Brendan88

Ik took me at 9:30 this morning 40 minutes to get from Plaza to lounge with SkyPriority and Privium. When I arrived at security (dep 2) one group of 3 bays was open, I think it was due to staff change. After 20 minutes they opened an additional 2x 3 bays more for priority. A lot of people were sent to Departure 1 security.

Had my own cutlery in my carry on including a knife nothing went to secondary, secondary was not busy either. 2 people on the scanner screens seem to help prevent bags going to secondary as someone else earlier noticed.

Privium west lounge, when exiting, there was a father and son (at least 13 years, and looked like a quite boy) the boy was denied acces as he was a child. So one agent is not the other in permitting access.
Also noticed SG passengers with business class tags in the Privium lounge. They had a real Australian accent so don’t expect them to be a Privium member.

Boarding was a mess at E21 bus gate to “Buffer DE”. Just 2 gate agents for a full A333. One behind the desk and the other scanning boarding cards. Some people blocking the SP access that were zone 5 and would not step aside. Boarding call went from zone 1&2 to 1-3 in 20 sec and 1-4 20 seconds later. So people from almost all zones were trying to board at once.

Now waiting for a pushback truck which is not available, expected departure delay 90 minutes.

fyi this is for a KL flight.

irishguy28

The NOS is reporting that, with an extra 200 security staff hired, the cap on passengers departing AMS can be raised by an additional 5000 per day to 73,000 in August.

They also say that, in the first week of August, there are approximately 1,000 passengers too many expected to travel.

m0hamed

Arrived on EK this afternoon. First off the plan with M&A booked. We were first in the queue along with other F pax so wasn’t really necessary, but was worth it for the reassurance.

Seeing the queues outside as we walked to the hotel car is a truly shocking sight.

luvflying

Is this delay seen for early morning flights as well ? We have a 6:30 AM Schengen flight next Sunday. Wondering if we need to arrive at 2:30 AM to the airport or can it be slightly later (say, 3.30 or 4 AM) ? No SP or Privium.

malmostoso

Unless you can miss your flight, show up at the airport 4h before departure, not a minute later. Early morning is the worst time.

johan rebel

According to Luchtvaartnieuws.nl, today wasn't a great day for Schiphol. Seems as if the new cap boils down to keeping a larger number of people waiting for just as long as hitherto, if not longer.

Johan

BA850

I dread to think how much worse things would have been had Schiphol not made the switch to CT Scans at security last year and passengers were spending even longer packing and repacking their bags - at least that’s one point in their favour amid the ongoing chaos.

notanevildoer

I'm flying business class short haul with KLM. That still gives SkyPriority access?

Thanks for the great thread!

BA850

Yes; SkyPriority check-in and security. You’ll find a SkyPriority logo on your boarding card and should avoid the worst of the problems.

cpworld

Thanks for the replies. We cannot fly within the US without showing photo ID, and starting next year the ID requirements will be even more stringent (realID). We were asked for our ID on all of our other Schengen flights so it struck me as unusual. Not complaining though!

b12e

(In Schengen), it really depends on airport and airline. Legally it's not required from what I understand, but some locations keep doing it. I think on my regular BCN-BRU flights between 2013 and 2017 I was never asked to show my ID except for once, just after the airport re-opening after the 22nd of March bombings.

These days hardly ever, but it does happen. Most recently in Barcelona, I believe.

edit: it must have been _to_ Barcelona, coming from CDG.

Goldorak

France/AF ID checks for all flights, even domestic.

johan rebel

Yes, but the advantages of CT scans are to a very considerable degree negated by a) the tendency of the agents at the scanner to stare at the screen for 30-60 seconds for each and every tray, desperately trying to figure out what they are looking at, and then, b) sending up to 90% of the trays for a secondary screening.

Johan

10271989

How's the luggage handling been going at AMS lately? Will be flying out back to the U.S. from AMS this Friday and been hearing horror stories about bags being lost en-route mainly on connecting flights, but has baggage been reliable for people flying out of AMS back to the U.S.?

sierranevada

So based on all the stories here, we switched up our flights out of AMS a little. Instead of AMS-ZUR-JRO all on Swiss leaving at 7 am in the morning with a 55 minute connection, we changed to leave AMS at 8 pm the night before to ZUR, will overnight at the Radisson at the airport and then board Swiss in ZUR for nonstop flight to JRO, all in business class. We still need to check bags but hoping that by going later in the evening with no connection, our bags will be good. Will have Apple AirTags in them to keep track. I have more faith in the Swiss in Zurich about getting our bags checked safely. Still planing on being at the AMS airport 3-4 hours in advance for the evening flight.