AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  1 February 2010 by B Geherarigo   (Switzerland)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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I am using the AMS for about 20 years. Used to be a medium sized and efficient airport. Also the shopping was a joy. Very good price. Now I felt it as an American Airport. Too large, too complex procedures and unfriendly staff. I miss old days.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  30 January 2010 by I Dujmovic   (Croatia)

Customer Rating :  5/5

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Clean and functional terminals, baggage claim faster than average, check in smooth and staff help you. Plenty of stores in Plaza and after passport control area. Bars, restaurants and other facilities including affordable hotels near by.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  9 January 2010 by P Herman   (Spain)

Customer Rating :  5/5

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I love the different waiting lounges with comfortable, lounge-style chairs that you can sprawl out on and relax, some apparently designed for sleeping since its what many people do on them. On a recent trip I stayed 4 hours at the "Yotel", the in-terminal hotel which offers small space-age rooms, the single rooms are not unlike a Japanese "capsule" hotel, only with your own toilet, shower and wide screen TV. There's even a button for room service. 4 hours costs 45 euros, a bit pricey but then again you can doze off and not have to worry about your bags being stolen. The rooms are not completely soundproof though, but luckily I had brought earplugs and managed several hours of good sleep before my connecting flight. I agree that Schipol's food outlets are expensive, but the quality is higher than most. The negatives about this airport are the long walks to gates and the lack of seating in the "D" pier. Otherwise, a great airport to connect in.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  25 November 2009 by S Dixey   (UK)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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As a transfer airport, it is reasonable as long as you know in advance you are in for a long journey of 15 to 20 mins at times, although pedestrian conveyors help. The EU border control has improved considerably but there are times when backlogs do occur, but there is an express checking queue for genuine short-connection passengers. Cooked food is not that good at any location I've tried so far. Aircraft arrival / departure is generally OK. They do have problems when changing gates at short notice and not making it clear enough to non-english / dutch speakers that they have to move, leading to confusion and congestion at boarding areas. Prices are too high and now the Euro is quite strong, very few good buys are to be had unless you do some serious research beforehand for an item you know you want and is available. Cleanliness is good although there are some dark corners that tend to get neglected such as the bus to aircraft gates. Seats in the departure areas can be in short supply at peak periods so you need to hunt around sometimes.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  28 October 2009 by Paul Meerman   (Netherlands)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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At departure everything went well. Fast check-in, custom and baggage check. Enough to do for every person on this airport. Enough information is given. At arrival I noticed the dirty toilets and unfriendly staff, what a difference with for example Singapore The waiting before passport control was not nice, and especially the bad designing to put the passport control area right under a stairway was a disappointment. The baggage collect was fast. One of the main roads in Holland was blocked for the day, but there was no information about it at the long parking terminal. This can be better.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  8 October 2009 by Andy Hanson   (Netherlands)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Used its low cost terminal today (M gates for Schengen low cost), that is on attached to the far end of the normal terminal. This terminal is a breeze compared with the normal terminal. It is small scale has its own security, shopping and lounge, all more or less close to the gates. It's policy to not announce gate numbers until boarding is a whole other story. Without informing passengers of a delayed boarding they start wandering to the gate area and to get stressed and feel lost in confusion, while the rude airport staff pretend not to know anything. Once the gates is announced, all works fine. There are no jet bridges here, which is a good thing as it will save you time. Upon arrival it is no more than a five minute walk to the train station

