International airline flights as pax; planning

[Pinecone]

I haven't traveled overseas in a few years but I'm going in two months, flying into CDG. Anyone of you who recently flew to Paris, what's it like at that airport? Also a sh**show or a bit better when it comes to lost luggage and efficiency in general?

I'll let you know next week. I will be transiting CDG on Monday.

 

[Pinecone]

Euro airports are jammed. LHR and AMS are limiting inbound flights. FRA was a zoo but passable, HEL was pretty quiet.

I was through AMS about 10 days ago. Busy, but not crazy.

My only complaint with the whisky shop gave me a taste of a VERY nice 16 year Glenmorangie, then told me they were out of it.

I was through Helsinki in late June. Pretty quiet.

 

[Pinecone]

Comments on Icelandair?
den-kef-osl
$800-$1900
757-200

I have not flown them for many years, but had a nice experience on them. And they have some great fares.

 

[Pinecone]

I went thru CDG 2 weeks ago and it was crowded but fine. One of my friends missed a connection there, but it was because her flight from the US was late departing. I would definitely lean towards 3-4 hours in between connections, just in case. I never check bags so can't speak to that.

Can you believe, the official minimum connecting time for CDG is 45 minutes. WTF?! I agree, I like to have at LEAST 90 minutes, and prefer over 2 hours, and don't mind longer to lower stress.

Heck, if they park your inbound in the north 40, it will be 30 minutes plus getting to the main terminal complex.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Crap
Anyone think the Iceland volcano eruption will affect a flight through there late August?

 

[Hang 4]

Crap
Anyone think the Iceland volcano eruption will affect a flight through there late August?

I was there last fall. The prevailing wind blew the ashes away from the airport. Not a big deal.

 

[chemgeek]

I do a ton of airline travel, including internationally, often with sporting equipment that has to follow me. My list of things to strongly consider:

• Try to schedule with the same airline or at least partnered airlines. That will lessen the probability of hopelessly lost luggage, and make rebooking much much easier if connections are missed. You can also in some cases get hit with additional baggage fees if you transfer luggage between airlines.
• Don't book with budget airlines that fly infrequent schedules; If a flight is canceled, you may not be able to rebook for a week or more. (I had some sports partners make that mistake. They were warned.)
• Do consider becoming a frequent flier or credit card member of an airline you fly frequently. It is relatively easy to get things like free checked baggage and priority seating or upgrades depending on your membership tier and flying frequency. My airline credit card pays for itself many times over each year, and its rare I don't qualify for some sort of elevated status each year.
• I don't like scheduling 1.0-1.5 hour connection times domestically, much less internationally. Give yourself ample time for contingencies. Schedule tight connections at at your own risk. In an era where planes are full and open seats for rebooking may be limited, you could be looking at a massive disruption of your trip if a flight gets delayed or canceled or you miss a connection.

I'm pretty much down to one carrier now unless I'm desperate, but when I'm desperate I usually get burned.

 

[Pinecone]

Oh, and even if you do EVERYTHING right, things can still go wrong. And not just on the international legs.

I had one trip that I missed EVERY SINGLE connecting flight. And more. A story for over a beer.

 

[Mikey B]

Crap
Anyone think the Iceland volcano eruption will affect a flight through there late August?

Sure hope not -- going there in 3 weeks for a destination wedding. I'm no volcanologist, but I gather this one (same as has been going on for a couple of years) is kind of an open crack oozing lava, as opposed to the kind where pressure builds til it bows its top. At least I hope so.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

oh, cool someone is still listening to this thread.
Let me run my layover times past you.

MAF-DEN (SWA)
3h50m
DEN-KEF-OSL (Icelandair)
3h25m
OSL-SVG (SAS)

SVG-OSL
2h45m
OSL-KEF-DEN
ron
DEN-MAF

 

[masloki]

Flights should be all good. Oslo hasn’t been in the news for issues. With multiple connections, make sure your carryon has day or two of clothes in case the checked bag is delayed.

 

[Hang 4]

The layovers are fine. Plenty of time. IN KEF, be sure to get good directions to your connecting gate. As a transfer, you don't need to go through customs in Iceland and it's easy in KEF to get in the wrong line. It's kind of small and lines can get long with poor signage and a bit of sheep mentality going on (Here's a long line, I should probably stand in it) . Not saying that KEF is bad, just can be confusing.

 

[Pinecone]

Went through CDG today. About usual. A little funky getting the M gates from outside 2E.

