evol

Oof iʻm also flying out of AMS in August. Iʻve been reading some KLM threads about AMS operations. The airport authority is forcing airlines to thin their schedule/# of pax throughout July and August. In theory this should help with the over-crowding and match up to their staffing levels. Itʻs a mess over there: Mess in AMS today - April 2022 onwards

Do you have status *A Gold? Flying in J? There are priority lanes that you can utilize if so. Carrying on means one less line/interaction so quite obviously might be faster, but if you usually check then youʻll have the hassle of carrying your stuff through the lines.


Also check this out: https://www.schiphol.nl/en/departure...20220621UA908/ The airport has an extensive website and will try to predict optimal time to arrive based on crowding. Tomorrow for instance, they prefer you arrive at 8am.

iʻm shook about flying out of AMS too and would love for UA to issue a directive so that I could more easily book away from that experience.

klwjrw

Thank you very much for your response to my question. We are only Silver status with United. Excuse my ignorance, but what is "Flying in J"? We would prefer to check our luggage, but wanted to know if carry-on slowed down security or sped it up. We fly Global Entry in the US and have been spoiled getting through security lanes on most flights within or out of the US.

angetenar

"Flying in J" = flying in business, because the J fare class is (one of many fare classes) used for business and overtime, has come to refer to business class as a whole.

WineCountryUA

Projecting what's happening at AMS recently to what will be the situation in 2 months.is probably a bit tenuous -- check the week before.

Having bags or not will not materially effect you time to pass thru security.

drewguy

I'm booked to return from AMS (UA947 to IAD) in July . . . oddly doesn't show up in dummy searches for checking seat map, fare class etc. Only one-stops via FRA, MUC, etc. Yet IAD-AMS shows as available daily. I wonder if UA is limiting further bookings?

cmhua777

I am flying out in July, too. All UA flights have been zero’d out from July 5 - end of July.

evol

Eek, on my go home date 8/4 only EWR (D9/Y1) , ORD (P3/Y0) and IAH (J2/Y0) show up as available. Iʻm bound for SFO.

If one had to guess, is this a) they are going to drop SFO and IAD while the amsterdam mess goes on? OR b) they are zero-ing out the remaining inventory to comply with the AMS order to thin out the bodies moving through AMS?

The plot thickens.. The big thing hampering me chaining my booking is that the LAX/SFO-HNL legs are booked up to C and D fares, causing huge fare jumps when i try to change..

jsloan

Quite possibly both.

I'd wait and see what happens. Pretty much everyone is in the same boat right now. Once UA decides what they're going to do, they'll adjust schedules as necessary. The zeroes don't necessarily mean that there aren't any seats; if I had to guess, they're holding back inventory to keep it available to re-accommodate people. I don't think they're likely to fly 3 planes with 67% load factors when they could fly two with 100%, though. Hence -- my answer of both, above.

cmhua777

I don’t see UA cutting flights to AMS this summer. Inbound flights don’t have caps and reduced capacity on the return can be managed through “inventory management principles” (e.g., only offering W or higher). If they do cut, it would be SFO first and that should get them below the cap.

evol

SFO first!? D: I thought KL was gonna take it for the team, but now that people are reporting a lack of UA inventory heading back US bound.

I was looking into the “250 mile radius” of AMS in case of cancel/significant schedule change; Düsseldorf and Koln are within striking distance.. It’s gonna be a fun summer whichever way it goes!

texas gold

I live in Amsterdam and have been on multiple AMS flights in the last few weeks, including ORD, SFO and IAH. If you are checking bags you will need at least three hours to get your bag checked and then hit security. If you are flying in Polaris, or are GS/1K/P/G and have priority boarding, there are some electronic gates that will allow you to bypass the long security lines. The problem is getting to them, as many of the roped off lines block easy access to these lines. If you have Privium (iris scan/immigration) , they are being very proactive in helping you navigate to the Privium iris scans. The standard passenger flying in Polaris or with Priority access will still encounter some issues as this status might grant you access past some of the lines, but they merge into larger lines upstairs. In addition, as of this week, they are restricting the entry doors into the airport as the lines now wrap around outside in tents and continue down the road towards the freeway. This is challenging as some of the staff are directing all passengers to the end of the line, despite priority boarding or business class tickets.

What is more concerning to me are the number of maintenance issues I am seeing each day on UA metal. Almost daily, one of the flights (ERW,ORD,IAH,IAD,SFO) has experienced a maintenance delay in their departure city causing a delay for AMS, or they have encountered a maintenance issue in AMS. In addition, SFO, IAH and IAD have cancelled several times (in both directions) Add to this, many of the flight are waiting for passengers, sometimes up to 2 hours, impacting connections in the US. The app is updating these delays as "an unexpected operational issue".

klwjrw

TexasGold
Thank you for your post. Hoping the new airport maximums will ease this situation come July and August but will need to wait to see. We are flying Polaris in August and arriving by train. We will have checked in online and based on what you report, may very well do carry-on only. It sounds like it is hit or miss getting into the priority lines and we may just have to bite the bullet and hope for the best. Any suggestions on getting to these priority lines will be greatly appreciated.

texas gold

The crowd management at AMS seems to change weekly, meaning that in my last three weeks of flying in and out with UA, I’ve been directed, pushed, moved and told to do different things on attempt to access the priority lines. One thing hasn’t changed, the on time ops here are sporadic at best, In the past few days there have still been cancellations (FRA as well) ….today’s ORD arrived 1,5 hours late, while a few actually had early arrivals…some planes seem to be waiting for passengers and others seem to be departing on time. My last flight from SFO to AMS we had to wait an hour after landing as we had no ground crew.

SFOtoTYO

Ugh I’m flying SFO to AMS 8/19-8/28, if UA cancels the flight they would rebook without extra cost correct? I wouldn’t mind taking a train to FRA and going back that way.

jsloan

Yes

FRA may be considered too far away, depending upon the agent's mood, but it's worth asking since it'd preserve the nonstop.