AMS Transfer
 

I am arriving off an Air Baltic flight from Riga (Arrivals Hall 1) and departing with Aer Lingus to DUB from Departures Hall 2. If I just have hand luggage, is there a possibility to check in at a KLM transfer desk (EI's AMS Agent) even if I am on separate tickets. My Travel Agent is telling me that I will have to exit through customs on arrival in AMS and then make my way to Departures Hall 2 to check in. The Travel Agent does not want to sell me this routing as she feels that the 1hr 40min connection time is not sufficient (this seems crazy:confused::confused:!!)

Thanks

40 minutes on separate tickets???

NO WAY.

You are correct in thinking that you don't have to go landside. However, you do have to go through passport control (airside) as you are exiting Schengen, and through Security either at the gate or at a shared security point half-way down D Pier.

Even on a through booking it's not a connection I would choose to take - it's legal, but only just (Minimum Connecting Time is exactly 40 minutes), and transiting between Schengen and non-Schengen it is very very tight, with a very high risk of misconnecting .

I might risk it if it's on a single booking AND I know there is another flight not too long afterwards - because on a single booking the airline has to rebook me on the next available flight if I miss my connection. If you are on separate bookings, and you miss your connection, you're on your own and you will probably end up having to buy a new ticket (or pay to upgrade the existing one if you're lucky)

I just wouldn't do it. It's crazy to even think about it!

You can check in online for your Aer Lingus flight from Amsterdam from 30 hours before departure. This means that you should already be traveling from Riga with your 2nd boarding pass in hand.

KLM are the handling agents for Aer Lingus in Amsterdam, so you will need to check in via www.klm.com instead of on www.aerlingus.com for the flight leaving from AMS. (If you want to check-in online for the return DUB-AMS flight, you should do so on www.aerlingus.com).

If, for whatever reason, you are not able to check-in online and print your boarding pass before leaving, you should be able to obtain your Aer Lingus boarding pass from any of the blue KLM self-service transfer machines at Schiphol, or from a KLM transfer desk. Remain airside - you do NOT need to go landside to check-in. Trust me on this. I'm a frequent flyer on Aer Lingus and AMS is my home airport.

1 hour 40 minutes is LOADS of time - don't worry about a thing.

Aer Lingus nearly always leave from the D26-D31 area at the very end of the right-hand fork of the D piers. I'm not sure where Air Baltic usually arrives, but it is quite likely also in a D-pier gate.

Good luck, and don't worry!!!

By the way... Aer Lingus tickets when purchased via a Travel Agent are typically at least twice the price of the cheapest fare available on the same flight directly from www.aerlingus.com. I would advise you, before buying this as one ticket from your TA, to compare the price of just the Riga-AMS-Riga ticket separately, and see what your AMS-DUB-AMS flights from www.aerlingus.com come in at. My guess is that it is cheaper. And there also is the possibility that your TA-generated Air Baltic/Aer Lingus ticket may look unusual to klm.com and you may not be able to check in online (though again, going to a self service machine or transfer desk at Schiphol in the 1h 40 minutes connection time is loads to get your boarding pass). But I think you may be better off booking 2 tickets seperately. Just check the Air Baltic flights separately on their website - they may also be cheaper there than through a TA. But Aer Lingus is definitely cheaper if you buy direct from the airline.

Oops, sorry, I misread (because of the way the one hour was on one line and the 40 minutes on the next). I thought it was 40 minutes.

1:40 is doable if all goes according to plan - but it's probably still not something I would risk on separate tickets as there is still relatively little leeway.

I once read, somewhere here on FT, that some travel insurance policies stipulate a minimum of four hours when connecting on separate tickets, and four hours is the figure I have adopted as my own minimum. I did break that rule once when I booked a two-hour connection at AMS (KM to KL), but I did this in the full knowledge that I was taking a risk and that I would be on my own if I didn't make it, and I did have contingency plans.

Just as a point of interest/curiosity, you can book a round-trip Riga-AMS-DUB on the KLM (Lithuania) website. It costs around LTL 1,400 (whatever that is) and the flights are operated by Air Baltic and Aer Lingus. You'll probably end up on the exact same flights but with the 'security' of having a through (connecting) ticket that KLM would have to honour in case of missed connexion.

-- Henry

Thanks guys for getting back to me. I have business in both FRA and RIX so my routing is as follows DUB-FRA-RIX-DUB. I have booked a multi city reservation with EI for the DUB-FRA and AMS-DUB with separate tickets on LH on the FRA-RIX and Air Baltic for the RIX-AMS. I know I could book with KLM on a through ticket on the RIX-AMS-DUB sector but the one way ticket is €1400 approx. I'll take my chances on making the connection on separate tickets.

You should be able to book DUB-AMS-FRA, RIX-AMS-DUB on www.klm.com as an open-jaws (using the 'return from/to a different destination' option) for a reasonable price (as this will calculate using return fares, combined on a 'half-round-trip' basis, rather than expensive one-way fares). You're then all on one ticket, and the airline has greater responsibility in case you misconnect in AMS.