GUWonder

The Hilton AMS hotel often comes up on Hotwire.com, and there it goes for a significantly discounted price under the “opaque” hot rate type listings. [Hotwire.com and Priceline are both on cashback referral sites, and that can be an additional way to save money when booking hotels this way.] The key then is to know how to unmask the hotel so as to pick the right one and avoid the wrong ones. [That and understanding the booked room won’t be eligible for Hilton point earnings/credit (and any elite status benefits formally don’t apply under the Hilton program terms).]

Here is one way some have had hotels there unmasked: https://www.sfgate.com/travel/articl...k-14285316.php. . There is also the hotel review count method that works and is the one I more typically used to get the Hilton AMS.

ekartash

I've been reading the thread but I am still having a hard time understanding the sky priority situation. I am flying this Wednesday from AMS to CPT on KLM in J. When we landed here on saturday, our driver actually met us at departures. We saw the crazy lines outside of the airport, but looked like they were all being filtered through Departures 1. We exited through Departures 2. Were they in line just to check in or to go through security?

Could we enter through any of the departure areas and head to sky priority to check in? Is that too a zoo?
Our flight is at 10:50am on a Wednesday. Perhaps it will be calmer? Maybe not. Do you think we still need 4 hours?
We were going just uber from the hotel (we are traveling with our kids), but could also take the train from Central. Does it matter if you arrive by train or car when it comes to having easier entrance to the airport?

Thanks!

malmostoso

Security.

Enter through any door that is open and make your way to the SP check-in area. It can be quite busy, but since school holidays are finished I wouldn't expect it to be.

With SP I would do between 2 and 3.

I'm assuming here that the kids are flying J as well (i.e. will have SP themselves). If for any reason not everyone has SP you will be denied access to the SP security shortcut.

Not really in my experience.

tourguide

@ Stanbury and @ Hadesfly
As usual, Hadesfly is spot on with tips on flying out of Amsterdam, especially in this case remarking that the fall holidays are not on on OP's flight date: October 10th

Just want to share my suggestion here as well:
Take the train from Belgium on October 9th all the way to Schiphol airport. This way, you don't have to deal with possible train problems on the 10th.
Upon arrival at SPL, you take the elevator or escalator up 1 level, and you will find yourself in what is called Schiphol Plaza. Hotelshuttles are not more than 100 metres away, just outside the Plaza and there are signs (hotel shuttles) to follow. Sheraton airport, Hilton airport and even CitizenM airport are all more expensive than let;s say the IBIS airport Oct 9th - 10th. Plus, the distance to walk to the IBIS hotel shuttle is shorter than walking to CitizenM, the Sheraton or (especially) the Hilton. And the price for 1 night is (as far as i can see), much better than Sheraton and Hilton and even better than CitizenM. So take the shuttle to the IBIS. Next morning: check-in for AC is at departures 3, row 30. KLM at departures 2, row 9 (Sky priority area). If OP does not need to check-in luggage and has a boarding pass (online), both can go to KLM, row 9, Sku priority, to drop off luggage for KL. At the back of this area, there is a priority security area, where Mrs Stanbury can pass through but also Mr Stanbury as he is flying business class with AC. Once you have both passed priority security and passports, you will most probably get separated for your lounges. If Mrs Stanbury is unable to guest in Mr Stanbury, it would still be possible to buy entrance for 1 person at € 65. Please note you have easily saved this amount by staying at the IBIS instead of Sheraton or Hilton....True, no holidays on Oct. 10th, i still would be present at the airport around 3 hours before departure. And if you have a lot of time left before departure, have a nice drink in the KL non-schengen lounge and do enloy your flights back home to Canada..

HadesNL

tourguide : as usual you provide excellent information!

Indeed the cheaper hotel choice might offset the cost of the purchased lounge access.

At least on 10 October there won't be any chance of traversing in torrential autumn rain yet

Stanbury

Thanks so much for this helpful information. Exactly what we needed, particularly the KLM check-in co-ordinates. . We're both in BIZ (AC and KLM) and spending time in separate lounges is not really a big deal -- it was mainly getting through check-in, security and passports that I was a tad concerned about.

Great forum!

etiene

Report is a day late because my flight is - easyJet having canned the original on Sunday leading to separate travel for myself and the missus.

Two escalator dragons seemed excessive at 1730, given the paucity of departures after 2130, but they weren’t offering much resistance. Didn’t spot any crazy lines in D3, straight through to the Privium gate and up the stairs to discover they’d filled the right hand scanners with non-prio passengers. Then the worse show I’ve seen from security, as they wouldn’t let people proceed through an empty scanner because their luggage was on the other belt - even though a wheelchair passenger was causing an inevitable backup there. No great hurry from the people with queue once they’d processed the wheelchair either - plenty of time to chat and wander off…

In total looked like no more than five or six belts open, but minimal queue for non-prio.

irishguy28

Just to note - the school holidays are indeed now over in one region, but in the other two they end on August 28 and September 4 respectively.


https://www.government.nl/topics/school-holidays/question-and-answer/school-holidays-2021-2022

johan rebel

If you nevertheless would prefer to spend time in the same lounge, then the Privium Club Lounge West, if not too busy, accepts all comers willing to fork out €60. Another option is to just not visit any lounge at all. It's not compulsory, after all.

Johan

Sjoerd

Data point Tuesday 23 August around 6am non-priority security: total time needed 15 minutes.

After which my friend spent 30 minutes in a queue to get Stars*cks “coffee”.

etiene

Didn't get much better from there, though most of the issues weren't Schiphol's fault but rather fell on U2's ground handling [Menzies]. Waiter in Tastes from the Lowlands clearly rushed off his feet - I'm guessing the horeca side is still struggling to hire.

On the flight side: Polderbaan arrival ate up most of the early arrival, then it took a good five minutes for Menzies to remember they had to drive stairs up to the aircraft to let people off. At some point there must have been a gap in decanting passengers, because the door to the terminal shut and trapped ~100 passengers on the tarmac. Two Menzies workers on phones trying to get someone to open it back up - presumably didn't have the right key/code/card themselves. Finally started boarding around departure time, and as the last passenger embarked the captain comes on to say they thought they were ready to go before they realised that Menzies hadn't unloaded/loaded baggage. Another twenty minutes while that got done - with some gusto, by the feel of the shaking in the cabin - meant that by the time we were good to go our "southerly" takeoff [I presume from 18L] had turned into a 36L - so another fifteen minutes meandering over to the outskirts of Norwich again... Successfully turned a 20 minute early arrival into a 50 minute departure delay.

johan rebel

Almost par for the course these days, KLM is no better than Menzies.

Ended up departing 35 minutes late last week due to the usual luggage clown show. Captain had the temerity to blame the delay on "late incoming aircraft", even though the plane we were departing on had landed early, a full three hours before our STD.

Johan

b12e

Maybe the luggage handlers were delayed because another late incoming aircraft? I mean, there's always a few late aircraft to blame then, so 80% of the time, they can use this 100% of the time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

HadesNL

For those travelling by train to the airport:
https://nos.nl/artikel/2441765-morge...king-personeel
https://www.ns.nl/en/travel-informat...24-august.html

Railways strikes in different parts of the Netherlands for the upcoming week can create a knockback and cascade effect on other routes.

Good luck !

johan rebel

The captain specifically referred to the aircraft we were on. There was only one single handler to load the aircraft, which is one more than the zero I've seen on occasion. I don't think this particular flight has departed on time once this summer, and when I, colleagues or relatives have been on board that's invariably been due to luggage issues. Today it left almost two hours behind schedule, but for once that was due to the incoming aircraft landing almost two hours late.

Johan