athens to paris then on to US--can we make it?

[slidergirl]

Thanks Slidergirl. Unfortunately, Business class is not in my future. Like you, when I traveled to Europe when I was working, I flew business and it was nice. Now, that we are paying, we will live with Coach. we are really looking foward to this trip and appreciate your help.

ML

 

Three words: Frequent Flyer miles ;) I save 'em up for my international trips. If it's domestic, I'll pay... This last trip was a combo - Coach (Economy Comfort) over, Business back.

[NoWhiners]

Three words: Frequent Flyer miles ;) I save 'em up for my international trips. If it's domestic, I'll pay... This last trip was a combo - Coach (Economy Comfort) over, Business back.

 

Nice. I don't fly much anymore now that I am retired, and I usually go with lowest fare. That means I don't use any airline enough to get miles. And it is such a pain to fly. All the "security" annoys me--and I was a security system designer/analyst when I worked.

 

ML

[waterbug123]

Nice. I don't fly much anymore now that I am retired, and I usually go with lowest fare. That means I don't use any airline enough to get miles. And it is such a pain to fly. All the "security" annoys me--and I was a security system designer/analyst when I worked.

 

ML

 

I will be the first to agree that the whole TSA charade is largely security theater.... more about making you THINK you are safe than actually making you safe. But that said, I am always baffled when people talk about the hassle of going through security. If one were to show up at the airport having no idea what to expect, I suppose it could be perceived as a hassle, but assuming you know the rules ahead of time, it's a pretty simple process:

• You know you'll have to take your shoes off, so wear slip-ons
  
• You know you'll have to remove metal objects, and if going through a body scanner, any items at all from your pockets, so stick your watch, belt, cell phone, etc. in your carry on to begin with and put them on or in your pockets afterward.
  
• You know you'll have to remove your laptop and liquids, so stick them in the top of your carry on where you can get to them quickly.
  

[NoWhiners]

I will be the first to agree that the whole TSA charade is largely security theater.... more about making you THINK you are safe than actually making you safe. But that said, I am always baffled when people talk about the hassle of going through security. If one were to show up at the airport having no idea what to expect, I suppose it could be perceived as a hassle, but assuming you know the rules ahead of time, it's a pretty simple process:

• You know you'll have to take your shoes off, so wear slip-ons
  
• You know you'll have to remove metal objects, and if going through a body scanner, any items at all from your pockets, so stick your watch, belt, cell phone, etc. in your carry on to begin with and put them on or in your pockets afterward.
  
• You know you'll have to remove your laptop and liquids, so stick them in the top of your carry on where you can get to them quickly.
  

 

True but a remarkable number of people don't know these rules, or forgot them, or something, and that slows down the whole process. In Europe it seems a little easier/faster but all of this stuff can be beaten by a motivated adversary. waste of a lot of time and money...

[pris993]

Hi All

 

We will be flying from Athens to Paris after our cruise in October. I have read about how long and hard it is to get thru CDG airport. We only have 1 hour between flights (from paris to salt lake City) and now I am wondering if we can make it.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this? it seems to involve Schengen countries and if you need to go thru Customs.

 

Any help/insight would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

ML

 

I would ask you which airline too? We have done a flight from Athens to Paris on Air France, with a tight connection at CDG to another Air France flight to San Francisco. The two flights were purchased from Air France linked together. I learned that Air France at the arranges to meet your incoming flight when you have only 1 hour and takes you via a mini shuttle to where you will need to check in for the second flight. They did infact do this on our flight, they had staff asking folks as they got off where they were going when we said San Francisco, they told to proceed a different way to a shuttle pickup. The shuttle took us directly to another part of the airport, where we still had a very long ways to walk to get to another transport that took us to our aircraft on the air field. This was a few years ago. When we boarded, we felt like we just made it time wise. As it was, we sat there for another whole hour as a minimum while Air France waited for other connecting passengers. We took off about 2.5 hours later than the advertised departure time.

 

While rely this story -- we did just return on the same Air France flight from Paris to San Francisco in April of this year. We found Air France has built a new international terminal which had a different set up. We walked and walked after taking a shuttle train.

 

I would check out Air France's (if that is your carrier) web site for information on short connections and making connections between terminals. That is where I found info several years ago about assistance in meeting connection for flights with 1 hour or less between flights.

 

CDG is large and can be confusing, I have flown in and out of CDG many times in the last 20+ years, but not that often that I can find it confusing because like most airports things change all the time.