In early stages of planning a return trip to the Luberon area next spring. Currently trying to decide which option suits. Assuming current schedules (train and plane) remain in effect which would you do?
Option 1: Fly from Cincinnati to CDG, arrive at 10:10am and make connecting flight at 12:50pm and arriving at Marseille Marignane at 2:15pm. On return trip, flight leaves Marseille at 8am, arrives at CDG at 9:30am, with connecting flight departing for Cincinnati from CDG at 12:05pm.
On the plus side, we%26#39;ve flown out of Marseille before and can drop the car rental off using the drop box. Assuming we check any luggage we should only have to check it once and we%26#39;ll have 2.5hrs to make the connecting flight. Price (currently) is $991.00 per person (including *most* taxes.
Assuming that flights are on schedule, we%26#39;ll have plenty of time to get to whatever house we rent in the area. (We%26#39;re trying to stay on the south side of the Luberon for personal reasons...but may end up as far north as Menerbes). Early arrival at MRS would give us time to hit the Hyper U before they close. ;)
Option Two: Non Stop Air from Cincinnati to CDG, and purchase advance TGV tickets to either Avignon or Aix-en-Provence. (Toss up, depending on final location of villa). Cost $997.00 per person PLUS TGV tickets. Current 3 month advance Prem Tickets approximately 35 Euroes ea way, so total cost per person is $1095.00.
Advantages. Half as many take-offs and landings for my partner. I%26#39;ve been to Aix-en-Provence TGV to drop off passengers and can return rental car at drop box. There are currently scheduled TGVs from Aix and Avignon that arrive at CDG TGV Station at 9:18am. Is this enough time to get upstairs, get through security and get checked in for flight leaving at 12:05pm?
Disadvantages: We have to track our luggage between modes of transport. If we purchase train tickets in advance, and our arriving flight is late, we have to eat those tickets and purchase new for trip south. More importantly, if our return train is late to CDG we could be stuck for new return airfare. How calculated is that risk? Also, reasonable train from CDG (allowing at least 1.5 hour to make connection from arriving plane) would put us in AIX or Avignon closer to 5pm. Much less time to shop for supplies...but we wherever we rent, we won%26#39;t be able to check in until after 4pm at earliest.
We have plenty of time to make our decision. Just looking for feedback from fellow travelers. For what it%26#39;s worth, my partner hates to fly. I mean, really hates to fly.
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Here%26#39;s one vote for option 1.
Why? Ease of car return, familiarity with MRS,and no need to drag luggage around, lower cost ....
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In spite of the fact that I don%26#39;t like to fly around in-country in Europe, I also vote for option 1 - it seems to be the least stressful and most economical, at least at the moment.
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That%26#39;s what I thought. But tell that to my partner, aka Mr. Xanax. ;)
Any concern about the connection time between fligts at CDG? Currently, the return trip is scheduled to depart MRS at 8am and arrive at CDG at 9:30am with a 12:05pm departure.
For the record, our last trip was via Continental who codeshares with SCNF...so we flew Indianapolis to Newark, Newark to CDG and then made a connection %26quot;on Continental%26#39;s dime%26quot; to Gare St Charles, BUT we returned via 3 flights, originating out of MRS to CDG, CDG to Newark and back to Indianapolis.
Don%26#39;t remember the MRS flight being much late (or even what time it left. As I recall, any and all delays started in Newark, but there%26#39;s no guarantee. We made our connection to CDG with no problem.
Of course, if I%26#39;d realized we could have codeshared to Aix-En-Provence or Avignon, I would have looked at that option last time around. ;) Live and learn.
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fly in the day before -- you are n ot leaving enough time at CDG
you probably but not necessarily make your flight if everything goes perfectly -- but it is already tight -- so if the train is late or the plane is late, you blow a very expensive ticket -- and since this is not a throughbook situation, you have to buy the new one way ticket for thousands
my flight to Amsterdam from Chicago ended up arriving 6 hours late this June. A Thalys train trip a few years ago got into Paris 5 hours late.
It can happen -- this is all too tight
for high stakes connections either throughbook on the plane or come in the night before
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The flight in and out of CDG, unfortunately has to be in on Saturday (originating on Friday evening from the states of course). The departure also has to be the following Saturday.
Your point is a good one, of course and why I initially lean toward booking all the way through to MRS and back out of MRS with the connection at CDG.
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I suppose I could always tell Mr. Xanax that if we do option 2, and we miss our flight home he has to pay to get us back. ;)
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Have you considered booking airfare from CVG to XRF?
XRF is the Marseille train station using the TGV from CDG yet booking airfare to XRF gives you the same miss-connect protection as you would have with a flight to MRS.
It%26#39;s a hybrid solution which you might consider as option 3.
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On our last trip we booked through from Indy to Marseilles and got TGV service from CDG to XRF, but our return trip was air service out of MRS...but the downside to that is that it%26#39;s Continental and we have to make a connection in Newark before getting to CDG. If we go that route, I%26#39;ll book through to either Avignon or Aix, but we lose the advantage of non-stop service out of the states into Paris.
Will most likely bookthru to MRS, but will double check to make sure that we can%26#39;t get codeshare service with SCNF with Delta/NW.
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