Being more of an "ingenue" for international travel (I've been 4 times to Europe), I didn't realize that check-in was required an hour prior to departure when I left for my flight home from Paris yesterday. When I arrived at the Delta check in in 2C, the agent up front said it was too late, as it was aprox. 52 minutes prior to departure already.

Another agent with a walkie talkie was standing nearby and I asked him "est-ce qu'il n y a pas quel que chose qu'on pourrait faire" (isn't there anything that can be done?) So he proceeded to speak to someone in the walkie talkie, to verify that I could still check in. Five minutes later, after confirming my seat was not given away (there had already been stand-bys for the flight) he escorted me personally all the way from check-in, through security, up to the gate itself!

I have never had this happen at any US airport, more often it has been "sorry, you're SOL", and this experience really demonstrates to me how:

1) It is much better to assume that people would be willing to help you rather than assuming "the Delta agents at CDG are difficult" and

2) Knowing a few words of the local lingo is very helpful.

I was truly amazed at the number of Americans who I ran into over the past two weeks who not only didn't know any of the language of the countries they were in, but also didn't even bring a dictionary. Not only is it presumptious to assume that everyone is willing and able to speak in English, but it's also very helpless kind of stance that lets people know how easily you can be taken advantage of!