Connecting flights at CDG
 

Quick question. I'm flying ATL -> CDG -> BUD on DL, with a little more than one hour stop in CDG to change planes. I don't have to go through customs in CDG if I'm not leaving the airport, correct? I just hop on the new flight and do customs in BUD?

That's how I remember it working from other trips elsewhere, but just checking since I'm a little nervous about the trip now. And while I'm at it, anything in particular I should know about customs in BUD? I'm assuming (hoping) that some of the agents speak English there, and that I can get a customs card with English translations. I've only flown into AMS and LGW before, and not had to worry too much about the language barrier.

I am not the expert on CDG, but since your next destination is not EU or Schengen, I suspect you will have to clear immigration at Roissy. It's no big deal; last time I went through CDG, they ran out of landing cards -- and the immigration officers didn't care. They also didn't stamp our passport.

The website is www.adp.fr .

I'm not familiar with DL - do they fly into Terminal 2 at CDG (the AF terminal)? Is your connecting flight to BUD on AF? If you fly into Terminal 2, you will probably have to change buildings, and I suspect you will go through Immigration once off the DL flight even if your bags are checked through to BUD.

Have you tried posting this question in the AF Forum?

You'll have to fill out an immigration card and get through passport control. You do not have to claim luggage. DL and AF share the same terminals (2A-2F), but you might have to catch a bus to get between them (you'll probably arrive in 2F). An hour might be cutting it close, if you have to catch the bus and your plane is late leaving ATL.

Neither the US nor Hungary is in Schengenland. Regardless of choice of airlines, you will not go through any immigration or customs at Paris.

You will connect from one terminal to another with an airside bus, unless the flight you arrive on leaves from the same terminal as the one you will leave on.

Zorro -- my last few flights from the U.S. to CDG, everyone had to go through passport control, regardless of their final destination (the control was the only way to get into the terminal). This was new to me -- it wasn't that way a few years ago.

Never had that case in Paris. In Frankfurt the immigration people sometime meet a plane at the finger or the stairs, and have cursory check for asylum seekers. Maybe the French have copied that unpleasant habit

ebell: Last month, I flew IAH-CDG-BCN on CO/AF (with checked luggage). On both the outbound and return, I did NOT have to go through customs in CDG. I did have to transfer terminals and did so by taking the airside bus as Zorro mentioned. When you deplane, make sure you follow the transfer signs so you can avoid going through customs. Don't follow the masses even if you feel jet-lagged. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif The transfer area also has video monitors indicating flight/terminal/gate info. I did have my passport checked against my ticket during each transfer (at a security check point), but I was never asked for a landing card. The security personnel also did not ask the standard passport control/immigration questions (purpose of trip, length of stay, etc.). Everyone dressed in traditional business attire went through the check point without any delay or questions.

WBOTM: So, where was your passport stamped (if anywhere) as entering the EU? Last time I flew CDG-MAD, there was no immigration at MAD. I haven't done CDG-BCN yet (but am doing ORD-CDG-BCN in two weeks).

ka9taw: No stamp in either direction. In fact, my last 4 transatlantic trips have resulted in a total of 3 stamps (all from LGW immigration).

AF in BCN was very efficient. The ticket agent checked me through to IAH and provided a CDG transfer jacket (envelope) that included a map, general info and shopping coupons. On the outbound, CO just gave me a boarding pass for my connecting flight.

The reason that there was no immigration in MAD was that you were travelling within Schengenland, treated like domestic flights. Budapest is not in Schengen, so you never enter Europe, and consequently do not get a stamp.

OK, I'll bite. What is "Schengenland?"

"
Europe's "Schengen" zone of easy cross-border travel is moving northwards following an agreement to give five Nordic countries observer status. Sweden, Finland and Denmark are expected to negotiate full membership of the Schengen Agreement by the end of the year, while Iceland and Norway - neither members of the EU - will enjoy an associate status. This will enable these coutries to maintain the Nordic Passport Union which allows their citizens to move freely across their borders. Full implementation of the Schengen Treaty began in July 1995 with the removal of internal border controls between six of seven Schengen Member States, opening an era of genuine free travel for millions of persons. The benefits to air travellers have been swiftly apparent now that they can move within "Schengenland" without customs or passports checks.

France, invoking internal security reasons, has decided to use the safeguard clause of the Treaty, allowing the temporary continuation of passport controls on its borders with Belgium and Luxembourg. The French government announced in April that it would be lifting controls at its borders with Germany and Spain. Nevertheless, its neighbours' police forces do have a right of pursuit on to French territory, as designed by the Treaty.

"Schengenland" is not a new member of the EU, but an area of free circulation within the Union created by seven signatories to the Schengen Agreement - Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Portugal and Spain.

The Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985 in the village of Schengen, on the borders of Luxembourg, France and Germany.

Its purpose is to remove all controls at internal land, sea and airport frontiers. In order to maintain internal security, a variety of measures have been taken as e.g. coordination of visa controls at the external borders of the Member States through a common approach to visa policies and asylum procedures.

Italy (1990) and Greece (1992) have also signed, but have still to complete the physical preparations needed for the strengthening of security controls at external borders. Austria has signed on April 28, 1995.

Passengers flying between the seven countries are now leaving from domestic rather than international airport terminals, and without identity checks.

External border controls have been stepped up in the Schengen countries who are hooked up to the Schengen Information System, a computerised service giving police and immigration officials a multinational data base, of undesirables and people suspected of having committed crime, stolen vehicles and forged money. The computer stores 10 million files.

The system is especially important for policing the movements of third country nationals entering the Union at the external borders of the Schengen countries. Fears about the effectiveness of controls at the external borders have created misgivings in some Schengen countries, while a refusal to abandon its own passport controls on internal movements has prompted the UK to stay out of Schengen.

The signatories have agreed on harmonised visa arrangements covering approximately 160 countries, but still have to bring another 30 into the arrangement.

Since Schengen is an intergovernmental agreement concluded outside the EU framework, the Commission is now considering how to achieve similar freedoms on all internal movements within the Union. Mario Monti, the Commissioner responsible for the Internal Market, has indicated that he is planning new initiatives in the coming months.

However, these will have to be adopted by a unanimous decision of the Council of Ministers, which still seems far from assured. In the meantime, the European Parliament has launched a case against the Commission in the European Court of Justice for its alleged failure to force Member States to honour their Treaty obligations regarding the free movement of people."

http://europa.eu.int/en/agenda/schengen.html

OK, I get that CDG-MAD was within Schengen, but that doesn't explain WBOTM's experience. Seems like somewhere it would be necessary to visit an immigration officer upon entering EU... especially when one of the points in the linked document on Schengen says, "a variety of measures have been taken as e.g. coordination of visa controls at the external borders".

Come to think of it, when I last did a US-->Schengen-->Schengen connection, I had to clear immigration at the final destination. It seems that's the implication here, that I'll do so at BCN. WBOTM, if you're still reading...have you at least been cleared at immigration at BCN, or is the CDG-BCN flight treated as purely "domestic"?

It's real simple, you don't go through customs till you enter a country. When transiting CDG to a non-Shengen country, you do not enter France. As mentioned before, Delta uses T2 along with AF so your transit will be real easy. If your flight to BUD is in T2F, then you take a bus, but it's still inside security.