Amsterdam Schiphol

Was given an invitation tu use the business class lounge when flying Malaysia Airlines business class Ams-Kuala Lumpur. Having been in several lounges in Gatwick, Singapore, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur was expecting something similar. I was in for a shock, the lounge itself was small and cramped. There did not appear to be many seats for the passengers. It resembled more like a bus depot or an ordinary lounge for economy passengers. The toilets are not even located in the lounge area and you have to go out to the main area outside. No shower facilities. Food served was at best mediocre and the selection was not great. Then I said to myself let's not be too critical as this lounge is used by several airlines. I then decided to go on the internet and guess what? You have to pay for internet access, at this point I was totally apalled. They must be kidding, not even the courtesy of offering premium passengers broadband access! Truly this lounge is deplorable and is the worst business class lounge I have ever been in.

Cleanliness, easy to follow directions, great to get to the city centre. Amsterdam Schipol is my favourite airport in Europe to fly into and out of. I also like KLM as an airline!

Poor staffing of manual-check-in, leads to long lines, lots of stressed out passengers.Poor resource utilisation - long lines (e.g. 35 minutes queueing on 16/December/2007 between 14:15 and 14:50 for the C-gates security screening. Meanwhile there was no queue at the screening belts for gates D etc, but passengers were not allowed to use the other belts.

Beyond my comprehension that this airport does not hire more people to ease the bottleneck when it comes to security checks. Long lines - uncontrolled - meander through the departure hall. A reason not to travel from Amsterdam. Wasted opportunity.

Huge passport and security check bottleneck cuts airport in two for international, non-intra EU connections. Passengers with short connection times (from distant gates), beware! A fast lane exists but access got denied even in the most extreme condition (i.e. 20 minutes from take-off time, not boarding time -- with still much walking to do + bus-on-tarmac ride). Some aggressive security personnel.

What a difference Schipol is to Manchester International. The airport was immaculately clean, staff pleasant and welcoming and even with the extension work being done still a very enjoyable experience. Picking up the luggage after the flight was so fast, sadly not the case on our return at Manchester. We could learn a lot from the Dutch in so many areas.