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The Schiphol mess

Board Walker

How ever bad Dublin is, Amsterdam is far far worse! two weeks ago we had to arrive at AMS at 5.45 for the 930 to cork. it was quiet but when i came out of the lounge at 8.30 there was a Q from the entrance to Schengen area all the way to Pier E.

Roll on to this week, waiting for my baggage in LUX on Tuesday and an announcement came on that no baggage was sent with the flight and it would arrive on the 11PM. I filled in the online form and requested airport pick up. So i went in the following morning and they advised it had not arrived and that the Morning flight(there are or 4 a day from AMS to LUX) had been cancelled! I eventually picked up my Luggage yesterday when i was checking in for my flight home.

We were sat on the aircraft from LUX last night for 20 minutes before a stairs came, and the baggage was sat next to the aircraft for 30 minutes before it was loaded fo cork, the flight was delayed as a result and was loaded then by some ould boy that must have been on a mission to break as much stuff as possible. Did this guy not realise we could see him loading the baggage onto the conveyor id love to know?

Finally i couldn't believe what i saw in Cork. Rows and Rows of baggage. I went for a walk around while i was waiting for my own bag looking at the sea of baggage from Amsterdam. almost every bag i saw was EI/KLM with AMS on it. i did see one AF alright.

Is it people out from covid or is there some dispute with ground handling staff in AMS? LHR cant be too far behind as KLM sent an A330 over during the week empty to pick up hundreds of bags.

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Board Walker

Schiphol have publicly blames G4s on twitter saying they cant provide enough people. i think it was g4s anyway

Blut2

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40960904.html

It sounds like its still an absolute disaster in AMS. Missing flights after arriving in the airport 3.5hrs early?

The summer peak travel season is over, and months more have passed to give time for hiring etc, theres no excuse for this to be ongoing.

Hotblack Desiato

G4S screwing up? Well I never 😝

Suckler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119616492#Comment_119616492

I've witnessed KLM staff twice huff and puff over Dublin delays, insinuating it doesn't happen anywhere else

Tabnabs

Schipol having to compensate for people missing their flights. Did Dublin do this?

https://www.schiphol.nl/en/page/compensation-of-costs-resulting-from-queues/

IQO

https://nieuws.schiphol.nl/dick-benschop-stelt-functie-ter-beschikking/

Schiphol's CEO resigned today - mostly because of the mess over the last couple of months:

"There is a lot of attention, and also criticism, for the way in which Schiphol tackles the problems and for my responsibility as CEO. I make room on my own initiative to give Schiphol the space to make a new start. I do not want the attention for my person to become an obstacle for Schiphol.

The situation at Schiphol and what that means for our travelers and employees is close to my heart. I've done my very best, but we're not there yet. I do hope it gets better soon. I love Schiphol. Managing this company was a great honor for me."

Hotblack Desiato

Wonder if he'll fail upwards like the DAA guy.

jesus_thats_gre

Had the displeasure of transiting through Schipol on Friday evening. Arrived from the middle east and was transiting through to Dublin with hand luggage only.

The Transfer desks in the arrive terminal were closed. I was told to sit in a specific seat and told that someone would personally walk me up to the Transfer desk. Having waiting 45 mins, 10 of us were walked 25mins through the back corridors in the airport to another Transfer area where we were just dumped. there must have been 4,000 plus people queuing.

2 hours of queuing at security in order to transfer and I had only made it a third of the way. Priority lanes were closed so ended up chancing my arm about feeling unwell and was brought up to the front the queue - must have skipped 2,000 people in the queue.

Bag scanning was a complete mess. Took about 45 mins to get through ~15 people in the queue in front of me. 5 G4S staff members tending to one workstation to examine bags that needed an additional check. My bag sat there for 20mins while they rebooted the single terminal that was causing "issues". G4S staff sat around not giving the slightest damn and looked bemused when I asked whether they could physically search my bag a a fall back as opposed to waiting for an image to view.

Got to the gate in time and the flight was boarded largely on-time. Swissport staff weren't checking passport incidentally.

After boarding, and having sat there for ~45 mins, the pilot announced that the luggage from the arriving flight was still on the plan and the luggage for the departing flight hasn't been loaded yet. Proceeded to give passengers the choice to wait up to 4 hours for a luggage crew or depart with the arriving flights luggage and no departing flight luggage.

When they finally made the decision to abandon the luggate, they were unable to get a tractor to push the flight back. That took another 45 mins.

I have travelled extensively and experienced airports in developing economies. I can honestly say that I have never witnessed dysfunction like it anywhere else. Everything was a mess with the exception of that both airlines had control over.

