Amsterdam airport…any updates

[wjfan417]

3 hours ago, midwestchick said:

That is truly wonderful

news. Does it feel as if there are enough staff now 

We really didn’t have any contact with staff. We just headed to the baggage claim/departure hall as soon as we were off the plane. The only person we had any interaction with was when we had to show our passports. 

[81Zoomie]

Has anyone passed through Heathrow or Lisbon airports recently?  We would be interested in your experiences.

[midwestchick]

8 hours ago, wjfan417 said:

We really didn’t have any contact with staff. We just headed to the baggage claim/departure hall as soon as we were off the plane. The only person we had any interaction with was when we had to show our passports. 

Thank you. That’s usually the way it is or should be. We will continue our plans to arrive as earlier posts recommended.  Some of these situations are not new to us.  Life in the travel world is what it is.  You either deal with it or stay home. We are quite accustomed to very long travel days to and from the U.S. 

[Vivasea]

21 hours ago, 81Zoomie said:

Has anyone passed through Heathrow or Lisbon airports recently?  We would be interested in your experiences.

We travelled from Copenhagen to London Heathrow to connect with Newcastle flight.  Very long queues - no organisation - chaotic - First class or economy all in same 'queue" no fast track so give yourself plenty time to connect.

[midwestchick]

As someone said and I quote. “It’s not for the faint hearted! ”. 😉 😄

[blag]

3 minutes ago, midwestchick said:

As someone said and I quote. “It’s not for the faint hearted! ”. 😉 😄

Please be so kind as to explain why you say this. Is your comment based on recent experience? If so, please share!

[laurieb]

We flew into Amsterdam from Nice yesterday.  The airport was relatively quiet.  No problems at all retrieving all of our luggage 

[uktog]

1 hour ago, laurieb said:

We flew into Amsterdam from Nice yesterday.  The airport was relatively quiet.  No problems at all retrieving all of our luggage 

It’s the leaving that’s the nightmare unfortunately. That’s if your flights are even going!  The US flights are ok but anything going through Europe or UK has had their schedule decimated at short notice 

[royallondon]

On 8/5/2022 at 4:47 PM, 81Zoomie said:

Has anyone passed through Heathrow or Lisbon airports recently?  We would be interested in your experiences.

Flew into Heathrow T5 from Athens on Wednesday 20 July.  10 min wait to get through passport control, walked to the luggage belt and both our cases were already on it.  We honestly couldn’t believe it having heard all the horror stories.
The only problem we had was that we should have flown into Gatwick but that’s another story.

 

Regards

[Port Power]

On 8/5/2022 at 6:46 PM, Nippy Sweetie said:

Glad to hear that @wjfan417. We were getting worried about our transfer via Amsterdam in October. Enjoy your trip.

So am I!  I thought I had left plenty of time to arrive and navigate immigration before heading out again to Denmark, but now I wonder if 2 hours is anywhere near enough?  Hopefully by October these problems will have ameliorated.

[midwestchick]

IMPORTANT…..LATEST UPDATE FROM SUNDAY FLIGHT TO U.S.

We had friends from our cruise fly home yesterday morning (granted it was a Sunday flight) and she emailed me. She said the airport was very busy and they had an early morning flight Sunday to the U.S.  She said she needed all of the 4 hours at AMS. I then replied and asked her about luggage arrival. I have not heard back yet to see if all their luggage made it home. I will keep you posted. 
Our taxi driver from the cruise port will be at our hotel at 0630 on Wednesday to take us to the airport. We have an 1100 flight. 

Also, Amsterdam is a littered mess from their parade on Saturday and the people who participated stayed on longer as noted by our driver. The canals are a mess with debris and plastic bottles floating. They haven’t had their parade for 2 years but I don’t think this was a way to show any appreciation to the city

hosting the event.  What a shame for first time visitors to Amsterdam. We were totally appalled at the filthy litter all over the streets in the city center and here in Dam square.  

Our waitress at breakfast here at the hotel said she saw young people standing by trash containers but purposely dropping beer bottles to the ground in stead of putting them in containers. She watched from the restaurant. She said she witnessed total disrespectfulness.  What a shame. 😡😛😫 😒 🤦🏻‍♀️   🤷‍♀️
The city is working tirelessly to clean up the mess.

Edited August 8, 2022 by midwestchick

[rosesq]

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. 

[uktog]

12 minutes ago, rosesq said:

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. 

Thanks for this. Yes traveling business does certainly help in Schippol. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by uktog

[PAtravelbug]

We will be on an 11am flight on Thursday to Chicago and appreciate the postings about this airport.     Interesting about the passport stamp - that must happen all the time will the cruises coming into

Amsterdam.    We are not flying business but are in the in between section with the slightly wider seats and more recline.  We will expect the entire 4 hours.  

[midwestchick]

On 8/8/2022 at 2:21 PM, Port Power said:

So am I!  I thought I had left plenty of time to arrive and navigate immigration before heading out again to Denmark, but now I wonder if 2 hours is anywhere near enough?  Hopefully by October these problems will have ameliorated.

