Another option is to buy a fully refundable ticket on another airline that includes some sort of fast track (economy flex on KLM or business), use that BP to gain access to security, and then cancel prior to departure.

I've been following this thread for a while and this summer I thought things at AMS would be better by the time of my flight in mid Sept (next week) and so I wouldn't have much to worry about. Based on the last few days post I'm not so sure. I am only transiting (SFO-AMS-HAJ) so my only potential queuing issue might be passport control from non-Schengen to Schengen. I am not very familiar with AMS at all. Are there multiple passport control areas such that if one is crazy busy, the savvy traveler will know to walk to another, rather than follow the herd? We are flying J so are there priority lines for passport control (I tend to doubt this)? Barring any delays on our inbound, we should have 2 hrs 40 min, so not too worried, but it can't hurt to be prepared.

There is only one set of transfer gates, and no priority for J Class passengers. It sounds like you may be travelling on a US Passport, in which case you probably won’t be able to use the e-Gates when entering Schengen (although you should be able to upon departure).

I transited Schiphol (Non-Schengen to Schengen) at the end of August on a British Passport, arriving from North America and queued for around 40 minutes. My inbound was delayed by around an hour.

On which note, I’ve checked FlightAware for you and it looks like both KLM departures from SFO are delayed today (one by an hour, the other by two hours), and in recent days a delay of at least an hour hasn’t been unusual.

The one saving grace is that there should be a short connections queue. Airport staff also tend to call out for passengers “with departures before XX:XX”.

Apologies that this post isn’t more reassuring.

Data point today, Wed 14.09: arrived almost 4 hours before my 18:30 flight to LCY. Used the Skypriority entrance behind the KLM desks in departures 1. Some 20-25 priority guests in front of me, the whole thing took 20-25 minutes (yes that is slow. Compare that with London City for instance where the snakes move really quick). No one before me for passport control so through in 2 minutes. Train to lounge around 30-35 minutes. The non-prio's was a long, long snake though and probably would have added 1 hour at least. No queue outside.

In the lounge, I even managed to have me rebooked to an earlier KLM flight without change fee. After a period before Summer where 3 out of 4 flights ended with an extra night somewhere in Europe, finally a relaxed trip.

As anybody who has actually used the back door this summer will know, it is certainly not business as usual.

It used to be that most of the time anybody could wander up those stairs, and then go through the access scanners, which do not check priority eligibility.

Now the downstairs access point is almost always supervised, and eligibility is strictly enforced. I figure that's as it should be, but it's to the detriment of those who just sneaked in or are traveling with a non-eligible partner or companion.

Johan

Did they just allow doing this because of the fact that you arrived too early at the airport due to the potential crowds? I'm flying on the 09:30AM AF flight next week but there is another 06:45AM one that I may, or may not, be able to catch if security happens to be fast and if they'd be able to rebook me rather quickly. Planning to be at the airport at 05:15 so it may, potentially, be possible.

Which priority lane at Departures 1 are you referring to here? I think that most people are unaware of any priority lane being open besides the one at the back of Skypriority (departures 2). Did I misunderstand or are you saying that the 'regular' entrance to security now once again has a (or multiple) priority lanes? Are those also enforced when you get upstairs?

If you use the back door and take the stairs or escalator up, you will either be directed to the left (T1 priority security) or to the right (T2 priority security). Sometimes only one or the other is open, sometimes both. In the latter case the staff try to spread pax more or less evenly between the two. I think that's what Ralph meant.

Johan

I was indeed in the lounge 3.5 hours before my flight since I had a non-prio colleague missing her flight the day before due to queues. And had work I could do as good in the lounge as in office. I was in the lounge 1.5 hours before the next LCY flight would go. Why they allowed a free booking is just a guess. The desk lady had to call a supervisor and I was lucky I was the only one asking for service. They had at least 2 seats left. I guess the rationale of the supervisor may have been - we never are going to fill these seats 1-1.5 hours before departure, this opens another seat at the 18:35 flight that is still 3.5 hours away, so maybe that one can be sold for a top price (quotes were 400 Euro or more) or fill it with someone who missed a connection. Platinum status may have helped too.

The set-up at the mezzanine of security at Departures 1 and 2 is now so that there are connections before and after security. I took the (guarded) prio escalator up in the midst behind the KLM desks, this brought me to the left of Departures 1 where they had prio security after a turn left. I guess you also could have gone right to reach Departures 2 security if they had a prio lane open there. We were a mixed crowd going both to Schengen and non-Schengen - bumped into a former colleague who went to Nice. After security, she went right to Departures 1, I had to go left to Departures 2, to the (luckily hardly existing) queue for passport control, joining non prio people coming out of Departures 2 security.

How many hours before departure can you cancel a Flex ticket? Can you actually cancel it if you are already checked in with it, and used it to to get through Security? It would be a great solution and one that I would seriously consider... as long as I can cancel it after I passed security with it..

Fully-refundable premium cabin tickets may be cancelled even after having checked in on the ticket. Using the boarding pass to clear security or even access a lounge doesn’t invalidate the fare rules being used to cancel a ticket which hasn’t been used by the booked passenger to fly.

Canceling check-in and/or canceling the ticket may take variable amounts of time. I’ve known the refunds to work out even for cancellations made within minutes before flight departure. I’ve also known of refunds to work for ticket cancellations even after scheduled flight departure as long as the ticket was not marked as having been used to fly.

Great feedback, thank you !

There is a rebook policy in place, waiving change fee and fare differences to/from/via AMS until the end of the month.

Finally there is a chance for this to get fixed - Dick Benschop is resigning: https://nos.nl/artikel/2444692-dick-...n-nieuwe-start

Data point from today: Arrived by train at 1214 flying on LX (*A gold with priority). No checking from Plaza to Departures but also no queues in or outside the airport. Priority checkpoint (behind AFKL SP checkin) also no queues but manned. Upstairs, no queues at the normal lines as well. Security was fast. Many bags in secondary (the bag belt was full), not mine. Was through by 1222. By 1225 I was in the *A lounge. New record for me (I think).