CDG transfer with wheelchair or cart
Feb 20, 2009, 11:36 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: LAX
Programs: DL GM
Posts: 1,029
CDG transfer with wheelchair or cart
I will be flying LAX-CDG-VCE in two weeks. One of my travel companions has some mobility problems, and will need assistance when we connect. She can walk relatively short distances, but after 10+ hours in a plane (even in Affaires) she will definitely need help.
According to AF's "correspondances" web page, Our flight from LAX should arrive at S3, and our flight to VCE should depart from the Shengen pier of 2F. This is one of the few CDG transfer routes I've never taken, so I'd appreciate any relevant information I can get here. Is she likely to get a wheelchair at the gate and be wheeled the whole way? Or maybe an electric cart? Will we have to take a bus?
We have a 2-hour connection time, but would still like to avoid being the last people off the plane and then having to rush to our next gate.
In case it matters, there are four of us. Three (including my friend who will need help) are in Affaires and one in Tempo. We are all on separate reservations, since we all got the tickets with our own miles.
Thanks!
According to AF's "correspondances" web page, Our flight from LAX should arrive at S3, and our flight to VCE should depart from the Shengen pier of 2F. This is one of the few CDG transfer routes I've never taken, so I'd appreciate any relevant information I can get here. Is she likely to get a wheelchair at the gate and be wheeled the whole way? Or maybe an electric cart? Will we have to take a bus?
We have a 2-hour connection time, but would still like to avoid being the last people off the plane and then having to rush to our next gate.
In case it matters, there are four of us. Three (including my friend who will need help) are in Affaires and one in Tempo. We are all on separate reservations, since we all got the tickets with our own miles.
Thanks!
Mar 18, 2009, 11:17 am
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: LAX
Programs: DL GM
Posts: 1,029
My long tale of woe
I feel I should report back on our experience, which was something of a nightmare.
I phoned the AF "Saphir" desk and was helped by a gracious and seemingly well-informed young lady. I told her that my friend's mother could walk short distances with a cane, but that she needed a wheelchair for airport transfers. She arranged wheelchair service at LAX, CDG and VCE, and explained that CDG does not use the little electric carts so common in US airports. I was assured that my friend's mother would be escorted directly from arrival gate to departure gate at CDG.
Upon arrival at CDG (at a remote parking stand--still, after all the new construction!) she was again told that she would be escorted directly to her departure gate and was told to wait at the rear of the airplane. None of us was allowed to accompany her, despite the fact that she speaks no French. She waited, with several other passengers from our flight--all of whom had been allowed to bring companions. They were loaded onto a special bus, through the tail of the airplane, and driven to somewhere in T2E. There, they were all told to get off the bus. They sat and waited for some time, with no information and no instructions. Finally, my friend's mother toddled off with her cane to find out what was going on.
She found an AF desk, where the agent was shocked to hear that she hadn't been driven directly to her departure gate. The agent summoned a wheelchair, which came about 15 minutes later. After a long and winding roll through the corridors, the wheelchair attendant dropped my friend's mother at another bus stop, and told her to take the next bus. There are convenient indoor connections between 2E and 2F, all with easily-accessed lifts. This second unaccompanied bus ride was entirely unnecessary.
That bus left 2E and, despite the driver knowing that my friend's mother was going to 2F, it breezed right by that stop and circled the entire T2 complex.
By now, those of us who had walked to 2F were becoming alarmed. We tried calling her cellphone, but service was erratic. All we heard was that she had been abandoned, and was on a bus near 2B. Our flight to VCE began boarding.
I went to the nearby service desk for help and the man there (also shocked that she hadn't been driven directly to her departure gate) started trying to track down our missing person, and enlisted one of the wheelchair-pushers to help. Meanwhile, my friend's mother had arrived, finally, at 2F to find a young lady with a wheelchair waiting for her. They eventually got to the appropriate security checkpoint, and --slowly--through security. We spotted her and thanked the men who had been trying to find her.
We arrived at the boarding gate, where the gate agent was entirely uninterested in interrupting the queue of coach passengers to board us. We were told to wait "10 minutes." When my friend's mother (who was very worn out and emotional from her experience) said she'd rather board on foot than wait any longer, I insisted, in stern but polite French, that we be allowed to board. The gate agent looked disgusted, but processed our tickets. She neglected (on purpose, I believe, but that's just a feeling) to return one of our passports. When I noticed it, I went back for it myself, and got another nasty glare from the gate agent.
All told, a shocking performance by an airline and an airport that have always performed well for me in the past. I know CDG is a confusing maze, but until this experience I have always been impressed with the help I've received when I truly needed it. I will write it up in a letter to AF and see what they have to say for themselves.
I phoned the AF "Saphir" desk and was helped by a gracious and seemingly well-informed young lady. I told her that my friend's mother could walk short distances with a cane, but that she needed a wheelchair for airport transfers. She arranged wheelchair service at LAX, CDG and VCE, and explained that CDG does not use the little electric carts so common in US airports. I was assured that my friend's mother would be escorted directly from arrival gate to departure gate at CDG.
Upon arrival at CDG (at a remote parking stand--still, after all the new construction!) she was again told that she would be escorted directly to her departure gate and was told to wait at the rear of the airplane. None of us was allowed to accompany her, despite the fact that she speaks no French. She waited, with several other passengers from our flight--all of whom had been allowed to bring companions. They were loaded onto a special bus, through the tail of the airplane, and driven to somewhere in T2E. There, they were all told to get off the bus. They sat and waited for some time, with no information and no instructions. Finally, my friend's mother toddled off with her cane to find out what was going on.
She found an AF desk, where the agent was shocked to hear that she hadn't been driven directly to her departure gate. The agent summoned a wheelchair, which came about 15 minutes later. After a long and winding roll through the corridors, the wheelchair attendant dropped my friend's mother at another bus stop, and told her to take the next bus. There are convenient indoor connections between 2E and 2F, all with easily-accessed lifts. This second unaccompanied bus ride was entirely unnecessary.
That bus left 2E and, despite the driver knowing that my friend's mother was going to 2F, it breezed right by that stop and circled the entire T2 complex.
By now, those of us who had walked to 2F were becoming alarmed. We tried calling her cellphone, but service was erratic. All we heard was that she had been abandoned, and was on a bus near 2B. Our flight to VCE began boarding.
I went to the nearby service desk for help and the man there (also shocked that she hadn't been driven directly to her departure gate) started trying to track down our missing person, and enlisted one of the wheelchair-pushers to help. Meanwhile, my friend's mother had arrived, finally, at 2F to find a young lady with a wheelchair waiting for her. They eventually got to the appropriate security checkpoint, and --slowly--through security. We spotted her and thanked the men who had been trying to find her.
We arrived at the boarding gate, where the gate agent was entirely uninterested in interrupting the queue of coach passengers to board us. We were told to wait "10 minutes." When my friend's mother (who was very worn out and emotional from her experience) said she'd rather board on foot than wait any longer, I insisted, in stern but polite French, that we be allowed to board. The gate agent looked disgusted, but processed our tickets. She neglected (on purpose, I believe, but that's just a feeling) to return one of our passports. When I noticed it, I went back for it myself, and got another nasty glare from the gate agent.
All told, a shocking performance by an airline and an airport that have always performed well for me in the past. I know CDG is a confusing maze, but until this experience I have always been impressed with the help I've received when I truly needed it. I will write it up in a letter to AF and see what they have to say for themselves.
Last edited by MJLogan; Mar 18, 2009 at 1:51 pm