Paris CDG Airport

Although the airports features are beautiful, the transiting system and terminals are set out in a fairly silly manner. Once you enter your terminal area you can not leave to go eat or shop. Inside the terminal area there is a very small variety of shopping or "time wasting" type activities to do, other than the main activity of sitting in gate style seating. The Terminal area is quite large and open mainly because there are no shops filling the space, the benefit to this is that queuing for your flight is no so bad and the time to board aircraft is good. Airport WIFI is limited to 15-30 minutes free until you have to pay.

Unlike most of the reviews I have seen about Paris CDG, I have nothing but positive things say about the airport. Flew CDG to Toronto out of terminal 2E and have to say that aside from the long line ups, my experience was great. I have travelled through most western European airports, not one of them is nearly as nice as CDG's 2E. Maybe I feel this way because the YYZ in Toronto is horrible, but in my opinion CDG (at least terminal 2E and 2F) is the best airport I have visited.

Awful experience through terminal 2E. No clear system for processing 4 Delta flights to the US at the same time this morning. Only 4 Air France agents processing passengers who waited in line for almost two hours before even being able to check bags. It was even more egregious that the situation was made worse trying to get through border control - again a lack of interest by staff and not enough agents to process the 100s of people trying hard not to miss flights. As a result, flights had to be delayed because so many passengers were caught in this situation. I'm giving one star for each of the categories below because there was no option to give zero!!

First impression of the exterior of the airport was good. Then comes the check in counter, I had to wait around 45 minutes in a long queue just to check in. We were 7 people traveling with two elderly people. After check in, we were planning to have some breakfast in the food area, but we decided to go through immigration first. We had to wait in a very long queue for 1 hour or more. There were only three counters open with hundreds of passengers waiting. After immigration, we had a long walk towards the boarding gate. We did not have any time to spare. We passed the security check near the boarding gate at the time boarding should have started. Then came another queue, exiting the boarding gate. We had to go down to a bus, travel to the edge of the airport. We had no time to have breakfast and the flight was delayed 30 minutes.

This review applies to anyone contemplating traveling from Paris to the United States on United Airlines via CDG. I have been in and out of this airport at least 25 times since it opened in 1974. I can remember when terminal 1 (the oldest) was state of the art. It was never intended to handle the number of passengers now shoved thru it. The entire facility has been gradually going downhill for at least 15 years, but my most recent transit will be my last. From now on, I'll fly to London and take the train. June 6, I arrived via TGV station in terminal 2. Theoretically, I could have arrived early enough to have plenty of time to catch my flight, if only UA were still in terminal 2. It is not, and the queues in terminal one are unbelievably long. I knew I wanted to get to the Ibis hotel near terminal three. The signage in terminal 2 is woefully inadequate. I finally asked the SNCF information people where the shuttle was. I figured chaos would ensue when I learned that United had moved into terminal 1, so I rode the shuttle around to scope it out. I found a United information employee. She told me that I "only needed" to get to the airport 2.5 hours early. Fortunately, I did not believe her. I then backtracked from terminal 1 two stops to terminal 3. Again signage was lacking. I finally went outside, and saw the sign for the Ibis. June 7. Snaked my way back to terminal 3, then shuttle train to terminal 1. I arrived 4 hours early, along with at least 150 others for my flight. There are no facilities: No water, no bathrooms, no food, no chairs. Just an endless line from which everyone on my flight was eventually separated and put into a second line, unmoving, and standing, so the 5 agents assigned to tourist class could process the 200 or more souls on the flight before mine. The only water was at the Starbucks, 7€ a bottle. We all stood in line for 3 hours, just to check in and drop bags. Quick march to customs and immigration. I seem to remember a tangle of moving sidewalks. There were 300 people in line, and I think 7 open windows, but 4 were for EU passport holders. Some UA personnel took pity on us and started handing out bottled water. Quick march to security, where there were only about 50 people in line ahead of me. There were only two lines. By the time I was screened, my plane technically had already left. Very quick march to the gate. More standing. No chairs. United divides us into several boarding groups, depending on how much you paid, but once you get to the gate, everyone in bucket class waits together, mostly standing. This was a nightmare.

Chaotic check-in and passport control was extremely slow. Arrived at the airport two hours ahead of departure and just made it to the gate in time for boarding. A terrible experience.

Lack of signposting. Lack of staff on bag checking area. Unfriendly, ignorant, unhelpful and rude security staff. (The incidences of loud discussions in French about customers is unforgiveable-some of us cannot speak French fluently, but can understand it fine). A lack of facilities once you enter the waiting areas. Poor all round, I'm afraid.

Arrival - Nothing in particular, was able to pass through the passport control in a minute. Departure - By taking the RER, it's extremely complicated to arrive. After leaving the train at the stop "Airport Charles de Gaulle-1" , there is only one exit (which isn't clearly marked neither in English nor in French) that can be used to go to airport. The others are connections to other trains (I suppose.) The information desk there helped me, but if I didn't speak French it wouldn't be possible. Because of the heatwave, it was extremely hot in the airport, but the airport staff continuously distributed water to keep us hydrated. Wi-Fi was unlimited and free. There were some charging stations, but most of the cables were broken. Power outlets between seats were present.

Absolutely no organization. Everyone was crowding and pushing to get through to the baggage drop off and then the baggage was piled into groups because the conveyor belt was broken. Many people never received their baggage in New York. Also no signs directing people to the proper place. Terrible.

Badly signposted, long transit connection times, lack of information points and disinterested unhelpful staff and officials. My suggestion would be to avoid at all cost if possible. Due to a cancelled flight I had the misfortune to connect through CDG after years of avoiding the place. Nothing has changed. In fact I was in Terminal 1 looking for the Priority Pass lounge and the same dusty glass and bouncing walkways were unchanged as I remember on a school trip once.