Connected flight questions?

[V8 Stang]

So i am flying to LA from Heathrow next week with Air France, with a connected flight via Paris.

Ive never done a connected flight before so:

When i get off the 1st flight do i have to go through customs etc, or do i go straight to the next plane departing gate (its in the same terminal). And what about luggage is this done automatically, or do i need to collect it and check it in again?
There is only 1H30 between flights, so not a whole lot of time.
Am travelling business class if it makes any difference.


I am travelling with a snowboard, having checked the air France website it says snowboard+bindings+boots are classed as 1 item of checked luggage which is fine, as i will only have 1 other normal suitcase. However should i be able to put other bits of clothing in the snowboard bag to give the board a bit more protection/fill the bag? or am i only allowed the snowboard etc? Does this get checked in at the same check in as normal suitcase?


Also the flight leaves at 06:20!, i am staying overnight in the Hilton in Terminal 2, flight leaves from Terminal 3. I believe its around a 10 min walk between.
With this in mind, how early do i realistically need to be checking in? as can't imagine it will be busy at this time or large que's at security.

Cheers

[Lost ranger]

V8 Stang said:

So i am flying to LA from Heathrow next week with Air France, with a connected flight via Paris.

Ive never done a connected flight before so:

When i get off the 1st flight do i have to go through customs etc, or do i go straight to the next plane departing gate (its in the same terminal). And what about luggage is this done automatically, or do i need to collect it and check it in again?
There is only 1H30 between flights, so not a whole lot of time.
Am travelling business class if it makes any difference.


I am travelling with a snowboard, having checked the air France website it says snowboard+bindings+boots are classed as 1 item of checked luggage which is fine, as i will only have 1 other normal suitcase. However should i be able to put other bits of clothing in the snowboard bag to give the board a bit more protection/fill the bag? or am i only allowed the snowboard etc? Does this get checked in at the same check in as normal suitcase?


Also the flight leaves at 06:20!, i am staying overnight in the Hilton in Terminal 2, flight leaves from Terminal 3. I believe its around a 10 min walk between.
With this in mind, how early do i realistically need to be checking in? as can't imagine it will be busy at this time or large que's at security.

Cheers

I've never done this in Paris, but generally you can just follow the 'flight connections' sign and it will take you to the departure lounge. No need to go through immigration or go landside. Luggage should be transferred directly to the next flight, just make sure when you drop it at Heathrow that it's checked through to LA. Class of travel makes no difference, you won't get time to use the premium lounge in any case.

At the risk of stating the obvious, double check the terminal details for the second flight, Paris CDG has 7 terminal 2s.

[V8 Stang]

Lost ranger said:

I've never done this in Paris, but generally you can just follow the 'flight connections' sign and it will take you to the departure lounge. No need to go through immigration or go landside. Luggage should be transferred directly to the next flight, just make sure when you drop it at Heathrow that it's checked through to LA. Class of travel makes no difference, you won't get time to use the premium lounge in any case.

At the risk of stating the obvious, double check the terminal details for the second flight, Paris CDG has 7 terminal 2s.

Thanks, When you say there is 7 Terminal 2's, do you mean 2+Letter? Both arriving and departing flight at CDG is Termnal 2E.

[Lost ranger]

V8 Stang said:

Thanks, When you say there is 7 Terminal 2's, do you mean 2+Letter? Both arriving and departing flight at CDG is Termnal 2E.

That's what I meant, a workmate made the mistake of thinking 2C and 2E were different parts of the same terminal.

[Mabbs9]

Are your flights with the same airline or group? If so it should be easy having the bags checked through to LAX.

[peter tdci]

If you've got just one booking reference for the two flights then, as others have said, your baggage should be checked all the way through (but double check when you drop them off).

Also, if Air France sold the ticket, then it must comply with the minimum connection time (MCT) at CDG, meaning that they think you can make it. If you get delayed and don't, then AF have a duty of care to get you to your LAX on another flight - you won't be stranded. Presumably, your scheduled flight leaves at 10:15 - there's another AF flight to LAX at 13:20 (and another at 18:10 - but only Tu/Th/Sa though)

Check in time? I'd get there as early as I could! The first flight of the day to Paris could be popular with business people? You'll have access to the T3 Aspire lounge because of your business class ticket if you have time, but I don't know when it opens.

[captain_cynic]

The procedure varies from airport to airport but IIRC, at CDG you'll need to pass through security between airside zones but that will be fairly quick. You probably wont have to pass immigration.

V8 Stang said:

I am travelling with a snowboard, having checked the air France website it says snowboard+bindings+boots are classed as 1 item of checked luggage which is fine, as i will only have 1 other normal suitcase. However should i be able to put other bits of clothing in the snowboard bag to give the board a bit more protection/fill the bag? or am i only allowed the snowboard etc? Does this get checked in at the same check in as normal suitcase?

They wont care what's in with your snowboard as long as it's not illicit or explosive. Anyone who's travelled with an instrument (as in a guitar) usually pads their instrument with shirts to cushion it so you wont be pulled up for it. Declaring it as sporting equipment is usually just for insurance purposes (and occasionally they'll put a fragile sticker on it).

the only major difference will be that it may (likely to) be classed as oversized luggage, this means you may be directed to a different drop off point when checking in and it might not be on the conveyor belt when collecting it (someone will bring it out to an oversize collection point).

V8 Stang said:

Also the flight leaves at 06:20!, i am staying overnight in the Hilton in Terminal 2, flight leaves from Terminal 3. I believe its around a 10 min walk between.
With this in mind, how early do i realistically need to be checking in? as can't imagine it will be busy at this time or large que's at security.

