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I am traveling to Paris from the United States (I am an American with an American passport), landing at terminal 1 at Charles des Gaulle airport. After I land in Terminal 1, I want to head over to Terminal 2E to do some shopping, especially taking advantage of the duty-free luxury shopping. Is this possible?

Will I be able to go through security to enter terminal 2E, considering my final destination is Paris, and I don't have any connecting flights? I would like to purchase the bag upon arrival because then I may have a chance of finding the bag I'm looking after in the Paris boutiques, if I don't find it at Charles de Gaulle.

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  • Shopping in duty free shop, you need to show your boarding pass.So even if you manage to get there you won't be able to buy something.
    – Neusser
    Dec 19, 2017 at 21:25
  • Notice that you can buy duty-free outside of airports in France : Shopping with no VAT: how to benefit from tax-free goods? en.parisinfo.com/practical-paris/money/…
    – audionuma
    Dec 19, 2017 at 21:43

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Airports generally have their duty-free shopping at departure gates, so that you can buy duty-free goods and immediately depart on an international flight, taking the item out of the country. If you keep the goods in the country where you bought them, you'd be required to pay duty and tax on them (which would require you to declare them at Customs). In fact, some of my fellow passengers ran into this last year when our US-precleared Montreal to Fort Lauderdale flight was cancelled. They bought duty-free goods before clearing US Customs, then boarded our flight, but we were deboarded and had to re-clear Canadian Customs (since technically we had left Canada, by airport operations rules). I don't think they were charged any taxes, because of the circumstances, but they had to declare the goods.

In your case, if you bought goods after clearing Customs in Paris, you're now in France, and you can't buy duty-free goods anymore.

The time to buy those goods would be when you leave - which unfortunately gives you the complication of whether it's in stock, as you mentioned. Perhaps you can contact the duty-free store in the airport by phone to see if it's in stock. Again, you'll need to be departing from Terminal 2E to do shopping there, so if you're departing from Terminal 1, you'll need to use the Terminal 1 shopping.

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  • I am departing CDG from Terminal 1. In that case, I can only do shopping in terminal 1 and I won't be allow to travel to Terminal 2E?
    – Karen
    Dec 19, 2017 at 21:18
  • @Karen Not for duty-free shopping, no... and the Schengen area (which France is in) does exit controls, so you actually have to "exit" France, then do your duty-free shopping, then board your aircraft heading out of the country, so there is no easy way to do what you want unless you instead booked a flight departing out of 2E.
    – Jim MacKenzie
    Dec 19, 2017 at 21:21
  • I think the main question here is if boarding passes are checked when moving between terminals.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Dec 19, 2017 at 21:24
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    @JonathanReez Arriving, she won't have a boarding pass for an outbound flight that day. Departing, unless there is sterile transport between terminals 1 and 2 (which based on my searching, seems there is not), she'll have to do exit controls at her departing terminal, otherwise she'll have to re-enter France after "exiting" and that will trigger taxes and duties.
    – Jim MacKenzie
    Dec 19, 2017 at 22:16
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You can't, for a few reasons:

  • T1 is not connected airside to T2. And once you pick up your luggage in T1, the only way you can go is out.
  • There are no arrival DF shops, so only departing passengers can buy.
  • You don't have an onward ticket from T2, so you can't go airside again.

When you leave, you'll be able to shop at T1, but only there. You won't be able to access T2.

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  • What if OP books a throwaway ticket from T2 for the same day?
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Dec 20, 2017 at 11:05
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    That'd be an expensive proposition, and self-defeating considering that the goal is to go shopping at T2E. That's the non-EU terminal. Tickets are going to be more expensive than one might find reasonable...
    – user67108
    Dec 20, 2017 at 13:31
  • What about a fully refundable ticket? I assume OP wants to buy a designer bag, so they have some funds available.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Dec 20, 2017 at 13:33
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    You can't get a refund (generally) for a plane ticket that's been used: the OP would have to check in, get a boarding pass, and go through security. Assuming she's coming from T1 with luggage, she would have to check in the luggage. Nightmare...
    – user67108
    Dec 20, 2017 at 13:35
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    Not even within the same zip code as possible. DF shops don't sell rare stuff. Expensive, yes. Rare, no.
    – user67108
    Dec 21, 2017 at 11:18

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