Layover at CDG or AMS?
 

Hi all,

We are planning a two week trip to France (will be doing a tour of the country) and will be flying non-stop from LAX to Paris. For our return flight, instead of going back to Paris, we are planning to leave from Geneva. There are two options for layovers, one stops at CDG one in AMS. From my previous experience (years ago), I thought CDG was hard to get around and inconvenient, versus AMS was more organized and faster to get around. Both flights will have about 2 hour layover.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Without a doubt: AMS

CDG is a mess, avoid it whenever possible.

For the airport, AMS hands down. But the disadvantage there is that you have to fly KLM for that (even if CDG is horrible, I hugely prefer flying AF above KLM!)

Thanks for the confirmation! We will have to fly KLM on both legs if we pick AMS layoever. Has any of you flown with KLM to LAX? How bad is KLM? Never flown with them before across Atlantic.

Romanianflyer - why do you think Air France is way better than KLM?

Thanks for all the input!

Which class are you flying?

In eco: Air France has much better food (and even champaign!) than KLM. Besides, KLM now even charges just to reserve "prefered" economy seats (those with a window or aisle...just normal seats!) - it's like you fly with a low-cost airline!

In business: better lounge, better dining options, wines etc. - much better seats.

Overall: much more professional personnel. OK, they might strike more than their Dutch counterparts, but at least you get polite service with a smile and not that arrogant schmuck on faces of KLM stewardesses.

Besides, do you know which plane is operating your route? I'm not sure if KLM already refurbished their entire fleet, but last time their 747 was very outdated!*



*I do have to add you should also hear from other people and not solely base your decision on my opinion, as due to my bad KL experiences I tend to avoid them as much as I can, so I don't have any recent (as in last 2 years) experiences.

We will be flying economy, but thats very absurd to charge people for their preference of seats! Never heard of that :/

Their plane is 747, so I guess I should look into CDG for a layover.

On another thought, I can give up on my direct flight and fly with United round trip with layovers in either US or Germany...

What about Swiss? Very efficient, good food, good planes.

I would strongly recommend avoiding layovers in the US (except perhaps SFO) as it's much better to have one long flight and one short, rather than two medium length ones. On the overnight eastbound you will have a much better chance of sleep and on the daylight westbound, you really don't want to spend hours in a domestic US plane if you can avoid it.

Swiss is about $150-200 more per person. It might be best if I stick to Air France looks like...

747s have all been recently updated.
I fly KLM all the time, and service is usually very good.
There is no charge to reserve standard seats at KLM.
I don't fly AF enough to be able to compare, but last time I flew them i rated them mwah......

That's old, old news. CDG has been greatly revamped. AF has much better lounges, especially if your LAX flight leaves from the M gates. And CDG has MUCH shorter walks. Bring track shoes if you go to AMS. CDG also has much better shopping if you are interested in that.

AMS is in the middle of more improvements, but no changes to the huge distances between gates and from many gates to immigration.

I flew GVA - CDG - SIN (first time in CDG) also having heard of all the horror stories about CDG, but it was actually nowhere near as bad as described. Maybe other terminals might be crap, but my flights hit terminals 2E/2F which were pleasant and painless.