Fabo.sk

Then... and apparently, I cannot repeat this enough... you should have chosen an FFP / Airline which allows you to extend your privileges to your travelling companions, and not the one that does not!

This has never been a listed feature of FB, it has never been a listed feature of KLM, and it has never been listed in the priority list at AMS.

This is like complaining that I didn't get a second sandwich on my flight the other day. Yes, sometimes the crew does a second round if they have enough sandwiches left over, but nobody has ever promised me two rounds of snacks, so I can't complain if they don't do it!

Have you considered, that since there is a shortage of security personnel at AMS, the reason that priority security is, unlike non-priority, not worse than it used to be, exactly because there is now a much stricter separation between prio and non-prio pax?


The whole discussion is about extending to pax on whole PNR, vis. reaction to upfaring non-status spouse only to Flex and how that would result in separate PNRs.

Yes, extending SP to all pax on the same PNR would solve this issue. No, it has never been a feature advertised by KL or FB. Yes, it would bring about a number of other issues with it, not the least being higher demand on priority screening.

Hornet1455

At the expense of all other, ahem, elite benefits. 😂

Mikeact

Quite right..rules are rules...or were.

Mikeact

So you're encouraged to book elsewhere ? Great, like who ?

downinit

42 minutes for priority is an absolute disgrace. However, you will have no problem making your flight with a 42 minute wait. On the other hand, an Elite spouse of an Elite Plus partner flying together on the same flight may not be able to get to the gate on time at all, since they will not be allowed to enter more than 4 hours early and the queue may take more than 4 hours. I understand that rules are rules, but when a rule makes it impossible to make a flight, regardless of how early the passenger shows up to the airport, that rule is clearly not working. This whole situation is a complete nightmare, but to tell non-SP flyers that there is no guarantee they will be able to get to the gate on time because SP flyers need to be processed in 30 minutes or less is absurd. They need to allocate their resources to allow everyone who shows up on time to make it to the gate on time.

The real question here is just how long does it take to hire a few dozen more screeners to at least get all of the lanes opened up? Even if it means temporarily bringing in police or military, we are talking about an impact to the airlines and the airport that must surely be in the billions, if we are talking about cancelling dozens of flights a day and reducing capacity on all other flights, rejecting 14k passengers a day. That kind of money can make a lot of magic happen if it were to be applied properly, rather than just flushing it down the pipe.

johan rebel

I read somewhere the other day that they claim to have hired 200 (presumably the companies actually providing security are the ones who have hired them), but then its a matter of getting security clearance, training them, and getting them up to speed.

Any Schiphol regular cannot fail to notice that it is not exactly the best and brightest who are manning the checkpoints, for all the obvious reasons (lousy job, lousy hours, lousy pay). This was always the case, even before the current disaster the security process was very slow and inefficient, with far too many bags being sent to secondary. It has gotten worse since. Regularly having the opportunity to stand around for ages waiting for my bag to make it through secondary, I have plenty of time to observe how clueless many of the staff are, and how incredibly inefficient the process is. By the simple expedient of streamlining and removing bottlenecks the processing speed could be increased substantially. Improving throughput with the same staff should shorten the waiting time by quite a bit.

Johan

GUWonder

The “42 minute” SkyPriority security wait time at AMS would be less if they simply scrapped the “war on water” (and other harmless liquids) rule. The hunt for bottles, containers and pouches delays things even with regard to scanned bags that aren’t running afoul of the “war on water” and other rules. Unfortunately, that kind of process adjustment to make a lasting improvement now in throughput isn’t being advanced like it should.

CyBeR

The war on water was ended at AMS ages ago, with the installation of the new 3D scanners. They also no longer require things like laptops be put in separate bins, greatly speeding up the process.

Now if only they'd stop sending every bag with more than 5 items in it to secondary…

GUWonder

Maybe they can do a different job and stop encouraging people to toss things or reorganize, and scrap this::

https://www.schiphol.nl/en/page/liqu...-hand-baggage/

Xandrios

That information is outdated/incomplete. You can now also take bottles of drink, up to 500ml, through the scanner.

Personally I do think that extending benefits to traveling companions makes sense. It makes sense because, whenever I fly with a non-status colleague, I talready used to ry to sneak them through the priority checkpoint anyway. Prior to covid that was usually succesful, right now I wouldnt dare to even try. I think that from a user perspective it makes sense when travelling together.

From KLM's perspective its something that will cost them extra though. I don't know how they count and charge, but pax going through the priority lane are charged an extra fee to the airline.

Right now we have a very different situation where the priority line massively underperforms. In order to not have it collapse fully (Which apparently already happens every now and then, see reports of economy line being faster) they follow the rules strictly. I fully understand and support that. And for the flights I'm taking with my spouse out of AMS... I am making sure that we both qualify. When flying with a non-elite colleague, tough luck on them - if the office doesn't arrange something then there is nothing that my status can do for them right now.

johan rebel

Not to mention trays just containing a single light jacket (lemme guess: seven coins in a pocket somewhere) or other stuff that's not even in a bag.

Johan

CyBeR

It makes perfect sense if we're in a situation where doing so would not materially add time to the process for premium/status pax. Like, if because of companions I have to wait 6 instead of 5 minutes I don't give a poop. But that is simply not the case at this moment, even with the more strict policing of the line.

Actually it is free for the airlines, but Schiphol limits airlines to 15% of their total pax being premium (with the airlines themselves deciding who is and isn't "premium"). If that amount is exceeded they ask airlines to lessen their premium percentage, and will otherwise block all that airline's pax from using the priority lane.

Lomapaseo

I don't understand. What does the new scanner have to do with the finding of water . Does it ignore it and only go for mixtures?

Will my C-PaP still trigger a secondary inspection with the dregs left ?

Xandrios

I was not aware of this. Always was under the impression that this is something the airline would have to pay a fee for. How would KLM manage to do this, as quite a few flights would likely surpass that 15%.

A typical short haul flight has 4 rows of business (16 pax). Then it has 150 economy pax. Out of those, I'm guessing, 5% may be elite and 5% on Flex tickets. That means 31 priority pax out of the 25 allowed with that 15% rule.

CyBeR

Good question; I speculate tha short haul flights don't actually have much O/D J class pax, and transfer pax (in short-haul J to connect to or from long haul J) don't need to use those security lines, and additionally long haul flights have much smaller (relative to Y) premium cabins.

Also most short haul flights seem to have fewer than 4 rows in my experience.