s1362083

Amazing, that's the sort of reassurance I was after, and then some!

Firemin

I did my first b2b at ams on Friday (in a similar vein to you, on the way to HKG), although on the LCY flight. I too was a bit nervous. Needless to say it was unfounded!

You up quite literally disembark the plane and sit down by the gate. About 30mins later, you get back on!

Cymro

AMS is very easy as long as you're not trying to deal with checked baggage; there is one, highly theoretical risk (I've only heard it happen once out of thousands of times, and BA accommodated) and it is this:

1. Imagine you are booked on the 155 flight LHR-AMS, BA440, landing in AMS at 1815 and flying back at 1915 on BA441. The outbound BA440 is cancelled.

2. No big deal, as the inbound BA441 will also be cancelled, right? However, if for some reason BA cancels BA439 at 1615 departure, which left LHR at 1300 as BA438, that aircraft could operate as BA441. The result would be that you would no-show for your flight and potentially lose the long-haul ticket.

However, I would stress that:

1. Two cancellations lining up in this way is extremely rare;
2. Even if this did happen, this might involve paying of compensation and/or freeing up a seat early to avoid overbooking the combined flight, so a voluntary change might be in BA's interest;
3. Even if there was no special reason to accommodate, the chances are high that they would do so - and this was the case when it was reported on here.

So it's not quite zero risk; and it's much more likely that, had you booked BA438 in my example above that it would have been delayed so that it landed after BA441 had taken off, but it is a good idea to be aware of the possibility in the extremely unlikely event that it happens to you.

corporate-wage-slave

Yes I have heard of this happening for DUB too, and AMS and DUB are among the few stations where the flight frequency is such that this could happen, albeit it very rarely. The DUB case reported here was accommodated by BA and the passenger was OK.

One particular feature would be if there were night stopping staff either going to AMS/DUB or returning. It may mean preserving a later service back, even though it is out of sequence, in order to give the crew the minimum break requirements, not leave them stranded and avoid further disruption to the later flights they were going to operate.

Still it's highly unlikely to happen, but it may add to the advantage of SVG since this is nearly impossible there.

msm2000uk

I'm doing this tomorrow, and presume nothing has changed recently at AMS?

The last time I did it, we were on a 767 and I somehow ended up having to go back through security...which was a massive faff!

M

Globaliser

Unless something has changed since mid-August ...

msm2000uk

Perfect.

Many thanks!

M

flatlander

Frankly my main concern with anything from AMS is not a B2B but having a short connection in LHR on the way from AMS to anywhere complicated (many connections, high loads, lack of rebooking opportunities)! Delays at AMS are common, especially weather related delays in winter. BA flights usually operate but can be delayed by long ground holds because AMS is incapable of dealing with such common occurrences as a strong westerly wind, let alone any hint of fog.

The AMS ground experience is as described; very straightforward.

Globalist

AMS has not changed, no security at the gate anymore for the entire airport as Long as you are in the non shengen section which BA is. So for BA you are still deplaning and boarding at the same gate minus the security check. The only thing I noticed that you don't always get the unusual D22 gates but occasionally a D6. But no impact on the turn around.

In the end with Ex EU fares, once you are on board in Amsterdam you are protected for delays and reroutings etc. I checked this week during the storm and other days, lots of delays and even cancellations but the main shuttle flight connecting AMS to KUL and SIN (BA433) was on time. So I guess they put in effort to ensure connections on those flights.

Globalist

Globaliser

Although one's stress levels and risk tolerance will depend in part on how much one really needs to get to the destination as booked. To reduce the risk, you can always increase the duration of the connection at LHR: 5 months is my longest so far.

DYKWIA

A bit OT... But has any else tried the new airside Privium lounge at AMS? I've been a couple of times and it's a nice improvement on the Aspire and BA lounges. Very quiet so far, with some nice food (mainly cold, but there is some soup).

tia2013

Did my first B2B at AMS 2 weeks ago,said to the crew what we were up to and not to go back without us.
Exited plane and asked the gate agent how long till boarding and she replied 25 mins so we wondered up to the irish bar and had a quick drink and a smoke got back in plenty of time and reboared with the crew welcome of oh long time no see.

Airprox

Sounds like a pretty good summary of The Netherlands!

rupert_s

Chaos yesterday with 1/2 the flights cancelled and rest significantly delayed - down to one runway because of wind. I imagine a lot of folk were moved around - could bring a B2B to its knees fairly quickly. (Add to that a plane going tech today)

s1362083

So the big day has finally arrived and I've managed to get boarding pass for LGW-AMS and I'm checked in for AMS-LGW but cannot download BP because a passport/visa check is apparently required.

From the reply above the BP fail seems normal, but I just want to be triple sure that the passport check error doesn't change anything. Will LGW be able to complete passport check and issue BP? Failing that, can it be done at the gate in AMS?

I assume this is a no-go but would I be able to access the LGW lounge on the basis of same day CE boarding pass for AMS-LGW? I'm in ET for LGW-AMS and no status.