.red.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634203#Comment_119634203

The captain gave the passengers the option of departing for Dublin with a full cargo hold full of unaccompanied baggage from a other flight?

Maybe it was his last day and he didn't mind getting fired.

jesus_thats_gre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634237#Comment_119634237

He discussed it with passengers and debated whether he would have to made the decision in conjunction with passengers or whether Aer Lingus Ops would make a decision on it.

We departed Amsterdam with the luggage from the arriving flight on the plane. And zero luggage for departing passengers loaded. Well, except for 5 prams.

.red.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634246#Comment_119634246

That sounds very strange.

No flights are meant to depart with unaccompanied baggage unless they're classed as expedited/rush bags and have gone thru additional screening.

sailing

Ordinarily yes, yet approval can be given. As for the fired comment above, this is a grown up forum.

screamer

Delighted to hear the CEO resigned, it has been a disgrace of an airport for a very long time. Shithole we call it, and we will never fly there again.

Qprmeath

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634261#Comment_119634261

This happened in the madness of early summer in Dublin too more than once.

.red.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634458#Comment_119634458

TBF, the first comment mentioned asking the passengers and never mentioned contacting the airline. That seemed a bit far fetched.

Taking off with a hold full of unaccompanied bags without the airlines permission but clearing it with the passengers would surely be grounds for dismissal, or very close to it.

Blut2

Thats an absolutely shocking report. How are they still so short staffed / badly operating heading towards the end of September? It was problematic in DUB and loads of UK airports in June but that was at least understandable, if frustrating. There can't be any excuse for ops still being so badly run now in late September though.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119635135#Comment_119635135

You can be certain the crew were in contact with the airline throughout, the delay alone has a knock-on impact on other flights so they'd have to keep them up to speed on what was happening.

Caranica

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634261#Comment_119634261

It happened friends flying from Schiphol to Dublin in July too. Their bags arrived the next day

bikeman1

And KLM are advertising on the radio here everyday. I keep saying to myself when I hear it. Those poor people “connecting to the world” don’t know what they are getting themselves into by transfer in AMS.

Very disappointing that the Dutch can’t get the problem sorted. Sounds like a bit of a work to rule going on with G4S.

Shiok

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634203#Comment_119634203

By all accounts, logistics descended into complete chaos.

Their daily passenger cap, already lowered in July, has now been reduced by a further 18% and will be in place until at least November.

Unless over the age of 60, experiencing mobility issues or heavily pregnant, no one appreciates the arsehole in the queue who deems himself/herself more important than the other 2000 people in front of them, all with their own flight connections.

All for helping anyone who may have a gravely ill parent at the end of their journey, are best man at a wedding in eight hours etc but not someone who walks past others, faking an illness, simply to make it home for his/her Friday night.

Plenty of people are used to not having to queue at airports, myself included, yet thankfully not many think they are entitled to it.

VG31

It's a shame as Amsterdam used to be a fairly good airport. It's ridiculous that they're still having issues like this in September.

Frankfurt despite not being a particularly pleasant airport to connect in, is actually a much better option than AMS now. Zürich is the best major European airport for connections IMO.

DavP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119634203#Comment_119634203

Was also there last week having previously sworn never again after a disaster earlier in the summer.

If I had known it was that easy to skip the queue, would have tried the old batting eyelashes routine!

Fabio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119641313#Comment_119641313

I remember raving about Schipol and how easy it was to transfer through. I was transferring through there in August and it was very bad. Long queues, place was dirty, it just felt awful. Hopefully they can get it back into something workable.

Tabnabs

If you put #schipol into twitter you see that it's still a nightmare, they haven't got it sorted yet. The security queues can be hours long.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119671317#Comment_119671317

They stopped paying the security staff a summer bonus of ~€5 extra at the start of Sep. That's why it's gone to crap, loads of security security staff left.

hynesie08

I'm looking at flights in November, The options are a 90 minute transfer in either schilpol or CDG, should I even be considering schipol?

Locker10a

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119701143#Comment_119701143

Pre-pandemic I’d have said go AMS 100% … but now….

.red.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119701143#Comment_119701143

I wouldn't go near either with a 90 minute transfer. I'd be hoping for 2 hours minimum.

Only takes a small delay on the inbound flight to turn into a big slot delay on the outbound and then you've missed your connection. Both airlines are pretty good for rerouting if that happens tho.

Van.Bosch

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119701143#Comment_119701143

Is there no other option?

Blut2

Before 2022 I'd also have always said AMS. As it is now, if theres no lengthier connection option than 90min at either airport, I'd probably book based on the availability of the next flight to your destination after your intended one. Account for the worst case scenario of if you have to get rerouted to the next one.