We arrived on KLM this morning with a 3 hour layover in Amsterdam from the US.. Although we had our boarding passes in our apple wallet, they wanted us to have printed boarding passes and an employee printed it out for us. . We were seated in the first row in premium economy (so first row behind business.) so a quick exit off the plane. Our plane in Amsterdam was met by a bus to take us to the terminal. We were fortunate to get in the first bus as others waited for the additional buses.
We were dropped off at the terminal. Never found any signs with gate listings but our printed boarding passes had the gate and in the app but not on our wallet QR codes.
We followed signs to our gates which lead us to a sea of humanity just congregated en mass not a line. You couldn’t tell where we were or how far we had to go or exactly where we were going. We stopped to use the restroom and were glad we did before we got in the mob scene. The area just crawled and there was construction above us so it was very very hot. After about a half hour I was able to see the EES machines. Then you can see the signs that say which passport goes where. Many people with EU passports stood in line for those same 30 minutes only for someone to finally tell them to go to another place. Anyway once the EES machines were close in proximity I realized nobody was using them. Apparently not working according to an employee who would occasionally shout on a time of departure and if that was your departure you could follow her. But there wasn’t done big time leeway. By the time they called you out of line you were close to missing your flight. . So at that point we were now in one long Disney type line that went on forever and could see that eventually we would be going through old school passport control with AC in the room. We got through all of it in about an hour to hour and a half. Then it was at least a 20 min walk to our gate. I’d say our 3 hour layover was just about right and I’m glad we didn’t have a shorter connection.
Posted by
Lexington, KY (formerly Southeast US)
4891 posts
I'm most comfortable with a 3-hour layover. I've done shorter, but the combo of late planes and unforeseen delays at the airport make me a little less anxious on the first leg of the trip.
Posted by
Ooltewah, Tennessee
204 posts
Thank you KD, for your update on EES at Schiphol. We will be traveling through Schiphol on December 6th with a 2hr52min layover. Given my son is 7, we aren't able to use the automated machines, so we've been curious what everyone's experience has been. We are hoping that given the time of year we are traveling, our experience will be a little less hectic compared to other times of year.
Happy travels,
Amanda
Posted by
324 posts
Very glad now I'm entering at Reykjavik before getting to Schiool
Posted by
Arlington TX
1116 posts
What a mess! Thank you KD for posting.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
17517 posts
Thanks for the update! I'm sorry you encountered such a mess.
I traveled thru Schiphol twice during the last month but I was in transit from the US to the UK so did not have to go thru Immigration or Security.
Posted by
Maryland, USA
175 posts
Yuck! Thanks for the report. I hope it's all smoothed out before I have to go through there next May. Although I won't be entering or leaving Schengen there, so hopefully it will be easier regardless. (Entering via Switzerland and leaving from Germany.)
Posted by
35 posts
Thank you for taking your vacation time to inform the community. Doing the same SEA - AMS - KRK, with 2:45 connection, finger crossed.
I'm going thru AMS both ways. Will follow-up with my experiences.
Posted by
35 posts
TL;DR
Original xfer schedule: Mon 9/7 Delta AMS 12:30 - KLM KRK 3:15 = 2:45 xfer time.
I had to go from G9 to B26 which is literally furthest apart if you look at Schipol map https://www.schiphol.nl/en/airport-maps. And the same in this helpful video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRHKtXPoTmc.
Here’s the actual timeline:
- 12:39 touchdown - delayed due to late plane arrival in US
- 12:49 plane at gate G9
- 1:09 stepped off plane - 20 mins delayed due to ground crew not ready, my seat was row 42
- 1:20 got to passport control area
- At this point, I had 1:40 mins before gate closes.
In front of Schengen passport control, there was a single file straight line before it turned into a Disneyland zigzag line. This line was long, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxpNgRbct6k between 3:52 - 4:33.
Thanks to threads in this forum, I was looking for EES machines and saw rows of them in the distance far left with green lights on! No one was using them and no lines!!! Above them, there was a giant yellow sign with arrow on the left for EU passport and arrow on the right for Non-EU “Self service passport control” (e-passport) and a bunch of country flags, including US. I know I have e-passport (with the gold chip in the cover) so I jumped out of the long line. There were few staff in front of the EES entrance, one was helping someone and the other two were talking amongst themselves. None of them paid any attention to me as I proceeded to the EES machines. You can see the much shorter EES line on the left at the end of the previous video.
EES process was straightforward, scanned passport, took picture and right hand finger prints. Then it spinned for a bit and assigned me to Route 1. Hooray!! Funny thing is at Route 1, unmanned, there was a different machine for verification. It verified what the EES machine captured just less than 10 seconds ago. Guess they want to make sure I didn’t lose my passport or a finger or grew a beard in the last 10 seconds! This all took less than 5 mins. I finished Schengen passport control at 1:25. Walk to B26 took another 12 mins.
In conclusion, if you have an e-passport and tight connection, look for EES machines. Stay in the long line if you want the passport stamp (which is becoming a relic in this digital world).
P.S. Due to the long walk, some folks decided to use the curtesy cart. There were a few carts parked outside G9 but no driver. I didn’t see them passing me so not necessarily a faster option since they had to wait for a driver and maybe full load.
P.S.S. I downloaded the KLM app and gave it the locator before the US flight. With Delta free wifi, the app was updating the arrival and, more importantly, the connecting gate live during the landing. So I didn’t have to stop and check on the giant departure dashboard to find the correct connecting gate. (Although I did do a quick glance to at least confirm the terminal.)