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-   -   Connection in AMS from Delta to KLM (https://www.fodors.com/community/air-travel/connection-in-ams-from-delta-to-klm-1069205/)

hdswofford Aug 19th, 2015 08:04 AM

Connection in AMS from Delta to KLM
 
We are arriving on Delta flight from Atlanta and have a 50 min connection to KLM flight to Prague. All booked on same ticket. I've been told by Delta that is minimum connecting time at AMS and that it shouldn't be a problem. Thoughts? Anyone made that connection?

Jeff801 Aug 20th, 2015 05:42 AM

You will have to clear passport control as well as travel from the non-Schengen side of the airport to the Schengen side. I think someone at Delta was ignorant of the formalities as well as the distances between wings of the terminal.

OTOH, because your luggage will have a better chance of making the plane than you will, there is likely to be some slack caused by the need to match luggage with boarding passengers.

I would, in your place, find out about a later flight and the possibility of booking it. If you miss the flight, KLM is responsible to get you on the next available flight, but there is no guaranty that the next actual flight will have availability.

Christina Aug 21st, 2015 11:01 AM

Schiphol is a great airport, it is possible you'll make it in that time. And I presume if you don't, KLM has several flights that day to Prague? That's KLM Cityhopper, right? Usually that have one early one, which ios probably the one on your ticket, and several more but in the afternoon or early evening. So the alternative would have been maybe a 4 hour layover. IOf you are late, you should get on one of the later ones.

I don't think those at Delta were ignorant, they have standard MCT for international and other type flights, and that's probably what they have. And the people answering the phone didn't set those connection times. I've had similar tickets booked with only 50 minutes connecting time (arriving at CDG, transferring to some other Air France flight withing Schengen). If you booked through KLM, you'd get the same options. Of course you could have chosen another flight to start with or maybe another airline. But for KLM, I suspect you got the best deal without a 4+ hour layover.

scdreamer Aug 21st, 2015 04:16 PM

That seems a little tight to me. We flew in to Schiphol from the US in April with a KLM connection to Prague, and with slightly more than an hour, we barely made our connecting flight. Getting through immigration was a little time consuming, not too bad, but after that we had to rush to the other side of the airport and there was some sort of construction going on at the security check to get into our connecting flight area, and the lines were really backed up. Very disorganized. I hate the anxiety of trying to talk my way to the front of the lines - we did it, but it wasn't fun.

TheFlyingScotsman Aug 23rd, 2015 04:26 AM

We did this a couple of years ago. It can be done but it is extremely stressful. We arrived at the end of one concourse and our plane left from the end of another far down the airport.

Passport control was very quick, but security was not. We went through the priority line and RAN down the concourse to get to our plane.

Never want to do that again.


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