Alpha Golf

That should be plenty.

Once you get out, go to the lowest level of T1 and get on the CDGVal to Roissypole. Terminal 3 is a few minutes walk from there. Train ride is a couple of minutes and it runs frequently.

iapetus

In the past I have been told that this is not true. Despite my UC membership, I was denied access to the *A lounge at LHR about two years ago; I was just *S then. I was granted access as a *G two months ago at LHR (as I should have been).


I'll be flying into and out of CDG next month. I haven't yet booked my flights. I'll be in Y and departing on a Friday. Looks like the 12:25pm CDG-IAD is the earliest flight I should even attempt to take!

ctbarron

So how bad is departing CDG on United, without status, flying in Y? There are lots of references in this thread to it being painful, but I was looking for any recent observations.

I'm flying CDG-IAD on 8/22 around 12:30 pm if that matters.

Mike Jacoubowsky

How bad? What can you relate to? IAD during a meltdown? CDG can be worse. OK, not really, because rarely do you get stuck at CDG (rarely doesn't mean never; been there, done that, but it's not the norm).

But when you're advised to get to the airport 3 hours before the flight, and you've always thought that ridiculous because not once have you had a circumstance where 90 minutes wouldn't have been fine? If flying non-elite Y out of CDG, get there 3 hours early!

The place is a confusing mess of tubes & lines that snake around sometimes in a way you can't tell the beginning from the end. Check-in for the non-elite is like the Fall of Saigon because UA has a bunch of flights all leaving within a fairly-small window of time.

You will make it through. Just bring something to occupy your time in line, make sure you're not just using a deodorant but an anti-perspirant as well unless you want to be totally soaked boarding the plane, and consider, if you do travel internationally much, that elite status has some real meaning in places like LHR & CDG.

jasonp622

I flew cdg-sfo this morning and it was very painless, security lines non existent at both check points, very pleasant experience, star lounge was easy to find too

Kacee

lol

CDG has one of the most chaotic check-in areas in the western world.

hockey7711

Great post, Mike.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Star lounge implies elite status, a very different animal at CDG than the non-elite encounters. Security lines haven't been much trouble; it's the check-in that can border on the absurd for the non-elite. CDG doesn't always make for a fond last memory of Paris.
On the other hand, I took photos, so I could get timestamps, documenting how long it took to disembark, pick up luggage and exit CDG. I'll have to run it down but I think it was something like 25 minutes. Not too bad at all.
Thanks. I know a bit about CDG during crunch time.

jasonp622

Yes, I am elite but both lines were manageable this morning at 730am, it's a small sample size but nothing like what I've read here

oenophilist

Every time I've checked in at CDG, I've been that much more thankful of being elite. The Y check in line is simply horrendous. Always very very long, and I have no idea why it is so bad.

As for immigration and security (which are completely separate), it is unpredictable. I've arrived and the line has been a 30-45 minute wait. Other times it has been at most 5 minutes. And if you don't know your way around the terminal, then it is worse.

The one thing that I can say is that because security is basically just before the gate, if you arrive there on time, regardless of the length of the line, you are almost certain to board. And since there is little beyond security except for a couple of small shops, that isn't a bad thing. However, immigration is another story entirely, largely due to the inconsistency.

oenophilist

Really? I've found that luggage can take an eternity, never less than 30 minutes after the plane lands, and usually more than 45 minutes. Has this changed?

Mike Jacoubowsky

You're at the front of the line; I think this is UA's schedule for departures-

9:45am
10:05am
11:15am
12:25pm
1:10pm

I'm typically on the 12:25pm flight, arriving about 10am. I get to watch the panic as they're out there looking for UA986 people in the crowd (11:15 departure to ORD), and obviously the 1:10 departure to EWR is in my group. You were there for the 10:05 direct to SFO I presume? I don't like getting up early enough to make that flight.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

If you were flying to IAH or EWR, that was not a *Alliance lounge you tried to enter. The lounge in T4 is owned by SkyTeam. They permitted *G and CO/UA front cabin passengers in, but there was no provision for UC members. UC membership definitely got you into the *A lounge two years ago.

TWA Fan 1

I have been flying in and out of CDG T1 since it opened in the 70's.

It was the first terminal at the then new airport and was designed in the "neo-brutalist" (that's really the name of the style) type of architecture.

The element that everyone remembers is the escalators in the tubes which are at once cool, weird and disconcerting.

But the terminal has some real design issues. As far as check-in is concerned, the architect, Paul Andreu, didn't leave enough space around the check-in desks and if multiple flights are checking in at once it can get very chaotic.

The whole place is a little labyrinthine and serpentine. The fact that the main building is circular can be very disorienting.

Also, the place is over 40 years old and nothing ages worse than an aggressively modern style.

Finally, while AF and its SkyTeam partners get to share in the superb Terminal 2E, most of the tenants at T1 are carriers "outside the fold," which means the money and attention the CDG operating authority (Aeroports de Paris) lavishes on T1 is pretty minimal.

TWA Fan 1

In 40 years of flying to Paris, glacially slow baggage delivery has always been my experience, even when flying AF F from JFK.