Joining flights.

[mary/keith]

Please do not take joining flights with KLM at Amsterdam, even if you are 5 minutes late they do not wait.

[Canal archive]

Schiphol is a major international transfer hub so the knock on effect of a late take off could potentially cause problems across several countries, the Dutch are quite laid back but not when it comes to time keeping.

[Queen of my Heart]

I wouldn't recommend Schiphol at the moment anyway.  In early July

I had three hours between flights and only just made my connection. I have never seen so many people running at full tilt to try to reach their planes before the gates shut. Absolute nightmare.

[gentlemancruiser]

Heathrow, Schiphol, Charles De Gaulle, Frankfurt Main, Dublin are all struggling this summer.   

Expect delays and issues if you are transiting there.   Looks like Brussels is one of the few airports with minimal problems.

https://www.traveloffpath.com/best-european-airports-for-avoiding-flight-delays/

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by gentlemancruiser

[pontac]

Schiphol was a mess in April, we only just made our flight. But our cruise ended in Amsterdam so it was the logical place to leave from.

 

What is not logical is Scenic booking our return flight in a couple of weeks time from Bordeaux to London - where there are direct flights - to go to Schiphol instead where we have a short time to catch another flight to London.

 

Edited August 11, 2022 by pontac

[Canal archive]

Silly question is there a direct flight? When we were due to fly Air France direct Bristol to Bordeaux and return Air France cancelled their Bristol direct  return flights and put us return Bordeaux to Birmingham without informing the ticket purchaser Scenic. I discovered this when looking to reserve seats. Luckily we ended up TVR to Paris then Eurostar home and obviously going the same way.

[Queen of my Heart]

I was with Avalon and, despite there being direct flights, they routed me through Schiphol. It seems they have contracts/arrangements with certain airlines (maybe Scenic are the same) and if you want to use another one you have to arrange your flights/transfers yourself (and those can be up to several hours), and would have to sort yourself out if they were any delays resulting in late arrival at ship.  As it was my first time with Avalon, I decided at the time of booking to accept the inconvenience of a transfer but, knowing what I do now, I would definitely make my own arrangments if it meant getting a direct flight.

[gentlemancruiser]

15 minutes ago, Queen of my Heart said:

I was with Avalon and, despite there being direct flights, they routed me through Schiphol. It seems they have contracts/arrangements with certain airlines (maybe Scenic are the same) and if you want to use another one you have to arrange your flights/transfers yourself (and those can be up to several hours), and would have to sort yourself out if they were any delays resulting in late arrival at ship.  As it was my first time with Avalon, I decided at the time of booking to accept the inconvenience of a transfer but, knowing what I do now, I would definitely make my own arrangments if it meant getting a direct flight.

The air arrangements are based upon pricing and which route has the lowest fares.  

[pontac]

2 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Silly question is there a direct flight?

 

Not silly. Yes, as I said, there is a non-stop* flight between London & Bordeaux.

 

In 10 river cruises with Viking the only two times they have booked us on connecting flights was when there wasn't a non-stop (London- Vienna - Odesa and Porto - Lisbon -  London)

 

When we did Bordeaux with Viking they booked non-stop London-Bordeaux and vice versa with BA.

 

*There's a subtle difference between direct and non-stop.

Non-stop means what it says - you embark at the departure airport and the next landing is at the final destination airport.

Direct means you stay on the same plane but it has intermediate stops where some passengers disembark and others board.

[Daisi]

1 hour ago, Queen of my Heart said:

I was with Avalon and, despite there being direct flights, they routed me through Schiphol. It seems they have contracts/arrangements with certain airlines (maybe Scenic are the same) and if you want to use another one you have to arrange your flights/transfers yourself (and those can be up to several hours), and would have to sort yourself out if they were any delays resulting in late arrival at ship.  As it was my first time with Avalon, I decided at the time of booking to accept the inconvenience of a transfer but, knowing what I do now, I would definitely make my own arrangments if it meant getting a direct flight.

 

Maybe it's different with the UK, as we were (and are for our upcoming cruise) able to choose our airline & what stops we wish to do. I avoid CDG, so do tend to go through Schiphol. Avalon has been great to work with for flights, and doesn't charge any extra fee. When the tickets were booked, I went directly to the chosen airline (KLM), and upgraded our seats, as well as selecting them.

[pontac]

2 minutes ago, Daisi said:

Maybe it's different with the UK, as we were (and are for our upcoming cruise) able to choose our airline & what stops we wish to do. I avoid CDG, so do tend to go through Schiphol.

 

Prices quoted for River Cruises in the UK include travel, you can get them to quote for an upgrade.

 

Joy about CDG as Scenic have booked our outward journey Air France London - CDG - Bordeaux.

 

Aren't we lucky?

[Daisi]

DH wishes to go to Paris, so I am looking into Avalon's Grand Tour of France. I'm not a city lover, to many people, but that will probably be one of the few times we actually will fly in and out of CDG. 🙂

 

[pontac]

16 minutes ago, Daisi said:

DH wishes to go to Paris, that will probably be one of the few times we actually will fly in and out of CDG

 

It's different if ones' final destination is CDG but making a connection there - especially as we will have to go through immigration and customs there - before checking into an internal flight to Bordeaux.

 

Before & after we got married Mrs P promised me she'd take me to Paris but she never did. So for a significant anniversary I took her. Destination was a surprise until she got her boarding card at the airport. That was a long time ago but I still remember the bateaux ride with dinner down the Seine.

 

My last time was with an American friend who was very keen on Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code; we went to places mentioned in London (which is more than Brown did), Rosslin Chapel in Scotland and St Sulpice Church and the Louvre in Paris.

 

Mrs P has been to Paris a couple of times without me; once as a reward with her firm for a day trip, the other a day trip with our elder son who's a travel agent given two premium tickets by Eurostar.

 

I am sure you'll enjoy Paris, but it's worth planning what you'll see, how to get to those sights and thus where to stay.

[SometimesCruiser]

Here is our experience flying out of Schiphol this week, at the end of a northbound "Rhine Interrupted" cruise with Avalon:

 

• After checking our bags at the automated kiosk (very cool, assuming it works), we arrived at a checkpoint where our boarding passes were examined.  When they determined that we were flying internationally (back to the US), they directed us to a particular line.

 

• Our line snaked around inside, never went outside, and took a little over an hour to reach the security checkpoint.  Once upstairs and right before security, there was another line that merged in with ours.  I don't know for sure, but assume that other line was the long one we've heard about that goes outside and takes up to 4 hours to traverse.  They could be routing European traffic through that line.  No one else in our 4-family party (who were all flying back to the US) was routed to a line that went outside, and everyone had about the same total wait times.

 

Overall, the experience at Schiphol was hugely more pleasant than the horror stories that made me imagine the worse.  Our transfers were made through Avalon, and we had a bus that took us from the ship to the airport.  We had arrived at the airport nearly 4 hours before our flights.

Edited August 11, 2022 by SometimesCruiser
clean up formatting

[Canal archive]

Yup know the differences between direct and non-stop from some years ago flying to to the states to meet DH not a happy experience.

It looks like Heathrow is getting its act together hopefully the other airports will get sorted asap and we get some really decent rain soon. I never ever thought I would say that.