Goldorak

Sharing my experience today arriving at CDG from AMS. We arrived at 2F1, I was among the 1st to disembark. At the end of the peninsula (where you turn to go where the police booth are), we were blocked by a closed cordoned area and some ADP and Croix Blanche agents. This is where usually your PCR test is checked. There were no other pax than us. All those persons were discussing but nobody was taking care of us (the pax in transit, were already gone to their connecting flight). We waited 5 min like that behind the cordon (I was starting to boil inside thinking what the f...k are they doing again ). Then suddenly an ADP agent opened the cordon and said “passengers from Amsterdam, follow me”. But instead of turning to PAF booths, we went straight ahead to 2F2 PAF booths. I thought they repeated the situation of last year when only one PAF checkpoint was open. PAF was cleared in 2 min as I was among the 1st and nobody at that stage checked our PCR tests and I found it strange. Then you take the stairs down to baggage claim, and...surprise, all the pax of my flight go to rapid antigenic testing
I have to say it was well organized and it was quick because there was no other flight before us and because I was the 1st (the whole thing took me 20 min). 1st step is to collect information from you (name, social security number, phone and email, if you connected in AMS, and if yes, where you are coming from, negative PCR test done <72hrs), then you have the sampling and you have to wait 15 min for the results. You are given a paper receipt with your results that you have to show to police agents when leaving the testing area.

I have the impression that AMS flights are specifically targeted because of the numerous connections and it is a way to close the loophole of connecting from non-Schengen to Schengen before arriving in CDG and if you are supposed to go in quarantine. I wonder if LH/LX flights from FRA/MUC/ZRH are also targeted for the same reasons (and they arrive in 2F too currently).

Does anyone has the same experience arriving from AMS, or from FRA/MUC/ZRH on LH/LX ?

brunos

DO you know what happened to those passengers who connected in Amsterdam from another non-EU country?

To extend your question.
I will soon be flying from Hong Kong (French national). I hold three tickets as there is no nonstop flights currently (AF/CX).
1. original ticket on Qatar (red country).
2. LX via ZRH
3. BA via LHR

Anyone knows if there are different procedures at CDG? I don't mean the paperwork but the airport process as described by Goldorak I certainly wish to avoid the 10 days compulsory quarantine if on QR. Does traveling without checked bag make a difference?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.


PS: we have had zero community cases in the past few days and very few before that. And we are BioNTech fully vaccinated.

San Gottardo

My last arrival on LH/LX is too long ago to be a valid data point. I departed on one of their flights yesterday, but that's not relevant either. If I fly on LH tomorrow I'll report here (although I'll probably take the train).

matmatlr

Flying from MUC to CDG very often, I have never met your experience and have not been "selected".
However, my wife flew from MUC 10 days ago early on saturday morning and the entire flight got picked and had to follow the same process that you did. Probably, their selection is also based on flight time and whether or not you might be connecting from outside EU.

How do they check whether or not you are connecting ? Is it self declaration ? If arriving in AMS (or ZRH, FRA) you ask the airline to give you another ticket with only your flight to CDG, will they notice it ?

San Gottardo

One more reason to take a train from FRA/ZRH if arrival by plane means that one would have to go through this entire circus. Journey times are sufficiently short to make the train a good alternative.

matmatlr

Indeed, that's a good alternative I did not think about
I will PM you

maalloc

Welcome back.

I can give you today's datapoint as I was transiting EX-EU to EU (MEX->CDG->MAD) in Paris. At CDG arrival, passport control right out of the jetbridge. Not a single piece of paperwork was checked.
When going from CDG 2E to 2F, a very suspicious PAF agent had a good, hard look at my french passport... and finally asked me for the PCR test (which is, as I understand it, the only non-mandatory piece for an intl transit in France). Compared to Goldorak's harmless AMS CDG flight, that was surprisingly easy.

smartytravel

So is PCR test required for a transit in France? I have an option of flying from the US to the EU country, via CDG. My destination does not require a PCR test, but is it required for transit in CDG?

maalloc

My understanding is that it's not. ADP seems to confirm (in their ambiguous wording).. But please don't take my word for it, as most destinations require it I always end up doing one (or two) before flying through CDG.

San Gottardo

Whatever it is that France requires, check what the airline you're flying on requires. They may require a negative test notwithstanding the countries you're traveling to/through do not.

Goldorak

I don't know what happened to people coming from outside EU (and I don't know if there was any). As I said, I was the 1st to go through and leave, so I didn't linger around . I connected in AMS from Croatia (EU but non-Schengen), so no problem was expected.

In your case, I would clearly choose option 2 via ZRH
1) will lead you to troubles, even if totally unjustified coming from HKG and being vaccinated. But you cannot expect the PAF agent will go into such "details"
3) could work, but LHR may raise some flags (unjustified also, but...)
2) is definitely safer IMHO.

Is KL still banned from HKG ?

Possible, indeed.

In my case, they asked me the question. I answered Croatia and she asked for my PCR test which was done in Croatia. So this was an easy case.
You will have the case where someone will present a test done in CDG as the trip was <3 days and you have done the test for the return trip just before your outbound flight (I did that a significant number of times since the obligation to have a test to return to France), but this will obviously be only for medium-haul flights (the very short business long haul trip is surely inexistent at the moment). I believe that they have the right to ask you for any document to prove what you say and I am sure they know in advance where the people are coming from and some pax can be eventually flagged in advance because coming from country X, Y, Z.

It's not required for transit in CDG/ORY, but most destination country require one anyway. And if you transit but final destination is France (e.g. XXX-CDG-NCE), you need one.

brunos

Thank you very much Goldorak,

KL is flying twice a week but sops at BKK both ways. It makes it a two stops (one transfer) compared to LX or BA. Plus it is 50% more expensive than LH (and I get awards on BA).

In your AMD story, you mentioned that the tests were performed near the baggage claim area. WOulda pax traveling HBO be able to avoid it? I guess that you were HBO. and that the answer is no.

On the question asked by smartytravel on US-EU, I remember that AF required in 2020 that all pax boarding an AF plane in US to have a PCR test. Has this changed?

Goldorak

Traveling HBO doesn’t change anything as you are obliged to pass through the test center after having cleared PAF. For your last remark, no idea. Better to check with AF.

KL714

Happened to me a few weeks ago as well on AMS-CDG, but since then not anymore (flying this route almost every week). I have some friends who often fly MAD-CDG, and they had this on about 2/3 of their flights in the past weeks, PAF told them they are specifically targeting these flights due to the high number of French pax going on holiday to Spain.

NickB

Why would it if final destination is France, bearing in mind that the UK is one of the destinations exempted from the ban on incoming traffic from outside the EU?