Ride the bus to the 2F/2E L stop, then take another bus to M. Not exactly clearly stated.

Some people in line for the M bus were less than 30 minutes to departure.

 

[flyingron]

It all depends on the airport you're making connections through. Munich and Frankfurt are pretty good. God save you if you end up in Amsterdam (Schiphol) the worst airport in Europe in my opinion.

 

[UngaWunga]

The way the airline are running, I’d either try for a direct or give yourself A LOT of wiggle room with your connection. You’re one thunderstorm and ground delay from missing your connection.

CDG airport last week. There was a security problem that caused them to close the whole terminal for a while, and people stacked up. But things were handled pretty orderly, and people made their flights.

 

[UngaWunga]

Comments on Icelandair?
den-kef-osl
$800-$1900
757-200

Iceland air has some nice airplanes, comfortable seats.
Bonus that you get to fly into Iceland as a connection if you have a window seat. Iceland is a very cool country, very pretty. Also only country to put bankers in jail during the 2008 banking crash.

 

[Ghery]

I've been to Europe a number of times over the past 50 years. CDG was most recently in 2018. Too old to be of any use to you for this trip. However, there have been some suggestions that I agree with completely.

Get Global Entry. It will save you time coming back into the US. And as I have over 1.4 million miles on UA I've seen my checked luggage show up quickly after getting to the carrousel after clearing immigration using GE, so that delay may not be so bad.

Sign up for the airline's frequent flyer program. It can be very useful to you. As a Million Miler with UA I am, at a minimum, Premier Gold for life, as is my wife. I book E+ seats as soon as I purchase the tickets. The extra legroom is worth the no extra cost to me.

Give yourself plenty of time for connections. 2 hours at a minimum if possible. As noted, if your first flight is running a little late, you'll be glad for the extra time. On the other hand, UA has put us up for the night, along with dinner and breakfast vouchers, when we did not make the connection (and it was due to weather!). We arrived in Sydney the next day and I missed the 1st half day of meetings, but it could have been much worse. A membership in their Mileage Plus program worked well for us. Then there was that trip home from CDG in 2018. That worked out extremely well for us. Too long for here, but again membership came through.

 

[Pinecone]

I have been put up overnight for WX once, and one did not get put up over night.

I have also been put up when MX issues caused me to either miss a connection or the flight I was on did not go until the next day.

The WX one I did get a room supplied was funny. It was FRA - IAD. And there was predicted snow in the DC area. In Premium Economy there were not too many people, all seemed to be there on an upgrade due to being Gold or higher. About 3 hours out, we notice that the flight path display on the cabin screens changed to head to CLE. Hmm. A short while later, the Capt announces that IAD is iffy, but they were still planning on trying to get in. We are looking at each other and saying, HEY, you already reprogrammed the FMS for CLE, which means your clearance is amended for CLO.

About 45 minutes later, he announces, oh, it seems we are going to go to CLE. And we are all, YEAH WE KNOW.

 

[X3 Skier]

As a hopefully soon to be retired person. I have discovered that a transatlantic trip on the Queen Mary 2 with an inside state room is about the same or less than an airline ticket. Another $300 for a room with a view. Free food too.
The next time I go to Europe, this is how I’m gonna do it. I need to call and see if I can bring my motorcycle with me.

As soon as I run out of the million FF Miles still in my accounts, I’m going that way.

My favorite flights have been the around 1000 American flight ORD-LHR that gets in around 2230 LHR local the same day. Stay at the airport that night and back on a regular schedule the next day. Had that booked for November but AA just cancelled it so I’m back to an overnight. Hoping they reinstate it before Nov now that 787 deliveries are starting again. Not too bad since I always book Business Class but floating across the ocean is a nice alternative.

Cheers

 

[flyingron]

Years ago I was bound for the old DEN and we landed and the captain comes on and says. "Those of you who have looked out the window might have realized this isn't Denver." We had landed on Omaha. I knew already because of ATC-on-9. We had a bunch of panicked AFA cadets on their first leave on board (this was Thanksgiving) upset that they'd not make it back on time. Fortunately, when we did get to DEN the AFA had sent a bus up to retrieve everybody.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

New question:

Obtaining local currency.
How is best?

Buy some in the US before you go (I have bought foreign currency from a place in AZ before. Great rate but a bit scary. They fedexed it to me which ramps up the fear these days)

Stick to your credit card as much as possible. Swallow whatever fee and exchange rate your CC bills for when you get home. I have Amex and VISA.

