Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Destinations > Europe > France and Monaco
Reload this Page >

CDG -- why the bad rep?

CDG -- why the bad rep?

Old Oct 29, 2006, 10:38 am
  #31  
 
Join Date: May 2003
Programs: UA Silver
Posts: 1,931
Originally Posted by davidcalgary29
Interesting replies! I suppose that I should be grateful that my own experience seems to be atypical of most travellers'.

Not to be unpatriotic, but I always thought that YYZ was simply terrible, and especially when it still had that horrible three-terminal layout. NAS also seems to have sanitation problems EVERY time I travel through it, and I can't think of anything more off-putting than the reek of overflowing toilets when I walk through a terminal.
As a fellow canadian, I can sympathize with your opinion of YYZ, which for me ranks second from the bottom just ahead of CDG. In all fairness, I used to think YYZ was bad until I had to start travelling through CDG.

Most of the comments of this thread are true, but I can reinforce some in the following manner. I can state without hesitation that lack of multilingual-speaking staff at this international airport is compounded by a serious attitude problem with the staff pretty much everywhere and implicit attitude that you should speak French at all cost. French is my mother tongue, and I have no difficulty understanding the remarks of the staff at the airport. I mean, there is attitude and then there is Attitude!

I find it completely unacceptable to have french-only staff at the RER station. Gee! That's a no brainer that you should make sure you have ticket agents that can communicate with the persons transiting there. Have you ever withnessed a family of tired japanese tourists trying to buy an RER ticket from a ticket collector? Or Russians? Never mind the fact that the imbecile civil servant spoke miserable anything (including French!), she decided to take a 15minute break despite the fact she manned the only wicket open at that time! The attitude from the security agent checking the actual tickets was hardly better! Try asking him for help: "You need to ask at the wicket!". For cryin' out loud! this is an entry point for international travellers and all their f*****g signs are in French only! Then, the mecanical stairs don't work. This, of course, after the frustration of finding your way to the station following ill-placed and often confusing french-only signs (there is one for the shuttle that, if followed properly, will take you to a washroom.). Waiting for this shuttle is hardly better, with completely confusing signs: there were two "You are here" dots on the signpost, and no indication of the direction in which the shuttle (running a loop between terminal) was actually going.

It is hard enough to find luggage carts, you cannot take them in the elevators (which are themselves hard enough to find)! If that were not enough, there is clearly insufficient space at checkin so queues for various destinations and various airlines often get helplessly tangled. (In attempting to checkin for an AC flight to YYZ, I found myself in the queue for an AA flight to MIA.) The passport control officer (there is in my experience a single one unless you are travelling from the AF-terminal - whichever number it is) is not to be hurried by the long lineups of people impatiently waiting for their flights! Why should he bother? They are just tourists!

Have you ever boarded the RER with luggage? Why in Heaven's name did they not make the RER station platforms level with the train platforms? You're stuck hauling your luggage over this 30cm step and God bless you if you have to transfer... That, of course, assumes you have kept your ticket so that you can actually get out of the RER!

Of course, at the airport itself, once airside, it is next to impossible to take a decent walk to kill all the time remaining. (The idea of seating comfortably somewhere must have been originated from a non-French citizen, 'cuz these guys just ignore the concept.) The whole friggin' terminal is artificially partitioned and you must take stairs to get from one part to the other, lugging your stuff through a usually disgusting cafeteria area full of cigarette smoke.

Transfer is hardly better. I had last summer to transfer in CDG from my arrival gate to my departure gate (AMS->CDG->MAD, EU-only connection), which happen to be identical to my arrival gate. Same plane, same gate, different flight number. Of course, I had to walk for quite a while to get landside out of the dry zone, walk back (again landside) to the correct security area, check again at security and come back precisely where I started. 20 minutes of running and security checks for nothing. The security agent decided that it was suspicious to carry two laptop batteries and kept me waiting 5 minutes for a supplementary inspection.

The whole organization of CDG is designed for those who already know the system by heart and don't really need any indication, i.e. mostly the French residents. CDG is to be avoided at all costs; for all the bad things about YYZ (and I agree it is bad), CDG is worse.

