Transfer time between flights - Paris Terminal 2E.

[yellowtriumph]

I would like to get the opinions of more seasoned travellers if I may please. Next March my wife and I will be travelling to South America with Air France. Our flight itinerary is London (LHR) > Paris (CDG) > Buenos Aires outward, and Santiago > Paris (CDG) > London (LHR) on the return. It is the final leg that I am very slightly concerned about.

All the CDG centred flights are 'Aerogare 2, terminal E'. Our scheduled arrival time back to CDG from Santiago is 0815. Our departure time from CDG to LHR is 10.05. Does the team think this is enough time?

I am assuming that as we have booked all sectors with AF (we have one booking ref for the complete round trip for both of us - so am I correct?), that we will be able to check in our baggage all the way through from LHR to Buenos Aires for the outward journey, and also on the return flight from Santiago through to LHR so we will not have to 'faff about' dealing with any luggage at any time at CDG, but, we will have to deal with international immigration when we arrive back in CDG from Santiago which will obviously eat into our time to get off the Santiago flight onto the connecting flight to LHR.

I do hope this all makes sense, so, I'd be very grateful for the teams opinions on any part of my post really - particularly the timings on the return journey at CDG.

[ExXB]

As you are in transit from a non-schengen country to another non-schengen country their is no need to clear customs and immigration in Paris. Your checked baggage will almost certainly be checked through as you appear to be on a single ticket. When you check in in SCL ask them, and then check the luggage tag. If it shows CDG and LHR, no worries. If it shows only CDG you will have to claim it in Paris, and 1h40 will not be enough.

You will have to clear security with your carry-on. This has been reported to be difficult but you should be OK.

[yellowtriumph]

Ah, so are you indicating that we will be in a transit area when we get off the plane from Chile and before we get onto our final flight to London and hence immigration will be in London and not Paris?

The final point you make is the nub of the 'argument' if you like, if we don't know whether our luggage is going to be checked all the way through to London when we depart Chile when we are standing in the check-in queue, it will too late to make alternative arrangements in Paris if that is where it is offloaded for us to pick it up.

If our luggage is off loaded at Paris and we have to pick it up and re-check it back in for our final leg back to London, who's responsibility is it to ensure we get on the scheduled London flight, and if not, who is going to make the alternative arrangements to get us back to London? I hope my post is clear to the team.

[alserire]

If it's one booking reference then I can't see any way you wouldn't be checked all the way home

[ExXB]

It is AF's responsibilty to get you back to London. Should your inbound flight be late, and you miss your connection, then AF will get you to London.

Frankly I'm struggling to think of any reason why your bags would not be through checked. AF does this thousands of times a day and they won't pick you out of the crowd for special handling.

Asking at check-in is more to avoid mistakes being made.

[Hartington]

A ticket and a reservation are not the same thing. Provided you each have one ticket covering all 4 flights then through checkin will happen (unless something really weird happens). This means that in both directions you will get boarding cards for both of your flights when you check in and your bag will be checked to your final destination. When you get to Paris your job is simple - find the gate for the connecting flight. Unless you get lost you don't need to go through immigration or touch your checked bags.

Enjoy Chile.

[Espada III]

I have flown non-Schengen to non-Schengen via CDG many times and with a tighter connection than the OP has. Never had a problem with the one bottleneck which is security. It's actually far quicker than at LHR.

[yellowtriumph]

Thank you all for you replies - much appreciated.

We do have one 'Electronic ticket' and one booking reference for both of us and our four flights. We booked this last April and two flights - the Chile>Paris>LHR legs keep changing, insofar that Air France send us an email to say the flight is cancelled and it is then replaced by another flight leaving a few minutes later or earlier but the flight number remains the same as the original flight. So, some of the information on our 'Electronic ticket' is out of date from a scheduled time perspective.

Given that the flight numbers remain the same and only the times are changing by 10/15 minutes - perhaps as you might expect this far out from the actual flights, does the team think I should be contacting AF and ask for a new 'Electronic Ticket'? I think I would be jumping the gun somewhat and should just leave everything as it is.

[ExXB]

You likely can get it online. Have your booking reference handy and go to their manage my booking page.

