Why Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport sucks
(This post may come off even more ranty than normally seen here)
Charles de Gaulle Int’l Airport in Paris, France is really bad. CDG is reported to be the busiest airport in Europe. No wonder it sucks. Here is some real life experiences..
- It is a freaking maze to get around in the terminals. Different floors to check-in vs security lines, etc. After landing, I am greeted to a bus to bring me to the terminal..lovely. Then you must stand in line for hours to get through customs. This alone is not shocking but the fact that there are no signs in that airport stating where you have to go makes things stressful. In the course of my 2h50min layover, I barely made my connection flight because I had so far to walk (customs only did take an hour or so).
- After boarding my plane (for my 1h50min flight), we literally taxied for 20 minutes to get to the active runway. As in, we were moving at 10-20 mph, not stop-n-go. The pilot got on the intercom and said that we were stopped because we were #6 in line to takeoff. At this point, I shut my eyes. Then wake up when I hear the engines come to life because I like to watch the takeoff and to my dismay, we were turning around. I checked the time and it was 40 minutes later. By the way, we were still #6 in line because I could see all the aircraft when we were turning. Apparently, they closed the runway while we were waiting.. So, taxi for another 20 minutes to the new runway and finally take off.
- On my return visit back to this crappy place. Same thing, different day. Wheels touch the ground – taxi 20 minutes to the “gate” – take bus to terminal. Walk a mile to get to my check-in spot. Stand in security line for ~50 minutes. Walk a mile to the gate.
- Ohh, goody, finally boarding the plane. *Thinks to self* – “My these gates are awfully close to each other – I wonder how they fit planes between them” Bah. Another damn bus. Taxi 20 minutes to runway, take off.
The moral of this story. Leave at least 2.5-30 hours between connecting flights if it is your first time there and you need to traverse customs, and the maze that is CDG. Oh, and get plenty of rest and try to be in a good mood.
PS. Feel free to take a look here and notice the 4 runways in the same direction. WTF.
If you do end up flying back to Europe I would suggest using Frankfurt or Munich’s airports as your gateway to Europe. You will have most of the same connecting flights however every time I have flown from these airports it has been fast and everything has been pleasant. It sounds like Heathrow airport in London is a lot like CDG.
I suppose that only works if your destination if where you first land because of customs? Or..once you are in Europe you can travel without going there customs at every airport?
I used to live in Paris for 4 years, and flew between North America and Paris often. CDG is one of the worst airports I’ve seen, though I can’t say if it’s worse than LHR or not. After a few times in and out of it, I figured out the whole layout to the point where I knew where the connections between those 2ABC and 2DEF were located. It’s really a mess. The worst part towards the end was that they closed half of the 2nd terminal’s gates down for re-construction, which in the end didn’t help much, and only created an even bigger mess. I will give it, though, that it has a pretty decent connection to the city (that is, assuming you know that there are express and local trains and catch the express one, as a local one stops at every station takes like 2 hours to get there — but you didn’t actually leave the airport, so not your worry).
I can confirm that FRA or MUC are *MUCH* better in every respect possible. And you don’t need to land in the country you’re going to when traveling to Europe. As long as you land in the Schenghen zone, you’re fine and they can stamp through your passport (unless you’re from one of those countries that requires a visa to go anywhere and your visa specifically doesn’t give you Schenghen zone access, then you have to land in your destination country directly) for the whole trip.
The only downside with going through Germany is it involves travel on Lufthansa at least partly aboit 99% of the time. And since both airports are pretty busy, they squeeze their flights in like sardines. Every time I flew through Munich to/from Paris, I managed to either miss or almost miss my connection (you get on average 30 mins to make it, but they do catch you exiting the plane and rush you through all the lines, unless the plane opens the front and rear doors and you exit via the rear door while they wait for you at the front one — yes, this happened to me — but even in such cases, there are SO many flights you are just bumped to the one 2 hours later, and while you’re waiting, enjoy the free coffee and pastries, or the not free but very amazing German beers, even if it is ONLY 9am there — hey, it’s 5PM somewhere!)
Hope you have good travels in the future, and yep, do try to avoid CDG changeovers. Besides, Lufthansa service is tons better than Air France.
