Andrew_G

1. AMS and CDG connections are usually painless. Non-Schengen to non-Schengen at AMS is seamless, and CDG is usually fine too, especially for AF to AF connections (although it still has an undeserved bad reputation in some quarters based on experiences years ago). As noted above (and in the AF forum), best to avoid the Flybe codeshares if possible.

2. MAN T3 is (to put not too fine a point on it) a disgrace and not fit for purpose. It was the domestic terminal in a previous life, of course. Security is possibly the worst I've ever experienced (there is a thread somewhere here on FT dedicated to it). The small departures lounge is sometimes an over-crowded zoo. You really need status to make it bearable, especially for fast-track security, although they have a bad habit of merging the fast-track with the slowest-track (small children and pushchairs etc). The best thing by far is the 1903 lounge. Arrivals can look chaotic, but the automatic barriers seem to deal with the queues relatively quickly. All this may change in the not-so-distant future with the MAN redevelopment, of course.

Perhaps you could try to get status-matched to another Skyteam programme. For example, there are a few reports on statusmatcher that Garuda has been matching recently, and I think Alitalia were matching last year. But if you're flying to various destinations in India from MAN and don't want domestic connections, then forget Skyteam and take Emirates as the obvious option. They now fly to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.