I came back yesterday from doing what you will be doing. I left 1.17 ord-iad-ams and stayed in the airport for 3.5 hours and returned ams-iad-ord.
There is no transfer desk, but its easy and fast to go through immigration and security.
Drink Chits: If you are *gold or flying in a premium cabin you should get chits on all outbound segments. In ORD all of the RCC staff gave me chits. Some only gave me one, but most two. As there are 3 RCC I was able to get about 6 chits. Then at IAD I was able to get another 6. I used one and let a guy have one when he found out he had to pay for alcohol. This left me with 10 from the trip. Some chits were the old ones and some were the new blue glossy ones. None of them have dates or club location. On the way back I was with a companion and since he didnt get any chits outbound he tried on the return in IAD and they were more than reluctant and said she would only because he didnt get any on the outbound.
Clubs: If you are *gold or flying in a premium cabin after you arrive at AMS go out of security and check in for your return flight at the business class check in. They should give you an invitation to the Globe something or other lounge. The SQ lounge is not operational as there are no flights on sunday. The Globe lounge is shared by UA and seven or eight other airlines. Its small but has finger food and booze for free. You cant go in and out so if you are going to do shopping, do that first.
Showers: There are pay showers available not associated with the lounge. I dont know how much they are, but there are signs.
[This message has been edited by anc-ord772 (edited Jan 19, 2004).]