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I have to travel from Tijuana (Mexico) to Brussels (Belgium) on a business trip. The flight is operated by AirFrance and goes:

  • from Tijuana to Mexico City (Aeromexico);
  • from Mexico City to Paris (AirFrance);
  • from Paris to Brussels by train (SNCF).

The trip to go back to Tijuana is the same in the reverse order:

  • from Brussels to Paris by train (SNCF);
  • from Paris to Mexico City (AirFrance);
  • from Mexico City to Tijuana (Aeromexico).

The problem

Near the end of my business trip, I will already be in Paris. Therefore, I was planning on skipping the train part that goes from Brussels to Paris. Therefore I have the following questions:

  • Will I still be able to check-in at Charles-de-Gaulle airport without issues for the plane part?
  • Will I be charged with penalty fees for not checking-in at the train station in Brussels?
  • Could I not simply check-in with the Air France webpage the day before and show-up at the airport and skip the train?
  • Will I be denied to board the plane at the airport?
  • What possible issues will I be facing?
Meclassic
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2 Answers2

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Accoriding to Air France, you can't skip the train journey

If you are traveling in the order of "train + plane", you must complete your train trip in order for your flight ticket to be valid.

Your ticket will simply be voided with no recourse as you would likely be counted as a no-show for the whole journey.

To add to the answer :

This train (CDG-Brussels) is the only France-Belgium train run by SNCF (French national rail operator) and not by Thalys (the rail operator of all IHST (International high-speed train) services between France and Belgium)) due to a partnership with Air France.

It is treated as being a Air France operated service so all the usual procedures for a flight are in place including a separate terminal at Brussels.

As a business traveler you may have a flexible ticket that would allow you to cancel the train journey though.

Nicolas Formichella
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I post this answer only to leave trace of what ended up happening during the trip.

Going from Tijuana to Europe

  1. I boarded the plane as usual, Aeromexico just asked for my passport and everything was ok.
  2. At the train counter, I was specifically asked to show my plane ticket in order to obtain my train ticket. Note that if there is one part of the trip that you could eventually skip, it may be this one but I explicitly do not recommend doing this because it was never clear to me during the trip what was I expected to show at the counters (i.e., it depended on what the person at the counter asked for).

On the way back

  1. At the train station, I was asked to show, along with my passport, either my proof of reservation (email) or my plane tickets for the inbound trip. I just showed the email from AirFrance and then the girl did not care anymore about the plane tickets so I left her with that and it was OK.

  2. There appeared to be some sort of problem with my reservation and so I was specifically asked to show my train ticket in order to obtain my plane ticket. Note that I was travelling with a colleague and no one asked for his train ticket. But again, he had no problems at all with any part of the trip, and therefore I am compelled to state that it is highly recommended to complete the whole trip in order to avoid any "surprise" penalty fees.

Meclassic
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