Getting from Paris to CDG. How early?

[Spartantartan]

I will be taking a 10:00 AM flight from CDG to Ireland the morning I disembark an Avalon riverboat cruise from Paris to Normandy and back. Does anyone know how early I will need to be at the airport, and could anyone tell me what time I'll need to leave to get to the airport?

[Mairnealach]

Hi,

I have travelled several times from CDG to Dublin, with hand luggage only, and always arrive at least two hours before departure time. I get the train from the Gare du Nord to the airport and this takes twenty five minutes. It is then necessary to take a free shuttle train to the terminal, so add on another five minutes for this. For a 10:00 flight, and with hold luggage, I would plan to be at CDG no later than 07:30.

Dermot

[KirkNC]

I agree, 7:30 at the latest.

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by Spartantartan

Does anyone know how early I will need to be at the airport, and could anyone tell me what time I'll need to leave to get to the airport?

Surely this depends on your airline, it's check-in times, the place that your ship docks, and the means by which you're planning to get from there to the airport?

Personally, I think that planning to arrive at CDG at 0730 for a 1000 flight to Dublin is unnecessarily early. I think that you'd probably be comfortable even if you arrived an hour later than that, and you'd probably still have quite a bit of margin.

[Cotswold Eagle]

Originally Posted by Globaliser

Surely this depends on your airline, it's check-in times, the place that your ship docks, and the means by which you're planning to get from there to the airport?

Personally, I think that planning to arrive at CDG at 0730 for a 1000 flight to Dublin is unnecessarily early. I think that you'd probably be comfortable even if you arrived an hour later than that, and you'd probably still have quite a bit of margin.

Same here. AF has a 40 minute cut off for check-in for European flights, for example.

[Spartantartan]

Thanks for the advice! What irks me is that I had a late-afternoon flight from CDG to Cork on Aer Lingus, the only flight of the day. Yesterday I got an email from them telling me that my flight time was changed to 10:00 AM. Grrr. I was hoping for a few more hours in Paris and looking forward to having a decent night's sleep that last night. Now I'll need to get a Taxi from the boat to CDG at 6:30 AM. That should get me to CDG in plenty of time.

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by Spartantartan

Now I'll need to get a Taxi from the boat to CDG at 6:30 AM. That should get me to CDG in plenty of time.

I still think it's far too early.

Minimum check-in time is 45 minutes, according to the EI website. So you don't have to be checked-in until 0915. Aiming to arrive at CDG at about 0830 would seem to allow you a comfortable and stress-free margin. A taxi shouldn't take as long as an hour, and it's likely to be a bit less than that.

[SarniaLo]

Originally Posted by Globaliser

Aiming to arrive at CDG at about 0830 would seem to allow you a comfortable and stress-free margin. A taxi shouldn't take as long as an hour, and it's likely to be a bit less than that.

At 8 in the morning (full rush hour, even if the worst of the traffic is going in Paris and not away from it), it is totally possible to take 1 hour to go from the center of Paris to CDG (where does the boat docks, actually?).

[Spartantartan]

The boat docks in the Porte de Versailles/Montparnasse area, so it is pretty far from the airport. We'll have both distance and rush hour working against us.

[SarniaLo]

Originally Posted by Spartantartan

The boat docks in the Porte de Versailles/Montparnasse area, so it is pretty far from the airport. We'll have both distance and rush hour working against us.

I lived for over 20 years in Porte d'Orléans (not far from there) and I would count at least one hour to go to CDG by car. You might take less than an hour if you are lucky, but it can be much longer at this hour (particularly to go from Porte de Versailles to the highway A1 that goes to CDG, you have quite a long way to go on the ring-road - périphérique - where traffic can be quite bad).
Leaving around 7am would get you to the airport between 8 and 8.30am. I personnally wouldn't leave after 7.30 .