What Happens If You Take the Wrong Ticket to CDG Airport
If you’ve ever taken the RER B from Paris to Charles de Gaulle Airport, you know it’s the cheapest, most direct option. A standard metro-style ticket. Hop on. Done.
Except – for a while there – it wasn’t that simple.
The €35 Fine Nobody Saw Coming
Île-de-France Mobilités introduced a unified airport ticket in early 2025. The fare to CDG is now €14 – and it must be purchased separately from your regular transit pass or metro ticket.
The problem? Thousands of travelers didn’t know. They boarded the RER B with a standard €2.55 metro ticket, exactly as they had done for years, and arrived at the airport to find an inspector waiting.
The fine was €35 on the spot.
Why So Many People Got Caught
The ticket rules changed, but the signage didn’t keep up. At CDG, there were no machines where passengers could pay the missing amount once they arrived. You couldn’t fix the mistake even if you wanted to.
The Navigo Easy card – the contactless card most regular Paris transit users carry – made things worse. You can’t load both a standard metro ticket and an airport ticket on the same card at the same time. Many travelers who figured this out ended up buying a second Navigo Easy card for €2 just to carry the airport fare, pushing the total trip cost to €16.
Transport rights group Fnaut called the situation unfair. They were right.
What Changed
Under pressure from Fnaut, Île-de-France Mobilités and SNCF agreed to stop fining people for this specific mistake.
The new rule: if you arrive at CDG with a valid standard RER B ticket but without the airport supplement, you pay the difference. No penalty. No fine.
It applies only to passengers who have a valid ticket for the RER B. Traveling without any ticket at all still gets you fined.
How to Get the Right Ticket Today
The airport ticket is called the Paris Region Airports ticket (“Ticket Paris Région Aéroports”). It costs €14 for adults, €7 for children under 10. Children under 4 travel free.
You can load it onto a Navigo Easy card – but only when the card has no other ticket type already on it. You can also store it on your phone via the Île-de-France Mobilités app or Apple Wallet.
The ticket works for both CDG and Orly, in any direction. One ticket covers the whole trip from any metro or RER station in the region to the airport.
What’s Coming Next
The CDG Express is scheduled to open in March 2027 from Gare de l’Est. It promises a 20-minute nonstop ride to the airport – no stops, no confusion about zones or supplements.
Supporters say it will finally give Paris the airport connection it deserves. Critics argue that €14 is already steep for a train that’s slow, crowded, and breaks down regularly – and that the CDG Express will cost even more.
For now, the RER B is still the main option for most travelers. With this policy change, at least an honest ticketing mistake no longer costs you an extra €35 at the departure gate.