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Non schengen to non schengen transfer Schipol

I am arriving at Amsterdam Schipol off a Cathay Pacific flight from Sydney (via Hong Kong) in a couple of weeks. I booked a separate ticket on KLM to Aberdeen Scotland with a transfer window of 2.5 hours.
Could you clarify if I need to clear immigration and customs to then recheck in mybag or can i just claim my bag in a non schengen area and drop off my bag for the Aberdeen flight.
I am totally confused and worry that I may have not sufficient transfer time to connect .
Many thanks and apologies if this has already been discussed. I could not see a thread .

Cheers
Steve

Posted by
2332 posts

You will need to go through immigration and customs, collect your bag, then check your bag again at the main checkin counter for KLM. Then go through security again.

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you so much Bend in Oregon.
I hope I can get through quickly.
Much appreciate your speedy response 🙏

Posted by
1350 posts

I really wish you had come here for advice before you made this booking, because I don’t think you’re going to make your flight to Aberdeen. Let me tell you why.
Schiphol advises passengers on non-Schengen flights to be at the airport 3 hours before departure. And by that they mean that passengers should be at the check in desks 3 hours before departure. You will still be in the air at 3 hours before departure.
When you land you will have to go thru immigration. Depending on the time of day and your nationality, this could easily take 1 hour. Next step is to pick up your luggage and make your way to the bag drop desks. Depending on when you travel this could involve some waiting as well. After that you need to go thru security. The wait there can easily be 30 minutes to 1 hour. After security, you will need to go thru passport control again. Again, the wait here can easily be 30 minutes. By now your flight to Aberdeen has probably departed already. You however aren’t even at the gate yet.

The only option to make this 2.5 hour self transfer is to travel with hand luggage only. That way you don’t have to go thru passport control twice.

Posted by
322 posts

You also have to hope that your flight arrival is on time into Amsterdam. We just flew out of Amsterdam, and our flight ended up being delayed 2 hours. We had to go through the entire process that Dutch_traveler describes (but in the US) when we arrived and barely made our connection with a 3 hour layover.

Hope it all works out for you! Safe travels!

Posted by
6590 posts

Next step is to pick up your luggage and make your way to the bag drop desks. Depending on when you travel this could involve some waiting as well.

KLM at Schiphol has automatic bag check-in, so you can check in and drop off your bags at one of the self-service kiosks or counters. Make sure you have already checked in to your KLM flight using the app, so that you already have your boarding pass ready to go. Then head to one of the self-service kiosks to check your bag (for KLM, it's located at Departure Hall 2).

It's very easy and quick—you scan your boarding pass, which will pull up your data, then follow the on-screen instructions. It will print out your baggage tag and you attach it to your luggage handle, then just drop the bag on the automated beltway, which will deliver it to your plane. I've done this before and it's usually (but not always) quicker than going through a gate agent.

This page gives some good instructions for checking in at Schiphol as well as videos showing the bag check in process.
https://www.schiphol.nl/en/page/check-in/

Posted by
4883 posts

Three days before, you can make an appt for the Amsterdam security line. Just Google for instructions. This works, of course, if all else goes well..
I agree that carry- on luggage would improve your shaky odds. Good luck!