UPDATE POST ABOUT FRIENDS FLYING TO ORD.  They did go to ORD and then were supposed to go on to Dulles but Chicago lost their luggage so they stayed overnight.  She said they may never see their luggage but it did leave AMS. 
Bad new is UA changed our seats after I paid for an upgrade due to a 10 minute time change. Now Incan argue with them at 0600 tomorrow morning. 😡😡😡

[TeaBag]

We arrived home last night at midnight.  AMS - SFO - YVR what an odyssey!  I said to DH that I never want to see Schipol again or Amsterdam either for that matter.   Such crowds and such chaos!  Since we had to be off the ship at 9AM, we were 5 hours early for our flight.  No one challenged it and we made our way to the United check in quite fast by skirting those horrid lines.  We got checked in by a newbie and had to tell him to put the priority tag on our bag which we qualify for by being gold.  We worried we would never see it again. 

Then we proceeded to Aspire where we hoped to avoid the chaos in a quiet lounge.  Dream on.  There was a long line since the lounge was full.  Then they called for Star Alliance people after we had waited for quite a while.  When we showed our boarding passes (economy plus) we were denied access!!  First time ever.  This lounge is only for bz and first class!!!  Anyone ever heard of putting up a sign to say this so people don't wait?  Amazing that someone buying a bz class ticket and flying on United for the first time can access that lounge, but someone who has been loyal to UA for thirty years and 2 million miles gets the bums rush.  Great business plan!

So we went to the gate and sat there for 3 hours!  At least we were not fighting the crowds.

I echo midwestchick's assessment of Amsterdam.  Dirty filthy city full of very rude people taking up the whole of the sidewalk as if it were only one way and for them only!  Glad we saw it years ago when it was a nice place to be.  We got back on the ship.

Don't know where people were getting taxis to Schipol from the port for 40 euros.  We got charged 70!

I hope others have a better experience in AMS.

[excitedofharpenden]

58 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

Amazing that someone buying a bz class ticket and flying on United for the first time can access that lounge, but someone who has been loyal to UA for thirty years and 2 million miles gets the bums rush.  Great business plan!

That sounds just like Celebrity!  Don't get me started on that one!

 

Sorry you had such a poor experience. I was there for four days and was able to get out of the city. We had a really nice time, but concur with the rubbish and rudeness observations. I experienced similar. It's a shame. I understand Amsterdam has had an inherent littering problem and they've tried to sort it out by imposing fines. 

 

Phil 

[uktog]

33 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

That sounds just like Celebrity!  Don't get me started on that one!

 

Sorry you had such a poor experience. I was there for four days and was able to get out of the city. We had a really nice time, but concur with the rubbish and rudeness observations. I experienced similar. It's a shame. I understand Amsterdam has had an inherent littering problem and they've tried to sort it out by imposing fines. 

 

Phil 

I think it was also made worse by the big parade on Saturday. I’ve not met many who enjoyed their Amsterdam experience 100% on the cruise. I think the city is struggling when it gets taken over by parades and parties 

[florisdekort]

It’s a global problem. I flew into JFK on Saturday and it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to get my passport checked. Even the queue for American passport holders was over 90 minutes. I missed my connection, and was very happy I took carry on luggage only…

[florisdekort]

On 8/5/2022 at 8:32 AM, uktog said:

Arriving and departing are very different experiences. Departure yesterday our neighbour who had fast track business was 45 minutes to check in, 30 minutes at the border queue to get his passport stamped and 30 minutes in the fast track security line. He reckoned the other line was double that. It’s not for the faint hearted! 

Hello stranger 🙂 Long time no see! Being a Dutchie and traveling through the airport regularly, it truly depends on the time of the day. Mornings are the worst. Evenings are a breeze. Business class / priority is generally OK (<1 hour), but the regular queue can take more then 3 hours… 

[excitedofharpenden]

10 hours ago, florisdekort said:

It’s a global problem. I flew into JFK on Saturday and it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to get my passport checked. Even the queue for American passport holders was over 90 minutes. I missed my connection, and was very happy I took carry on luggage only…

Hey Floris. I hope you are ok. Haven't seen you in a while.  Travelling certainly poses issues just now. I'm prepared for it with my patience hat on!

 

Phil 

[Port Power]

10 hours ago, florisdekort said:

Hello stranger 🙂 Long time no see! Being a Dutchie and traveling through the airport regularly, it truly depends on the time of the day. Mornings are the worst. Evenings are a breeze. Business class / priority is generally OK (<1 hour), but the regular queue can take more then 3 hours… 

OMG!  I have 2 hr 45 mins between flights and I am now seriously concerned. The outbound flight is at 16:35 (peak hour). I  think I have priority on arrival from Doha, which seems will help greatly.

[blag]

4 minutes ago, Port Power said:

OMG!  I have 2 hr 45 mins between flights and I am now seriously concerned. The outbound flight is at 16:35 (peak hour). I  think I have priority on arrival from Doha, which seems will help greatly.

I thought post #45 said 'evenings are a breeze'. 

[uktog]

11 hours ago, florisdekort said:

Hello stranger 🙂 Long time no see! Being a Dutchie and traveling through the airport regularly, it truly depends on the time of the day. Mornings are the worst. Evenings are a breeze. Business class / priority is generally OK (<1 hour), but the regular queue can take more then 3 hours… 

Hello stranger 

Great to see you!  Wise words indeed

Pack your patience pills, keep your wits about you and think for yourself are key to travel these days. We’ve done a few flights lately luckily our landing in Nashville was a breeze though our exit from New Orleans was less textbook!

Hope you are well. Take care 

[Port Power]

7 hours ago, blag said:

I thought post #45 said 'evenings are a breeze'. 

But no observation on late afternoons.  I’m sure it will be fine.  I’m not one to worry about what might not happen anyway.