Just wanted to share that I had a wonderful experience with Air France (to Italy) as I was asking about them in earlier forums. Yes, CDG is a bit much but overall, it was nothing like I had heard. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful from check-in counters to floating airport personnel to flight attendants. The meals were a thousand times better than Lufthansa (especially their child meals)!!!! Yes, this was my first and only experience with AF so far but I would definitely recommend them and look forward to flying with them in the future.

Interesting to hear your experience with AF. We are considering AF for our trip to Italy also. Like many on this site the connection times are making me slightly nervous.

Wondering if you could comment on your connection times & terminals, etc. Thanks.

Hi Bette,

I was nervous about our connection times also. It was me, my husband, my 7 yr old daughter, and 4 yr old son. We flew from Houston to Paris and had an hour and 5 min. to catch our Rome flight (had to go from Terminal 2C to 2F). On the return, we flew from Florence to Paris and had an hour and 10 min. to catch our Houston flight.

There were AF officials/employees holding up signs to our Rome connection and our mistake is that we left that group after a while thinking we could be faster on our own since we are travellers. We caught up with the group later and stayed with them b/c you can get through immigration and security faster when you are escorted.

On the return, there weren't as many people coming off of the Florence flight (smaller plane) and going to Houston so there was no escort. However, when the immigration/security lines are so long, you just show your boarding pass to an employee and they'll let you cut in. In both cases, our connecting flights left late and our baggage always made it. I wouldn't worry though b/c their connections never leave on time. I noticed all of the other flights with similar issues. Not many people were panicking as I expected. It seems a bit odd but it gets done...not to worry.

We hated AF based on our 1999 uncomfortable voyage on an ancient 747 from the US west coast to Paris. It caused backache for all of us and also the food was really inedible.



Since then we have flown with them last year and then again a few weeks ago. I realize that all airlines' economy section is pretty much the same. However, I would like to say that AF's flight attendants are really great and the food is edible and not bad at all. Interestingly we really liked Lufthansa and found that their flight attendants and aircraft to be really first-rate. The food was allright but we ordered special meals. We noticed that there were other passengers who did not seem to care for the regular meals however.



As for AF's connection time that should be improved as we had to rush to get from one terminal to the other within 55 minutes of which 20 minutes were spent taxiing to the gate upon arrival at CDG.

I am a big Air France fan. I go to Europe at least twice a year and for the last 4 years try to fly Air France when I can. I find the crew helpful and the flights fine.

In May I flew Bos-CDG-FLR and had 2+ hours to connect, and did both transfes at CDG in less than 55 minutes. Granted, I traveled alone and didn't have to watch kids or husband, so maybe that helps!

Our AF flight was on the Boeing 777. They use different planes for different routes. Lufthansa used the Airbus and the 747. I agree that the 747s are horrible. AF really catered to the kids better. I haven't flown British in over 7 yrs (not b/c I don't prefer them but b/c I can't get reasonable pricing from them).

sbrooks - Thanks for posting your connection details - makes me feel better.

I'm now wondering if we're in trouble. In Sept. we'll only have 50 min. to transfer at CDG for Florence. I've never missed a flight (beginning traveler)but what do you do if you do miss the flight, expecially due to their too tight scheduling?

I love Air France too but hate CDG airport. The stress laden connection times, disembarking on the tarmac and having to walk 1/8 mile to get to the terminal, the terminals themselves, the broken gates at the RER stop.

I'm glad <b>you</b> had a wonderful experience, however.

Suzyq,

If you booked it all as one itinerary, you will be fine as AF will take care of you on their next flight. I find it odd that they consider 45 min. to be a &quot;legal&quot; connection but in any case, a legal connection means they will accomodate you. If you booked the flights independent of each other, then you're out of luck if you miss it. Having tracked my flights well before I travelled and having noticed other flights while at CDG, I can tell you that your connection will probably be late anyway. Also, show your boarding pass to the attendants near the security lines and they'll let you jump the line. I worried a lot b/c I was travelling w/2 little kids and it was a little hectic but very manageable. That is why I posted....to alleviate some of the unnecessary worrying. Hope this helps!

In fact, as sbrooks stated, our connecting flight at CDG to Basel was indeed late! I guess it's 'normal' at CDG? Also my flight from CDG to SFO was late too! It was delayed a full hour because so many passengers were late. Must have been a delay in other flights to connect.

