LoriS

The current experience going through security at CDG for flights departing to the US remains dismal. I flew back to the US on 26 Oct. The initial screening was consistent with that of the "pre-liquid ban" with the exception of declaring liquids at the ticket counter and having them placed in a SEALED bag (If your items are already in a sealed baggie, they put it in another sealed baggie.)

However, at the gate is where all the fun begins. For some reason unbeknownst to many of us waiting on the flight--they did not pre-board Business Class. Instead, you had a push of people trying to give their tickets to the agents. Once your boarding pass is screened through the machine, more agents are then lined up in the jet bridge to do another personal and baggage check. There were four stations for the entire flight (a 767 in my case). The process took in excess of 1.5 hours to screen everyone once boarding began.

Part of the delay was that there were apparently new agents who didn't know the "liquid" rules. My agent proceeded to open my sealed bag of liquids--open each item, and put them aside. I asked what she was doing and she indicated that no liquids were allowed on board. At that point, she had been going through my bags for at least 10 minutes and I requested that she get her supervisor. After a fairly long discussion in French--part of which I could understand and part of which was over my head--she finally closed all of my bags, gave me back all of my liquids, and said "have a nice day."

You then proceeded down a flight of stairs to waiting buses. There were 3 double buses for our flight. Once these were loaded, they then bussed you out to the plane and you needed to climb stairs to board.

My advice for anyone departing from CDG to the US is as follows:
1) Make sure that you can easily carry your carry-on bags when climbing stairs. Although I didn't have a problem, we had many elderly people on our flight who experienced problems.
2) Make sure you understand the US rules re: carry-on of liquids. If your liquids are in the sealed bag and they try to throw them away--demand to see a supervisor.
3) Prepare for delays. Our flight was delayed for almost 2 hours departing CDG and we ended up missing our "flight window" out of CDG. We then needed to wait until we could receive another one. Many people on our flight missed their connections.

crefloors

Sounds lovely!!!! I'll be going through that soon. I'm just checking everything. I have a non-stop CDG to SFO so will HOPE all arrives.

Brender

We returned yesterday and going through CDG was the worst experience. We got to the airport a little more than 2 hrs prior to the flight and proceeded to go through all the check points. By the time we got to the gate they were boarding! It should not take 2 hrs to get to through all that stuff, but it did.

We flew Northwest and our problems were with getting our boarding passes. We had to go up to the ticket counter. It seemed that as you waited in line there were flight agents that would pull people out, let them use the computer, and as they were done they could go to the next avaiable person at the counter - bypassing all the people that were waiting in line. We tried to use the computer thing, but it wouldn't work and so we had to wait in line. It was incredibly frustrating. By the time we got to the flight most people had already boarded so the line wasn't so bad. Our bags were not checked at that point.

Then again, coming home from vacation is never a fun experience

richardab

My god i fear all that for my trip to Rome next month. I am flying the dreadful ALITALIA!

I have to say I typicall fly thru Frankfurt and even though the lines for the secondary security check are long, they are very efficient. I don't know what they do in Rome and Paris, but in Germany everyone gets a personal "massage" at the second level of security. It's the best date i have had in years.....

francophile03

We connected to the US via CDG from Florence on Oct. 23rd. We got through the first general security check fine. They offered socks to wear, haha. And the agents were more interested in the men's wallets being taken out and screened separately. Had an Italian bottled water in the backpack, but it was passed.

Everything LoriS described is true. Just after you see your gate you'll see a shuttled bus (a packed shuttle bus in our case) waiting. You hand over your boarding pass and dash to the shuttle. In our case I got pulled aside by a Lily Tomlin lookalike who wants to act busy. My husband did not know I was pulled aside and went into the bus. Luckily he realized I was not on board and came out in time to find me. He had my boarding pass and I had his passport; how fun that would have been had we been separated. Lily Tomlin lookalike found a less than 3 oz. contact lens rewetting solution in my purse. Okay, she cofiscated it citing the liquids ban rule. I did not want to waste time arguing but thought she was wrong.

I got the okay from the Ms. Tomlin lookalike and my husband and I boarded a second shuttle bus. Lo and behold more people started filling up this second shuttle bus. We observed some who were pulled aside for checking. The men were checked by a man and the women were checked my Ms. Tomlin lookalike.

Another husband jumped onto the shuttle bus thinking the wife was following. But, she, like myself was pulled aside by the agent. He did the same thing as my husband and ran out the bus to find her. I think perhaps the CDG agents must have a secret camera onboard these buses to record the reactions of husbands.

In short, CDG is a nightmare for security and if you are immobile or have problems in navigating stairs that makes things even worse. You are expected to board and disembark from steps from the plane onto the tarmac rain or shine. If it rains these metal stairs are slippery. Then you fact steps when you get to the terminal.

Our flight was delayed about 45 minutes to an hour.

Dukey

Think of all the time that could have been saved if nobody had any liquids in their carry-ons.