[Hartington]

Many years ago I had to investigate a complaint from a travel agent. The agent had made a reservation for a couple, issued the ticket, job done. Then some friends wanted to join them so the details from the first reservation/ticket were passed on and a different agent went to make the new booking. They couldn't find the connecting flight (which may have been Chicago/Las Vegas). The original agent also looked and found the same thing but there was nothing in their reservation to indicate any change.

When I investigated it turned out that the airline had changed not only the time of the onward flight but also the flight number BUT they simply never sent notifications if the difference from the original flight was less than 10 minutes.

Schedule changes happen and the change of a minute or two could be said to be irrelevant (certainly the Chicago/Las Vegas airline thought so).

I would wait until the last day or two before you leave home then go the manage my booking area and print out your e-tickets. A ticket MUST show a 13 digit number and , in the case of Air France the first three will be 057 and there will be a second number for the second passenger. Even without the issue you've raised I always do that for a completely different reason - immigration. I've only once been asked to show my e-ticket receipt to prove I'm going to go home once, and it is unlikely, but if you don't have it the delay isn't worth risking.

[yellowtriumph]

Many years ago I had to investigate a complaint from a travel agent. The agent had made a reservation for a couple, issued the ticket, job done. Then some friends wanted to join them so the details from the first reservation/ticket were passed on and a different agent went to make the new booking. They couldn't find the connecting flight (which may have been Chicago/Las Vegas). The original agent also looked and found the same thing but there was nothing in their reservation to indicate any change.

When I investigated it turned out that the airline had changed not only the time of the onward flight but also the flight number BUT they simply never sent notifications if the difference from the original flight was less than 10 minutes.

Schedule changes happen and the change of a minute or two could be said to be irrelevant (certainly the Chicago/Las Vegas airline thought so).

I would wait until the last day or two before you leave home then go the manage my booking area and print out your e-tickets. A ticket MUST show a 13 digit number and , in the case of Air France the first three will be 057 and there will be a second number for the second passenger. Even without the issue you've raised I always do that for a completely different reason - immigration. I've only once been asked to show my e-ticket receipt to prove I'm going to go home once, and it is unlikely, but if you don't have it the delay isn't worth risking.

I have the 'Electronic ticket' in front of me, it has two separate 13 digit ticket numbers for my wife and I. Along the lines you indicate, AF have changed timings for the two return legs of the flight by a matter of 10/15 minutes, they have sent us an email cancelling our original flights and advising us of the 'new' flights which have the same flight number as the original flights, what they have sent to us via email are new itineraries for our outward and return flights but not a new Electronic Ticket to reflect the changes.

For some reason when they tell us that they have cancelled a flight and give us the details of the new flight they also cancel our existing seat reservations and we have to make new ones. Of course this is not a problem now that we know to go and have a look - but maybe a bit surprising if it's the same flight, same type of plane but a few minutes one way or the other but I guess thats software for you!

We are not uptight about any of this as it's trivial in the overall picture. My original concern was simply that if they keep reducing the timings between arriving in CDG and departing CDG to LHR will we have enough time to get between the flights and the answer seems to be that as things currently stand it will all be alright.

I have logged in to the 'Manage my booking' part of the AF and there seems to be no facility or option to print out a new Electronic Ticket?

[ExXB]

Clear as mud:

Do I have to print a copy of my electronic ticket? - FAQ (http://www.airfrance.fr/FR/en/common/faq/online-bookings-and-check-in/do-i-have-to-print-a-copy-of-my-electronic-ticket.htm)

[esa-aardvark]

Having missed a 2 hour interchange T1-T2e earlier this year I would no guarantee anything at CDG. All depends on the mood
of security on the day.

[yellowtriumph]

Clear as mud:

Do I have to print a copy of my electronic ticket? - FAQ (http://www.airfrance.fr/FR/en/common/faq/online-bookings-and-check-in/do-i-have-to-print-a-copy-of-my-electronic-ticket.htm)



Yes, I did see that. But the problem is that there appears to be no link as to how this can be downloaded and printed. The one and only Electronic Ticket that we have was sent to us as an email direct to our email address.


I cannot help but think it would have been better for AF not to have sent anything at all, perhaps just to have sent us updated itineraries as and when they changed and maybe the Electronic Ticket a couple of weeks before departure when everything was more set in stone and less likely to change.


Maybe I am simply not seeing the print out link on their site.