jamiestr

Hello! First time post on KL forum. I'm booking travel for my parents to meet me in AMS, and we'll proceed on to OTP, but would like the advice of the community.

My parents are flying Delta, arriving at AMS on the day we'd connect at 8:15AM. They have two PNRs for their travel, one award and one paid both in Delta One. My mom is a Platinum Medallion. For the OTP flights, we have two options: 1) KL at 9:20AM, or 2) RO at 11:40AM.

Two questions:

1) The KL flight would be far more convenient for our schedule, but is an hour connection time doable in Schiphol? Note that DL and KL both sell the ATL>AMS>OTP on DL & KL.

2) Would KL rebook/protect us on the RO flight is we missed the KL flight? Note that three sets of PNRs would be in play here, but they are flying paid J and my Mom is SkyTeam Elite Plus.

pmichelazzo

1) No. They need to cross on the immigration (AMS is the first port in Europe) and one hour is too short.

2) I never see a company protect someone with different PNR's but, for sure, they can take the Elite Plus in consideration.

Best,

jamiestr

Thank you.

Goldorak

I disagree for 1) as Romania is not part of Schengen.
For 2), Yes, agreed.

To OP: traveling on separate tickets with only 1hr between flights is a recipe for disaster. So, take the 11:40 flight

Ditto

If all goes well with the DL flight, it will be a simple case of walking gate to gate, no security and no immigration (I'm assuming no checked luggage), so 1hr is possible, however if the DL flight is delayed they will not be protected.

Xandrios

1) There is no border crossing, OTP is not in Shengen.
2) It’s (was?) a published benefit with for example one world alliance.

As said by others: if everything is on time it will be fine. Half hour delay of the first flight may make the connection impossible, and you will not be protected on another flight. You may get lucky, and they may rebook you out of lieniency, but I don’t bet on it.

irishguy28

Not anymore!

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...ts-protection/

Cory6188

FWIW, I've made a few 1-hour connections from US to Schengen at AMS - you just have to show the agents at the immigration line that you have a flight departing shortly, and they'll point you to the quick connect line.

I wouldn't exactly recommend it, as you have no margin for error (one time, my flight was 20 minutes late arriving into AMS, and I RAN from the outer reaches of D, through immigration, and to the end of the B concourse for my next flight, but I still made the 40 min connection), but it is doable.

Also, I'm not sure how many AMS-OTP flights KL has per day, but if you book through DL, DL reservations will be happy to protect you on the next KL flight if it looks like you won't make your connection before you leave the US. It's happened to me a few times, and they've made the change on the KL connecting flight without skipping a beat.

pmichelazzo

Sorry for that. I read OPO instead OTP.

Hard mornings...

irishguy28

KL will do this while you are in the air. In fact, we have had reports of people being rebooked onto a later flight, but turning up on time for their original flight but finding their seat has been given to someone else.

If, however, you are travelling on separate tickets, and you miss your KL flight from AMS, you will not be protected, regardless of what any DL agent may have said or done prior to your departure. If you travel on separate tickets, you should be maximising your connection time, not minimising it, as the risk is all yours.

jamiestr

Thanks all. We booked on the later TAROM flight. Cheers!

Goldorak

this is a safe choice ^

Mileage Lover

In January, I'm flying LAX-AMS-JNB. The cxn in AMS went from a short 1:10 to 1:05 with a sked change. Is that a legal cxn in AMS?

SkyteamEP

You're staying in the international area, this is a legal connection.

Mileage Lover

Thanks! The LAX-AMS is prone to delays so will cross my fingers!