AMS lounge/security
 

I have a July flight LAS-AMS-DUB on KL (WBC) with a 5 hr layover there and 3.5 hr back. Flight history shows arrival is usually gate D4, departures to DUB usually from D6. I haven't been to AMS in four years so I can't remember what's the order/locations regarding passport control & customs.

On a Schiphol diagram, once off the plane it looks like I don't leave the Schengen area to walk from D to E/F and go up two floors to lounge 52. The KL lounges used to have nice smoking rooms. No longer.

I'll have a carry-on backpack and a small laptop purse. I'm hoping to put everything except for my passport, boarding pass and cigarettes in a locker and head outside for a couple of cigarettes. Do I need my own locks for the lockers? Anyone know the rough size of the lockers? Limited to one per person? More importantly, can I get back into the lounge to retrieve my luggage?

To get outside, the diagram shows there's an elevator near the lounge. Take it down to baggage claim. It looks like there's passport control (or is that customs?) at the base of the elevator. Go thru and out the door to the Plaza.

Coming back in from the Plaza, what's the situation with security? I assume I get ST Priority (via KL WBC and DL Platinum). Are there security lines in the baggage claim level or just on the departures level? On the diagram, both passport check/customs and security have the same symbol - so it's hard to tell which is which.

If I checked the backpack in LAS, would it be checked through to DUB or would I need to claim it in AMS for customs and then re-check it in for DUB?
TIA.

Normally you would stay in the Non-Schengen area and enjoy Lounge 52. If you want to go out for a smoke on the bus platform or so, you must pass passport control and that is hit or miss in terms of queues. Then you must go back via security and passport control again. You will have priority security lines since you fly J. Last months when I did passport control entering non-Schengen airside that was fine.

I do not know about lockers since never used them in AMS. NOrmally if you check your backpack as luggage in LAS that will be labelled through to Dublin.

I never really looked closely at the lockers in lounge 52, having never had the need to use them. But they should fit a carry on backpack without difficulty.

To exit it's not the same elevator that takes you down to the lounge that also goes to passport control/exit, but the exit is nearby.

Coming back in security control and passport control are directly after each other on the upper level (level 2 on the map). You'll come out in what schiphol calls "lounge 2" on the mezzanine near McDonalds, from where it's a short walk back to the crown lounge.

Nothing stopping you from using more than one locker, although they are very big so I'm sure everything will fit, no need to bring a lock, you simply select a locker and lock it with a pin code.
Doing it on a 3.5hr connection might be tight especially with a non-EU passport (no priority at immigration) but 5 hours should be more than enough.

There are some airside smoking lounges - one is basically under the Lounge 52 escalators though you have to go round the back to find it.

Are there? I thought they closed all of them few years ago.

Don't think so- pretty sure the one stinking up the back of Tastes from the Lowlands is still there, along with one by the cafe at the G/H junction. I think there's one near the root of D as well, though I'm less sure of that.

I'm not a smoker though, so would hardly be the first to notice their demise.

There have been no smoking areas in Schiphol for 3 years now, (since 1 April 2020). The only place to smoke is the public square in front of the airport building. Which is, naturally, landside.

And this alone makes Privium worth it. Going out for a quick smoke and back is so much less painful these days, I can be out and back in 15 minutes, even for a NS flight.

Edit: I usually have 2-3hr layovers, so usually I go out and spend some time in the landside lounge in between smokes, to then go back airside shortly before the boarding starts.

No longer applicable:
https://www.schiphol.nl/en/blog/wher...e-at-schiphol/

Apologies, could have sworn I had seen them recently.

While I abhor smoking, making any particular set of people crankier at a long-haul hub seems like an odd decision.

Same for me - though we must be wrong as the website seems clear.