In case there was still any doubt that the secondary screening is the problem: I departed last Thursday evening (holiday in the Netherlands) and there was no waiting line whatsover at security (walked straight up to the check point). But it still took me more than 10 minutes to get through, waiting for my almost empty laptop bag to get cleared.

There were more people standing at the secondary waiting for their bags than at the actual waiting lines...

That is exactly the problem but they will never acknowledge that. You have to have a certain experience of flying in many different airports to realise that this is the problem, otherwise, you just think it's normal.

Schiphol CCO Van den Berg in Zakenreis:

"In toenemende mate kunnen we passagiers duidelijk maken hoeveel tijd ze nog hebben voordat ze moeten boarden. Dit gaat via apps, monitors et cetera, het gaat om een total informatiepakket. Reizigers moeten op hun gemak worden gesteld. Als passagiers weten hoeveel tijd ze nog hebben voordat ze naar de gate moeten en zeker weten dat deze informatie betrouwbaar is, zijn ze nog wel geneigd om aankopen te doen. We willen niet alleen de passagiers zo snel mogelijk bij de gate krijgen, maar hen ook keuzes geven."

Synopsis: by providing accurate and reliable information Schiphol put pax at ease, allowing them to spend time shopping before boarding just on time.

Good grief! What planet does the man live on?

Johan

One where airports are nothing else but shopping malls conveniently reachable by plane.

It would seem if he were to reduce the queues then passengers would have more choices !

I sent a message to Schiphol's social media team today referencing this thread to hope PR / management can read specific experiences from actual frequent fliers that recognize where the greatest inefficiencies and issues lie.

So far in media and prepared statements I've seen only blame of passenger load, where I (and most others here) have echoed that it's the security procedures that are a huge issue. Policies should be changed, optimized and issues recognized.

I am reading reports on Twitter that even Privium PAX are not allowed to skip the queue as it causes 'too much unrest among other PAX'.

Last time I was in the Departures 2 Priority Line of Hell for an hour a Schiphol staffer was loudly reprimanding a helper for letting Privium Pax cut the line.

Absurd and idiotic.

Today with my Privium I was escorted and assigned to the first empty basket. Lots of grumbling from other pax.
And 10 more mins because my empty (except a set of keys) backpack went to secondary, plus my separate cable bag...

Spontaneously or on request?

Hey, in an emergency a set of keys can be a potent weapon, as long as you know how to fight and use them properly.

Johan

Spontaneously !

I am not sure they even saw the keys - they just passed it thru the scanner once more and then to secondary where they scanned it again and let it go... but the wait for the 2nd scan plus the secondary scan was >10 mins

This doesn't make sense to me. When that checkpoint was brand new my bag got tagged for secondary twice. After that it hasn't happened at all. My bag is the same, my laptop is the same. Last few flights I've not seen it happen all that much.
And this thread the past few weeks suddenly sees an explosion of this. Wondering if this coincided with that american laptop ban

Definitely not, I saw an uptick of it at random times. I suspect it has to do with newly trained personnel having the policy of playing it safe and rather sending to secondary than going with the benefit of the doubt.

Sunday evening at security my bag, where nothing electronic or cables were left inside, went to secondary.
Upon checking the screen, the security guy immediately said: "ah, you have a camera lens in your bag".

:confused: :confused:

Once I opened the bag and pointed towards the zoom lens he just nodded and followed up with: "can you please show me your wallet, it contains coins" :confused: :confused:

Pointed toward the wallet in the open bag and the friendly guy once again nodded and told me all is fine, please proceed....

Luckily I'm getting immune to the Schiphol security random madness, so I just smile and patiently cooperate, but...what the F?! :D

This past Momday I zipped through in 5 minutes without a secondary even though I only took out my laptop and iPad but left all cables and chargers and lots of coins inside my bag. It's all random, folks.