Originally Posted by
copperfield27
Even when there are security people there at AMS (and FCO with which I am sadly too familiar) I've often been waved through after just the barest waft of the dark red passport in their general direction. Maybe I look innocent

They are not "security people" -they are Royal Military Police (Koninklijke Marechaussee).
I pass through AMS several times a month - admittedly not always from outside the Schengen zone - but I have never once experienced a "wavethrough" there - they always take the passport from you.