t_line

Hi,
We need to know a good meet-up point in CDG. Our daughter will be arriving Air France from Vienna. She is 15 and doesn't speak French. We will be staying in Paris and will meet her at the airport. Probably we cannot meet her as she disembarks - security being what it is. Is there any central point, easy to find, where we could arrange to meet her? Or should we just meet her at the luggage pickup and hope she can find it?

Thanks for any suggestions..

kerouac

Meet her at the baggage exit! She obviously has to come out there, and you can certainly find it.

StCirq

Make sure you go to the right terminal!

Christina

yeah, just make sure you know what gate the flight is landing at. Everybody meets people outside the baggage are for the proper flight. CDG is huge, encompassing about 4-6 terminals, depending how you count them, there isn't one meeting point.

kerouac

Well, Air France and Austrian arrive at 2D. Niki arrives at terminal 3....

t_line

I found out new information. My daughter is traveling with a group that is switching planes in Paris. They land from Vienna, go through customs and exit the 'secured' area of the terminal.. then the group will re-enter to catch their next plane.. going through security once again.

Plan is for us to watch the terminal that her plane lands at - 2E - and catch them as exit through customs, and meet up with her there. Hopefully they will wait before proceeding back through security again to catch their next flight! This sounds a bit sketchy to me, but I've never been to CDG and that's what the tour guide has recommended.

Does that sound sensible?

Seamus

How much time does our daughter have between flights? Depending on the arrival and departure terminal there may not be a lot of time for visiting. Of course you may want to see her even if only for a short time, but all the more reason to not waste time being in the wrong place.

If she is connecting through then chances are she will not be collecting her bags, rather they will be checked through from Vienna to her final destination. Also, Vienna to Paris is an intra-Schengen route, are you sure she has to go through customs? When we did this type trip we did not go through customs or immigration.

Another important question - What is the destination of the flight to which she is connecting?

t_line

She will not be continuing with the rest of the group, so she is not making that connecting flight.. she will be staying with us, in Paris, for a few days.

Ackislander

It sounds like a lot of trouble for what might be 5 minutes of personal contact, but it wouldn't sound like a lot of trouble to my wife if it were our daughter and she were 15!

You will want more information because someone doing customs immigration in transit may never come into a public area.

Seamus

OK,then, if Paris is her final destination it would make sense to meet her in the baggage claim area for her flight from Vienna. As mentioned, she will not need to go through customs - since she is originating in a Schengen country it will be like a domestic flight in the US. She will likely land in either 2D or 3 depending on airline.

Do caution her to be sure that in Vienna her bag is checked to CDG and not to the destination to which the rest of the group will travel.

nytraveler

You need to find out what terminal she is landing at and then meet her at the exit after clearing Customs. (They won;t let you inside the Customs are - since that is inside the security zone.) Just make sure she knows how to answer any questions going through Immigration.

Seamus

nytraveler - on a Schengen to Schengen flight she will not have to clear immigration

kerouac

Nor customs.

lincasanova

But since she is with the group leader, they will all be together and none of them passing through immigration or customs. Sounds like the group leader is a bit confused but wants to "hand over " the daughter. Sure seems iffy when the group may not have "time" to EXIT and re-enter security to do this for them if their change time at CDG becomes reduced.

I don't understand how the daughter will get her bag if the group leader brings her out of the area with out them and the leader certainly cannot wait for her to retrieve it. Or is it CDG where the bags come out past security in the open area of the airport?

t_line

The group has an hour and a half between planes but I assume they will not go to the baggage claim area. Both flight are Air France so Air France should transfer their baggage. What worries me is that the group leader won't be able to go with our daughter to the luggage area and so to meet up with us. If he does, he may miss his flight. If he doesn't, she will be wandering around with no clue what to do.. she has traveled before, but does not speak or read French. I did email Air France and ask for suggestions but they did not respond at all.

t_line

- I did just get a reply from Air France! They said I might be able to contact the Charles de Gaulle airport authority and get permission to meet her as she disembarks.

Unfortunately they did not say how to contact the Charles de Gaulle airport authority.

Seamus

Suggest you go at least an hour before scheduled arrival to the Air France counter at the terminal where she will arrive, explain the situation (have her flight number with you) and ask for a security pass to meet her at the gate. It can be done, though there is always the high risk of getting the classic doe-eyed "it is not possible response" from the first couple agents you ask. Persist. And if that fails, just meet her at baggage claim. Surely she can make her way to baggage claim on her own. The signage is multilingual.

Coquelicot

Here's the website for Charles de Gaulle airport. They have a FAQ page, a contact form for email, and a paragraph on unaccompanied minors over 12.

http://www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/ADP/e...assagers/home/

Getting the security pass to meet your daughter as she disembarks sounds like the best solution. I hope it works out.