Schiphol Airport Boarding Instructions

[frequentflyer2]

Mrs. FF and I flew back from Amsterdam to Belfast last Sunday afternoon. We went through the Zone Three passport control and sat beside the bar with a clear view of the screen telling passengers which gates to go to.
The flight was due to depart at 17.30 and at 16.50 the screen still said wait.
Then around 17.00 it said 'go to Gate H' but no actual number was given.
We headed straight round to the security check which at Schiphol takes place almost at the gate and joined the queue. We immediately noticed our flight was now described as 'boarding' on one monitor to our right while another to our left said 'wait'.
By the time everything had been x-rayed etc. it was a case of 'gate closing'.
We ran round to H2 to find almost everyone on board - so much for purchasing speedy boarding - but where had they all come from? Is there a tendency for different monitors to give different instructions simultaneously at Schiphol? If the security queues had been longer we would have missed the flight and I suppose would have been told it was our own fault for not keeping a careful eye on the monitors..............

[al446]

Yep, Schiphol can be a bit tricky like that. I don't know anything about how their displays operate but the scanners near gate can be confusing if you dont go to AMS often. Those of us who like a drink and/or a last cig before flight can forget that we still have to go through the scanner and :mad: ourselves on reaching longish queue.

The other one that can catch you out is how quickly the queue for p/port control fills up, that is why I usually get there well early for flight even if I have to delay going airside sometimes. That is the result of several lessons learned from close calls.

[Gibon2]

Ah, Grasshopper! I see you are new to mysteries of Schiphol Gate H! You look at monitor, hope to see gate number? Hope to see when boarding? Ha! I laugh at you and your feeble kung fu.

Next time, you learn from Schiphol Gate H kung fu masters. Grasshopper, where you think all those people already on plane come from? Once they too were young and foolish like you! Now they have studied and become wise! They go to Gate H no matter what crazy monkey monitors say. If they find plane there, they get on. If no plane, they sit on floor blocking corridor, meditating on their Schiphol kung fu. You learn, you do same! Maybe your flight leave with you on board!

[Curious Pax]

Seems to be a flaw in Schiphol's set up of pier H. They created it as a locost area, so no air bridges, and no facilities (not even a toilet if I remember rightly) after the security check at the head of the pier. As such it isn't geared to loads of people hanging around waiting for their flight, and this was addressed by not sending people to the gate until boarding was imminent. Unfortunately when they settled on STD-30 minutes they didn't take account of the fluctuations in the size of the security queue, and so it is quite easy to obey the screens and miss you flight. I know that EZY specifies being at the gate 30 minutes before departure if you have speedy boarding, and presumably about 20 minutes before if you don't want offloading. I'm surprised that this doesn't seem to have been more of an issue since that pier opened about 3 years ago.

[Shack37]

BING......BONG..........Stand by for a gate change........BING.........Bong