Travel on Easter weekend for a RS tour

Booking travel on separate non-refundable tickets is always a gamble. You never know if your first flight will be late, or even cancelled. If you have checked luggage, then the risk increases. And with a booking this far out..... it's almost guaranteed that one or both of your flights will have at least one change.

If you think you need a backup ticket JIC, be very sure it would be 100% refundable, with no cacellation fee, or flight credits instead. And be very sure about any cancellation deadline.

It may be more busy if the flight around 5 April 2026 coincides with "Spring Break". April travel used to be shoulder season, and Sundays used to have lighter traffic. Don't know if that is true aymore. Which airports are you going thru? That could make a big difference. It is a toss of the dice; cover your bases! Bon Voyage!

Yes, it’s a gamble, it could go smoothly or it could end up costing you a whole lot more than if you had just paid the price of both flights on one ticket. And it being a very heavily traveled time, there’s a lot of odds against you. I hope you are not checking bags……..good luck to you!

You left out some crucial information; will you be checking a bag? And what is your final destination? Is it within the Schengen Zone or outside?
If you don’t have a checked bag, 3.5 hours is plenty of time to transfer in Amsterdam. If you will be checking a bag, you’re taking a serious gamble because you will need to go thru passport control to pick it up, then check it in again. And then you will have to go thru security and potentially passport control again. That will be difficult to do in 3.5 hours, Easter or not.

Yes is a gamble. We had 8 hours between two separately ticket flights and had to change the second flight at the last minute for fortunately a reasonable change fee. All you need is for your first flight to be delayed to cause a problem. Book a fully refundable ticket on your second airline for the next day. Make you study the airline's cancellation requirements to get your refund if you do not need the second ticket.

I think a refundable back up ticket is good plan. It might be harder than you think to get a ticket on the spot for the Monday as Easter Monday is a holiday in much of Europe so might be actually busier and more likely flights sell out on the Monday than on the Sunday.

Thanks everyone for your feedbacks!

I only have carry-on bag and my connecting flight is a Schengen flight; so on a normal day or if my international flight from the U.S. is just a bit late the 3.5 hours layover should still be ample. I'm more concerned about a big delay that cause me to miss my connection. My KLM flight from AMS to ATH is the last flight of the day (departs at 12:30 pm); if I were to miss the flight I will have to wait till the next day ... which is why I'm pondering about booking a backup flight for the next day 8:30 am flight.

Unfortunately my KLM flight is economy light so not refundable and no change allowed. I am pondering the option of canceling my Delta booking (Delta Comfort), and use the eCredit to rebook an itinerary that includes the AMS-ATH connection. It will be a completely different routes but will cost me just about the same if I stick to KLM economy but pay for extra-legroom seats (i.e. downgrade my seats).

Current itinerary:
PDX-SEA-AMS (Delta), AMS-ATH (KLM, 12:30 pm, 3.5 hrs layover)
AMS-SEA-PDX (Delta)

New Option A:
PDX-AMS-ATH (KLM, 12:30 am, 3.5 hrs layover)
AMS-PDX (KLM)

New Option B:
Keep my original booking; and book a refundable KLM ticket for the next day 8:30 am flight. Maybe also a 1-night refundable hotel near AMS.

I booked my current itinerary because I like Delta Comfort on A330-900neo; KLM operates 787 with narrower seat width. Please let me know what you guys think about the new itinerary; should I go for option A or option B?

In the Netherlands, Easter is of course a holiday, but since Easter is early April next year, it’s not a full week school holiday. Spring break is at the end of April. This means that in 2026 Dutch kids will only have Easter Monday off from school. As a result, not many Dutch people will be departing on a holiday on Easter Sunday, which will have a positive impact on crowd levels.
If I were you, I wouldn’t change anything. If you do book back up flights, make sure you understand the rules for cancellation.

Keep my original booking; and book a refundable KLM ticket for the next day 8:30 am flight. Maybe also a 1-night refundable hotel near AMS.

What time is the trans-atlantic flight scheduled to land? If the flight from PDX or SEA were completely canceled, then you might be put on a flight departing the following day or a flight with a different routing. I’d want the back-up refundable flight to be later in the day.

When I book separate flights, I always put at least one (and typically more) nights in the layover city and just use the time in that city to sightsee. Another potential option would be to change your current Delta flight to Friday and spend the night in Amsterdam. Personally, I’d choose to do this all on one ticket but I don’t know the financials involved. I have bought separate tickets when cost savings were significant and when the flight routing was better.

In the Netherlands, Easter is of course a holiday, but since Easter is early April next year, it’s not a full week school holiday. Spring break is at the end of April. This means that in 2026 Dutch kids will only have Easter Monday off from school. As a result, not many Dutch people will be departing on a holiday on Easter Sunday, which will have a positive impact on crowd levels. Dutch_Traveler, this is very useful information thanks!

I don't think Easter Sunday will be crazy busy, yep lots of people are on the move, but since Easter Monday is also a holiday, Sunday will be less busy than a day later.

I too think if your first flight is reasonably on time, you'd make your second flight. How about downloading the app for the second airlines, so in transit you could quickly access it if you need to change anything?

The other thing you could do is check your travel insurance to see if it would cover the cost of a new ticket to Athens and/or hotel in AMS if your first flight arrived too late.

@Dutch_traveler:

In the Netherlands, Easter is of course a holiday, but since Easter is
early April next year, it’s not a full week school holiday ... not many Dutch
people will be departing on a holiday on Easter Sunday ..."

That's a excellent observation! However my concern is more about my Delta flight landing in AMS late and miss my KLM flight to ATH.

@Laura (Virginia):

Delta has two daily non-stop flights from SEA to AMS; I've booked the earlier one and it will arrive at 9 am. So if it were to be cancelled (knock on the wood) Delta could put me on the next flight that will arrive at 12:25 pm; but I would have missed my KLM 12:30 pm connection in that scenario too.

After much contemplation I ended up rebooking my itinerary that came close to what you mentioned in your comment but went beyond it. I spaced out every leg of my flights (PDX-SEA, SEA-AMS, AMS-ATH) with one day in between flights, now I no longer have to worry about missing connecting flight any more and the backup flight is no longer needed either. All these changes ended up costing me just a bit more; but it's well worth it as it gives me peace of mind. I think booking all these flights in one ticket might not necessarily address the fundamental issue, which is to travel on a major holiday weekend. Any delay in one flight could have domino effect on the rest of the flights. Now I just have to book the hotel rooms; my credit card points and hotel credit should come handy :)

Thanks everyone again for your useful comments and suggestions; I really appreciate it very much!