CDG Lounge
 

I'm flying CDG-HKG on a J ticket, and I'm wondering what you think of the CX lounge in CDG? Are there other One World lounges you recommend OVER the CX or CX-contracted lounge at CDG that have showers and that I can access? Thanks! :)

I last went from CDG a year ago. The CX lounge is very basic and tended to be rather crowded. No showers. Not even a toilet in the lounge - you needed to go to the public one in the terminal.

In the terminal CX operated from there was no alternative oneworld lounge.

I don't think anything has changed, and if not I certainly would try to minimise the time you need to spend at the airport.

There is a better alternative in the same terminal (CDG 2A) with the AA lounge. It is in fact closer from the usual CX departure gate than the CX lounge.

Indeed better than the CX lounge which is very basic and very crowded. AA lounge has only very basic food/wines. But it is a nice , modern, airy lounge with good amenities. It is also used as BA lounge. Sometimes they restrict access to other OW pax, when crowded.

Yes - the CX lounge was quite crowded last week when we flew out. But the food selection wasn't bad for a J lounge (I particularly liked the cheese board) and it never seemed to get to the point where there were no seats.

But I didn't know about the AA lounge until we were walking to the gate so we didn't have a chance to pop in. Do they generally admit on Class of flight, or only on OW status? (In other words, as OW Rubies (i.e. no OW lounge access on status) flying in F, would they have let us in?)

I'm not familiar with OW alliance and their rules regarding lounge access. Can I use the AA lounge with a J ticket on CX?

General OW rule is that you get admitted based on OW status (saphire and emerald), not class of flight.

Wow! Really? I fly with SkyTeam quite often, and you can usually access any of ST clubs with an international J ticket. Same goes with *A if you have a *A J/F international ticket: You can almost use any of the *A lounges even if you're not travelling on that particular *A carrier.

So, it seems that there is no OW lounge in the area of CDG that would permit me to use the lounge/shower even though I'm on an international J ticket? :(

No, OW rule actually says that admission based on status and admission based on class are both possible. Nevertheless, the lounges can always use "capacity restriction" to deny you.

I think brunos may have meant that OW status (emerald or sapphire) trumped COS if COS implied lower access (Y = no access, J = only business class lounge).

But you're right that a J BP generally means business class lounge access to any OW-operated business lounge regardless of OW status. (One exception is BA during the LHR T3 transition period to a BA/QF-operated lounge.)

I could discuss the ST case, but that is not the topic here. For OW, this topic has been discussed many times in different threads. A good recent example with cross-references is:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...-flight-2.html
or:
http://www.travelingbetter.com/forum...ead.php?t=2626

Among outstation lounges there are some differences and nuances, but the basic jurisprudence (and rule) is that you have access to ANY OW lounges based on status. But that is not the case based on COS, you are only guaranteed an (one) "equivalent" lounge (meaning equivalent to your COS). If you are flying J on a OW airline, it will direct you to a specific lounge, but you will generally not have access to any other OW lounge at the airport.
Some other OW lounges might accept you, but that is NOT an automatic right. In all cases "capacity restrictions" can apply, which makes sense given that some outstation lounges are quite small.
I do not know the specific policy of the AA lounge in Paris, but certainly CX lounge in Paris would not accept BA or AA pax with J ticket.

Am reviving this thread as I am flying out of CDG to HKG this summer.

Does anyone know what the current status of CX biz lounge is at 2A?

I read about new airline lounges on third floor of 2A-2C connecting building recently inaugurated.

CX reservation does not know. Will try to speak with Swissport but would be nice if anyone had experience to share. :)

I was in CX CDG lounge in 2A yesterday. I stayed a couple of hours as my parents had to drop me at airport early. I took CX260 (direct CDG-HKG) but was in the lounge even before CX270 (CDG-AMS-HKG) departed. It’s pretty basic but with reasonable selection of food and beverage. Some random thoughts of what I recall:
- It did get a bit crowded the last hour before CX260 departure but everyone could easily still get seats.
- Good selection of newspapers and magazines. The lounge staff checked and refilled the magazines regularly.
- They served a hot dish in a wok, a chicken noodle, around 11 am, after the few pax for CX270 left.
- “French touch”: Decent selection of cheese ; some macarons ; Yoplait and La Laitière Yogurts
- The usual sandwiches snacks, salmon canapés, peanuts, soft drinks, juices, instand noodles and alcoholic beverage… etc..
- No toilet inside.
- Wifi working fine enough at least for news browsing. Four computer booth available.
- I found the staff being quite efficient in checking the supply of food and taking the empty dishes.
- The lounge staff announced the boarding for Air Tahiti Nui to LAX and PPT but no one did get up for that.
- One side overlooking the baggage carousel number 6. The other side overlooking landside check-in area. It’s an open-air lounge.

Thank you for the update. I understand the lounge is in the same place as before, not moved to the new building which connects A & C.

As a side note, I read about this CX 270 flight with stop in AMS.

Looks like CX are changing their plans in the coming months, because in August, CX 278 will fly direct from CDG to HKG (on top of CX 260).

On the way back CX271 will keep making a stop in AMS.

Should CX obtain a 5th right to carry passengers for sector AMS-CDG? in this sense?

The one time I tried the CX CDG lounge (OW Sapphire on an AA ticket), the lounge auntie said: "Oh, you want to use *our* lounge?". Then she tried to convince us to go to the AA lounge because it was closer to our gate and the CX lounge was too full. She even said she was thinking of closing it down early. But we got through and found seats pretty easily. As soon as we sat down, most people got up and left for a flight. I like the lounge much more than the AA one because o the food/beverage offerings and open-air feel, but I believe the AA had more space.

Yes, I noticed they have added CX278/279 in July and August as I can imagine these are their peak months for CDG route. Operating Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays. CX270/271 will not extend to CDG on those three days and will simply operate as HKG-AMS. So during July and August CX will keep twice daily to CDG (14 weekly: 10 direct, 4 via AMS).
Then from September it will be back to twice daily (14 weekly: one direct, one via AMS).

I’m a CDG-HKG regular (Been flying this route since I was kid into Kai Tak, used to have the kid amenity backpack and collected those 747 model planes :D). CX has been changing a little bit the schedule over the past few years. Used to be one daily, then they added a second daily on certain days, then they made it twice daily every day, then since the economic downturn abruptly cut it back to one daily again and recently trying to restore twice daily with this AMS extension. For me, the via-AMS one didn’t add much as it roughly has the same departure/arrival time as the direct one, just making the journey a bit longer. So I always make sure to book the direct one. I guess I'd eventually try the via-AMS one if I ever travel in F :D.
In the future I think they can do twice daily (both direct) on 773ER when CX gets more deliveries.

They do not have 5th freedom right between CDG and AMS. Surely they would if they could (better than nothing to fill the empty seats) but I guess it’s not that easy to implement and/or not worth the hassle. Certainly AF/KL would not be pleased to have CX stepping between their two fortress hubs.

The thing I’d be interested from HKG is “visit 2 places on the same trip”. Like flying CX271 (HKG-AMS). Visit a few days. Then CX271 (AMS-CDG). Stay a few days. Then return to HKG. Allowing the AMS-CDG only to pax coming from HKG/Asia with CX on the same ticket. But this is just a dream…