Last edited by respectable_man; Oct 29, 2006 at 4:53 pm
respectable_man is offline  
Old Oct 29, 2006, 10:40 am
  #32  
 
Join Date: May 2003
Programs: UA Silver
Posts: 1,931
Originally Posted by Internaut

That said, some aspects of CDG are wonderful! CDG1 is an architectural masterpiece that should be frozen in time and not used anymore!!!!! The whole 60s future "Jetsons" look of CDG1 is a joy to behold and I love the bit where I queue behind a couple of hundred SQ passengers to get on a BD flight to LHR while panicking CDG employees try to sort the queue out!
That, my friend, is precisely the problem. A design worthy of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon with no place for practicality.
respectable_man is offline  
Old Oct 29, 2006, 3:21 pm
  #33  
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Raleigh, NC
Programs: DL FO, AA Ex. Plat, UA 1K
Posts: 144
Originally Posted by respectable_man
...
Yours has got to be one of the most truthful posts ever written and by far one of my favs. Aside from what you have so eloquently said, the aboslutely worst part for me is to come to CDG in a fully loaded 777 and then have to board a BUS. What is this, communist Russia in the 60s as we wait for bread?!
pentop is offline  
Old Oct 29, 2006, 11:53 pm
  #34  
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Primary: Its largest airport was named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle., Secondary: 88NV via RNO
Programs: UA ex-2P, now mile burner and Kayaker (ITA-er?)
Posts: 353
Originally Posted by respectable_man
That, my friend, is precisely the problem. A design worthy of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon with no place for practicality.
The uphill, downhill people movers through the "stems" are bad. But for all the faults of T1 - and there are many already listed, but lets add having only one food vendor near the gates of each stem - I found FRA even more confusing, and without AC in mid-July. It hadn't been on my itinerary, but a ground hold at ORD meant my original 6pmish UA flight to CDG left without me, so I was re-routed via the 10pm to FRA. Coming off 4 extra hours at IAD looking for a normally priced meal (thank your favorite deity for Potbelly) the FRA sauna was a nice bonus.
KPChicago is offline  
Old Oct 30, 2006, 2:36 am
  #35  
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Deep in the heart of...DL country.
Programs: DL GM
Posts: 3,838
Originally Posted by Jenbel
And the signs... the few that are vaguely point hopefully in the right direction and then vanish. Security was a nightmare before it was a problem at LHR - god knows what the Nov 7th changes will do to it Every plane is late (ok, maybe that is just my experience, but I am running at 100% late!), buses always go in the wrong direction (ie you want to go 2D->2C, but you have to go via 2E,F,A,and B), and if connecting there, you feel like you've toured the airport by coach by the time you depart. OTOH - I've got to say, parts of T2 are nicely designed, light and spacious. And other parts are not. And you can usually see the entire Airbus family while doing your coach tours of the furthest reaches of the airport, which is nice. Oh yes, did I mention the information boards bearing no relationship to what is going on?
I'm flying out of T2 to the US on 7 November. What November 7 changes????
Tennisbum is offline  
Old Oct 30, 2006, 2:43 am
  #36  
Moderator: Flying Blue (Air France & KLM), France and TravelBuzz!
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Paris, France, AF F+ Rouge pour toujours, Flying Blue whatever, LH FTL, HHonors Gold, formerly proud SCC Executive, now IC Ambassador, BA down to nobody, Grand Voyageur Le Club
Posts: 12,399
Originally Posted by Tennisbum
I'm flying out of T2 to the US on 7 November. What November 7 changes????
New EU security measures - implementation at CDG
JOUY31 is offline  
Old Oct 30, 2006, 3:04 am
  #37  
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Deep in the heart of...DL country.
Programs: DL GM
Posts: 3,838
Thanks. Guess I'd better plan to get to CDG even earlier than usual. Expletive deleted.
Tennisbum is offline  
Old Oct 30, 2006, 11:40 am
  #38  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: YPE
Posts: 421
Originally Posted by respectable_man
...everywhere and implicit attitude that you should speak French at all cost. French is my mother tongue, and I have no difficulty understanding the remarks of the staff at the airport. I mean, there is attitude and then there is Attitude!
I'd heard about this before leaving before Paris, and consequently didn't attempt to speak English to any Parisien/ne at any time. In fact, the only English I spoke in France was to my friends a couple of "Bosnian" beggars near the Seine, who approached me first. As a bonus, no one made fun of my Central Canadian accent or attempted to reply in English, which would have been the typical response in my old home, Ottawa. ^

I find it completely unacceptable to have french-only staff at the RER station. Gee! That's a no brainer that you should make sure you have ticket agents that can communicate with the persons transiting there. Have you ever withnessed a family of tired japanese tourists trying to buy an RER ticket from a ticket collector? Or Russians? Never mind the fact that the imbecile civil servant spoke miserable anything (including French!), she decided to take a 15minute break despite the fact she manned the only wicket open at that time!
I did find the RER system to be somewhat...bizarre, but I had just been broken down by the London tube a week before (those same awful ticket-grabbing turnstiles!), and was prepared for anything. In my case, I wasted half an hour attempting to find an open wicket at the Gare du Nord for my return trip to CDG. I just couldn't understand why I had to leave the station itself in order to buy a train ticket, but just chalked it up to inexperience at the time. I did see that most travellers were simply asking one of the many uniformed military personnel in the station for directions, and took that as a sign that I wasn't going to get much help from SNCF staff.

