Does Schipol suck?
 

Is it just me or does AMS really blow?

I have not been here for 20 years and now I just had 4 visits in 2 weeks. So far

- I came off a Schengen area flight and didn't see a single sign to the trains until I left Schipol Plaza
- The ticket machines for the trains only accept chip and pin cards so no dice for cardholders from the Americas.
- Amsterdam Central is not a terminal so doesn't appear on any platform screens (Surely most tourists want to go there?)
- The check in desks are sideways on, so you have to walk the full length of the hall to see where your check in is.
-All of the *A carriers are in check in zone 3, apart from Lufthansa/Swiss/Austrian which is in check in zone 1, desk 1, it is not possible to be further away from the other *A carriers.
- The signs do not match the desks. "This way to check in desks 1-20" even though 17-20 is in hall 3 and the sign directs you away from them.
-Coming out of the main exit next to Café Rembrandt, the sign for hotel shuttles tells you to turn left, they are actually to the right.

Am I alone or is anyone in agreement?

Why would you expect to see a sign for trains at a departure/landing gate? There are signs to local transport in the main building, whereas most gates are not.Which is why they have a ticket office in the same area, staffed by human people.If by "platform screens" you mean the track displays over the stairways, then it most certainly is displayed (although using the Dutch "Centraal" instead of English). Due to trackwork a week or two ago, however, there were no trains between Schiphol and Amsterdam Centraal. There were buses instead.I'm not sure what that means, but Schiphol is not so much different from other European airports in layout.The hall and desk numbers are displayed on the departure screens. I use those and go directly to my flight.As far as I know, each hall has the same desk numbers.I live in Amsterdam, so I really don't know where the hotel shuttle buses stop.[QUOTE]

Overall, we did not have any major problems at AMS, I do remember two issues though:

- Getting to Amsterdam Centraal was not so straight forward. Trains left from different tracks and signage was not very clear. I believe we were told the next train was from track 7, missed it and then found out that the one after that left from a different track, so we missed that one as well. It would help if one track was reserved for trains going into the city. Not sure if we ended up using a train that was included in our type of ticket, but did not have any problems.

- Connecting from a TATL flight from IAD to a flight to FRA, we had to walk pretty far to get to the right gate. Everything was clearly marked, but I remember the walk being rather long.

Agree that Schipol is very big. I'm sure I walked halfway to LGW before I got on the plane.

And then once on the plane, it drove the most of the remaining distance to LGW.

2. the ticket machine @ AMS is actually the only one in the network that accepts US-issued chipped cards (chip + sign)
3. yes, the signage for Centraal is quite poor. even im confused over multiple visits
4. check-in also bad, esp for *A

its just not good for *A flyers

AFAIK, there is no track 7 at Schiphol. There are three platforms and six tracks. The train to Amsterdam leaves usually from platform one, track one. It usually only leaves from a different track if there is an unscheduled (or scheduled) event.


Signage not clear? There is a national train schedule shown in one display http://www.metronieuws.nl/_internal/...NP-995315.jpeg

(as well as the printed schedule seen in the bottom right of the photo) and a display over each of the three platforms, such as this one:

http://imagene.youropi.com/Schiphol_...,Schiphol).jpg.


You will note that Amsterdam Centraal is abbreviated in the photo as Amsterdam CS (Centraal Station).

Maybe I'm mistaken about track 7 and it was a different one.

All I can say though is that at the time it was not completely clear to us what to do. The ticket we received was only valid on certain types of trains and not all trains that went through Amsterdam CS had that listed as the destination. Trains definitely left from different tracks and if one missed a train, one had to go all the way back out from the platform to find out where the next one would leave from.

I'm not saying this was a huge problem for us that could not be solved, but if the airport was looking for suggestions on how to make things easier, this is what I would point out.

All train platforms in the Netherlands (including Schiphol) have full train schedules displayed on them like this (on the left, from Schiphol):

http://www.melookyoubook.com/wp-cont...-Panoramio.jpg

I would also point out that this is not unique to the Netherlands - trains stations all over Europe, including Germany - have these schedules directly on the platform so you don't need to go far to get information.

There is, or was, at least one ticket machine at AMS that takes non-chip cards. You needed to look for the little VISA logo. There was also one at Centraal - hard to find outside the ticket office. But as stated you can also buy a ticket from a person for a surcharge.

Ha ha

Mainly just me then :p

I just felt as a casual visitor that it would not have taken much additional effort to have made the whole experience much more intuitive all around. And I am fairly certain that AMS is the only airport that I have felt that way about.

The last time I was at AMS (couple of years ago) the person at the ticket office refused to accept any of my swipe and sign cards. Had to go to an ATM and get cash. Has this changed?

both the booth and the automated machines accept sign cards

Are you sure? It has been my experience that only a very limited number of the automated machines take anything other that the Netherlands cards, and you really need to hunt to find one that will take a swipe and sign card - if any exist any longer at all.

They are not Netherlands cards, they are European cards as they are accepted all over Europe, not only in the Netherlands.