Transferring at Paris CDG

jal · Post by **jal** » 12 Nov 2005, 21:18

Will the Queen's Building also be renewed

BTW many passengers (mostly Australians) complain about CDG despite the modern buildings. They say to have language and service problems.
According to them many places at the airport are badly maintained and thus dirty.

Stij · Post by **Stij** » 05 Dec 2005, 10:56

About transferring in Europe:

CDG is a complete disaster due to
- arrogant ingnorant service agents (and that's when they're not on strike)
- when changing from Thalys to AF you have to carry your luggage from the train to the terminal.
- Terminal 2 A. B, C, D are old and need a restoration
- Terminal 1 is a complete joke.
FRA is almost always a long walk, but apart from that, I like it.
LHR is cool as long you don't have to change terminals and you don't have to deal with BD ground staff (most rude in the world I think).
AMS is for me the best, efficient, friendly.

BRU is the best of course, but I'm a Belgian so that doesn't count.

Cheers,

Stij.

Comet · Post by **Comet** » 05 Dec 2005, 15:04

CDG is a hateful airport. People always say that T2 is OK, but it is T2 which I have experience of - few eating areas, few shops, mucky windows, impossible to see anything.

Now BRU is a dream - nice shops, Brussels Cafe is nice, good viewing from the departure lounge, good transport connections. Plus it's in Belgium and not France, which does help

If travelling anywhere in Europe meant travelling via CDG then I would stay at home.

Post by **sn26567** » 05 Dec 2005, 15:22

The 3 above posts have been split from the Heathrow Terminal 2 topic, as they were

fftopic:

eurojet · Post by **eurojet** » 05 Dec 2005, 16:08

Oh, once again one of those anti-french topics, you should be on airliners.net with this one, together with the "why are AF planes so dirty"-thread. I connected this year a couple of times through CDG, and it is not more pleasant or hellish than transferring trough LHR, FRA or any other mainport. I had last year a 35 minute tranfer due to delay LUX-CDG-GRU, changing terminals and having to issue boarding passes, and we all made it. And you know what, it really helps when you ask help at CDG by starting "excusez-moi", and by ending with "merci bien", something most Aglo-Saxons are not capable of doing, due to an inborn dislike of anything that is French or not Anglo-Saxon in general. I would like to see how I would be treated at LHR when I approach immigration by saying "Morgen, ik ben Frank uit Groot-Bijgaarden, waar is de gate voor de vlucht naar Brussel". Most probably I risk to end up in Guantanamo ... It is called cultural sensitivity, you know... For the rest, CDG is easy to transfer, you just need some basic reading skills and follow the arrows and you will be fine.

an-148 · Post by **an-148** » 05 Dec 2005, 16:32

I'm native frenchspeaking: so language is not a problem at all !!!!!
I'm also very polite and smiling to people I want to spek to ; that's also not the problem !!!
But I've NEVER seen such a bad organized airport, such a bad transfer train/planes, such a dirty terminal, such arrogant personnel than in CGG !!!!!!!!!!!!
There is no possible comparison with FRA (to take an airport with exactly the same passengers statistics)

chunk · Post by **chunk** » 05 Dec 2005, 16:35

PAris CDG is not great. T1 is old and not exactly well serviced. As for 2E....well the bit that didn;t collapse is fairly sparse with little in the way of shops or restaurants. 2F is better but not much. All I can say is that I hope you like buses if you go anywhere near the place -especially if you arrive on an RJ....

Mind you - still better than LHR!

Stij · Post by **Stij** » 07 Dec 2005, 14:08

My dear Eurojet,

I'm Belgian, speak French, deal a lot with the French, both in private as in business life. Even have a few friends there.

I LOVE Air France. I really do! Flew with them to Dubai and Newark. Always excellent flights.

But CDG is terrible. They say hell is located in terminal 4 of Chicago O'Hare, but I think it's in CDG! Of course the TGV-joke between Brussels and CDG doesn't help: it's a complete disaster and the reason I stopped flying AF.

Even my buddies in Paris (who're as French as the Eiffeltower) hate the place and are ashamed for it.

Cheers,

Stij

regi · Post by **regi** » 08 Dec 2005, 10:22

I used CDG for the first time this year. TGV from Lille to Term 2, bus to Term 1 (the UFO) I had 3 large suitecases. One of the two elevators in Term 2 was out of service. It took us 15 minutes to go to another level. 15 minutes. Thank you. After having arrived upstairs, we found out that the shuttle service to Term 1 was done by buses which open at the other side. So passengers are obliged to walk over the street , zigzag through traffic and fight to get their bags on board. Nice start of the holiday.
At Term 1 everything is fine. Well. Not so fine. It looks so demoded. Check inn lines are zigzagged because of lack of space. Construction is going on. Upstair departure rooms are dirty and lack services. All glass windows are greasy.
On the return it took 1 hour to get our bags.
We have decided to let us drop off at the airport, or drive ourselves, but leave the TGV option. That was too much of it. We will only use CDG again if the price difference is high enough.
For our trips to Thailand and South-Africa we will probably use now Swissair through nice, clean, small Zurich airport.
Wish us luck