So how did her trip go? Did she make the connection?
She did indeed! It was tight and she was exhausted and hungry after a restless overnight flight, but she arrived safe and sound. Thank you for asking!
I had a similar experience my first time I had bought el cheapo flight.
Barely made it and was exhausted
Never again
A leading experience. Hope she has a great time in Prague.
Glad she made it! I was in 2 other European airports last month (not in Paris) and was going to post that they weren’t bad at all, but didn’t want to raise false hopes.
This confuses me a little bit. Is it SOP for everyone to go through Immigration when transiting through an international airport like Barcelona or CDG? If I deplane at gate 30 and my connecting flight is at gate 31, how/when would I go through Immigration?
This is accomplished in various ways depending on the specifics of the airport and the country’s border crossing rules.
At Barcelona, which is the specific airport in question, this is accomplished by having Schengen flights and non-Schengen flights in different concourses. In order to go from a Schengen flight to a non-Schengen flight, or vice-versa, you have to change concourses, and when you do, you go through inspection. So it would never happen that your connecting flight would be at the next gate if you needed to go through inspection.
It works similarly at other airports within the Schengen area. They generally divide the airport between Schengen and non-Schengen areas.
If you were on two flights within the Schengen area (say Amsterdam to Barcelona, then Barcelona to Rome) then they could have gates next to each other, because no inspection is needed to make the connection.
OK. That makes sense. Most of the airports that I’ve been to have an “international” terminal so going through immigration isn’t necessary in most cases.