Man, you must really love your girlfriend to put up that much of a hassle of going to CDG… I hate that airport…
IT SUCKS! I DECIDED TO GO TO THE AMERICAN EMBASSY FOR HELP!
PS NEVER USE CDG THEY ARE B@#$%!
I’g glad to see I am not alone when it comes to CDG. Worst airport I have ever been in. The bus transfers are ridiculous, the “double” security checks even more so. AVOID CDG for connections at all costs!!
Wow, I’m glad I read this article because I was just planning to travel to Paris by plane and via CDG but now I will think about it a second time. It might be a good idea not to do so…
I am flying into CDG from the US in July 2010 and need to catch a connecting train (TGV) to Hendaye, France. I have 2hrs 20 mins to between the flight and the train. Do you think that is enough time…I do not want to miss the train as it is the only one that day. Any advise would be most appreciated!
You should have enough time. Beware if your flight gets delayed. Helps if you know French
But, as you can see, I am not alone in this opinion of CDG.
thanks for the response. Hopefully my flight will be on time as it is a nonstop from Salt Lake City.
[...] Charles de Gaulle is the most garbage airport in the entire goddamn galaxy [...]
I lived in Paris for 3 years, and had the opportunity to use the CDG airport to fly back to my country. I must say that I really dislike using the airport – misleading signs, faulty conveyor belt for luggages, no shops (especially given such a huge airport), and even with taxis so hard to find due to their weird signboards! Using their filthy RER B to travel to city centre is a nightmare. One feels as if one is travelling through some third world country rather than a first world developed country that France always advertises itself.
I even had a French colleague who told me once that she likes CDG airport and thinks it’s probably the best in the world. And that’s coming from someone who has only travelled to CDG airport to pick up someone, and has never left her country before in her whole life. I really think that a good number of these Frenchies need to really step out of their well to see the real world out there.
CDG sucks big time.
The signs to various places are badly placed, wrong or non existent.
I was to take the “Black Bus” to a lay over hotel but had a real hassle to find to the bus since there was no signs were to go.
Had to ask at least 10 airport workers who all told a different way to get to the bus.
Finally i found it but there wasnt any signs that a “black bus” would even stop there, no time schema, nothing…
I stepped in 5 different busses and showed my lay over ticket but didnt get more specific answers than DOH ??
They speak really bad english or not at all and havent heard of the words service minded.
The Security Control is total bullshit, my ticket was correct but 2 times i had to run back to check in to ask why i was denied in security control.
And the most anoying thing is that u cant go back the way u came to the Sec Con, no u have to take some stairs down and go thru a mace of lines where the arriving persons go and then up to check-in…Who the fuck has time with that ??
Its a fuckin shithole to airport with 99% risk to miss your plane, get bad service and loose your temper totally..
Air France sucks too, had to sit 4 hours in a plane whilst some idiot tried to fix the air con..
Did get some water in a cup, but no bottles or any food at all and what a freakin hassle it was when they tried to help us the desk to find a lay over hotel or an other flight..
Well i know at least 250 persons that HATE CDG and AF and wont ever use non of them…
I don’t see anyone jumping to CDG’s defense in this stream… no surprise. What a mess that place is. What is it about airport designs? Extra smart people are called into come up with ‘signature’ buildings and cleaver solutions… it’s all bunkum, because like a water pile, an airport layout need to be linear (curved is fine) and it will only handle volume if the pipe is wide enough. Oh yea, you also get greater flow by increasing pressure – just like a pipe – but don’t go there! We are not water molecules…. France is amazing but first impressions at CDG makes for lifetime of prejudice.
The security personnel were on strike when I was there in December. People in these huge long lines were pushing and shoving, and screaming at the poor management people trying to do security – what a mess. On the return leg, in Terminal E, I discovered that the bathrooms were down two flights of stairs from the gates – very nice when you have bags. On top of that, there were only 4 full toilets in the Mens room, and all occupied, with a line of people waiting.
Coupled with this, Air France cancelled my outbound night-time flight to CDG and put me on an afternoon flight – without notifying me, so that I had a 13 hour layover in CDG. At least they put me in the AF Lounge for the day, but my overall experience of AF and CDG guarantees I will never fly that way again.