EUcitizen

Hi

I am looking at flights to Brussels and the one that fits my schedule arrives in AMS and then I have a Eurostartrain to Brussels. The time between arriving and the train is 5 hours. Now: what can I do in those 5 hours? Do I stay airside (is that possible upon arrival), do I go landside? I guess going to Amsterdam would take a bit too much time.

atflyer

Where do you come from? From Schengen destinations you can stay airside. Various international destinations keep arrival pax separate from departures and it would require an airside transfer to stay airside, probably impossible for you since your next boarding pass is for a train. Train station is landside. Not sure if airside has better catering as landside. I never had this situation so I do not know if you could use the Schengen lounge for instance if you would fly J or have Skyteam status. A quick sample of Amsterdam would be possible but rushed - it is 20 min by one of the very frequent trains to Amsterdam centraal and the same time back. So an hour or 3+ in town. The EUrostar in fact departs from Amsterdam centraal via Schiphol to Brussels, but they may not let you board in Amsterdam centraal since your ticket to Brussels is from Schiphol. And of course if you have a lot of luggage you need to leave it somewhere.

jerry_greece

If you have status with AF/KL (or in J), you can use the lounge at AMS (either the extra Schengen or the intra Schengen). I have tried it on different occasions with both my arrival BP (that�s only applicable if you have status, not flying in J I think) and my train BP and in both cases I was let in (no questions asked).

arjen05

Try to get on an earlier train. Until last year you could officially board a 1h earlier train with the same ticket, depending availability of seats of course, but I'm not sure if that's still in the ticket conditions. Haven't done it in a while.
Otherwise, try to get on an earlier train by asking NS staff. Unfortunately you'll have to exit the secured area of the airport to ask them, so if it isn't granted you cannot go back into the KLM Lounge if you would have had access otherwise.

If you're traveling with luggage, you'll have to exit rightaway or within an hour anyway, otherwise your luggage will be reported as left luggage and brought to backoffice. In that case you might not be able to get it back in time for your train, even though it's only in their offices right next to the luggage belts.

If your plane+train ticket is in business class you can access the landside NS train lounge, so you can get your luggage and exit, then ask for an earlier train and if not granted, access the NS International Lounge. This lounge is closed after 7.30pm and in weekends/bank holidays.

b12e

Yes, you can still board the earlier train with the same ticket, depending on availability and upon approval by the train manager.

I last tried it in February, and while there was no availability, they still let me take the train earlier without any sort of fuzz, as long as I took one of these foldable seats near the doors. For a 1h train ride I was more than fine with this, even if they made me stand up. Worth to say that the "one before" was 2 hours before the one I had booked.

Important sidenote, NS has no say in this, as it's Eurostar/Thalys. So it's futile to go to the NS ticket desk, just head straight to the platform and ask the train crew.