Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Customer Reviews

4 star Skytrax Rating
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Queuing Times 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
Customer rating from 633 reviews
4/10
4 star Skytrax Rating
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3/10

"organisation of security a problem"

(Netherlands)

Verified Review | In general I like Amsterdam Schiphol airport a lot. However, for a long time now the organisation of security check has been a problem. It has been in the national press and it shows in regular long queuing. Today this was brought to a new level - after waiting in line for an hour, the machine I was next in line for just closed down. End of shift, closed for the night, crew going home. That left one machine for 150 people and me missing my flight. Pretty basic stuff. Getting security checkpoint working. Cost me a ticket, a hotel night and parking charges.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitApril 2017
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"a disaster in organisation"

(Germany)

At Amsterdam Schiphol, I queued up 60 min at security and was not even half way through - I was allowed after a couple of requests to proceed to the security gate - it took me another 15 min to pass it, where other airports make it takes 5. I had to run the to the gate and finally made it, only because the airline was courtesly waiting. What a disaster in organisation.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitApril 2017
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
2/10

"idiotic procedures"

(United States)

Verified Review | Had layover of 90 minutes and due to idiotic procedures and multiple security check-points I almost missed my flight. Even with connection flight I was forced to leave terminals thrue baggage claim and went thrue two waiting zones to get gate number (existing boarding pass had bogus number)! After all harassment I can only appreciate US airports more.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitApril 2017
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
3/10

"crammed with people"

(Germany)

Verified Review | I travelled on April 8th from Berlin to Edinburgh via Amsterdam with 55 min connecting time. While arriving at passport control in the Main Hall there were at least 300 people waiting. Even the Fast Lanes were stuffed. Airport staff came and asked people forward with less connection time. I waited 30 to 40mins, the screens already showed that my next flight began with boarding. I had to run up to my terminal. Not my understanding of an relaxed start into a vacation. I of course understand that controls are necessary for safety reasons. But even the self control e-gates were crammed with people. Maybe the airlines (both of my flights were operated by the same airline) have to be more realistic while selling their flights.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitApril 2017
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes
1/10

"passengers are treated like cattle"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | On the morning of April 3 my partner and I waited in a queue for almost an hour before reaching the security check stations. This is an unacceptable wait for all paying passengers and standing for that time in a slowly moving queue must cause difficulties for families with young children and elderly people with mobility difficulties. What made it worse was that some of the security stations were not manned and at one of them it appeared hand-luggage was going through the scanner but no member of staff was watching the monitor. I fully accept that safety and security for passengers is paramount and I have no complaint at all about security checks and they way they are carried out. However, Schipol Airport must be aware of the times when large numbers of people have to go through security and should take steps to ensure that is done as efficiently and quickly as possible. That was certainly not the case last Monday. It is quite irritating that having paid fares and taxes, passengers are treated like cattle. Incidentally, when we arrived from the UK the previous Friday, only two officers manned the immigration desks and none of the passport e-readers was operational. I love Amsterdam, but I will think long and hard before subjecting myself to a Schipol Airport ordeal again. I checked the security information on the Schipol Airport website. It is obviously written by someone who has never been anywhere near the security checkpoint. The description of how they try to give passengers a pleasurable experience would be laughable if it wasn't so annoying - and untrue.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitApril 2017
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"horrendous from beginning to end"

(United Kingdom)

Horrendous from beginning to end. Before we even left the booking in desk area we could see the queue for security spilling down the stairs. Once we got through security (circa 700 people, in very warm conditions with people begging staff for help as they knew they were going to miss their flight) straight into the queue for passport control (this was already backing up into security, only 2 staff on duty for European travellers) then a mad dash for the plane past the endless gates that make up the airport. Yes we arrived on time at the airport and no we did not divert for one second in our aim to catch our flight.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitMarch 2017
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Staff 12345
no
5/10

"A clean and transparent airport"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | A clean and transparent airport, with good transport connections and many amenities. There are problems. The security queues are long and the security treatment is intimidating. Long queues at customs. The airport has five working runways, but traffic still is prone to delays. The fifth runway has probably the longest taxi in the world. Wifi is unreliable (but free).
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitMarch 2017
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
5/10

"plenty of shops and mostly clean"

(Serbia)

Extremely inefficient security checks, I understand the need to have tight security. But I have missed my flight due to hour long security check. The line stretched throughout section Departure 2. Once I verified my boarding pass it was still 35 minutes till the gates. This was all for intra-Schengen flight. The time was around 20.00. Other than that it seems like a normal airport. Plenty of shops and mostly clean. Departures and Arrivals areas are nicely connected you can easily transfer between any part of the airport. Even has the supermarket and the prices in most shops seem reasonable, not much of a premium just that you're shopping on the airport. But the security checks. Extremely inefficient.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitMarch 2017
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
5/10

"it has become a nightmare"

(United Kingdom)

Verified Review | Schiphol Airport used to be a great experience, now with the remodeling and extremely inefficient passport control it has become a nightmare. I use it at least once every two weeks and of all parts of my journey the transit through Schiphol is the one I dread the most. Ironically I hated Charles de Gaule but since I mainly use Flying Blue everytime I can I avoid this airport. I have to be honest personnel at passport control are courteous it is just the process and lack of personnel that makes long qeues likely 90% of the time. They have a (pre-historic) system where they yell (Who has a departure in less than 30 minutes) but then there is flock of people trying to take advantage which makes it quite annoying (you are also reminded of the discourtesy of travelers). Overall comfort is also not good, it is more designed to be a Mall so people spend money but with poor selection of eating places. This airport is not the worst, however for a hub in a developed country it is going downhill. Hope they fix this.
Experience At AirportTransit
Date VisitFebruary 2017
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
8/10

"the staff were very friendly"

(United States)

Verified Review | This is a review of the security at AMS (Amsterdam Schiphol Airport). We arrived from JRO (Arusha, Tanzania) and upon deplaning we were instructed to go through security. This was a huge set up - there must have been 6-8 stations set up for us so the wait time was minimal. We went through the scanner and then were subjected to a full on pat down, not that this bothered us, but being from the states, we usually only go through the scanner. Through security we were instructed to go to gate D1, which we thought was our gate. Although it did seem odd that on the electronic board it was not definitive. I can't remember the exact wording, but it was something like (go to D1 for more information). So we arrived at gate D1 and then understood, it's not a gate at all, rather it's another security check. The man who waited on us asked us the usual questions, but then wanted some information on our previous flights. This was a return leg from Africa, we had flown to Africa a few weeks earlier. Unfortunately we did not keep our boarding passes from the earlier flights so I showed him our itinerary (screenshot on my phone) and I also show him a lot of pictures from our trip (safari, climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro). In retrospect I suppose I could have just given him the trip confirmation number but I didn't think of that at the time. He walked away and returned a few minutes later saying that everything was in order and we proceeded to our true gate to wait for the next leg of the journey. The point I'm making here is that we were very impressed with the security. They do not mess around at this airport and we were very happy about that. Now, if you are in a tight squeeze, there is very little chance you'd make your connection unless you mentioned it and received preferential treatment (go to the head of the line). We arrived at D1 pretty much with no people in front of us, by the time we left, there was quite a queue. Those people could spend a long time at D1. The fact that we had over 3 hrs of waiting time at this airport helped a lot (no stress) and the staff were very friendly.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitFebruary 2017
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes