Flew CDG-JFK today, and it was enough to make me seriously consider cancelling several upcoming International trips until things settle down (which I fully suspect they eventually will).

The first AA security interview, the pass through customs, and the WTMD all went fine...no serious delays. However upon boarding, EVERY single passenger was given a complete bag search (any and all bags carried-on) as well as a complete pat down and wanding. Saw lots of confiscated items piling-up. As you can imagine, given that kind of activity for what looked to be a pretty full flight, we were delayed from taking off for almost 2 hours (I subsequently missed a connection).

While not as dire as LHR (at least we were allowed carry-ons....if they were liquid, gel, whatever-free) it was still pretty annoying (Not meaning to express an opinion about the "rightness" or "wrongness" of what's going on, just want to report what it felt like going through it.)

Like I said, might be a good time to lay low for a while.

The same thing happened to me at MEX yesterday as I boarded a flight to DFW. You can see the details in the other thread.

I would imagine that many airports in other countries are beefing up security at the moment.

I like the Duty Free wine, Champagne, Cognac, Scotch and fragrances available at CDG.

What was the situation when you were there? Were you allowed to buy anything?

The last time (about 6 months ago) that I went through cdg I found that most of the cognac was was priced too high. For example remy xo was much cheaper in the aa duty free shop on the plane. When I made other cdg comparisons with nyc area prices, all you were saving is the local sales tax.
The big plus of buying in the airport was that they will take all your loose change (even down to 1 cent) and then you could pay the balance with a cc.

Didn't really notice, however this was taken from another thread:

"Yes, you are correct. In fact, AA.com has been updated to mention that you now can take duty free liquor on board flights (except to the U.K.): Duty free items for non-U.K. cities that include liquids or gels are allowed when delivered directly to the aircraft and/or immediately prior to boarding."

great, I have something to look forward to. I will be transiting CDG next Tuesday morning. JFK-CDG-(af)-BCN and the reverse a week later.

On a side note, if anybody has any advice on connecting between AA and AF that would be great. I would have flown IB, but they go out of ORY and that seemed like a pain.

How much time do you have for each connection ?

I have 2 hours 5 min on the outbound, 3 hours 20 min on the return.

I'm going to try to not check bags on the AA segment, I doubt AF will let me do that though. I'm still struggling to eliminate all liquids from my luggage....

- on the outbound, it should be OK; (you would need to pick up your boarding pass at an AF transfer desk as I guess AA might not be able to issue it in JFK) clear immigration when your arrive in 2A, walk over to 2C and the TGV station, cross to the North side of the building when you are above the TGV station, and then walk to 2F1, the Schengen peninsula of 2F where your flight to BCN leaves from. Walking time, excluding immigration, should be about 15mn. At 2F1, you need to clear security; there is a fast track lane if you are flying business to BCN. You then need 5mn to reach any gate. If your flight from JFK has a remote stand, you need to add at least 15mn to reach the terminal.

- on the return, go through baggage retrieval in 2F, turn right towards the TGV station, at the end of 2F, you will need to go up one level by escalator towards the TGV station; at the TGV station, cross over to the South side of the building and walk to 2C and then 2A; the time needed really depends on how security checks evolve and where you can pick up your AA boarding pass - no recent personal experience, unfortunately -.

You cannot use the airside shuttles as you will be connecting between a Schengen and a non-Schengen terminal.

Hope it helps.

Thank you! That's tremendously useful ^

Flew CDG to JFK last night. At check-in they were adamant that only one small bag would be allowed. I had to scrunch my purse into a small carry-on bag before they would let me continue. At the security before boarding they screened every passenger and the flight was more than one hour late in departure. The agent was about to take away my nasal spray but she could see that I had a bad cold. She called the supervisor, who said it was OK because the bottle was 15 ml. and you could bring in liquid under 20 ml. Go figure.

Seems to be the SOP for every CDG-USA flight these days. Flew DL CDG-JFK last Saturday and they thoroughly went through every one of the 195 passengers' carry on items - with TWO agents (one other agent stepped in occasionally to do some cursory checks, but then decided that he should really step back and just 'supervise' and walk around...). Meanwhile the two agents doing the search were all giggly and taking their own sweet time looking through and making comments at passengers' personal items (e.g., one looked at a photo of a pax.'s significant other and gave the guy the 'thumbs up'....) The whole sordid boarding affair lasted almost 1 whole hour (on top of the 2.5 hour delay we were already taking)....

CDG duty free has aways struck me as expensive too (even compared to US duty free) with the result I've never bought anything there save for a 3 Euro bottle of Perrier. AA security queues at CDG are always quite messy due to the passport control booths right before the security checks.

So, do you line up, clear passport control, then clear security? Do they have any kind of premium/elite security lines there? And, if so, for both checks or just one of them?