2B or not 2B, that is the question. NOT is the answer! (Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG))

Member Name: Nibelung

Product:	Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)
Date:	07/10/08 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can't think of any, apart from being a means to get you in and out of Paris

Disadvantages: NO free seating. Needs a logistics make-over

I know that living near Heathrow and then complaining about someone else's airport might conjure up the phrase "Pots, kettle, black - discuss", but Paris CDG, really, what a dump.

We're constantly hearing how Heathrow must expand or die, losing its 'vital' hub traffic to CDG, Schipol and Frankfurt, but in the case of CDG, I don't think it's got much to worry about. Anyway, what do hub passengers benefit my local economy - they fly in, pollute my air, fly out and spend nothing locally?

I'll get off my hobby-horse now and back to purpose - i.e. telling you what my first and hopefully LAST impressions of CDG Terminal 2 are.

Last Friday night, we thought we'd use up some Airmiles by flying to Paris for my wife's birthday, pushing the boat out by renting a loft apartment in Montmartre.

Initially, all went well - our local bus turned up, the Underground came promptly and we arrived at the swish new Terminal 5 with no bother at all in the closest thing to grand style that the Piccadilly Line will allow for. This was my second visit to the ill-starred or rather 'ill-started' terminal and now it's running just fine - even the flight was nearly on time leaving (no mean achievement - this was a Friday night remember).

"Welcome to Paris Charles De Gaulle where the local time is..."

Well, it didn't really matter as we then taxied for about 15 minutes (that's the trouble with these multi-runwayed airports - BAA please note). I did wonder whether we hadn't landed at Le Touquet and were driving the rest of the way.

We 'docked' at Terminal 2b, followed the herd through Passport Control and into what seemed to be the tiniest international baggage hall I've ever seen. On reflection, it would appear that the terminal is segregated into bite-sized chunks, ours being for Easyjet and BA. Nonetheless, six flight's worth of passengers were trying to find bags on two carousels. Being dimly-lit and somberly constructed in 1970s plain concrete (very South Bank - yuck) didn't help lift the mood either.

Not much of a welcome to a city of romance, unless the lighting was to get you used to candlelit dinners in gingham-tableclothed bistros, or maybe just to stop you gawping at the building.

Anyway, it didn't spoil our weekend.

Now for the 'good' bit, the return via 2B (well good if you like a good moan).

On arrival at 2B, we used what appeared to be BA's one automated check-in machine, getting our boarding cards in advance and changing our seats to the aisles in the process.

Then, completely out of our normal sequence we had to proceed through the passport control with all of our luggage to even access the real check-in desks, or in our case fast-bag drop desks. There doesn't seem to be a lot of difference these days, and if more people check in on line or by machine, it'll be faster to queue for a check-in desk than to 'drop your bags fast'.

Now that we were 'air-side', we started to survey what was available to us for what was probably going to be around two hours. Well, it's easier to list what isn't available, since that's just about everything.

For one thing, there are NO SEATS unless you are paying for food or drink. Bear in mind that if your flight is delayed so you don't know your gate number, you can't even forego these delights and go sit at your gate. It's still dimly lit, so it's not just arrivals that are getting the shock treatment.

Oh well, let's browse around the shops.

(5 minutes later) Well that didn't take long did it? There must be all of 8 of them, and two of those are the same newsagent. With seating at a premium, every stair case and lumpy looking ledge was in use. So too were the café tables, so finding one usually meant looking at the detritus of the last visitors for about 30 minutes before it was carried off. The only good news is that we ordered one bottle of water, and the waitress took the hint and brought us two glasses.

To be fair, we were told that our gate SHOULD be 27 at check-in, but our flight wasn't officially allocated a gate on the screens for nearly 90 minutes, and taking a chance would have been difficult to reverse, since the various gates didn't appear to inter-communicate, and besides which you'd have to sweet-talk your way back through the security checking, which here, is done at the last stage.

The solution appears to be to travel Business class then you get to play with all the nice folks upstairs in the Air France lounge, and more to the point SIT DOWN, although for crissakes don't trip on the assembled 'cattle-class' passengers blocking the stairs.

Maybe the other solution is to travel by Eurostar both leaving and arriving in Victorian splendour in a city centre. No wonder it's plundering a sizeable proportion of London-Paris traffic.

Arriving back at T5 Heathrow's palatial vaulted ceilings and calm uncluttered baggage reclaim almost made me proud - I say almost as I'm still smarting over the so-called 'public consultation process'!

CONCLUSION

Only pass through CDG Terminal 2 if you really have to, by which I suppose I mean only FLY to Paris from London if you really have to.

This place needs a logistics makeover - no free seating in this day and age of air traffic delays is absolutely unacceptable. A few more light bulbs wouldn't go amiss either, mes amis.

If I really had to, I'd make damned sure that I checked in on-line, even if it meant paying for an hour in an internet café, thereby lessening the need to pitch up two hours early so as not to delay your flight (what a joke that is) - anything to limit my time in this pile of c*?$.

FOOTNOTE - Had I travelled from Heathrow Ts 1, 2 or 3 would I have felt differently? Not really, but they'd have got a roasting too!

Summary: Paris' main international airport