Mess in AMS today - April 2022 onwards
#841
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Programs: Many
Posts: 773
I was flying out of AMS on Sunday morning at 11:15. Assuming the worst I arrived unusually early for me at 09:15 in Schiphol. Normal schedule is 45min before departure.
At that point in time the airport was busy, but not insane. KLM was busy and chaotic, but more because of inexperienced people crowding the entrance to the check-in area instead of a mass of people. A queue larger than normal but in no way reaching the outside of the building or anything. You could see the empty tents set up outside for that situation though. Even in Y with no Status at all that should have been navigatable in less than an hour.
Other airlines had much less issues. Lufthansa check-in was basically empty, no waiting.
Security had priority queues open. Regular fast lane as well as Privium. Total time for me from checkin to lounge was around 15min.
For status-less pax this would look different as they had three belts open for priority access and three belts for everyone else if I counted correctly. That meant there were much more people waiting in the regular queue.
But it seems like Sunday was easy enough for Schiphol to not sink into chaos. The weather in the rest of Europe still led to tons of cancellation but at least these time they were weather related.
#842
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 14,352
Can they really be this dumb? Yes, they sure can!
Around 1.30 p.m. this afternoon:
One of the moving walkways from the Plaza up to Departures 2 had been blocked, a staff member at the other one was checking everybody to make sure they adhered to the new 4-hour rule. There was a long line of pax patiently waiting for their turn. But . . . the stairs and elevator were not policed at all, so the brightest flying sparks (a small minority) just walked right past the long queue and proceeded straight up the stairs to departures.
Johan
One of the moving walkways from the Plaza up to Departures 2 had been blocked, a staff member at the other one was checking everybody to make sure they adhered to the new 4-hour rule. There was a long line of pax patiently waiting for their turn. But . . . the stairs and elevator were not policed at all, so the brightest flying sparks (a small minority) just walked right past the long queue and proceeded straight up the stairs to departures.
Johan
#843
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 14,352
So much for Sky Priority
I checked the Sky Priority access at the back of the KLM check-in area, which has a separate Privium gate allowing access from the outside. I was there for about a minute. First a guy showed up who tried to open the Privium gate with his boarding card. That didn't really work. While he was trying to figure it out, another pax pitched up who opened the Tensa barrier, closed it behind him, and headed straight up the stairs. He was followed by the first pax, who thought about closing the Tensa again, but decided to leave it open. Within seconds a dozen more pax just walked right in, easily outnumbering the few coming from the KLM check-in desks.
Apologies for the poor picture quality.
Johan
Apologies for the poor picture quality.
Johan
#845
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 14,352
Welcome to the Privium Express Lounge!
Recommending ClubLounge West is not really the brightest of ideas, given that pax will have to go through immigrations twice.As if the queues aren't long enough already. And please ask which staff member exactly for assistance?
Johan
#846
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Programs: Many
Posts: 773
Was fine, not much waiting...
#847
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: New England
Programs: UA 1P, Hyatt Diamond, HH Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,502
Hi all, I am booked on an early morning flight to USA in July on UA. I’m flying in J. How early should I be AMS? Assuming I need to get my BP and have my Covid testing results checked at the counter prior to clear the security. Sorry if this is not related to KLM. Thanks in advance.
#848
Join Date: Oct 2019
Programs: Flying Blue, Hilton Honors, Amtrak Guest Rewards
Posts: 2,402
SkyPriority was redirected (alternatively: overflowed) to Departures 1 a couple of Mondays ago, too, during one of the epic meltdowns.
#849
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: MAD
Programs: FB Plat
Posts: 250
I checked the Sky Priority access at the back of the KLM check-in area, which has a separate Privium gate allowing access from the outside. I was there for about a minute. First a guy showed up who tried to open the Privium gate with his boarding card. That didn't really work. While he was trying to figure it out, another pax pitched up who opened the Tensa barrier, closed it behind him, and headed straight up the stairs. He was followed by the first pax, who thought about closing the Tensa again, but decided to leave it open. Within seconds a dozen more pax just walked right in, easily outnumbering the few coming from the KLM check-in desks.
(tried it in the past once with a colleague who did not have sky priority and the gate scanners rejected him but recently someone said here that they will open for anyone)
#850
#851
Join Date: Jun 2015
Programs: Delta GM; FB Plat; HHonors Diamond; Hertz PC; National EE
Posts: 190
They should either post someone at that gate downstairs, or make it much harder to pass through without a privium pass. Full height automated door for example.
#852
Join Date: Jun 2015
Programs: Delta GM; FB Plat; HHonors Diamond; Hertz PC; National EE
Posts: 190
Keep in mind that the target group for this recommendation are Privium pass holders. Passing through immigrations won't take up much, if any, time for Privium members. I've never been in any sort of line at the Schengen wall Privium gate. It adds at most a minute to the walk each way.
#853
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 2,685
Happened this morning, but Departures 2 and SkyPriority were not full, not sure why they were telling us to go to Departures 1 (upstairs, i.e. Straight to a scanner in dep 1 without much of a wait)
#855
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: 39000ft
Posts: 957
Around 1.30 p.m. this afternoon:
One of the moving walkways from the Plaza up to Departures 2 had been blocked, a staff member at the other one was checking everybody to make sure they adhered to the new 4-hour rule. There was a long line of pax patiently waiting for their turn. But . . . the stairs and elevator were not policed at all, so the brightest flying sparks (a small minority) just walked right past the long queue and proceeded straight up the stairs to departures.
Johan
One of the moving walkways from the Plaza up to Departures 2 had been blocked, a staff member at the other one was checking everybody to make sure they adhered to the new 4-hour rule. There was a long line of pax patiently waiting for their turn. But . . . the stairs and elevator were not policed at all, so the brightest flying sparks (a small minority) just walked right past the long queue and proceeded straight up the stairs to departures.
Johan
Last week, when I saw the sign "do not come earlier than 4 hours" just in front of the automatic stairs (but at the moment nobody was checking), that was exactly my thought: what if i walk up the stairs? Which in any case I do sometimes when there is too much crowd at the stairs...