A currently offered KLM flight between Dallas-Italy is at a great price point, but it comes with two headaches. I can solve the first problem, a 6:15 am flight out of FCO; but I’m at a loss regarding the second: a 1 hour 15 minute layover in Amsterdam-Schiphol airport. I don’t know the layout of the AMS airport, nor the immigration policy in this situation. Is this connection too brief? And, would an airline sell a ticket with an impossible connection?

You will go through passport control at Amsterdam as both the Netherlands & Italy are in Schengen. An airline won't sell an illegal connection - but in any case they will be responsible for getting you to FCO if you miss the connection

I have changed planes at Schiphol on three trips to Italy. The airport is one of the best and easiest one to get around in of any have been to. Look up the layout on the internet site. I would not worry at all about only having 1hr. 15 mins.

Hello laogood, here is the website for the Amsterdam Airport. You will find the language selection in the very upper right hand of your screen so you can click on English.

Schiphol is a very user friendly airport in my experience. But if your plane is late arriving and you don't make your flight to Rome yes if you are booked on one ticket KLM will have to put you on the next available plane. While waiting in security if you are running late do tell a KLM employee what flight you are needing to take, they are often very helpful. http://www.schiphol.nl/

Is your 1 1/4 hour connection on the way to Rome or the way home from Rome? We just used NWA/KLM from the US through AMS to FCO so have very recent experience with going through Schipol. If it is 1 1/4 hours on your way to Rome I would not be concerned but the way home might be another story.

We always find security at AMS to be quite rigorous and time consuming. All passengers are questioned individually or as groupd traveling together and have to go through security at the gate. The flight we took home a week ago we went to the gate one hour early (we'd been walking around the airport for a while after coming in from FCO) and found about half of the passengers had already been questioned and gone through security and were on the plane.

Thanks for the great information. The 1 hr 15 min connection in Amsterdam happens when flying from Rome back to Dallas. Because of the 6:15 am departure, I’m assuming it is the first flight of the day for that plane (better odds of departing Rome/arriving Amsterdam on time). Flying on KLM for both segments probably helps me a little more. But the next available flight is a 29 hour marathon that would take me through several more connections in two countries. No amount of savings on airfare is worth that hassle. My question: if I have the full 75 minutes, is it possible to make the connection? Thanks again for any help.

I would hope that if you did miss the KLM connection, that KLM would reroute you on Northwest if necessary. Would it still be 29 hours then?

On our August trip, we had a 6 AM flight out of Bucharest to Amsterdam, and arrived about 1/2 hour early. We did not have a close connection (our next flight was supposed to be about 5.5 hours later), but it would have been no problem if we had.

I think there are no guarantees for anything, particularly as delays can happen anytime (and in fact our 1 PM flight to Seattle was delayed for mechanical reasons, from the above example).

I think you'll be fine. It's one of my favorite airports in the world, well-organized and easy to navigate. I had a similar connection on flight from DC to Kenya last month and ended up having plenty of time, plenty....

My experience at Schiphol is the same as julies. Security checks for US bound flights have always been rigouous but since 911 they have really gone severe. The line is often about an hour long. You are questioned for about 5 minutes in the boarding area. They gave me a pat down on my last two departures. I suggest that you go directly to your gate. There shouldn't be another passport check because you will be arriving within the security zone.

I went through Amsterdam in both directions on a trip last summer. Coming from Boston, I had a little over an hour between flights and getting to the flight to Lisbon in time was no problem at all.

Returning from Toulouse, however, I had a very short connection time in Amsterdam, just 45 minutes. I knew it would be tight but I figured I could make it because the connection in the other direction was so easy. But the gate agent in Toulouse said the connection time was too short, and the system would not print a boarding pass for us. This even though they had sold us a ticket. We were told we had to go to a transfer desk in Amsterdam.

We landed on time in Amsterdam and got to the transfer desk with half an hour before the scheduled flight to Boston. The man at the transfer desk told us the Boston flight was already closed, there was no way we could make it, they should not have sold us the ticket.

But he found us another routing, we took a flight to Paris and connected there for a Boston flight, arriving just a couple hours behind schedule.

The flights to the USA board very early in Amsterdam. There is extra security right at the gate. None of this means that an hour and fifteen minutes won't be enough, however. I would take the chance and book it, knowing that there is a good chance you will make the connection but that if you don't make it, you will be put on a later flight.

In November, we had a 2 hour connection time for FCO-AMS-JFK and ended up having plenty of time, certainly we had 45 minutes extra. We arrived at the gate at least 20-30 mins before they opened the second security line even after shopping some. (And I think we came it at the end of terminal B and had to walk to E, which was nearly across the airport, but as others have said, AMS is well setup.) This was also a later flight (1:30 PM out of FCO), so I would guess it would likely be busier. I would go ahead and book, but maybe be prepared to spend the night in Amsterdam on the (IMO) unlikely chance you miss the connection.

Paul

Hi I,

>would an airline sell a ticket with an impossible connection?

AirFrance does it all the time through CDG.

However, from my own experience and what I have read, AMS is a much better place in which to connect.

Your 1:15 hr connection is quite doable.

Enjoy your visit.