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  18 September 2009 by Ralph Janssen   (Netherlands)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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Good airport. Because of the one-terminal concept, you don't have to change terminals if you transfer on International or Schengen flight. Many shops and food-outlets, shop are pretty cheap compared with Holland, but the food is too expensive! Many information-screens to check your flight status. Passport-control queues aren't too bad but boarding is chaotic.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  4 September 2009 by Brian Hill   (UK)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Avoid Schiphol at all costs, especially if it means using gates H. What was once a decent airport is now an overpriced shopping mall. After checking-in for our flight to Southampton, we discovered it was canceled, no details at the information desk, so had to go back thru' customs and border control to the Servisair desk to be rebooked on a later flight. At security for gates H, had to put passport and boarding card in separate tray to be scanned - why? Gates H have no facilities other than an extremely dirty toilet at the far end.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  13 August 2009 by K van Dam   (Netherlands)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Apart from outrageous prices for food and lousy, unfriendly and extremely slow retail staff usually engaged in personal conversations this airport has about the filthiest toilets you'll ever see at an airport. It typically takes ages to get through security and immigration and your gate is never less than a 15 minute walk away. What makes that I really don't like this airport is that every single arrival no matter how on-time you have landed ends up being a delay either because you have landed miles and miles away from the main terminal, your gate is taken by a delayed flight or some docking system is not working. Even having arrived at the stand means you will easily spend another 10 minutes waiting for a jet bridge to be moved. Why is it so hard to operate these things in Amsterdam and why does it seem they are operated by idiots? I arrived today at around 9 and was shocked to see that all shops were already closed while it seemed to me there were still plenty of passengers around.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  8 August 2009 by Simon Smith   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Queues were not too bad when I went through Schiphol this week, but as noted in other comments, there are very long walking distances. Airside lounge was not very clean. A hint: buy any food and drink you want before you go through passport control. Prices almost double once airside (eg. a bottle of water is EUR2.90 compared to EUR1.50), the choice is much more limited, and you still can't take anything liquid you buy onto the plane, because the security control is at the gate.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  31 July 2009 by S Paice   (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Very clean and tidy airport, check in was fine and passport control was quick. Plenty of shops, but the food hall on the upper deck has a very strange system of paying for your food. You order, receive a receipt then take that and stand in a queue to get to a cashier further down while your food goes cold. They then take that receipt, take the money you owe then give you another receipt. Strange. Long walk to the gate and then a massive queue as each gate has it's own security consisting of one scanner.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  27 July 2009 by Erik Klein   (Netherlands)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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Design of check in counters together with queuing for the hand luggage check is really bad. When it's just a little bit crowded, queues are not clearly separated, not well organised, and people don't know where to queue. This is not their fault, but simply a bad design. Apart from this, the long walking distances are also tedious, like is the taxiing to the runway.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  24 July 2009 by S Ketch   (Netherlands)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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Good infrastructure, has intercity trains departing right in the hall. Very unfriendly staff, long walking distances. Immigration is a total disaster, takes ages before you get your passport checked. Although the airport enjoys its geographical position, that there are better airports.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  13 July 2009 by S Tegtmeier   (Germany)

Customer Rating :  5/5

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Transfer at AMS is quite easy. Signage is good, but walking distances could be very long!!! Shops and restaurants okay, but not excellent. There are a lot of free seats to relax if you have to wait for your next flight.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  8 July 2009 by Jonathan Granato   (USA)

Customer Rating :  5/5

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I flew LCY - AMS return on the Avro RJ. It was fun to walk onto the tarmac and board. All phases of the flight, from check-in to departure were handled well. It never ceases to amuse me that the taxi phase from the terminal to the departure runway at Amsterdam is longer than the actual cruise portion of the flight.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  8 June 2009 : by D Garner  (UK)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Slightly disappointing. Schiphol Plaza is dark and a dingy, the terminal is huge and taxing takes forever. That said, it is organised; the train station is easy to find and use and signage is very good. Food is very expensive and the airside shops were poor. Overall ok - but not the experience I expected.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  16 May 2009 : by Andy Hanson  (Canada)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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For the last month I was based in Amsterdam to do almost daily flights to European destinations. As a Canadian I am used to the North American procedures and although Schiphol is an ok airport, I have not spent more time taxiing and waiting for boarding bridge connection than at Schiphol. This must be the slowest airport to arrive. It typically takes up to half an hour after landing to get to a gate and then it can easily take another fifteen minutes before the boarding bridge even starts to move. It seems that plane arrivals come as a complete surprise to the airport and that staff that operates the equipment has absolute no clue. I think this is totally unacceptable for an airport that lives from transfer passengers. I witnessed complete hysteria by passengers trying to make a connection while being stuck at the airplane because the airport was unaware we had arrived.

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review :  16 May 2009 : by K Weimar  (USA)

Customer Rating :  5/5

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Schiphol is the only airport I've been to that feels like it was designed for human beings. Yes, it is huge, and yes it can a long time to taxi to the terminal after you landed (but have you ever landed at LAX?). It is one big terminal, that means no changing buildings to make connections. I usually am here connecting from the US to flights to Africa. If I have a long layover, I can check my carryon in a coin op locker and grab a train into Amsterdam, for less than $10 round trip. They have some lounge chairs at points around the airport as if people might have gotten off a long flight in coach and might have a long time to wait for their connection. How decent is that? Of course there are never enough of those. Baggage trolleys are free. There is a Mercure hotel airside, where you can get a day room and get a shower and some sleep. Expensive but after 12 hours in coach, I'd pay anything for a hot shower. Smokers be advised, that the entire terminal is now smoke free, so you have to clear passport control to light up. Fortunately, the Dutch are just pleasant people. I can't recall encountering a ticket agent, customs officer, security officer, or food service worker who was the least bit surly. Compared to CDG FRA and LHR, Schiphol is heaven

AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT review : 14 May 2009 : by John Philipps (USA)

Customer Rating : 5/5

AMS is a delight to use in comparison to so very many airports in the rest of the world. Indeed, it seems to have its own "vibe" or sense of community. It features clean, well- maintained facilities, ample toilets, good walkways, professional employees throughout, a wide choice of activities, excellent service by multiple airlines to locations worldwide, good transport links by rail or road, and a sense of calm and security. The worst things you can experience at AMS would be long taxis on the taxiways, or fellow passengers who don't know how to use a queue, but these are not unique to Schipol.