Can I recheck-in bag at Paris

Question

I am travelling from Dublin, Ireland to Delhi, India via Paris (CDG).

My first flight is Aer Lingus and the next one is Air India, and the ticket from my booking agency says I need to recheck-in my bag in Paris.

I hold an Indian passport and an Irish residence permit.

I surfed a bit and it says on govt websites that "holders of Indian passports will no longer require an Airport Transit Visa (ATV) while transiting through the international zone of any airport in France". (Link: https://in.ambafrance.org/Airport-Transit-Visa-ATV)

I am confused, will I be able to recheck-in my bag at Paris (CDG) or I am about to face some problem?

Answer 1

Airport transit visas are a requirement for some passengers to get a visa even for an airside transit (i.e. luggage checked through, no need to go through immigration/passport control). This is not your situation.

In you case, as both flights are booked separately, you need to enter France/the Schengen Area (i.e. go through immigration/passport control) to reclaim your luggage, go through customs, go the the Air India check-in desk, and drop your bags, before exiting France/the Schengen Area (passport control again).

For this, you need a "full" visa (type C). If your Irish residence permit is as a "family member of an EU citizen", there are special rules, but otherwise an Irish residence permit does not change anything, you need to go through the usual process to get a full visa from the French embassy or consulate serving your area, which could take a little while, especially these days. Being an EU resident, and needing the visa just for transit should help in the process, but you'll probably need quite some documentation.

Don't forget that if you have to do the same trip on the way back, you'll need a visa too, so you should ask for (at least) a dual-entry visa.

And that's just the regular non-COVID rules. There may be additional COVID-related regulations at play, haven't checked what they would be in your specific situation (landside transit by a non-EU national who is an EU resident).

Answer 2

You need to find out whether you have two seperate tickets or a single one. With a single one, your bags are typicaly checked through and you can stay in the transit area.

If these are two separate tickets the standard procedure is to claim your bags, go through customs and immigration, exit into the landside area, and go to the Air India check in counter and check in for your next flight and drop your bags there. Then go through security again to your departure gate. This is typically a VERY bad idea and you should budget at least 4 hours for this. 6 would be better.

Contact your booking agent and ask them specifically if these are two seperate tickets and if not, why you would have to re-check your bags in Paris and why they are not checked through. If they ARE two seperate ticket, then you need to follow the procedure described above. You can contac Air India and ask them if they allow for airside check in in Paris. That would help enormously but it's hit or miss. And you should also fire the booking agent.

See https://easycdg.com/passenger-information/connecting-flight-connections-paris-cdg-airport/transit-information/

Answer 3

Air India is part of the Star Alliance and Aer Lingus is not. Neither does Aer Lingus have Air India listed as their partner airline (https://www.aerlingus.com/plan-and-book/plan/our-airline-partners/). This mostly means there would be two separate, un-related air bookings - Dublin to Paris and Paris to Delhi. You can confirm this by comparing the PNR numbers on the two flights - they would be the same if Dublin - Paris - Delhi is a single air booking.

In the case of two separate bookings, as other answer mentions, you'd need a lot of time to go through the baggage claim and re-check in process.

As mentioned by others, you do need a full Schengen visa for baggage claims and going through security again.