elbegewa

Flying between Seattle & Italy. 2 Best choices are to change planes in either AMS or FRA. Questions:
1. Flying between US & EU: which of the 2 airports is "easiest" to transfer at?
2. Flying from US to EU: what is the procedure re customs & immigration? Does one have to claim baggage, go through customs, then recheck baggage? How fast is the norm?
3. Flying from EU to US: what is the procedure re immigration? I presume most may take place on arrival in US. Correct?
and most importantly...
4. Many (most) flight combinations show only about 2 hrs connection time. Is that really enough?

Christina

You don't really go through customs in Europe unless you have some issues and are taking in unusual things, a typical tourist wouldn't (even upon arrival). Customs is really for people going home to their home country, as tourists. Whether you have to claim baggage and recheck depends on your booking and what you are doing. You wouldn't if you had connecting flights on the same airline or a codeshare you booked through one airline. I think I did have to go through customs at Heathrow once even when I was just changing flights (although I was going to Gatwick), and I was surprised as I'd never seen customs before in Europe (except a side desk you voluntarily go to, if you need to ).

Passport control can really vary depending on time of day and how busy it is, of course. I'd say maybe 30 minutes, on average.

Two hours is enough for me at any airport I've connected at within Europe. I like AMS a lot, haven't been through FRA. AMS is easy enough.

Returning to US, you do go through customs/passport control at your first point of entry. Because after that, you are like any domestic passenger.

PalenQ

Planes from Amsterdam may get more scrutiny for contraband drugs, given that city's notorious reputation for providing them.

Andrew

I've flown in and out of AMS a dozen times now. Never, ever a worry about extra scrutiny for drugs. I wouldn't worry about that at all unless you are actually planning to be dumb and try to bring something back with you.

I like AMS too - I find it an efficient airport, even though it's huge. I've also never flown through FRA. Note that only recently their screening procedures changed. I think if you fly into AMS and connect to Italy, you don't have to pass through security at AMS anymore, as I did when I connected to Venice in AMS in April - they changed security procedures right after I was there.

I'd look up what current AMS security procedures are and ignore any advice you find online about it that was posted before May 2015.

Kathie

I find AMS a more efficient airport than FRA.

Do make sure that your passport gets stamped on you way into Europe - some places are quite lax about that -and as you are leaving Europe some agents are real sticklers about it and will hold you up. I once had an agent in Frankfort go through every page of my very full passport, asking why I had been to each of the countries. I pointed out that the agent simply hadn't stamped my passport on the way in and he said something like "Yes, I know, and I don't like it."

PalenQ

Schiphol Airport is so so busy and so so easy to use - often voted in amongst the world's friendliest for passengers airport.

Frankfurt I've found crowded and hectic when I was there - if you can chcose chose Amsterdam IME but it really is a small matter - English spoken widely in Amsterdam.

kybourbon

I prefer AMS over FRA, but I've never had a problem at either. You do feel like you are taxing forever at AMS (makes you wonder if the plane is going to drive instead of fly). If I'm traveling with someone that has never been to Amsterdam, I make my layover there 10 hours or so and take them into to the city for a quick view.

greg

You can also frame a layover differently. One can frame a layover as a necessary cost of travel. One can also frame a layover as an opportunity.

If you are interested in visiting Netherlands (since you seems to have been to Frankfurt area already) one way to do this at NO ADDITIONAL transportation cost is to extend, yes, extend your layover to as close to 24 hour as possible.

This is how it would work. There seems to be two Delta direct flights, AMS-SEA, DL143 10am and DL145 2:30pm. See if you can combine, in a multi-city configuration, a flight from Italy to AMS that arrives the previous day, but at time after these Delta flights to SEA WIHTOUT increasing your airfare. If the reservation system accepts AMS as a layover, it does not add airfare. If you extend too much, it considers AMS as a stopover and your airfare skyrockets. The booking system might give you an option for a LONG layover as on option or you might have to manually configure a three leg itinerary, e.g. SEA-VCE, FCO-AMS, then AMS-SEA. This strategy works for layover up to about 24 hours at some, but not all itineraries.

Of course, your visit would come in less than one day chunk, but Netherlands is a small country and I have visited Arnhem open air museum, Kröller-Müller Museum, Haarlem, Utrecht, and of course Amsterdam as a layover visit, of course, one per layover.

If these small bite visits are acceptable, for a cost of one night stay, you can visit vicinity of Amsterdam without having to pay additional transportation from elsewhere in Europe to Amsterdam.

Also if you want to take 10am DL143 from AMS, your Italy departure would be super early. By adding almost 24 hour layover, you can catch the DL143 while leaving Italy at later hour but a day earlier.

Summer0407

I'm going from San Francisco to Italy and we chose AMS on our way back home. My niece recommended it said it's very quick, easy, and organized were going KLM with a 1.5 layover.

elbegewa

Thanks all for your responses. I just noticed that Delta has recently added a 2nd daily flight between SEA & AMS ... suddenly more connections can be made with a relatively safe 3 and 4 hr layover.

And yah, Greg, we have thought about the possibility of spending a night and a few hours of 2 partial days in AMS ... depends on how the whole trip schedules and costs out. The whole of Scandinavia and Russia are definitely both near the top of our bucket list.

AlessandraZoe

elbegewa--Whether you end up deciding to stay over in AMS or not, I can say that AMS has to be one of the easiest airports to navigate for transfers and the distance by train to the Centraal station in Amsterdam is easy-peasy.

FRA was a tad harder to get around--its layout is less intuitive.

ekc

I regularly fly from Portland, Oregon to Italy and would always choose to go through AMS, rather than FRA. The ONLY time I missed a connection to Italy is when I flew through FRA. It was a nightmare, even with a 2-hour layover.

Your luggage gets checked through to your final destination in Italy.

joannyc

I flew JFK -> TLS last month with a 1 hour layover in AMS. Both I and my luggage made the connecting flight with no issues.

TravelJunkie888

AMS is pretty small and painless to transfer in and easy to navigate in English. It gets my vote.

Mainhattengirl

If it was me, I would fly Icelandic Air from Seattle into Europe. Quick flight and you can layover in Iceland for a day or two as well.

ekc

Icelandic Air doesn't fly to Italy.

laverendrye

I've used both airports many times over the years both as transfer points and destinations. FRA is a bit bigger than AMS but not enough to make any practical difference (I wouldn't call AMS "pretty small"--it is the fourth largest airport in Europe). I think the key to a good transfer depends on not changing airline alliances and using the airport in which one is more dominant than another.

Thus for AMS you would be best to stick with Skyteam (KLM, AF, Delta etc) while for FRA, transfers are much easier if you are with Star Alliance (Lufthansa, United, Air Canada etc) as Lufthansa is the dominant carrier there.

Ironically, the only time I've had a problem with a transfer at either airport was when I chose AMS to avoid the hassle of flying through Heathrow, and the baggage system at Schiphol broke down and I didn't get my bags at the final destination for two days.

As others have pointed out, you will be required to clear immigration at either airport before proceeding to Rome, but will only clear customs at the final destination. You will also have to clear passport control at FRA or AMS on your way home. 2 hours is fine for any of these connections.

suze

<Planes from Amsterdam may get more scrutiny for contraband drugs, given that city's notorious reputation for providing them.>

I do not believe that is true.

And Scihphol is one of the most organized easy airports I've ever been thru. But I don't know Frankfurt to compare.