Sue4

Hope this gets better by the end of April - when I have a flight to CDG. Or I guess it's the RETURN flight that will be the problem! LoriS, what airline were you on? I wonder if it's bad on all the airlines.

francophile03

Yes. It's the flights to the US that are problematic mostly.

Underhill

Anyone who, like me, has a problem with stairs can request a wheelchair. That will trigger the use of a people-lifter, a small version of the type used at Dulles, to take you up to the level of the plane without having to deal with stairs. It's a bit of an adventure, too. I found most of the staff at CDG who assist limited-mobility passengers to be helpful and pleasant.

The second security inspection for our American Airlines flight was extremely detailed. Our liquids were examined, but the three breakable purchases in my carry-on bag aroused considerable interest and had to be explained and examined. But my stuffed French poodle, with head sticking out of my tote bag, was a great ice-breaker.

francophile03

Also people with infants and small children had to navigate the stairs like anyone else. It was bad as they had to deal with carrying their strollers too. I don't know if there is help for them. I didn't see any offered.

kaneda

This is a typical over reaction from customs who generally need both hands to find their backsides. When they were worried about sharp objects, nail clippers were confiscated as well as toy soldiers' plastic guns.


I think most places people fly to you can buy whatever liquids you need so is there any reason to take them on board at all?


Richard Reid was a shoe bomber a few years back. A muslim with explosives in his shoes, which he tried to ignite. Has anyone ever had their shoes examined by customs because of this? About two billion people fly each year now. In decades has anyone ever heard of a liquid explosive being used to actually cause a terrorist incident on a plane? I am all for a safe flight but customs honestly do not have a clue.

Marko

We flew with Emirates from CDG to Australia via Dubai in early October, with minimal obstruction and lots of friendly smiles and assistance! WE boarded via an air bridge, with a seperate line for Business class and we left exactly on time.

MorganB

I flew Air France to Atlanta out of terminal 2E at the end of September. Check-in was a breeze and the security line was very short. Security was thorough but polite and rapid. I was through in about 10 minutes. We did have to be bused to the plane that didnt bother me and I enjoy getting a nice look at the bird I will be flying before boarding.

My mother left from terminal 2E on Delta a couple of weeks ago and her experience was the same.

Brender

What I find really amusing is that I've changed my name so my passport has a stamp in the back with my correct name. The name that is under my picture is my old name and doesn't match the name on my ticket. Wanna take a guess at how many people actually catch that? I counted 3 this last trip, which is a actually a low percentage considering how many people checked the boarding pass and passport. Makes me wonder what they are looking at.

ira

Kaneda asks,

>Has anyone ever had their shoes examined by customs because of this? <

It's Security, not Customs that does the checking, and the answer is YES, even on domestic flights out of ATL we have to remove our shoes and have them scanned.

>...has anyone ever heard of a liquid explosive being used to actually cause a terrorist incident on a plane?<

Again, YES. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oplan_Bojinka

Even if there had been no successful incidents, are we supposed to wait until after a plane is blown up?

Sorry that you have been inconvenienced, but I would rather leave early and arrive at my destination late, than not arrive at all.

Ackislander

This is the same thing my daughter went through in late September, but her attitude toward it -- it's a necessary evil -- was different.

Some of this stuff -- buses to remote planes, climbing the stairs to the aircraft -- have always been a feature of CDG as well as FCO, Munich (almost a brand new airport and a marvel of high tech), and regional jets in the US. Pain in the rear? Yes. Hard on older travelers or those with handicaps or hauling infants? Yes, but here to stay. Get over it.

Many of the regulations that posters complain about were US requirements -- note the difference on the Marko's non-US flight. Badly and inconsistently administered? No doubt and no different from the US at all. What may differ a lot is that in France the customer is almost always wrong, for all kinds of cultural reasons I won't go into here. But this is the future.

francophile03

I had a good attitude about what to expect at CDG as it's all expected nowadays. Telling others to get over it is blunt but true, right? I expected at worst to miss the flight altogether. Air France don't want do to that so they will delay the flight until everyone is aboard. That's what happened with our flight.

cageym

Flying to Chicago from CDG earlier this month on American we were able to board via the jetway, but they did do the search of all carry-ons after we were into the jetway. More concerning was the abandoned luggage in the check-in area that caused them to evacuate that portion of the airport for about an hour. (I expect someone's undies ultimately got blown to kingdom come from that.) They were pretty bad about offering any information about what was going on; we all just stood there either glad we'd arrived plenty early or freaking out and complaining loudly that we were going to miss our flight. Fortunately I was among the former folks, not the latter!

Toupary

I flew out of CDG to Atlanta, and my experience was similar to that of MorganB. Going through security at CDG is a day at the beach in comparison to what you have to go through in Atlanta. I thought it was because of the heightened security, but then I learned that this is SOP.

francophile03

Then you were fortunate everything was a breeze. I suppose it depends on who the agents on duty are.