scottandtracy

Hey everyone! Wanted to get some experienced thoughts on an upcoming flight.

Family of 5 returning to the US from France in August. flying Paris CDG to SFO via mexico city on Aeromexico. weird I know but crazy good biz class fares for a big family. the issues is that we'll also be flying from Nice back to Paris on the same day as our return trip to the US (Air France to CDG on a separately booked ticket than our Aeromexico flight)

Numerous times available to get back to CDG as the Aeromexico flight which leaves late at 2300.

My questions: how much time should I plan on having in between arrival at CDG (from Nice) and my 2300 flight leaving that night? Since these will be separately booked tickets, can I "link" them since they will all be on SkyTeam airlines? Will this protect me if the flight is late? The latest flight arriving at CDG would arrive at around 730 pm ... is this too close for comfort?

We had a bad experience with an Aegean Air flight leaving 4 hours late from Santorini causing us to miss our Turkish air connection a few years ago. they were not alliance members together, so I was out of luck in that instance. I'm wondering if the Skyteam alliance would help me here ...

any thought/suggestions/prior experiences very appreciated!

Coder33

If you are traveling only with cabin luggage, the 7:30PM flight is enough ! If not, the 5:20PM flight should be okay.

Air France policy on linking reservations is not crystal clear, you may want to call them and ask them politely if possible to do so

brunos

"Linking" the two PNR,whatever it means, will bring you no benefit. And I doubt that you could do it on two separate tickets on two different airlines.

NCE-CDG schedules for August could change (July schedules are quite different). Anything above 3 hours should give you time to retrieve luggage and recheck them to MEX/SFO. AF will not check you through as I doubt they would check in Nice that you satisfy travel restrictions to transit in MEX and enter SFO.

The risk you have is a weather problem (heavy thunderstorms) or a strike.
It is going to be a long and exhausting journey. To be more relaxed, you might want to book an earlier flight from NCE. Again, they might add more flights depending on the covid situation.

olivedel

There is no such thing as linking PNR. Especially as automated PNR linking has been deactivated by Air France on their departure control system (Amadeus Altea).
The only thing that could be done is a note in the PNR, manually processed (or not) by the check-in agent at the first outstation.

LondonElite

Linking PNRs does nothing more than add wording to that effect in a free-form field. You have two separate tickets so all the usual risks apply. If you miss your Aeromexico flight you'll be out of luck and will face buying new tickets. There is no protection and no way to combine the tickets. NCE to CDG is a well-travelled route so there should be no issue in finding an alternative if your planned flight does not operate. I would leave at least four/five hours to be safe, more if there is luggage involved.

NickB

Independently of the numbers of hours as such, I would also ensure that there is an alternative flight leaving later so as to have a plan B available in case the flight is severely delayed or cancelled at the last minute.