The passport control officer (there is in my experience a single one unless you are travelling from the AF-terminal - whichever number it is) is not to be hurried by the long lineups of people impatiently waiting for their flights! Why should he bother? They are just tourists!
This does bring up a question -- I was travelling LIS-CDG, and couldn't find a customs/immigration official ANYWHERE when I deplaned, and consequently didn't get my passport stamped. Was I in France illegally? Oops!
davidcalgary29 is offline  
Old Oct 30, 2006, 1:37 pm
  #39  
Moderator: Flying Blue (Air France & KLM), France and TravelBuzz!
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Paris, France, AF F+ Rouge pour toujours, Flying Blue whatever, LH FTL, HHonors Gold, formerly proud SCC Executive, now IC Ambassador, BA down to nobody, Grand Voyageur Le Club
Posts: 12,399
Originally Posted by davidcalgary29
I was travelling LIS-CDG, and couldn't find a customs/immigration official ANYWHERE when I deplaned, and consequently didn't get my passport stamped. Was I in France illegally?
Unfortunately, no. There is no immigration check between LIS and CDG as both are within the Schengen zone, and there is no customs check because both belong to a EU member state.
JOUY31 is offline  
Old Oct 30, 2006, 1:47 pm
  #40  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: YPE
Posts: 421
Originally Posted by JOUY31
Unfortunately, no. There is no immigration check between LIS and CDG as both are within the Schengen zone, and there is no customs check because both belong to a EU member state.
Thanks! I did wonder about that as I did go through an immigration check at LIS after travelling from LHR. Is the UK not part of the Schengen zone, then?
davidcalgary29 is offline  
Old Oct 30, 2006, 1:57 pm
  #41  
Moderator: Flying Blue (Air France & KLM), France and TravelBuzz!
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Paris, France, AF F+ Rouge pour toujours, Flying Blue whatever, LH FTL, HHonors Gold, formerly proud SCC Executive, now IC Ambassador, BA down to nobody, Grand Voyageur Le Club
Posts: 12,399
Originally Posted by davidcalgary29
Thanks! I did wonder about that as I did go through an immigration check at LIS after travelling from LHR. Is the UK not part of the Schengen zone, then?
Right ! It seems difficult to convince them to join
JOUY31 is offline  
Old Oct 30, 2006, 3:48 pm
  #42  
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: DFW
Programs: DL PM, .6MM; AA Plat; Marriott Platinum Premier
Posts: 4,891
i seem to recall having to go through multiple security checkpoints in order to get from my ORD-CDG leg to my CDG-ATH leg, and this was back in 2000 (which is obviously pre-911). Both flights were AF; I still don't understand why we had to go through 3 WTMDs to getfrom one international flight to another on the same carrier. We never even left the austensibly "international zone" (ie: no passport control or customs).
nd_eric_77 is offline  
Old Oct 31, 2006, 8:30 am
  #43  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: Continental Gold Elite, United Premier Executive
Posts: 6,766
Originally Posted by Internaut
CDG is truly Europe's most hideous hub and (not the first time I've said this on FT) the only airport I know of where the Frenchness of the design was placed far and above the safety and comfort of its users!
I have to disagree on this one - CDG is bad, but MXP is HIDEOUS.
HeathrowGuy is offline  
Old Oct 31, 2006, 8:38 am
  #44  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Under an ORD approach path
Programs: DL PM, MM. Coffee isn't a drug, it's a vitamin.
Posts: 12,935
Originally Posted by HeathrowGuy
I have to disagree on this one - CDG is bad, but MXP is HIDEOUS.
MXP is more shabby (although the new shopping mall is kinda bright and clean) but connections are much simpler and faster there than at CDG. I've never missed a connection at MXP, and only had one cancelled flight; I've missed several at CDG, and had a number of very close calls. I've made 20 minute connections at MXP (and my luggage made it) and missed 45 minute connections at CDG.

Also, the security checks are more "personal" at CDG- more pat downs, probes.
Gargoyle is offline  
Old Oct 31, 2006, 9:01 am
  #45  
Moderator: Delta SkyMiles, Luxury Hotels, TravelBuzz! and Italy
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 26,516
Please continue to follow this thread in the FT Paris Forum.
Thanks...
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator
obscure2k is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.