JIMCHI

Will be flying GVA-CDG with baggage. Can anyone tell me if they have self-service check-in kiosks at GVA where I can get a boarding pass and then check in the bag? Does AF allow advance seat selection on short haul flights such as this (economy class)?

Thanks

JOUY31

Unless I am mistaken, AF self-service kiosks are for passengers without checked baggage. (Note : this is no longer the case since 2005)

Advanced seat selection is available only to passengers flying business class and must be requested at least two days before the flight. This is due to the variable size of the cabins on intra-European flights. There is no way to know in advance at which row the Tempo Challenge and the Tempo cabins start.

Check-in is located in the French part of the airport. Therefore, if you are coming from the main entrance (on the Swiss side), you have to go through immigration. The gates used by AF, also located in the French part of the terminal are ... a work in progress. Hopefully, this will improve when the construction work is over.(Note: construction work is over) The AF lounge, located on the same level as the LX lounge, is medium-sized and can be crowded at times.

JC25

Hum.. I Y class on Long Haul flights you have 2 possibilities to reserve your seat, the one is if you are F+ red (maybe blue) you have a special reservation there you can (in fact, you can do it on all AF reservations #)
Seat reservation in Y seems not working on AF France Website, but I have done 2 reservations from the AF Website for Germany, and here it works.
But you can't reserve a seat in Y short flights, except if they are a short flight linked with a LH flight

JIMCHI

Will be flying GVA-CDG on AF. In looking at some information on the GVA airport, it says there is a "French Sector" check-in area and also a separate road leading up to it which avoids customs. This is all very confusing to me. Friends will be driving us to the GVA airport from Lausanne. Do I need to tell them to take a different route which will take us to the French Sector check-in? Does the road from Lausanne to GVA involve going through customs and if so will this add additional driving time? Any advice will be appreciated.

JOUY31

I am not sure my answer addresses the issues you raise, but here is my personal experience (Feb 2004). I spent my winter holidays in Courchevel and took a flight from CDG to GVA and then the road between Geneva and Courchevel. (I long for the time when TAT flights could be used between ORY and CVF !)

Landing in GVA, coming from CDG, passengers without checked baggage could exit either in France (no passport or customs check) or in Switzerland (passport and customs check). Baggage claim was on the Swiss side. On the road, crossing from Switzerland into France implied slowing down for a few seconds, with the possibility of being stopped for a more comprehensive control procedure.

On the way back, crossing from France into Switzerland, we were also slowed down a few seconds at the border. We arrived at the main entrance, passed through passport control and arrived on the French side, where check-in takes place. There are no AF check-in counters on the Swiss side.

The AF lounge is above the ground floor and can be crowded at times. The gates seem to be a work in progress and I do hope their current state is temporary and will be improved as the formerly non-existent French sector of the terminal is enhanced. (Note : work is over; facilities are fine)

JIMCHI

Thanks for the information. So, are you saying that as we enter the airport there are signs directing passengers traveling to France to a separate roadway and check-in area?

JOUY31

Well, no, as I came by car into the airport area from the Swiss side, up to the main entrance of the terminal building, also on the Swiss side. I then entered the building with my baggage. The passports control to cross into France was inside the building, on the right side, and it took about 3 minutes to queue and to cross into the French sector of the building, where the AF check-in counters are located.

I understand that there is an access road from France (Ferney Voltaire), but as your friends are driving from Lausanne, they would have to cross into France, with as much hassle as I had on my trip to Courchevel.

Unless I am mistaken, the entire airport was originally on Swiss soil, but the French and the Swiss agreed to a land swap in order to have a French sector accessible from Ferney Voltaire and no passport control for passengers arriving from CDG.

I did notice, nevertheless, that my 2 segments counted as 2 international segments for Frequence Plus (Not sure about what would happen for flights from CDG to BSL/MLH)

NickB

You can find explanations on the gva website. (see this document.
Basically, you can enter from the main terminal, in which case you would have to go through police controls in the terminal or you can enter the airport from the French side, by leaving the motorway at the Ferney-voltaire exit rather than the main airport exit.

monahos

The access road to the French sector is fairly hard to find for non-locals, and is used mostly by French people living in the adjacent Ain department (and those who prefer an unguarded land border crossing to the airport's, but I digress...)

For friends driving you from Lausanne, it will be easiest to drop you off at the normal Swiss terminal, departure level. Head to the rightmost side of the building, where you'll see the entrance to the French sector, next to the AF ticket office.

First, Swiss passport control, always manned, never a problem.

Then, French passport control (non-EU citizens are supposed to fill a brief yellow card), sometimes manned, never a problem.

Next, French customs, usually unmanned, but staffed by some extremely anal PAF (border police) on the lookout for people depositing funds in Geneva. I've twice missed a plane to CDG after those people combed through my luggage (including reading every scrap of paper), and basically gave up flying AF because of this.

You'll then arrive in the French sector, where the check-in counters for flights to France are. Using the French access road would get you directly to this location.

JIMCHI

Are Americans just as likely to be subjected to the thorough inspection by the border police or is this something primarily for European passport holders?

JIMCHI

Coming from Lausanne, after you take the Ferney-Voltaire exit, is the route to the airport well marked? Our friends who will be driving are German and they seem to have a propensity to get lost easily. Is there a possibility that the officers at the French border at this exit are going to tell us to go to the airport via the Swiss side or doesn't anyone care? It would seem easier to enter the airport via the French side given the hassle that one other poster described trying to get to the AF counters from the Swiss side of the airport terminal.

monahos

To be fair, it is very uncommon to be stopped by French customs at this location, except for minorities pushing a cart with a pile of suitcases (which I wasn't). Americans are certainly among the least scrutinized travellers in the EU.

Being dressed casually and not looking too prosperous should help.

If you have documents you would rather not share, however, the French access road is an excellent option

monahos

Not at all. It is only for locals, who know where it is. You certainly shouldn't tell the border police you intend to go to the airport that way, which would arouse suspicion. Just say you are going shopping in Ferney, which most people do. Note that Swiss cars entering France are usually waved through, and only stopped on their way back (for excess meat and wine...)

The entrance is immediately after the border crossing, on the left side of the road, and sports a metal gate which is closed at night. The access road runs parallel to the main road in the tunnel under the runway, then curves to follow the runway to the terminal.

JIMCHI

Thanks everyone. I think the easiest way is just to go through the Swiss entrance. We're not trying to hide anything.

We will have about 10kg of excess weight baggage. Anyone have any experience with the AF staff at GVA so far as being sticklers.

Concerto

My experience corresponds to exactly that of "monahos" earlier in this topic. I'm in and out of GVA all the time, and I wouldn't suggest anything other than the normal, main entrance of the airport, the Swiss side. The thing should be a breeze, until you get to the French douanes (customs). They're the only customs that have ever given me problems in all my travelling life. Sometimes they comb through all your baggage, reading all correspondance, opened and unopened. They are clearly on the lookout for financial dealings. I would suggest that you never carry any bank receipts or statements through, a general rule for all travel.