Connecting through Amsterdam from the UK back to the US -- bad idea or brilliant?

Well, I agree with the responses on your other thread. You've got both Brexit and Covid in the mix. It is hard to tell what the requirements will be for next June. Here is the link to the Netherlands government rules for a transit thru Schiphol, keeping in mind they could change before next June (well, they could change before next week but that's the way things are going now).

https://www.government.nl/topics/coronavirus-covid-19/visiting-the-netherlands-from-abroad/checklist-transit-or-short-stay

To me it seems better to keep to one country since the UK is no longer part of the EU. I've transited thru AMS from UK and it worked fine BUT that was before both Brexit and Covid. I'd decided a number of years ago (pre-Covid) that if I was transiting thru Amsterdam I'd go the day before so I didn't have to catch a horribly early connector flight from somewhere in Europe to the hub. That would not be a good plan now, especially from UK. Might be possible from another EU country.

How much money are you saving on the flights? Research what you would do if you missed your US bound plane and needed to stay overnight in Amsterdam. Would you be able to jump thru the Covid-related hoops to do the entry to the EU/Netherlands?

I was about to answer on your other thread and then saw this one.

What I'm about to say would have been the same there too.

I remember the hair pulling out and guttural screams last summer of people trying to rebook to avoid the UK and then more screams as they now had to avoid Schiphol.

Times are not certain right now and there is no guarantee at all that they will be in 6 months.

Right now, about an hour ago, the UK raised its Covid alert level to 4, just one away from the max, and we are having 50,000 new diagnosed cases every day or more. The Netherlands has tighter restrictions than the UK with everything (just about) closing just after sunset each day.

Nobody without a crystal ball knows which new variant we will be fighting in 6 months.

My strong advice is to keep it as simple as you can, with as few border crossings as you can.

You may be braver than me. I probably see it differently to you because I am so close to the action...

I hope that your trip works out really well for you.

I hope selfishly that things are good enough in 6 months that I can go somewhere.

Your plans make sense. Many travellers from the UK prefer to fly from their local regional airport to Schiphol for onward connections rather than journeying down to Heathrow.

If you were travelling today to Amsterdam all you need to complete is a simple health declaration – no tests are required whilst in transit at Schiphol.

Come June I would expect Covid to be at a low point from the winter peak. So personally I don’t see a problem.

Thanks, Pam and Nigel, for your firsthand advice/thoughts. You've convinced me: IF we end up booking this trip, we will plan to go home through Edinburgh (or Glasgow) and not connect through another country.

Nigel: it's not selfish to want to travel yourself. I sure hope we all can by this coming summer.

It's hard to say what will happen with this trip and if we will actually do it -- I had convinced myself NOT to a few days ago and then I started trying to plan a backup trip somewhere in the US and I just could not put my heart into it. (Dangers of planning an amazing trip-- everything else falls far short!.

So I'm just going to keep planning because I get a kind of thrill out of it, and keep all my fingers and toes crossed.