Timetospa

We will be flying AF in business transatlantic (from US) on a free ticket, and have a separate, paid ticket in economy to connect from CDG to Milan (also on AF) with a long layover between flights. Will we be able to use the AF lounge during our connection time? The rules say you have lounge access during a connection if flying business transatlantic, but would the fact that they are separate tickets make a difference?

KLouis

No lounge! You don't have a connection but two flights that are independent of each other.

vinnyc

If you are checking in by scanning your boarding pass on the kiosks, then certainly, as KLouis wrote, no access for sure, as there is technically no connection, but two separate flights.

With that being said, you have nothing to lose by checking in with the lounge dragon, be very nice with him/her, and ask kindly for an "exception". Chances are very slim, especially if the lounge is already very crowded, but once again you never know! 😃

It would help of course if you keep your (paper) AF transatlantic business class incoming flight boarding pass, that you will then show and appeal to his/her leniency. After all, you were in J on an AF flight (whether revenue or award/"free"), so the argument surely has its merits!

Good luck,
vinnyc

SkyteamEP

You should be access the arrival lounge (land side), assuming it is still open when you're landing (it is open from 5:30am to 1pm)

vinnyc

Indeed, totally forgot about the Arrival Lounge. Access will be granted for sure.

The inconvenience, of course, is that it is located landside in Terminal 2C after Immigration/Customs clearance.

OP will likely arrive in 2E from his transatlantic flight and take his flight to MXP in Terminal 2F: assuming no detour to the Arrival Lounge in 2C, he will need to clear Immigration and then Security again before reaching 2F.

Going to 2C means clearing Immigration/Customs at 2E and walk to 2C, then go to 2F, clear Passport Control and finally Security to reach 2F.

So overall, same amount of control in both cases. OP should try sweet-talking to get access to a lounge airside (ideally 2E, but 2F sounds a better idea). If this doesn't work, then go to the Arrival Lounge in 2C as a fallback plan.

As you can see, you'd better have enough time on your "connection" 😉

Cheers,
vinnyc

Ditto

Chances of OP getting access to a 2E lounge when the departing flight is from 2F is already slim to none, even if it was all J on one ticket.
Additionally no passport control going from land side to 2F, however arrival immigration can often be a zoo whereas clearing security & immigration as a transit passenger is usually better, so unless this is a very long connection I would stick to just follow the normal route to 2F and trying the lounge there.

gkl

Try to ask at the check-in to link both bookings. You will then receive one boarding pass with both flights showing up - this increases the chances to be able to access the 2F lounge as the boarding pass will show SkyPriority and I would assume the bar-code is coded in this way. No guarantee, but I had a similar case and it worked for me.

Goldorak

This is exactly what OP needs to do
Also, just for the sake of clarity : staying airside or going landside to Arrival lounge in 2C and then returning airside in 2F doesn’t change anything for the formalities : going through immigration once (to enter the Schengen area) and through security once. You don’t go through passport control in 2F to go to MXP if you come from landside.

Zbelko

Similar situation for me once: BCN-CDG then later ORY-TLS same day, same ticket.
I was denied access to 2F lounge arriving from BCN. (I wanted to eat and work for a bit)
They told me my connection did not qualify for lounge access. if I wanted to go to a lounge, I should go to ORY for my next segment :-/ bummer

Goldorak

nothing abnormal here.

Timetospa

Thanks for the responses. We have a 5 hour layover, so we should have plenty of time. The suggestion of asking them to link the reservations when we check in for the first flight sounds good - we are also hoping they can check our bags through to Milan, since both flights are on AF. Otherwise, hoping for the kindness of the lounge check-in person. Would love to hear from anyone who has tried this before - I agree that having your second flight from a different airport seems like a different situation.

Goldorak

This should be no problem. Tell the agent that you have an AF connecting flight on a separate ticket and give him/her a printout of the 2nd ticket with all info (PNR, ticket number). But, even if done, I strongly recommend you when in CDG (at the lounge if you can go in or at any customer service desk) to give the bag tag to the agent to confirm everything is fine in the system.

gkl

they were able to link my Business Class Ticket LIM-AMS to my Economy ticket AMS-ZRH and check the bags trough. So no problem at all.
I will be doing this tonight also with two separate tickets SIN-CDG and CDG-ZRH with a 1 hour 20 minutes connection in CDG.

gkl

uhh that was tight today. SIN-CDG departed on time, but due to strong headwinds it took us 14,5 hours instead of the normal 13,5 hours and we arrived at the gate 1 hour late at 7:08. Not good when you are on a seperate ticket, are in 2E-L and have a connection departing from 2F in 20 minutes.
Thanks god my seat was 1A and the La Premiere crew made the impossible possible, rushed me through the La Premiere security and passport control and got me onboard the ZRH-flight by 7:23 for the 7:30 departure. Doors were closed behind me and soon the cabin manager came to tell me that my bag also made it! Hey are we talking here about CDG? That was WOW today! Other passengers from Business and Economy did not make their connections. Paying for La Premiere paid off today and it was incredible to see that they put so much effort in this even though I was on a separate ticket and they did not have an obligation to do so.

carnarvon

When there is a will, there is a way (So said Lao Tseu or one of his followers).