Has anyone transferred flights recently through CDG airport in Paris? We are transferring to a Mauritius flight in August from terminal 2f to terminal 2c. We have about an hour and a half. Any info appreciated.
Did this transfer last September. You should have plenty of time but I took the precaution of changing the DUB-CDG flight to one that was leaving an hour an a half earlier. Think it was changed from 12pm to 10.30am. As I said you should have plenty of time, I just did it for peace of mind. Didn't want to miss that Mauritius flight!
Air France have unrealistic minimum connection times at CDG ... I think they allow bookings down to 45 minute connection times ... which really is unachievable a lot of the time.
An hour and a half should be okay - but if you have the option to extend this to 3 hours and it doesn't impact the rest of your schedule it mightn't be a bad idea (if extending it meant you ended up with a 5 hour wait or something maybe then that wouldn't be such a good idea)
It can be a handy tip to not do the CDG equivalent of the "flight connections centre" route ... and instead follow the "Exit" signs and go landside ... then it's a very short walk from 2F to 2C/2D (it's just a few hundred yards - you walk past the train station) ... The flight connections route can involve lengthy queues for a shuttle bus and it's unlikely to be quicker than walking yourself
If you did "mis-connect" on the outbound leg while they would have to look after you it would be likely that you'd have a forced overnight in Paris to catch the Mauritius flight the next day which wouldn't be a great start to the holiday.
I find changing terminals for connecting flights at CDG is quite difficult and time-consuming (compared to Schiphol for example). I would definitely give myself an extra bit of time if possible.
Many thanks for all the advice. I rang up and changed our flight this morning, so we will arrive in CDG at 1325, so 3 hours should be enogh, even for a few drinks....!
I find changing terminals for connecting flights at CDG is quite difficult and time-consuming (compared to Schiphol for example). I would definitely give myself an extra bit of time if possible.
In my experience, changing at CDG is generally handy enough; also if you fly with Air France the whole journey you will receive your boarding card for your onward flight in Dublin so all you have to do is go to your designated deparure gate in CDG (of course you will probably need to get the bus but this does not take a huge amount of time)
On the other hand Sciphol is all under one terminal but depending on where you arrive and where your onward departure gate is you could take up to 20 minutes to walk there (it is a massive airport). Also you have to go to the KLM transfer desk (or whichever airline you are using) to get your onward onward boarding card.
Heathrow has the worst of both worlds; not only that you may need to go to a different terminal but you could spend ages queuing at the connections desk to get your onward boarding card
Having used all three connections hubs on different occasions, I would definitely rate CDG as the best followed closely by Sciphol and LHR a very distant 3rd