KLM - 40 minute connection?

[TheMildManneredMilitant]

Looking at flights for family next August from Newcastle to Basel and KLM are offering a connecting flight with only 40 mins at Schiphol. Would you/have you booked similar before? They say on their own website min recommended transfer time is 50 mins but they are still offering it. If you miss it they'll book you on next available flight - so in theory no worse off than if we booked the longer connection/later flight - but not sure how many would have last minute space for 5 in summer holidays!

Too tight. Friend flew to Amsterdam then was supposed to pick .connecting flight to Dubai. First flight was delayed so she missed her connection. Got to destination a day late. She was only going for a week.

Its true we arrived on a Thursday and the next offered flight to Prague was the Saturday. We were due to fly home on the Sunday from Prague so I actually stood at the KLM desk and cried as it totally ruined our trip!

The weather was absolutely awful though so not sure if that played into it.

We ended up having an expensive and unplanned weekend in Amsterdam instead!

Remember that the scheduled arrival time is when the wheels touch the ground

Err, not convincinced.

That might be how EU261 (and the Ryanair trumpet) frames it somewhere but unless the industry standard has recently changed the scheduled time of arrival (STA) as published on tickets, bookings and timetables is the scheduled time of arrival at the gate... (it'll be in IATA definitions somewhere)..

One main reason for that is to allow discussions like this on the feasibility of connections ......take-off and landing times don't really help in establishing that, certainly at large airports.

Oh, and even given that I agree the OPs planned connection is horribly tight

My partner got caught out on a 40 minute KLM transfer at schipol. The gate closed 20 minutes before the flight was due to depart, so by the time the bus got to the terminal from the arriving plane and the dash across the airport, there was no chance.
there were then no seats available for any flights for the next two days and he ended up having to fly back to a completely different airport.
Go for the longer transfer.

I've done a 1hr transfer and we literally had a couple of minutes spare before we had to get on next flight. I've also had it that due to 30 min delay from KL that we ran to gate, we got on last bus to plane and although we made it our luggage didn't!
However I also wouldn't do a 4 hour wait in Amsterdam for a European holiday from the UK..that's insane. I'd choose a different route.

I’ve done it (many times). It’s stressful but I’ve never missed my connection. They fast track you through passport control.

Thanks so much all - safe to say you've definitely confirmed what I was worried about. It does seem mad that they sell those transfers but I guess if it was just me I'd possibly risk it. Not with another four people in tow!

We've done this at Schiphol and had to absolutely leg it across the airport. It was so stressful. I would try to avoid again

Schiphol is a big airport, having said that KLM are very good at fast tracking those with onward flights. They call out the gate numbers on the flight and let these passengers get off first. Even so, anything under an hour would be a rush.