Bullspread

For 3000€ membership per year and 4000€ Starting from next year, AMEX can for sure add this small additional benefit compared to platinum cards 😉

brunos

WOW. If matmatir moves away from AF P, that is indicative of serious problem for La Premiere.

In the good old days, I often flew to/from 2A. SO much better than 2E, even at the time. Hopefully they will fully reopen 2A (and 1) soon

SDQBound

Same here, I usually flew to/from 2A and the experience was indeed better, even better after they merged the 2A/C areas. My only issue with 2A was that more often than not, we would deplane on a remote stand which added some time to the arrival and made boarding time longer.

blairvanhorn

The only times I've actually flown out of 2A were justement on CX flights to Hong Kong and Tokyo, but many years ago. It was an airport experience à l'ancienne, and I mean that in a good way.

Goldorak

We are indeed back to the chaos at 2E that we had back in 2017 just after they launched the Ultimate program (I remember well because we were so disappointed by the false promises of the program with the daily chaos at 2E and after a lot of Ulti complained, they put the escort service in place in the morning).
Two weeks ago, departing from 2E (I was at the checkin counter around 11:30) : the immigration hall was totally full and the SkyP lane had a line going to the back of the SkyP checkin counter. Unbelievable. The agent at checkin was very helpful and escorted me to the PAF counter. It saved me at least 1hr.



Returning a few days later (landing at around 6 am) : We parked at M. Several flights were disembarking at the same time, the VAL train was very full. Arriving in the immigration hall, I realized something I never paid attention during my last trips: there is no more SkyP lane at immigration on arrival. You have the EU passports lane and you have the non-EU lanes for green/orange/red countries. The EU lane was well filled, while the other ones were almost empty. This didn’t last long. Within 5 min, the entire room was packed back to the transfer customer service counters. For EU lane, I waited about 35 min, which is way too long, but I was lucky to arrive quickly at PAF as 5 min later, I think the wait would have been around 1hr.




But, fortunately, once you passed this mess, you feel better because ...



The following week, departing on a late flight (in the 23:00 bank) : immigration was totally empty, but security line at K... : the regular lane was going up to the VAL train area. Never saw that before. Only 2 lanes were open. SkyP access saved me a lot of time here but it was very messy.




This morning...Arrived at 10 am. Total process from chec-in to arrival in lounge took me 1h15 min . Before actually checking-in, you have first this useless security control for US flights : approx 20 people before me, then check-in : approx 25 people before me. Then security : only one police booth open in the SkyP lane. And finally security control : approx 40 persons before me.
1h15 with SkyP services...it means something like 2 hrs in the regular lanes

blairvanhorn

What a mess. 😡

Goldorak

As I just said in another post, we are back to the 2017 chaos scenes. This is not due to strike (there was a brief strike of some security agents recently, but I don't think it has created a lot of problems). Several factors :
- yes, some "non-2E" airlines are still there (EK, QR, etc). It's really time to send them back to 2C/2A. I know they are supposed to go back there sometime in december. It is time to reopen all terminals. Traffic has really peaked up dramatically. Long-haul flights (except Asia unfortunately) are totally packed.
- but the main reason is always the same : the incompetence of ADP and their chronic incapacity to anticipate and organize things.

As an example on something of secondary importance but showing how poorly organized everything is with them : M concourse has now reopen for about 3 weeks I think, at the same time as US borders reopening. They had several weeks to prepare for this, but, all duty free shops are still closed (this morning, they were reinstalling all articles in the shops, so I think they will open soon) and there is only one place where people can have something to eat : a Paul boulangerie. This morning, there was a very long line of people queuing to buy something.

Goldorak

Pictures of this morning

OskiBear

Ran into this this morning. We arrived from ATH around 8:45am (2F) and headed to our CDG-LAX flight at 2E-M. Didn't get very far before we stuck in a giant crowd of people. Had to fight our way into the SkyPriority line.
I counted a total of 5 agents doing passport control with two of handling SkyPriority so don't know how long it took for other passengers. They seemed to sporadically call for and pull people out of the line with French passports to use the automated lane. The whole thing seemed poorly managed.
What really surprised me is that there was no second security screening for our US-bound flight. So, I was screened once in ATH (and a very cursory screening - no liquids out, no electronics out, etc.) and that was it.

brunos

This is really unacceptable.

When I compare to Hong Kong airport which is basically empty and most boutiques closed. Well below 1,000 pax arriving daily and a bit over 1,000 pax departing.
Very sad. Zero local cases for a couple of months, but such a price to pay with closed borders and 21-day extremely strict hotel quarantine: Step into the corridor and you go to prison after your quarantine.
The above pictures are unfortunate, but they warm my heart with excitement. Life again.

Amrikibibaris

Perhaps "Paris vous aime," just not PAF and AdP.
This is all heartbreaking, disgusting, and soul-destroying. Is it really true that the SP line is gone? For good?
I do know that the last couple of times I flew into Paris on P (July and October), arriving at CDG was a bit of a "trip" due to the huge number of people in wheelchairs (often with large families accompanying them) to get priority treatment ahead of everyone else in a hall I had not seen so crowded in years. I have absolutely no issues with the disabled getting the accommodation they need and deserve, but it underscores how inadequate the PAF staffing is at peak arrival times. The same officer was handling SP and VIP/P class/flight crew travelers. If more people shell out money for "concierge" escort service, something that just should not become a new norm in my view, I would not rule out wheelchair cheats cutting in line. We may finally see the fistfights that somehow have never broken out (at least not in my sight).
References to terminals A and C remind me how, in the "old days" (i.e., pre-2E in the 1990s), I stopped flying UA between CDG-IAD and switched to AF not just because of the lousy UA service but because dealing with terminal 1 had become unbearable, from check-in to the chronically understaffed PAF windows (always resulting in one reaching the boarding gate just in time). I was converted the moment I checked in at 2A comfortably and seemingly moved effortlessly from the desk through immigration and, tout de suite, to the gate (which, admittedly, might have led to a bus that took me to the plane...).
No such choices any longer.

drjeffrock

Not sure if this ADP-related, or the company that processes VAT refunds, but i almost caused a huge scene at 2E K a couple weeks ago.

I had purchased a very expensive watch in France
and requested the VAT refund in cash. I used the PABLO machine, went through security and then could not find a single open guichet to get the cash back.

After around an hour, someone finally
showed up to a line of pissed off people including myself. Of course, the employee couldn’t care less and offered no apology or explanation.

(I had noticed, while waiting, that the employee at the original jewelry store screwed up and chose for my refund to be given via credit card, so it was all for naught.)

and on another note, I have never seen such laziness in Paris as on my last few work trips… nespresso employee didn’t want to do the work for the de-tax “C’est beaucoup de travaille pour 9 euro!” My reply? “Well, you better get started then.”
i also had to get nasty with the BHV employée who didn’t want to approve the détaxe because the previous rep who tried to
process it voided it by accident. The obnoxious lady processing it then tried to tell me she couldn’t do it because she didn’t have a calculator available 🙄
Then I wanted to buy my mom a purse I saw. I spoke with the BHV employee about if they had the purse in a different color. “Yes, but it is in the stock room which is will take me 10 minutes to access. Please come back tomorrow.”

I came back the next day and made sure to buy the purse from someone else, right in front of the lazy employee. I hope they work on commission…

ok. Sorry to vent off-topic!

stimpy

Just a quick note to say you may not be wrong about fights breaking out. I nearly had that happen at LYS when I was using the airport sponsored Privilys card to cut in front of the security line on a busy day. A man (French, not American) came up to me from the middle of the queue to yell at me for cutting in line and yell at security for allowing it. He was really angry but neither I nor the security people cared. I told him to contact the director of the Airport who came up with this money making idea.

The airport is a stressful place for many people. Airport management should care a bit more about that. And of course the government ministers in charge of the PAF, etc., should care more.

SDQBound

Departed this afternoon (3:50 PM DL flight to ATL). Took me 10 minutes from passport control to the K lounge. 2 years ago departed around the same time and the line went all the way to the CDGVAL for K gates, I guess there aren’t still that many afternoon flights.

My longest wait was at the duty free. The cashier’s work period ended while they still had a long line and they couldn’t care less. We had to wait for a long time until the new shift arrived.

As @Goldorak mentioned, the lack of SkyPriority line is a total loss. Don’t understand why they removed it on arrival if the physical space is still there.

offvoice

Transited 2E—> 2F this weekend during the early morning arrival rush hour. No SP lane. When I asked to the agent directing PAX “why would we have SP at CDG after all, it’s a very minor and small outstation for AF and ST”, she just told me that it was now gone.

Reading here, we rushed out of our plane and were able to clear PAF/PIF in about 10 min. The line was humongous when we cleared security and took a look back at the PAF line, so a good thing we ran.