South London Bon Viveur

In August the mornings seemed to be particularly bad with things easing off in the afternoon, although I am hearing reports that people have experienced severe delays in the evening as well. So I'm afraid prepare for the worst, but the problem with that approach in terms of security waiting times is that if your worst fears are not realised in relation to security wait times, you will then have hours to kill at the airport, which is also crap. So basically, Amsterdam is a pretty horrible experience all round and to be avoided if at all possible.

And for those without status, those £80 of so CE upgrades may actually be worth while for once.

chistery

I have a connection, non-Schengen to Schengen later this week, any recent experiences of transiting? I'm now feeling 55 mins is not enough?

EGLK FLYER

Hi. Any recent experiences of early mornings at Schipol? Travelling CE HBO in Nov on the 0730. Considering staying the previous night in Hoofddorp but the earliest train from there to airport arrives at 0530 - cutting it fine? Obviously I could get a taxi earlier.

shefgab

55 minutes is tight anywhere. However I did this connection a few weeks ago, there's no security to do, just immigration. There was no wait for EU passports, non EU took about 20 minutes. Plus a LOT of walking between gates

Airprox

Yesterday afternoon around 1pm they were using the entrance to security from Departures 3 (the entrance by BA checkin) for Priority only with everyone else sent to Departures 2. Haven't seen that queuing setup before, I went through Dep 3 so I don't know how long the normal queue was. About half the security lanes were open from what I could see.

MBDublin

I went through non priority departures 2 yesterday ( at 11.30am) and it took around 45 mins from security entrance. I enjoyed the free waffle handed out as you entered the security line to ensure that you didnt starve on the way through.

happyintheair

YMMV but I think an 0530 arrival for a Club (so priority lanes, etc, non schengen) will be fine.

bacchus85

Had a similar connection this week (flying into AMS on DL, connecting to KL).

It took me a total of 25 Mins to get from the F Gates to the B Gates (including passport control with an EU Passport) and I made my connection just fine

fourstardust

Departures 3 in general does not see the level of issues that 1 & 2 have. If you have any form of status and its a morning flight arriving an hour before boarding should be more than sufficient. I travel out of AMS weekly and to date (touch wood) never had an issue from non-Schengen side

mysyk7

I arrived just over 4 hours before for the BA2827 (13.50 LGW) service - CE and Silver. I approached the priority area inbetween check-in desks 24-25 as described above but the Schiphol employee directed me to the back of the queue (which snaked around the terminal and outside under marquee style tents), saying that priority would be accessible only once up stairs. I approached the BA check-in desks and two individual agents said they had both received conflicting information. Another passenger was asking the same question and one of the friendly agents decided she would escort us both to the aforementioned priority entrance area. The tensa barrier was unhooked and we were allowed through and then directed to the front of the queue and straight up the stairs, whereas the main queue was still being held at this point. Once up the stairs, as again pointed out above, hang right and showed the boarding pass to the employee manning another tensa barrier which then led straight to the front of the security queue by the scanners. Despite the initial confusion, from train platform to the Aspire lounge took only 25 minutes. I overheard Schiphol employees saying the wait from the back could have been as long as 5 hours. Aspire lounge access no problem however those not travelling in a premium cabin or without status were being asked to stand to the side and form a separate queue where the agent would attend to them in c.35 minutes to let them know if there was availability.

Breadstick77

Sunday afternoon update from today: We arrived at Schiphol dead on 4h before departure and saw the queue snaking all the way through the tent (so I guess 3-4h line?). We're a family of 5 (Gold, silver and young kids having 3x Bronze). We went to the premium security entrance behind 25 (as per all the great advice in this thread and others) and asked if all 5 of us could go through there. The staff let us through without any issues. We took a right and joined the 'economy + premium' queue. They let you up in batches so we waited there for 5 minutes. Once up the stairs, we took a sharp right to the premium security line which was empty (economy was obviously). The lady guarding the entrance look at (mainly my gold) BPs and let us through without any issues. We were through all security in 15 minutes. Passport control line was same for all, but moved quickly and we were through in another 15 mins. So bang on 30 minutes in total.

stifle

That depends on one's origin; only if it is "trusted" by the Dutch government do you get to avoid going through security.

South London Bon Viveur

Flew through this hell hole again today, and with priority access (exactly as described above) it took about 25-30 minutes from train station to getting airside. Although I was legitimately using Priority Access, today the "check" at the tensa barrier behind the check in desks consisted of a young lady asking me if I had priority and me responding in the affirmative- not much of a check. Although subsequent checks were more stringent. Conversely I have in the past been turned away despite being Gold- all part of the fun at Schiphol.

Those less fortunate would have been waiting around 90 minutes to two hours I imagine. The Aspire Lounge was packed and turning away Priority Pass passengers. My next trip to The Netherlands is in and out of RTM and I can only advise those that are able to avoid Amsterdam to studiously avoid it at all costs- it's an abject experience from start to finish. Unless something very drastic happens, I wont be going there again this year.

stifle

May I recommend Eurostar for your travel needs?

EGLK FLYER

Thanks!