Have some Freedom Fries and thank the unions for their work ethic.

Just got off the phone with some Parisian friends who arrived home from an overseas trip aboard Emirates last night around 2030.

CDG was in a crisis state: lots of snow, -8C. They too did not have luggage delivered to the carrousel in T2C and they have not had any definite information from EK about when the delayed bags will show up. Various explanations given at airport: cargo door frozen, ramp vehicles unable to work in snow, icy unplowed airside roadways, etc.

No taxis available so they came into town on the RER which was still functioning.

Heavy snowfall at a large international hub. Happens. Not especially an AC incident.

Friends were happy to say that their EK aircraft was under the command of a "Pilote Canadien" which they thought was great for "un atterissage sur la neige" !

I believe that it's a mix of both. AFAIK the station manager, the senior station attendants, the concierges, the ticket desk staff, the ramp ops manager and others are AC while the agents manning the check-in counters and gate are from a contractor; I assume that baggage handling is also contracted out.

this is why I try never to check bags

true, sometimes one has no choice... but I've heard some people say they send their bags by fedex to their destination, a day ahead of their trip, instead of checking them on the plane. Has anyone here done this? I'd be interested in hearing about how it went, etc

Yeah I had some checkin agent give me incorrect information when I wanted to short check luggage to YYZ rather than LAS so did not think they are real AC.

Au secours! Au secours!

The bags finally appeared at 1.30 am. Before that there was a heated exchange between passengers and staff.

I then lined up for an hour for a taxi, and got to my hotel at 4 am on March 13.

My booking with AC was supposed to get me to Paris at 9.30 am on March 12.

Exactly. That much snow, combined with the unusual cold, and so late in the year isn't the norm. Not to mention that last week it was +16 degrees. And the RER moved to late night works as of last weekend, so late arrivals were competing for other forms of transport. The Eurostar was not running yesterday and on a slower schedule today.

I would have left without my luggage, even if I were just visiting. It was a completely unusual situation. AC at CDG is usually very good.

I've had similar situations at YYZ, and in fact flew back to CDG that day earlier this year when LH had a fire and there was a huge backup at YYZ due to snow. I don't blame CDG for not being able to handle this weather, but YYZ on the other hand should be able to handle it better than they do.

In January, we ended up arriving at FRA around 8 am instead of 11:20 am the previous day. flying is still not clockwork. Stuff happens, especially in winter.

Last week, daughter and son in law, booked on WS to LAX then Delta to LIH (Kauai) were supposed to arrive at 5:45 pm. Instead, they got there the next day on UA, around noon, because WS lacked legal crews and the first flight got delayed.

One needs being prepared for these situations. At the end of the day they don't happen that often.

OP, sorry to hear about your misfortune. Hope your bags get home OK.

Don't blame AC, blame CDG, which is an example of architectural monstrosity sprinkled with French attitude.

Have you even flown AC to CDG? It's normally a simple, straightforward experience. OP is lucky that they made it to CDG, and could have chosen to leave their bags to be delivered. Again, it's an extremely unusual week of winter weather across the entire region, with masses of flights and trains cancelled in several countries. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21754736