I'm assuming this is at Heathrow, You can usually get away with 2 hours for LHR. Especially at that time of the morning. Nothing will be open airside until 5:30 anyway.

Lost ranger said:

At the risk of stating the obvious, double check the terminal details for the second flight, Paris CDG has 7 terminal 2s.

This cannot be overstated. Check with terminal your flights go though, they're all connected by a train but it can still be a pain.

[djc206]

The Hilton T2 to T3 walk is about 10-15 mins, not particularly well sign posted though. For that flight I wouldn’t bother arriving too early. 90 mins would be plenty. For all intents and purposes you’re checking in for a short haul flight and you’ve got priority check in so it won’t take long. 90 mins would give you time to have breakfast in the lounge.

As others have said don’t sweat the baggage thing, that will meet you in LAX. CDG is a st airport but the fact you’re arriving and departing from 2E bodes well.

Bon voyage

[wrencho]

I've connected in CDG to **can't remember in the US** on a business trip early in my career. In my case the distance between the gates was looooonnnng and relied on me running between the two to be the last person to board!! My luggage was left on the tarmac.

Appreciate it may be too late now but have you checked the cost of the flight directly from Paris with a trip on the eurostar, or a flight the day before to position? Takes the stress out!

I will avoid connecting now unless I absolutely have to and never take hold luggage.

[V8 Stang]

Thanks guys all sounds good. My snowboard bag is 178CM long, so i guess that will be in "oversized baggage" but i guess if i go to the normal check-in they will tell me to take it to the oversized check in.

Getting excited now

Does anyone else spent half the day refreshing the flight app, and watching the "check-in opens in" time getting a little bit closer......

7 days, 2 hours and 58 minutes now

[Voodoo Blue]

We pretty much did exactly this 3 weeks ago on the 6:20 to CDG but then on to Miami.

The walk from the Hilton is about 10 minutes, go to the ground floor entrance of the hotel turn left outside and you should see a flyover to the T2 carpark and drop off in front and above you and T3 is just beyond that. If you're walking in the same direction as the traffic you're going the right way. The AF check in desks are in the far corner near the Virgin desks.

As others have said, when you get to Paris you'll need to check which hall your departing flight is leaving from. If its the same hall you arrived in you'll still need to go through security to re-enter the departure area but its fairly well signposted so shouldn't be too hard. It took us about 15 minutes to do this as we were lucky that we we left from the same hall we arrived in.

We were told getting to the other halls on the train could take 30 minutes plus depending on the queues so suggest you go straight there if your flight is leaving from a different one. Business Class passengers get to use the fast track lines marked Sky Priority so look out for that as it probably saved us a few minutes.

Our luggage was checked through to Miami so didn't have to worry about that and as the queues in US immigration were pretty long they were waiting for us when we eventually got through. Can't help with oversized bags as ours were standard sized but would think that once checked in at Heathrow there shouldn't be an issue.

Make sure you have filled out the Ready 2 Fly details (proof of Covid Vaccinations) on the AF website otherwise you might get held up at Heathrow check in while they do that for you and ensure you have completed your attestation form for entry into the US that they will collect in Paris at the gate before you board. We had an overly officious employee checking ours and sending people to the back of the queue if they hadn't completed one or had completed one incorrectly.

Coming back to London is pretty much the reverse of the above so should be a bit easier. Bizarrely we had the same overly officious employee checking boarding passes for our flight back to London with the same surly expression on his face.

Oh, by the way the bar on the top floor of the Hilton has some great views of the airport and serves a limited food menu which was pretty good. You'll probably miss breakfast at the hotel but they put on a pretty good spread in the lounge in Heathrow including hot food which was nice and fresh when we got in there.

If you have any other questions let me know.

Other than that have a great trip

Edited by Voodoo Blue on Thursday 23 February 00:33

Edited by Voodoo Blue on Thursday 23 February 00:35

[anonymous-user]

Im not an expert, but I have lived outdide the Eu most of my life, if your conecting flught is in the Eu, I would think you will need to clear custom and passport in Paris.
That's what happens to us when we fly into Eu from Asia.

[GT03ROB]

V8 Stang said:

Also the flight leaves at 06:20!, i am staying overnight in the Hilton in Terminal 2, flight leaves from Terminal 3. I believe its around a 10 min walk between.
With this in mind, how early do i realistically need to be checking in? as can't imagine it will be busy at this time or large que's at security.

Cheers

I stayed last night at the same hotel, catching a 06:30 KLM to Amsterdam. Check in desks are the same as for your flight..

I set the alarm for 04:20, was at the door of the airside lounge at 05:00

[captain_cynic]

Berw said:

Im not an expert, but I have lived outdide the Eu most of my life, if your conecting flught is in the Eu, I would think you will need to clear custom and passport in Paris.
That's what happens to us when we fly into Eu from Asia.

Not since we've left the EU.

Even before it depended on the airport. In Madrid I had to pass immigration, in Paris CDG in 2017, it was just a security checkpoint (metal detector and X-Ray) same for Amsterdam, as the UK was never in the Schengen area.

Edited by captain_cynic on Thursday 23 February 09:51

[Voodoo Blue]

Berw said:

Im not an expert, but I have lived outdide the Eu most of my life, if your conecting flught is in the Eu, I would think you will need to clear custom and passport in Paris.
That's what happens to us when we fly into Eu from Asia.

Not for us. We had to go through security in Paris, bags through the scanner etc. but passports were only checked at the gate boarding the flight.