OnTheRocks

Hi I have a flight coming up in August on KLM @ AMS with a 50 minute transfer is this enough time?

I will be arriving to AMS on flight KL1638 @ 9am from FLR and connecting to flight KL605 to SFO @ 9:50.

Any tips would be appreciated we are flying in J

Xandrios

I would say that this is a tight connection. 9AM is a very busy period as most of the long hauls are departing around that time. There is a chance that there will be a substantial wait at passport control.

On the other hand, if these two flight are part of one ticket, the (financial) risk is with the airline. Just keep in mind that there may be a chance that you will miss the connection - and have some alternative flights in mind in case you would need to be rebooked.

Ditto

It is very tight as you will have to clear immigration, and queues might be very long.
The only tip is to head straight away to immigration (following relevant signs to E/F gates) and do not waste any time in the duty free.

irishguy28

There is a later KLM flight to SFO - on a 787 - so if you are on a single ticket, and you misconnect, KLM will rebook you on that.

If you are doing this on separate tickets - please, consider arriving from FLR the night before.

Gajan

I thought there is only one KL flight per day from AMS to SFO.

caliform

No, AMS-SFO is 10x weekly. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday have an extra flight with the 789 if I recall correctly. Maybe even more frequently now.

That being said, these are often full. Don't depend on being rebooked on it same-day, as there's also frequent cancellations on this route (see my thread) and the planes are always packed to the gills even without cancellations.

irishguy28

Apologies! KL607 on the 789 operates only on Wed, Fri and Sun. Thought it was [almost] daily, like KL605 on the 747.

OnTheRocks

Thanks for all the responses this is a reward flight that was ticketed through KLM. So am I right to assume it would be on them to re-book if we miss the connection?

BigFlyer

So let's say the incoming plane from FLR is 5 minutes late, and the passenger misses the connection to SFO. There is no record, of course, when the passenger arrived at the San Francisco gate so no one can tell if the 5 minute delay caused the misconnect or it was the general congestion.

And the passenger arrives at SFO more than 4 hours late.

EU 261 compensation? Yes or no?

klanfa

I think so, yes. A tough battle for the compensation, but I think you should be due one. You can always argue the 5 minute delay was enough to misconnect... (note that the 5 minute delay has to be something in KL's control - so not weather, ATC etc)
I've received compensation on a 30-ish min delay in ATL arriving from CDG, and missing my ATL connection. For me the 30 minutes would have made the difference - I got through the immigration some 10 minutes before the departure.