Victor88

How have members been experiencing the lines at Privium of late? I never usually face a line when exiting, however on arrival I often have had to wait in a line that seems to get longer each time. Most of my travel is to the UK regional airports and LHR, so perhaps there are a larger than average number of cardholders on these routes. However my travel patterns have remained constant and the lines have become longer than I recall last year. Good for Schiphol I guess, but nonetheless irritating to remain in the Privium line only to have one of the folks in blue amble out, open another booth and watch the other lines half in length and process passengers without Privium more swiftly.

Victor88

johan rebel

After the Dutch, UK passport holders are the second largest group of Privium members, so that might well be true.

The number of Privium members has also been increasing steadily, I think there are some 75,000 now.

Johan

jambochris

I arrived back at Schiphol last Friday (28/6) at about 20.00 from the UK.
In front of me there were 8 in line for the Privium scanner while to the left there were only 3 waiting for the passport check from Kmar.
I decided to move to the normal queue by ducking under the barrier and a glance at my passport I was out ahead of those who had been just in front of me in the Privium queue.
I find that sometimes it makes sense just to join the normal line rather than wait for Privium.

johan rebel

Oh for sure, especially if you have an EU passport. The biometric gates can be faster too. I find the latter slower than similar contraptions at other airports, but the Privium iris scan is not that fast either.

Johan

Ehrmantraut

@Viktor I totally feel you man.

Since privium and amex have this deal you see many more people in the privium lounge as well.
however in last 3 months of flying everytime the normal queue was longer and it only happened maybe twice that 2-3 pax are in front of me @ privium scanner.
what annoys me more is the rude, power hungry security staff @ security checkpoint that have you wait in line behind SkyPriority pax and then feed everybody in the most left or most right lane for security and you see other stations with no line.
back in the day privium had DEDICATED security line which made the guarantee of fast airside. lately from queueing to going through it takes on average 10-12 minutes. compared to 20-25 min of normal queue.
so 10-12 minutes is not the end of the world but whenever I fly from CDG/STR/MUC/HEL/ARN/PRG/LIN/FCO it takes me 4 minutes to go airside with SkyPriority.
I would say only place worse then schiphol is BHX

johan rebel

I fully agree on all points.

In addition to the generally high quality catering, the ClubLounges' main selling point is that they are not as massive as most airline lounges these days. However, with space being limited they can easily get overcrowded, especially with the increase in membership.

The disappearnce of the dedicated security lane really sucked. I complained about it at the time, and in reply the Privium manager expressed her regrets. She explained that they had done everything they could to keep the lane, but Schiphol was unwilling to help find a solution. She added that "Privium was only a minor player at the airport" and did not have much clout. With 75,000 members paying, say, €200 a year on average (I have no idea how many are Privium Basic members), the annual revenue comes to €15m, not an inconsiderable amount. I figure that should buy a lot more priority than we are getting now.

AMS security is almost without fail a huge pain int he behind, what with all that secondary nonsense etc. I once suggested to those in charge that they pop over to CPH, where CPH Express is a model of efficiency and courtesy. Last time I used it, it was not properly supervised, so tons of regular pax self-fed into the priority lane from the general access side, but that was an aberration. Normally I just breeze right through.

Johan

Ehrmantraut

I have lounge access to all lounges @ AMS except OW non-schengen.
personally Privium club lounge is the best one for the simple reason that it is a small lounge that USED to be really quiet. You could go to the bathroom or go for some EXCELLENT food and leave your stuff at your chair.
KLM crown lounge is just to big, to crowded and you feel the need to keep watch on your gear constantly.

in all fairness if the security situation can't be solved (which is a SHAME). that's the basic product they offer.....
at least I hope they can make the clublounge airside. the uncertainty in queue time makes you leave the lounge earlier then necessary.

What I always do nowadays is go through security in T2 with new scanners as it saves me many times with secondaries. although I insist on taking my DSLR's out of my bag as they ALWAYS go to secondary.
last weekend got a rude reaction from a rent-o-cop in powermode that I had to leave all my stuff inside the bag. explaining him it always goes secondary got the reaction. "So you know how I have to do my job?
had to put camera back in and guess what. Had to go in secondarie....

if you complain @ privium they just have the copy paste default reply.

arjen05

I thought Privium actually was a service of Schiphol itself?

Do they have one?

nldogbert

Is there a security at T2, I don't recall any security there for flights within the Schengen zone? I would love to do this as I really despise the T1 security section with their power tripping officers and lottery security. Am interested in going through this way even if it means going in/out of passport check again.

Cheers!

johan rebel

Sure it is, but it was explained to me they have to compete with other Schiphol NV business units for facilities, amenities and services, some of which they then have to pay for out of their own budget. Other business units allegedly have far more clout.

The landside lounge has six toilets, the (non-Schengen) airside one currently has none, but they are working on it.

Johan

Ditto

The automatic gates won't allow you to use the non-schengen security, for schengen flights you can either use T1 or T1A security checkpoints.

Ehrmantraut

Which is a secret benefit on privium since a boardingpass will restrict you to schengen-non schengen but privium gate will open no matter since it gives access to airside regardless of a boardingpass.
you sign for the fact that going airside w/o BP will result in termination of privium and a hefty fine / prosecution. but I checked with Kmar/privium and you are required to have a BP for going airside it does not discriminate for Schengen/non schengen.
so it will cost you 2x 30 sec to cross "the border" but security itself is way more pleasant than in T1 with the power trippers.

fastest route on schiphol for me (95% Skyteam flights, having SkyPriority). Enter door in departures 2 drop the bag @ SkyPriority go up stairs to Security Filter 2 (non schengen) use privium card to enter line, have "expedited" (ahum....) Security check. cross border with privium eye scan, go in non-schengen privium lounge since it's the least busy one. whenever It's time to go to the gate go there non schengen or pass the border once more to schengen.

also T1A usually has shorter queues as well but inconvenient for me as my bag drop is always in departures 2 with SkyPriority and departing gates are usually D or C5/C7 so T1A makes no sense also regarding lounge which are between D & C.

AJCNL

Arriving back from the UK the other evening it seemed almost all of us Easyjet upfront/speedy boarders headed for the single old style Privium scanner so I had to wait for 4 in front of me. The EK 380 had just arrived before us though, so Privium was still much faster. At departures 3 they have 2 new style scanners installed, one was out of action, one person in front of me took ages, though it was very fast when I used it.

Ehrmantraut

That is not a bad deal? if you compare to the normal lines...