Use an ATM card at the vacation destination to pull cash.

Go to a currency exchange office in the destination airport. I'm told this is pricey.

Use a credit card in the ATM machine - I was told this is the most expensive

(apparently US currency is not going to be useful in the locations I want to buy stuff)

 

[masloki]

Check your credit cards on how they handle foreign currency transactions. Chase has versions with no fee. Then pull local cash from the ATM for incidentals, but a small amount, equivalent to $100 usd. Trade in the leftovers at the departure airport, coffee shop, duty free, etc.

 

[Sluggo63]

New question:

Obtaining local currency.
How is best?

Buy some in the US before you go (I have bought foreign currency from a place in AZ before. Great rate but a bit scary. They fedexed it to me which ramps up the fear these days)

Stick to your credit card as much as possible. Swallow whatever fee and exchange rate your CC bills for when you get home. I have Amex and VISA.

Use an ATM card at the vacation destination to pull cash.

Go to a currency exchange office in the destination airport. I'm told this is pricey.

Use a credit card in the ATM machine - I was told this is the most expensive

(apparently US currency is not going to be useful in the locations I want to buy stuff)

Use your debit card in a local ATM (do NOT use one that says “Euronet”). DECLINE the conversion when the ATM asks.

I don’t know how much time you have, but I’d set up an account with Wise. You can have multiple currencies loaded and the ATM card acts like a local card when you put it in an ATM.

If you’re interested in Wise, let me know, I’ll PM you an invite code. I’m not affiliated with them, but they will give me cash if I get a couple people to sign up.

 

[jordane93]

New question:

Obtaining local currency.
How is best?

Buy some in the US before you go (I have bought foreign currency from a place in AZ before. Great rate but a bit scary. They fedexed it to me which ramps up the fear these days)

Stick to your credit card as much as possible. Swallow whatever fee and exchange rate your CC bills for when you get home. I have Amex and VISA.

Use an ATM card at the vacation destination to pull cash.

Go to a currency exchange office in the destination airport. I'm told this is pricey.

Use a credit card in the ATM machine - I was told this is the most expensive

(apparently US currency is not going to be useful in the locations I want to buy stuff)

Take cash out using a debit card once at your destination. Decline the conversion. If you exchange at the airport in the states, they usually offer the worst conversion. Your bank should have no issues refunding you the couple of dollars worth of of fees you incur. You can also check if your bank has partner banks worldwide and they may be able to waive any fees. I use Bank of America and they have partnerships with large banks internationally. If I take out money at one of their partner banks, there are no fees. I don’t get charged any fees anyway because of the accounts I have with them though. Even before when I didn’t have a decent amount of money with them, I’d always call customer service and they’d always credit my account whatever fees I incurred from ATMs overseas. Get a credit card with no international transaction fee. Amex is getting better but still not completely accepted in Europe. I rarely carry cash around unless I know I’m going to a place that doesn’t take card.

 

[Pinecone]

Another one for debit card for local currency. That gets you the best possible rate.

Nice thing is, most ATMs outside the US to not charge a fee.

I am fine with Euronet terminals, but be CAREFUL that you decline their conversion. They have a bad rate and charge you fees. The button to decline the conversion is NOT obvious.

One trick is, when you get ready to leave that county, put your excess local currency against your hotel bill. Keep enough for taxi and tips if needed. Don't expect to use it at the airport, as a number of airports, the vendors will not accept local currency.

 

[flyingron]

Yep, ATM fixes everything.

Actually, I keep a few euros in my passport case. These days with everything going on the credit card about the only time I use euros is to get in some euro toilets.

 

[Ghery]

I always get the local currency at the local airport using my ATM card. Outside the US this typically gives me the best exchange rate. I visit countries often enough (really did before I retired) that I'd just keep the excess for the next trip. I do like the suggestion of using most of the excess for part of the hotel bill, however, especially if you don't expect to return to that country in the near future. The only country where I've had a problem due to hanging on to old currency was, of all places, the UK. I had a bunch of pounds that necessitated going to a bank to exchange for new ones a number of years ago. That was a pain.

 

[Pinecone]

Yep, ATM fixes everything.

Actually, I keep a few euros in my passport case. These days with everything going on the credit card about the only time I use euros is to get in some euro toilets.

I keep Euros, Pounds, Thai Baht, Yen, Won and RMB. I figure I will be going places that use that currency again. Most everything else, I try to zero out.