We loved Air france. It was our first trip to Paris.

Once we missed a connection to fly home to USA. Flight we were to catch in Barcelona was late causing us to miss our flight out of CDG to home. They said if you are going to be &quot;stuck&quot; for one more night would you rather stay here in Barcelona or go on to Paris for the night. Of course, Paris. They gave my friend and I each a separate room at a nice airport hotel, free meal voucher and rebooked us the next day out of Paris in bulkhead seats. My friend had never been to Paris except for a brief stopover on the way to Istanbul.. we had been on a Med. cruise.

Anyway, we jumped in a taxi and went into Paris, caught a cityrama night bus tour of the city which also included a boat tour down the Seine.
It was lovely and she really saw a lot in a brief time. We sat at a sidwalk cafe and had some wine and returned to the airport by taxi. We opted for cheeseburgers with our meal voucher. Funny looking back on it. We wanted confort food after more than two long weeks on the go.

I thought they did a nice job of making a bad situation better for us.

Now to really give them a GREAT HOOray!! for getting 300 people off of a plane that was being engulfed in fire and about to explode. A great job by the crew apparently.

Imagine an airline giving you a choice as to what city to be stuck in overnight, free rooms, and free meal vouchers. And one of the city choices is Paris. How many years ago, ggnga, was your missed connection? If AF still offers this compensation I won't mind the 'inconvenience'.

bardo1 mentioned about AF disembarking and embarking passengers on the tarmac (via a shuttle bus). Yuck. This is one thing I have to say I don't care for. On a connecting flight early one morning we had to disembark on the tarmac at CDG. It was cold and a bit drizzly and some poor passengers had just gotten up from their naps. Then we had to walk,walk, walk after being dropped off at the terminal.

Hi

We had good experiences flying AF from Paris to Madrid return. Very personable staff. In terms of connecting flights I would allow no less than 3 hours on long haul flights. Any less you have to assume nothing will go wrong (mmm...). It's about risk assessment. You need to ask yourself if you do miss your flight how much later is the next one and how will this affect your travel plans. When I travelled from Paris to Madrid some unlucky travellers from the US had their flight delayed. They missed their flight but some were on mine 3 hours later. So they were lucky!

Cheers

We had a 40 minutes connection on AF arriving from Madrid to Paris and departing on AF from Paris to LA, when we got off the plane, they had an AF personnel outside the plane with our names on a board, she walked with us to our terminal and made sure we did not have to stand in line to go through security, and they did manage to get our bags to LA on the same flight.

Hi,

Glad you had a good experience with AF. I've always been happy with their flights and service.

I'll be flying from CDG to Rome next month. How was the flight to Rome? Did you have to embark from the tarmac?

How was the airport in Rome? What type of transportation did you use into the city?

A lot of questions. Although I know my way around CDG, Rome is new to me and I have no idea what to expect.

Did you enjoy Italy?

Thanks.

I do not like being a naysayer but my daughters and I have had horrible experiences with Air France. Like most things, it all depends on who's on duty!

This is my AF story. A few summers ago we were flying back to the U.S. from Prague, through Paris on AF. The Prague flight left about an hour late, which would have eaten up our entire layover. We didn't care, however, looking forward to a free day in Paris as we knew there was only one a day flights Paris to Chicago. But, no, on arrival at CDG a gate attendant was waiting with our names on a large card, and she insisted we come with her. She sprinted with us in tow down a &quot;secret&quot; exit, onto a van which she drove at about 80 mph around the airport on the tarmac, raced us up another &quot;secret&quot; entrance and we all ran down the entire concourse to be the last two people on the flight. So our free day in Paris turned out to be a free five minutes. Guess AF didn't want to fork over the free hotel and free cheeseburger. Of course, if we had really needed to make that flight you could not have asked for better service! The hilarious part then was that although we were the last two people to board the flight, the take off was delayed another hour while they offloaded a woman and her dog. The dog was in the baggage hold. Apparently they had a connecting flight with another airline from Chicago and in the summer for heat reasons that is not allowed. Don't know how she and the dog got on in the first place, but then they had to find the dog crate in the baggage hold and take it off and of course she couldn't travel without her dog.