles the terminals in the security area (i.e., it travels on the tarmac side of the terminals).

We arrived at the terminal for our departing flight. We entered a back entrance to the terminal, and went through passport control. There were three lines: EU, non-EU, and biometric (fingerprint scan). All of these lines were short, as there were maybe 10 people in front of us.

We then went through the security lines and made it to our gate before boarding began.

Since we entered the EU at Paris, we did not go through passport control in Venice.

I hope this helps.

Woody

rkkwan

The problem with CDG is its inconsistency of procedure, and therefore everybody's experience may be different.

First of all, AF may say your flight is supposed to come in 2C; but like my flights last December, we parked at 2F instead (which was good for me, but not for others), and I didn't not hear any announcement of the change onboard.

Second, many flights still park on the tarmac for 2C/E, and passengers have to take a bus just to get from plane to terminal. That can easily add 20 minutes to the process.

Third, say you do arrive 2C from the US and leaving from 2F to Italy. Now, where should you go through immigration? You can do the air-side bus as Woody did and clear immigration in 2F. But how would you know the length of the immigration line there? [I waited 25 minutes in that line between the non-Schengen and Schengen part of 2F]. Perhaps it's faster to clear immigration at 2C, enter into France and then walk/bus over to 2F. Or perhaps not.

Unless someone goes through all the different scenarios often at CDG, it's very hard to say which is best.

rkkwan

Actually, there's still at least one other way. After you get off that airside transfer bus at 2F, maybe you can then enter France as if you just get off a plane at 2F. Use the regular immigration lines instead of the transfer ones.