ime to transit through EU gateway airport to EU intercity flight

[ShadowzBtlr]

We are flying in late November to Venice, Italy to catch the Silhouette for an Adriatic cruise. Usually we can fly direct from the US to an EU destination city to catch a ship. However this time, we must fly into an EU “gateway” city and change planes for Venice. I have 2 questions:

(1) I know that we will need to clear EU passport control in the gateway city, but will we also need to clear EU customs ( i.e., will we need to collect our luggage; go through EU customs; recheck our luggage; and then proceed to the EU intercity terminal/gate to catch the flight to Venice)?

(2) Will 1 hour - 1.5 hours be enough time for the transit at the EU gateway airport?

I know that this will depend on which EU gateway airport we fly through, but we have a number of airline/flight options (e.g. Amsterdam, Paris, Heathrow, Munich) with layover times from as little as 1.5 hours to as much as 3.5+ hours.

Based upon recent experience, any answers would be appreciated.

Vince

[lucinjo]

You will not need to claim your luggage at the EU gateway, as long as you have a "through" ticket. (i.e. tickets for both segments purchased at the same time). You will probably need to go through customs and then through a security line to get to the next plane. As far as transfer time, Munich is consistently pretty fast, Heathrow was fast the last time, but really slow (over an hour and a half just to clear customs) the time before. Paris, depends if you have to change terminals (this can take 20-30 minutes). Sorry, don't know about Amsterdam. It also makes a difference if you are in Business Class, since they often have expidited customs. 90 minutes would probably be ok for Munich, but Heathrow and Paris could be tight.

[rbuenger]

We are flying in late November to Venice, Italy to catch the Silhouette for an Adriatic cruise. Usually we can fly direct from the US to an EU destination city to catch a ship. However this time, we must fly into an EU “gateway” city and change planes for Venice. I have 2 questions:

(1) I know that we will need to clear EU passport control in the gateway city, but will we also need to clear EU customs ( i.e., will we need to collect our luggage; go through EU customs; recheck our luggage; and then proceed to the EU intercity terminal/gate to catch the flight to Venice)?

(2) Will 1 hour - 1.5 hours be enough time for the transit at the EU gateway airport?

I know that this will depend on which EU gateway airport we fly through, but we have a number of airline/flight options (e.g. Amsterdam, Paris, Heathrow, Munich) with layover times from as little as 1.5 hours to as much as 3.5+ hours.

Based upon recent experience, any answers would be appreciated.

Vince

DW and I had a similar situation last summer when heading to Barcelona to catch Solstice, we flew JFK-CDG-BCN on Air France. We did not have to claim our checked baggage, it was transferred to our BCN flight. We did have to do Passport Control and a security check with Metal Detectors and X-Ray for our carry-on bags. We had a long layover, so we were in no hurry to complete the process as we were only going to the AF Lounge to wait our on connection, but I think we would have been hard pressed to make a 1.5hr connection as there was quite a bit of walking and waiting in different lines to complete the Passport Control and Security screenings. I guess it depends greatly on how busy the time of year/day our are at the airport, but if it was me, I would have at least 2 hours when booking a TA flight connecting to an Inter-Europe flight.

 

lucinjo is correct, your bags will only be checked through to your final destination if both of your flights are booked together as a complete trip, if you book one the TA leg separate from the Inter-Europe flight, you will need to claim your bags, do the Passport Control & Customs/Security Screening then re-check your nags to your final destination, so that would add significant time needed....

[smtcan]

We have just made two changes in Amsterdam, one going Toronto, Amsterdam, Manchester and the other Manchester, Amsterdam, Frankfurt. In both cases our baggage was checked right through, but we had to clear security which took quite a while. It seemed quite pointless because we didn't have the opportunity to buy anything since we never left the controlled area. There were customs on the first flight, but not on the second since it was all EU territory.

 

We will be repeating the experience on Wednesday when we return to Toronto via Amsterdam. The signage in Schippol is very poor so we hope we can find the gate for the second flight without wasting too much time because we only have 90 minutes for the transfer.