Wanted to give a quick update as I sit here in Schiphol lounge (Aug 9) awaiting our flight. We are flying United, biz class to EWR. Flight currently scheduled as on time departure @ 9:15 am. We arrived at the airport abt 4 hrs, 15 minutes early. No one checking so went directly to T3. Check in to open 3 hrs before flight. No lines marked for economy or premier access but 2 lines had formed. One line already 50 people deep, another about 6. We guessed that the short line was business. About 6 a.m. United customer service started setting up. We guessed right although they reconfigured the lines by moving business over one space. Not sure if it always this way, but business is the far right hand lane. Agents friendly and not yet frazzled. They started checking in biz 5 minutes early. We checked luggage and moved to the next hurdle. There is a priority lane for security. Just keep far right both at the automated gate and at the screening. Took less than 5 minutes, even with 1 bag pulled for secondary screening. US citizens can now us the electronic border patrol gates with EU citizen. No lines. Had a slight glitch in getting passport stamped because it was originally stamped in Dublin. Not sure why? But agent made call to someone and all good. They were aware enough to ask if there were other cruise passengers coming through. That too took about 5 minutes. As the United lounge isn’t available they sent us to the Aspire lounge. It isn’t Polaris, but it is serviceable. All in all, by 6:45 a.m. I am having a latte in the lounge. We were worried given the known chaos here at Schiphol. We flew biz on Iceland Air in early May (out of T2) and it was every bit as bad as you’ve read. Not sure why today way so trouble free, but I am so thankful and relieved.
