Sorry for slight OT, but I have some trips to NL and Flanders scheduled in upcoming weeks. Is flying out of BRU a good way to avoid the AMS mess, or is it also going through something like this? I'd rather spend some extra hours on a train than queueing at an airport.

afaik, BRU hasn't experienced anything like this, at worst maybe during the strikes early summer.

have family who have been flying through BRU in June, August and again next week - and I don't expect them to have any issues.

Biz class with no checked luggage. Currently booked via FRA. A cancellation for LHR-AMS would be very bad as the connecting flight is only 3x/week.

On balance, I’d suggest you’d stick with Frankfurt. Lufthansa and their pilots have at least agreed something of a truce over the most recent pay dispute, which lessens the chance of a surprise strike!

I’ll be flying UA to SFO tomorrow afternoon in J (no checked bags). Will UA priority bypass the worst of the lines as well?

- Bill

We flew GLA-AMS-ORD last Tuesday with no issues. Connection was 2+ hours, no security at AMS, checked luggage arrived at ORD. Of course, the situation may be different this coming weekend.

You should bypass the worst of it insofar as you’ll have priority security access*.

But the upthread reports from today and talk of enforced cancellations aren’t encouraging, so do arrive four hours ahead of your flight - as you’re flying in J, if you do get lucky and make it airside quickly, the worst that will happen is that you’ll sit in the lounge a bit longer than expected.

*Assuming they don’t block all access to departures, as has been reported in an earlier post today (#2285).

14 Sept PeakDay for Travel declared
 

Don't shoot the messenger.....

Just in:
https://nos.nl/artikel/2444396-morge...veiligers-zijn

- tuesday: -13% of security staff failed to report for duty, causing the aforementioned Q-chaos
- wednesday: counts as peak day
unknown what amount of security staff is available
- only certainty of this uncertainty: this situation can drag on for weeks / months

+ What an appaling piece of advice from Schiphol:
Reizigers moeten zich voorbereiden, dat hoort bij deze tijd.
Ze moeten niet te vroeg komen en niet te laat."
Het advies is ook "comfortabele schoenen" te dragen voor als er lang gewacht moet worden.
Operationeel directeur van Schiphol noemde de situatie eerder vandaag "waardeloos". Ze verwacht dat de overlast nog de komende "dagen, weken en misschien zelfs maanden" aanhoudt.
Translates:

As appropiate and expected, Travellers should prepare themselves,
They ought not to arrive to early nor to late,
Advice is to wear comfy shoes due to lengthy waits :rolleyes:
Problems are admitted by Schiphol and could continue on for days/weeks/months to come

johan rebel and others: Bonne Chance!

PS: shrewd suggestion + to keep yourself busy when queued up
- photo yourself with any Schiphol-clock to document the progress of delay
- photo yourself with your boarding pass
- screenshot via schiphol website your flight's cancellation or departure
- screenshot as backup the info via flightradar24//flightstats other sources etc
- stepcounter + location services on for walking / waiting route
As to acquire proof/evidence
if Schiphol extends their compensation scheme to include yesterday, today and upcoming traveldates....

On a personal note,
I've just hit the button to confirm this Friday's evening flight via RTM to LCY.
Any price to avoid AMS-departures seemed good enough!
Will discuss in the household to shift our future flights if this situation drags on.....

Data point from this morning. Worst I’ve seen at Schiphol yet. Lines in Plaza stretching back to the electronics shop to use the escalator upstairs. Nobody manning the stairs so walked up. Upstairs the priority line to use the escalators behind Sky Priority checkin stretched back about 20 meters. At the top of the escalator people were beginning to “tread water” before security opened a stantion to channel passengers to the security gates behind. My Privium card meant I was fortunately able to bypass the SP lines as well, but still shocking to see how bad things were. Now in the Privium Express lounge which is also packed - worst I’ve seen here too. ☹️

Just to add that we rebooked for yesterday evening from RTM. Was zero queues at security and it was a painless experience, even though it did mean an extra connection to get to our destination.

There were two groups of people in the AMS queue yesterday at lunchtime who rebooked themselves on later flights that day from AMS. I just saw both of them were canceled. What a nightmare day that must have been. Others were looking at getting the train back to the UK, which was also very expensive.

A big part of the problem was that there were so many people in the queue who were definitely going to miss their flight. This meant that those further back had zero chance of making their flights. I think the reason they were asking airlines to cancel was because all passengers going through non-priority departures 3 would have been missing their flights for a period of time.

Our airline Easyjet sent us a message in the App saying we could rebook for free. Never seen a budget airline proactively do that before, so the flight must have left empty. Next available flight back is Thursday evening though!

I would strongly urge anyone to avoid taking checked-in bags too. Even if you have priority security and can clear security easily, if your flight is canceled, you will be in another queue from hell to get your bags back. The queue for that yesterday went back all the way to the train station.

Thanks!

We used to have a company imposed 4-hours-before-departure-at-AMS rule, but in their wisdom (i.e. believing Benschop) they reduced it to 3 hours starting this week. :D Update: taxi has been moved forward by 30 minutes.

I'm with a batch of four who all have SP, and we are all on the same flight as well. Will let you know how it goes at the first opportunity. I'll already put my money on a late departure, though. The aircraft scheduled is running late on its first flight of the day; luggage loading issues are pretty much guaranteed; and with later flights canceled they will probably pack the plane to the rafters with rebooked pax, and perhaps even wait for those who now suddenly have very tight connections.

Johan

Source indicate busy today:
https://nos.nl/artikel/2444415-nu-al...nderden-meters

Victor88 & Frequent flyer 101 : thanks for reporting live from the onslaught.
Even if one does :
- travel HBO
- have Skypriority / StarAlliance Gold / Oneworld Emerald / Business Class / Privium
* according to the photos it seems impossible to enter all 3 terminal buildings from the outside smoothly
* inside queues are untill the event horizon so no sense of bearing where to go for the priority queue


to end on a lighter note:

FEMA! Where's FEMA! Somebody call FEMA! X
 

Data points:

- tent queue absolutely horrendous, probably the worst I've seen.

- drop-off zone the usual mess, but manageable. Exited vehicle at 11:05.

- grabbed bags, entered through T2 door F, went to the "back door". SP check-in pretty much deserted, but the line to regular security access was endless.

- a dozen in line for the back door access, bypassed them with Privium.

- once upstairs directed to T1 priority security. Line started almost directly around the corner, I estimate 70 ahead of me. Joined line at 11:08.

- Three priority lanes up and running. About a dozen pax joined the queue behind me, then nobody for several minutes. I surmised that they were directing priority pax alternately to T1 and T2, because the pause was followed by a sudden surge filling up the tensabarriers entirely.

- security itself quick and efficient, staff friendly. Nary a bag went to secondary. I was done by 11:24.

- longest line I've ever seen for immigrations stretched as far as the stairs down to the shopping mall (Grand Café)

- Took the short connections shortcut, elevator down and went through S/NS immigrations with Privium in seconds. It was moderately busy, E-gates open.

- comfortably seated in my usual seat in the Privium ClubLounge West at 11:35. Lounge busier than usual.

- now waiting for KLM to screw up my departure, but the lounge will start serving an excellent lunch in a few minutes. Indian theme today.

No pics today. Sorry!

Johan

In any bureaucracy - the appearance of having the right document counts. It's near certain to work.

Thanks for the detailed report, Johan. Sounds like your Privium saved you. How would you estimate the situation today for those using SP instead of Privium? Is there any benefit at all at this point (read: in this Schiphol hell) having SP?