Paris CDG Airport

I must admit I read many, many reviews of this airport leading up to our recent trip. We were flying from the United States to Naples, via Charles de Gaulle. The reviews had me slightly anxious about what we might encounter as I saw comment after comment about rude employees and difficult signs to understand. These were the 2 most often seen complaints. Obviously timing could have had something to do with it or something, but our experience couldn't have been more different. We made it off of our plane and found the signage very easy to follow. We got to the security line and those directing travelers as well as those actually doing the inspecting of our carry-on items were pleasant to interact with. We proceeded to the customs checkpoint and there were only 2 customs agents working, but the line was actually moving at a decent rate. A 3rd agent did arrive to assist while were there. We made it through customs a whole lot quicker than I thought we would and made it to our gate for our flight to Naples with no problems. A different trip - a different time, my review could be very different, but for this trip I was pleasantly surprised and we had no issues at all. A genuine smile and a hello and thank you does go a long way when you come across people.

Avoid Paris CDG whenever possible. If you're in transit, make sure you have at least 3 hours between your flights. Waiting times at passport control and security check are very long, staff not friendly at all. If you book a hotel between two flights in Roissy, there are only 2 stops for the hotel shuttle and it's quite difficult to find them.

✅ Verified Review | Terrible airport. CDG airport service was terrible. The staff were rude and unhelpful. Long passport control despite travelling on a short haul flight from the Schengen space. But the worst part of the airport is the luggage system: it took 1 hour and 30 minutes to get our luggage back and our pram arrived in a terrible state. Avoid CDG!

One hour in passport control at Paris CDG Airport. Flight attendant assured me 10 minutes from arriving in 2F to gettting to 2K. I reached the passport control queue and the monitor said no problem, I would make my flight in 1 hour, refused to put me thru the priority line. There were 200+ people waiting in line 3 gentlemen were in the review windows but one person, for 45 minutes refused to review. Someone who looked like a supervisor came by. One passenger asked her why the third man couldn't assist with the burgeoning line. She sort of shrugged. I was the last to board my flight after a stressful time standing in the queue.

✅ Verified Review | I was so excited to be transiting through Paris CDG airport when I first learned of my stopover. But my excitement turned into disappointment when we got off the plane and into the security checkout. Staff at security were extremely rude to people. Yelled loudly at me in front of everyone and my daughter for putting my carry on in the plastic tub. I was so embarrassed. After security, I decided to go to Starbucks to get some coffee since we had few hours until our next flight and I encountered another very very rude employee. She was rolling her eyes at me when I took out American dollars to pay for the coffee. She took her time to calculate mentally converting dollars to euros. I offered to pay with MasterCard but she waved her hands at me as if I was stupid. It was my dream to be visiting Paris one day but now I'm not sure if I want to go. I'm hoping rest of the Parisian aren't like the ones I encountered at the airport.

✅ Verified Review | CDG est devenu in aeroport epouvantable, longues attentes de formalities et sécurité, personnel rarement aimable ou accueillant, impossibilité de trouver une restauration convenable après 21h. Temps de transfert d un terminal à l'autre trop important. Bref un aeroport à éviter dès que possible! CDG has become an appalling airport, long wait for formalities and security. Staff rarely friendly or welcoming, unable to find a suitable restoration after 9pm, transfer time from one terminal to another too important. In short, an airport to avoid as soon as possible.

✅ Verified Review | The Schengen section where we were needing to connect to Spain. My general impression is that there is a lack of shops for a quick snack and what they have is overpriced even by airport standards. €12 or $18 for what amounted to a Tim Hortons Combo meal. It was a long way from the gate areas and down a level to find the restrooms.(but they were nice). It was crowded, the finger or pier was not wide enough by any normal standards for an airport of this stature. The short-term free WiFi was ok (longer if you log-in with multiple devices) but it seems that Euro-ports are generally not designed to handle any sort of departure delay or gate change. We had to fight our way through a crowd waiting for a delayed / cancelled flight when our flight was called at the same gate. Like, nobody would stand aside for fear of missing out being first in the queue for a plane that may not even show up? Terminal seating of low-comfort. Available free newspapers were not Anglo-friendly. All the services / shops were back in the main hallway or down below. Charles De Gaulle?

✅ Verified Review | Arrived at this airport 14 December 2016. Two check in desks open to process over 500 passengers on our A380 flight. Luckily we were near the front of the huge queue and had over an hour wait to get through. Others were less fortunate and would have spent hours more waiting to be processed. I could not believe a section of the airport could be so badly managed. After that ordeal the baggage carousel broke down adding to the frustration. Absolute disgrace and a very poor introduction to Paris. Paris was fantastic but was glad to get out of the airport. Would not use this airport again.

❎ Unverified | Appallingly bad passport control. There is absolutely no excuse for the immigration line to be 2 hours long. Same old story, many control booths empty and only 2 officers for hundreds of passengers! Crazy! Charge me more $ if you must, but please properly staff. If France can spend 20 million euro to build a glass wall around the Eiffel Tower it can hire more immigration officers.

On leaving this airport on 6 February to return to the UK, the security scanning was fine and relatively quick, but when I got in a queue for passport control there was only one operative checking passports. None of the passengers could believe it. The operative was slow, seemed not really to know what she was doing, and all the while, there is a massive queue to be processed. It is without doubt the worst passport control I have ever witnessed at a capital city international airport. My advice to anyone using CDG is that when you arrive, you must go through security and then this shocking passport control poor system they have as soon as you arrive, otherwise you may miss your flight! In comparison when landing at the small airport of Leeds Bradford we were told over the tannoy that due to several planes landing in fairly quick succession, they were apologising to people for any delay at passport control. Not a problem at all. They had about five desks operating and we were through in no time. CDG in Paris is appalling on exiting the airport.