Anyone flown through Amsterdam Schipol airport this year?

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I'm hopefully going on a work trip in September, just wondering if all the chaos of 2022 is over? We all got caught up in it last year, was an absolute shambles

Can't be bothered with the Eurostar, it always takes longer overall in my opinion.

 

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Never had a problem flying through Schiphol must have used it inexcess of 20 times.

This year?

Are you planning to smuggle some wacky backy through customs and you're trying to decide if the safest route is land, sea, or air...

Ha, no. I’ve only ever had my bag swabbed once- fingers crossed!

Daughter did a trip to the dam after finishing A levels and there were no issues at Schipol for their group. Just a looong walk to the gate as sleazyjet were nearly in Belgium !

My recommendation - allow LOTS of time to get through boarders/ security.

Yeah it’s a massive airport. I’ve been through quite a few times and always have to remember to head to the gate as soon as they call it. I’ll be travelling light though, definitely won’t be checking a bag or anything.

I got lucky with the chaos last year. I’d flown with KLM as they codeshare with Virgin (I use Virgin for work and have miles). We’d all heard the horror stories of 6hr queues etc so when we got there I’d just joined the queue inside and noticed a sign for express security (sort of for business class I think). They had various logos on the sign, including for Virgin. Since at that point I was a Virgin silver member I went and asked if I could go through and she said yes. So all of my colleagues waited for 3-4hrs in the end (most missed their flights) whereas I was through and had 3hrs to kill at the bar I barely had the heart to tell them afterwards lol

 

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came back from there last week from a work trip, it was unmitigated chaos. I regret not taking Eurostar especially as Centraal is only a 5 min walk from my office over there. God knows why they booked me on the flight, it's not even a case of it was cheaper as I flew BA out of heathrow

Hmm mixed reports then. Why was it chaos? Did you have to queue to get through security coming home again?

 

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We are going to Amsterdam next year and am going to try Eurostar, seems a lot less hassle than flying

They want you there and boarded as early as an airport, which kinda defeats the purpose in my opinion. And waiting at St Pancras is absolutely rubbish, both times I've been there I've ended up sat on the floor. There's about ten times too many pasengers than the terminal can feasibly handle. And in Paris it's even worse. Maybe I'd do it on business and time it to travel directly from my office, but otherwise it's a chore.

Only problem for me is that in general airports suck. The only exception is really London City. Otherwise I'd prefer the Eurostar even if it does technically take a little longer.

LCY is great, but that's only because it's small and limited capacity. Less people, smaller distances to walk etc.

Transfered though Schipol last month you can use the electronic passport gates again which was great.

Even with a British passport? I thought we were relegated to the ROW lines, even though we have ePassports?

 

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Nope.

The other day they were shouting very loudly, "no you cannot use the e-gates with a British passport nor can you queue in the EU lane"

Which is right seeing as we chose to kick ourselves out of them.

When I arrived into Schipol last year with the omnishambles we were held for ages before we could get out of the airport. They kept holding big crowds of us back, and kept letting through 'European' passport holders only. I think about half the Brits waiting were unsurprisingly muttering under their breath that we were, actually, still part of Europe (and if they meant 'EU' passports then sod off )

 

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Oh well guys. Work trip is off. My boss is being a **** (even more so than usual!)

Appreciate the comments though, hey is this a new sub-forum?!