Transfer ORY-CDG 3h15 for a flight to PVG
 

Hello everyone,

I have recently changed my flight (AF in J) of date and just saw that the first leg MPL-CDG is now MPL-ORY with the same next leg CDG-PVG.
Between these 2 flights I have 3h15min to do the transfer. They tell me I can make it with "le bus direct" but I have doubts on that so I have 3 options:
- take le bus direct for 21€ (and blame them if I don't make it)
- take a taxi (I found Sixt for 60€)
- change to CDG the first leg for 300€.
What should I do?

Yes you can clearly make it in 3h15 with the bus. But there’s something unclear in your story : did you book MPL-ORY or did you book CDG and AF changed it to ORY ?

Thank you for your answer.
I booked MPL-CDG for the 1st of february.
Then I changed i to the 3rd and the flight shown on the website was MPL-ORY (but I only saw MPL-Paris, I didn't pay much attention to that until today).

What time of day and will you have checked bags?

I arrive at 10:20am, on a saturday, at ORY and I have 2 checked bags

Being a weekend is in your favor, but having checked bags makes me a little nervous.

I assume that this is on two separate tickets, otherwise it seems a bit strange that you could select ORY as transit point.
But that should be a safe connection.
Saturday in 3 February is not a traffic busy day.
Lebus direct normally runs every 20 minutes and takes between 60 and 90 minutes. Let's say 70 on your day so that's a maximum of 70+20= 90.
Let's further assume that it takes you 30 min to get your luggage and find the bus stop (very conservative estimate), that's a total of 2 hours. You might do it in 30 min less if you are lucky
That leaves you 1h15 to do the check in for the PVG flight.

the risk is a snow storm in Paris.
Taking a cab (I suggest Uber over Sixt) might cut the waiting time, but not much of the driving time. You might gain 20 min or so at most.

AF7689 seem svery punctual, so I would not worry too much.

Thank you for your informations brunos.
I think I will go for le bus direct then.

It is actually on the same reservation, and when I did the change of date on the website, I couldn't clearly see the difference of airport.
Air France told me that if they sell these kind of tickets on one reservation, it's because it's possible to make it.

It only leaves 15 minutes to do checkin as checkin deadline with bags is 60 minutes prior to flight.

I assume that you already paid a change fee when you moved from 1 to 3 February. Would be a bot silly to pay anothe one. I doubt that AF would bulge as this is a legal connection.
Frankly, it is a safe one if you do a bit of research and know where to catch the bus. Personally, I would prefer a taxi to save a few minutes, but it is sometimes difficult to meet the taxi. If you are lucky, your bags quickly delivered, the bus just shows up when you arrive, you can make it with plenty of time.

I would not have done it on separate tickets but (unless it is absolutely vital for you to get on that PVG flight), I would risk on a single ticket and let them sort out the reroute things take an unwelcome turn (it is AF's responsibility to reroute you if you are on a through-ticket).

On the day, I would play it by ear:
1) If I am not mistaken, From MPL, I think that the CDG flights leave after the ORY flights for connection to the PVG flights. So, if it looks like the ORY flight is going to be delayed, I would ask AF whether I could be transferred onto the MPL flight pointing out the fact that I am going to miss the connection otherwise.
2) If it looks like it is going to be OK but the flight nonetheless gets somewhat delayed, I would consider getting a taxi from ORY to CDG.
3) If the MPL flight is more or less on time and there is no undue delay for baggage delivery, then I would take the bus.

AF does apparently sell airport transfer tickets within PAR (as it seems does BA within LON with connections between LHR, LGW and LCY).

When I was checking in for my PRG-CDG-AMS flight yesterday, on the next counter over there was a very confused young man who was just told he had to change to ORY from CDG. I think he travelled to MRS if I got it correctly, which would put his connection time at 3 hours.

I fully second this very sensible recommendation.

Yes, they do sell single tickets connection involving an airport change ORY-CDG. But of course, it's always better to avoid that whenever possible. But several domestic stations have flights only to ORY (e.g. UIP, LAI, LRT, RDZ, Castres, Périgueux, Agen, Bergerac, BVE, PGF, etc...TLN but TLN will get CDG service soon), so sometimes it's unavoidable.

Yes, I saw that too. Two flights a day only but let us not look this gift horse in the mouth. As you say, AF does offer plenty of connection that involve an ORY-CDG transfer but you are right that the time-consuming transfer from ORY to CDG is a pain in the proverbial so I have tended to use MRS rather than TLN even though TLN is nearer to my final destination in the area. I might start to use TLN now thanks to the CDG flights.