capedreamer

YWG-RO

yhzflyer

Totally agree about AMS. Schiopol generally gets good reviews, but I hated it. The contract lounge is an absolute joke....you have to hunt and search for it, and it is so small that they they had a roped-off area for passengers to wait for others to leave. And when we were eventually admitted there were no seats. I also find the airport itself a bit of a maze. I can usually get my bearings quickly in a large airport, but AMS seems to have checkpoints everywhere.

Stranger

At AMS, AC is set up together with a bunch of low costs including Air Transat. But then I seem to recall so is UA; must be all Star?

canadiancow

I also think Sandra's great.

Nick was also fine.

AMS does have a concierge, though I've never had the opportunity or need to use their services.

flyquiet

At AMS the agents laughed at me when I pointed out that my boarding pass didn't scan correctly. I said no, I want to be sure I am boarding the right aircraft (because I was not preboarding as I'd been delayed making my way back from that obscure lounge) and please check that I am on the right aircraft, and he laughed like I was telling a joke. Then he called over to the desk , like hollered across the crowds and apparently they said something he regarded as confirmatory and was waving me on, so I proceeded over to the person at the desk just before the jet bridge and asked her to check and she chuckled too. Like, I have no idea what people are so mirthfully sharing, but it says DEAF in big letters on the boarding pass and they could not be bothered in the least about making sure I was confident about where I was being sent. (And I think the poor service at AMS is independent of whether one is J, passenger with status, or Tangerine in Y.)

In case anyone thinks this is a fantasy concern, a couple flights back, I was in my 12B (sad but the best I could get) and 12A was all unpacking his stuff and making a phone call during boarding, and then up and grabbed his laptop from the pocket and carryon from above and left the aircraft. Toward the end of boarding an entirely different 12A arrived (and dashed my hopes of sliding over to the window.) People can and do get waved on to the wrong plane and the hardback book Mr. 12A # 1 left in the pocket likely ended up in the lost and found in SAN.

capedreamer

Ok - glad to hear my experience is pretty consistent with the others here.

+1 to @yhzflyer. I'm surprised by how much love Schiphol seems to get in general airport reviews rankings. The passport lines (both arriving and departing) are some of the longest I've experienced in Europe and the airport design is quite a maze with less-than-intuitive signage.

Also sorry to hear about your experience, @flyquiet!

ACYYZ/SD

Notwithstanding impressions of the lounge, AC does not have a dedicated gate at AMS and one can find themselves in close proximity, or at the very remote gate D57.

With one flight a day, it all hinges on gate allocation and availability.

In terms of airport quality, MUC is in a league of its own.

YOWCDNFF

I will add my voice to the subpar service at AMS from the contract agents - from closing the priority check-in/luggage drop off well ahead of the cutoff time to the inconsistent treatment at the gate, and less than clear boarding process. What made it better is when the concierge showed up and tried her best to find all zone 1 passengers to set things up a bit better

Productivity

I find AMS incredibly intuitive - it's an arc with piers coming off the arc and somewhere in the middle there's a Schengen break with passport control (which I've never seen with much of a line). Immigration can be slow going into/out of NL, but I've experienced nightmares at all the other major airports (and MUC is significantly smaller in volume than AMS so it's not necessarily a fair comparison).

Compare it with FRA which is my other main transit airport, I struggle to know exactly where I am and usually am just following signs there hoping I get to the right point.

The AMS contract lounge is poor, but it's not a *A hub so again it's not exactly a fair comparison.

I know this is coming across as defensive of AMS and I'm not meaning it be that, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that to claim it 'ridiculous that these are marketed as the same product', is well, ridiculous.

lallied

capedreamer

IMHO, the wayfinding and signage to the lounges (esp. the Aspire lounge) is very unclear.

Agreed that this hasn't been an issue in the past, but my trip last week was met with long waits both on arrival and departure.

FRA's design is suboptimal, but at least I find the signage easy to follow.

This I disagree with. Air Canada does not market two different premium products to AMS vs. MUC (as an example), and between the aging aircraft, outdated J cabin, rude ground agents, and overcrowded lounge in AMS, the overall product ends up being fundamentally quite different.

Stranger

Really, updated J cabin on the 777/787, vs. 330. Sure there is a difference. Feels older, but at least does not deflate. Anyway, to us not such a huge deal, especially if the price is right.

This year so far, we have been on 333s back from DUB, on YUL-GVA. AMS being next. Sure given a good choice I might route dfferently. But if it's $500 more, I'll take the 330. Even booked already on the 763 from MXP in 2019. Other P options where at least $1000 more.