Originally Posted by jg70124
I am traveling EWR to Belgrade (BEG) in several weeks.
CO has two possible itineraries: transfer at CDG to Air France, or transfer at MXP to Alitalia. The prices are the same (within US$20). The schedules are also very similar - leave at roughly the same time, arrive at roughly the same time, layovers of about 90 minutes.
So the question is - which would be an easier transfer?
(Also, if anyone has any visitor tips on BEG...)
J
I don't think 90 minutes is enough in CDG; I've never done MXP. You have to change terminals in CDG, get your passport checked and reclear a security line. The big issue there is the terminal transfer. They have a bus, and it mostly runs a pretty good schedule, but it can take 20 minutes to get to where you need to be and it only runs about every 15 minutes. Add up having to get off the plane, over to the bus stop, back in to the other terminal, throught security again, and you can easily eat up that 90 minute connection. It should be a little better now with SkyTeam in that they can check you all the way through at your origin. I had a cxn to VCE and they didn't check us in on the AF segment and we got to the gate about 40 minutes before the flight and they wouldn't let us board because we missed the 45 minute checkin window. Fortunatly we were on NWA in C on a rebooked missed cxn in DTW so at least we got to sit in the lounge and shower, but it was a pretty poor cxn option.
S.