Flying to New York via Amsterdam

[zephorina]

Looking at flying to New York on some expensive dates. If on the outbound, I fly via Amsterdam it’s a lot cheaper. It does turn an 8 hour flight into a 12.5 hour flight.

Direct both ways is £530
Indirect outbound and direct inbound is £400

Is it worth the hassle?

It wouldn't for me. Adding a leg is not just adding time. Do you have to recheck your bag? What if one of the flights is delayed?
I'd always fly direct if possible, even if I have to pay more.

The saving would have to be much more than £130 for me to take an extra flight

No one can really answer this for you. It depends how much of a financial stretch it is for you and how important saving £130 is to you. If you’re asking for opinions, I’d fly direct in the circumstances you describe, but your priorities might be different.

Have you looked at flying out of Dublin , Ireland is the only country in Europe that you through USA customs at Dunlin airport so when you get to New York your basically straight through.

we got easy jet flights across to Dublin then got a USA airline across the pond

We done this with KLM purely for the convenience of flying from our local airport instead of trekking to Heathrow and it was fine. It actually made no difference to the time for us - it worked out the same being in the air and then stopping over in Amsterdam as it would have taken us to get to Heathrow anyway.

no. Risks of something going wrong, flights cancelled, luggage lost etc so much higher with connecting flights.

If money is tight I would go via Amsterdam. I would think about it as starting my flight in Amsterdam and I just need to get to the start (as it happens that is by another flight).

How many people are going? If it's just 1 I probably wouldn't bother but if there's a few of you I would!
Also are both flights from the same airport or does the direct flight involve travelling to an airport further away?
I've done connecting flights btw and had no issues with baggage or missing connections. Just try and leave a decent amount of time for the connection or have a look at when the next flight to NY from AMS would be. If they're every hour or so it's not going to be a major issue if you miss it.

We done this with KLM purely for the convenience of flying from our local airport

Ah but this on the other hand I would do - I also have a small local airport 10 min away and I often take a connecting flight from there instead of trekking to a bigger one with direct flights. It is quite convenient that you don't need to factor in buffer time for travelling to airport, and can be home in 10 minutes from getting off the plane, instead of few hours.

I’d do it. It’s on the way back after a night flight I can’t be arsed with a connection but in your case the return is direct so perfect! So long as it’s all on one ticket then the airline is responsible for getting to your destination so if there’s a delay they’ll sort it as no cost. The last time I did it with AA and it ‘went wrong’ I got a ping through the app that flight 1 was delayed meaning I’d miss flight 2, so went into the app to chose a new flight, was able to get on earlier one so I got to the connecting airport 2 hours earlier, there was a lounge I could access through my credit card so had a free lunch and glass of champagne, then got on the 2nd flight and arrived as scheduled. I always do carry on luggage though so that’s one less thing that can go wrong!

I've done connecting flights btw and had no issues with baggage or missing connections

Well obviously in most cases it works as planned, nobody said you will definitely miss all connecting flights, that wouldn't make too much sense.

I wouldn't. The flight to NY isn't that long, so the proportion of time you are adding for not that significant cost saving wouldn't make it worth it.

I HAVE done exactly this for much longer flights. Schipol is a very simple airport to transit through. And as a pp said, if I couldn't get a direct flight, I would consider this as equally, if not preferably to transiting through a UK hub.

You'd put about the risks, no one else had posted about a positive experience so I posted mine. Is that not okay?
And as someone who used to work in the industry there isn't actually that much of a difference in missing/lost bags between connections and direct/nonstop flights. The risk increases with short connection times obviously.

Have you visited Amsterdam? Take an extra day and spend it there if you haven’t. Fabulous place, you won’t regret it.

I second Dublin. Did it recently. You clear US customs and immigration. Aer Lingus is a nice airline. Cheapest option when I was looking

I now only travel hand luggage only. Saves any connection luggage drama

I’ve had lost luggage loads of times on direct flights unfortunately! The riskiest things seem to be outsize items IME. BA once lost my skis on the outbound and inbound (direct) flight of the same trip 🙄

I probably wouldn't do it for this connection. That said, extra legs can be brilliant for Asia trips. You can even luck into very cheap business class connections by flying out of a different city to the airline's actual hub - a family member once sourced a €1,700 Tokyo ticket on Swiss by flying out of AMS.

For a saving of £130, I would say it’s not worth it. It’s a relatively short flight to New York and you’d be turning it into a long and tiring journey.

Same here.

Flew Leeds - Amsterdam - New York

It was really easy and we don't stop long at all in AMS. If we'd gone via Heathrow we'd have spent more on trains and hotel.

Not worth it for the cost saving and especially if you are doing this routing on the return leg. It makes an already long day far longer.

I recently had indirect flights to South America, Paris outbound & Amsterdam inbound. There were no other options. Although there were no actual problems, it added many hours to the travelling time making it nearly 24 hours each way.

I'd never do it again, unless there was a proper stopover & I could stay for at least a day.

I did this several years ago - because it was a freebie courtesy of winning a MN competition!

I did think Schipol was a pleasant airport, less busy than Heathrow. If I was travelling from somewhere other than the SE so had to change at Heathrow anyway I would definitely consider it again.

Dublin is definitely worth looking at, that queue at immigration in the US is very tiresome after a long flight.

Another vote for Dublin or Shannon. Both have pre clearance to the US. It is worth every mile to walk out of JFK like a native New Yorker! Or any other US city served by the various transatlantic airlines - there is a good choice of destinations.

As for the Amsterdam journey. I suppose I would do it if I was saving 130 each for a group or party, but just for me, no way.

Id pay the extra, it's still a good price.