Nah it's about 12 minutes walk it's just that you have to be at the gate within 30 minutes or so. When I travel via Schiphol I like to grab a few muscle relaxants one level up and get some time on the internet with the family then get down to gate in a leisurely fashion, it's hard to do that in 75 minutes as by the time you take off the walking and the gate time you have 30 minutes late, with only 50 minutes you would have 8 minutes or so available. When Ana came to the UK from Seoul in 2010 her flight was late and we were literally running through the terminal to get to the gate.
I stopped-over on the way to Munich, with an Airline change, and had to go through Immigration which took time. That may not apply to transit PAX but the 50 minutes that worries me is because of baggage handling.! Tom
Well exactly, very good point Tom, that's exactly what happened when Ana's flight was late and the interval to the next flight was already short, we left Amsterdam got to Liverpool airport and none of her bags turned up, 4 days we had to wait for all her stuff to arrive.
If you're flying exclusively with KLM, they will ensure you and your bags make the connection and if they can't, they'll put you up in a hotel and get you on the next day's flight. This happened to me once, the Manila flight arrived well late, due to weather and ATC problems in Manila, and there was insufficient time to make my connection to Cardiff (less than 3 minutes!). A KLM lass met me at the arrival gate, handed me an "overnight kit" comprising of toothbrush, toiletries and a T shirt, a book of vouchers for dinner, breakfast plus two phone calls to the UK and then taken in a limo to a decent hotel, bypassing Immigration. The next morning, the limo collected me and returned me to Schipol, again bypassing Immigration, in time for my flight to Cardiff.
Never had a problem with 122 flights on EK over 12 years via Dubai & Singers - OZ - PI - HK. Then it is a well run Brit. operation. Tom
I am very fond of KLM, they have always treated me very well, even more so when I had half a million FB miles , but it didn't stop the baggage handlers losing one of my 'priority tagged' bags on an exclusively KLM flight to the Phils (containing kids Christmas presents) and also losing Ana's bags when she was flying to the UK from Seoul, ok in both cases we got them back but it was stressful when it happened. Nice story Mark and good to know that they look after folk that well!
I have always liked flying with KLM. My very first flight with them was in 1972 during my seafaring days. My ship (an old P&O cargo liner) had just completed a UN charter taking humanitarian supplies from the EU Intervention Stores to North Korea where we spent almost 4 months at anchorage waiting to discharge our cargo. We then sailed to Yokohama and arrived there on December 24th where I and all the other officers were immediately "paid-off" (sent on leave). That night, we boarded a brand new KLM 747 to Schipol via Anchorage to refuel and we were the only passengers! We were treated like royalty by young Dutch and Japanese cabin attendants. We were supposed to fly BA to London but because they were overbooked and seafarer tickets were only 10% of the full fare, we were bumped from the flight. The landing at snowbound Anchorage was "interesting" to say the least! The Polar flight from Anchorage was fantastic with the skies lit up by the Northern Lights. A very long flight but we were rewarded with invitations to a KLM aircrew Christmas Party in Amsterdam. I think I eventually arrived home on the 27th ... or was it the 28th?:vhappy:
