Schipol transiting

nim1bdeh38l2cw

KLM are trying to sell me a ticket with a 50 minute transit time in Schipol. The incoming flight is the 06:00 Aer Lingus from Dublin to Amsterdam.

This is hardly enough time is it?

archer22

Schipol is very easy to get around...it's all in one building.

wexie

Yup, no buses or trams or any of that nonsense. 50 minutes is easily enough time to get from one gate to any other gate.

If it was me though I think I'd prefer a bit more time just in case the incoming flight is late. Also (especially if you are going on holidays) there is great shopping to be done there.

goingnowhere

Its doable

There will be no security check (unless flying Delta to the US, but thats 5 minutes from the gate Aer Lingus arrives at)
No passport check if flying to a non Schengen EEA country

50 minutes is at least 10 minutes over the minimum

dudara

It’s doable if everything goes on time. But... a decent percentage of the 6am AMS flights get held on the tarmac at Dublin due to flight restrictions into Schiphol. I personally wouldn’t take those odds.

If you miss the flight, KLM will route you on the one, which is good if it’s a frequent route. If it’s a quiet route with the next flight not until the afternoon or evening, then that sucks.

Senature

I've had to run through Schipol to catch a flight because my departure from Dublin was delayed. Aer Lingus moved our seats to the front of the plane so we would be first off, then we were met off the plane by a clipboard lady who told us which gate to run to. Made it with at least 10 mins to spare in the end, but it didn't feel like that when we were running and panicking about missing the flight! For the sake of your heart rate and peace of mind I'd suggest a longer window for some breathing space.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

goingnowhere wrote: »

Its doable

There will be no security check (unless flying Delta to the US, but thats 5 minutes from the gate Aer Lingus arrives at)
No passport check if flying to a non Schengen EEA country

50 minutes is at least 10 minutes over the minimum

Bear in mind, you do have to go through a passport check because you're entering a Schengen agreement country. If it's take-off from Dublin at 6am, it'll be landing at about 8.30 local time, just as things are beginning to get messy.

steve-o

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

Bear in mind, you do have to go through a passport check because you're entering a Schengen agreement country.

I can't see where the OP mentioned that.

spurious

We had a very tight connection in Schiphol once and we were delayed by fog in Dublin. They had a buggy waiting for us at the gate. Cue careening through the place at high speed (or so it seemed) and the door of our next plane closing as we got on (it was to Hong Kong). We made it, our bags didn't, but they came the next day.

nim1bdeh38l2cw

steve-o wrote: »

I can't see where the OP mentioned that.

The connecting flight is to Sint Maarten so non-EU (or is it? perhaps it's classed as an "internal" flight!)

zilog_jones

Airports usually have a minimum recommended transfer time, and it seems to be 40 minutes for Schiphol for flights within Europe. Airlines won't normally let you book flights with connections that are unreasonably short, but some third party sites like Expedia may not be so intelligent in this regard.

Might be worth checking maps of the airport and getting familiar with where you need to go. Some info here: https://www.klm.com/travel/il_en/prepare_for_travel/at_the_airport/connections/index.htm#p2

archer22

What I do when I land there is make my way to "Holland Boulevard" which seems to be roughly the centre of the airport...its only about 10 minutes walk to any gate from there.

steve-o

Zain Fit Colt wrote: »

The connecting flight is to Sint Maarten so non-EU (or is it? perhaps it's classed as an "internal" flight!)

Not part of Schengen, so no immigration check in Amsterdam when transiting from Dublin.

Momento Mori

It is doable but only if everything goes well. Delays happen and bear in mind that at Schiphol it could take up to 20 minutes from landing to taxi to the gate.

From my experience, if you have checked luggage it's almost guaranteed not to make the second flight if it's less than one hour.

nim1bdeh38l2cw

Momento Mori wrote: »

From my experience, if you have checked luggage it's almost guaranteed not to make the second flight if it's less than one hour.

That would be my chief worry, and as I'm going sailing the following day for a week lord only knows when I'd see the luggage again! Think I'll fly to AMS the day before.

Anahita

Zain Fit Colt wrote: »

The connecting flight is to Sint Maarten so non-EU (or is it? perhaps it's classed as an "internal" flight!)

I did this flight on KLM from Dublin- Amsterdam-(stopover: St Martin)-Curacao in January last year. It was a mad dash but I made it but my bags did not. Even though there were multiple flights my bags could have been on, I didn't get them for 3 days and KLM were not easy to deal with at Curacao airport.

Eventually the bags arrived. I booked the same flight again for January 2019 in March 2018 to get a good price only to find KLM introduced in the spring a new later flight that flies direct to Curacao which would have given me a longer transfer time in Amsterdam. The ground staff in Curacao told me this is a regular occurrence for flights with a transfer time of under 1.5 hrs for bags to make your flight.

Good luck and enjoy St Martin!

nim1bdeh38l2cw

Cheers, BVI is my eventual destination but I plan to spend a day or two in St Martin on the way back.