Air travel frustration

[enlisted person]

I will be leaving in a week traveling from here to the Czech Republic. It will be Asheville-Atlanta-Amsterdam-Prague. What I don't know is how many times I will have to go through security and re-check my bag. I will be traveling wearing a carbon fiber knee brace that has some metal in it, plus I will be taking my CPAP as a carry on. I can't get any straight answers on how many times or how long it might take, but what I do keep getting told is "allow plenty of time". How much is plenty of time? I have been sent my itinerary and told to look it over, but I haven't got a clue. Is I said in an earlier post, I haven't been on a plane since 2000 and much has changed. Is this how air travel is now adays? You want to do the right thing but can't? Its 9.5 hours air time from Atlanta to Amsterdam via an overnight flight, but how is one supposed to get any rest no knowing if there will be enough time to catch the connect to Czech airlines once I land there. It looks like about an hour layover there but is that enough time if the TSA(or whatever it is there) decides to give me the full hemorrhoid check?

 

[Mr. B]

You should check to see if you have to go through security again to change planes. Each airport is different but really it shouldn't be too much trouble. An hour should be plenty of time even if you do have to go through security again.

I don't have any experience in traveling with metal implanted in your body but it should be manageable. You'll have to take a CPAP machine out of your carry-on like you would a laptop. Inform the TSA agent about your knee brace as you go through the metal detector. They will probably pat-down your knee and send you on your way.

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/editorial_1374.shtm

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/cpap.shtm

 

[Kestra]

I will be leaving in a week traveling from here to the Czech Republic. It will be Asheville-Atlanta-Amsterdam-Prague. What I don't know is how many times I will have to go through security and re-check my bag.

I would expect to go through security every single time. This might not actually happen, but there's a good chance it will.

I will be traveling wearing a carbon fiber knee brace that has some metal in it, plus I will be taking my CPAP as a carry on. I can't get any straight answers on how many times or how long it might take, but what I do keep getting told is "allow plenty of time". How much is plenty of time? I have been sent my itinerary and told to look it over, but I haven't got a clue.

Will you be able to take the brace off? If so, when you're in line for the security check, start getting ready. Take off your brace, your shoes, maybe your belt? I'm not sure how it works for guys. I know if I wear a hoodie they make me take that off and put it in one of the trays. If you have a laptop you'll have to take that out of your bag as well.

So basically, try to travel simple. Wear shoes that come off and go back on easily, try not to take a laptop with you if possible, etc. You never know if they're going to have to stop you and go through your bags but I'm sure there are sites out there that give you an idea of what's safer to pack in carry-ons. Also remember no liquids, but if you do, they have to be in small amounts in small containers but in a ziploc bag.

Its 9.5 hours air time from Atlanta to Amsterdam via an overnight flight, but how is one supposed to get any rest no knowing if there will be enough time to catch the connect to Czech airlines once I land there. It looks like about an hour layover there but is that enough time if the TSA(or whatever it is there) decides to give me the full hemorrhoid check?

Well if you can sleep on planes you have it better than I do! Anyway, there are no guarantees. Worrying about that won't change anything. So sleep on the plane, have your stuff together, and just assume that you'll get there on time.

An hour really isn't that much time. Study the airport maps and try to determine where you'll be going. That way you can be prepared and not surprised by having to get in some random shuttle or something like that.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Can i just share a story about air travel frustrations? Back when i went to Mexico back in '05, we were at Mexico City International ready to board our flight home. Then we got news that the radar dishes went down and the airport was effectively shut down. We waited for hours before they got the damned thing back up and we were moved to another terminal. What sucks is that we apparently bumped off a Lufthansa flight. Poor Germans. I didn't mention the war at least.

 

[cultcross]

I've never gone through security while merely changing planes in Europe. But then, I haven't been on a plane via Europe where your checked baggage is returned to you between planes - it's just transferred over. If you get your checked bag back between planes, you'll go through security again definitely. If you're never outside the 'secured environment', there shouldn't be a need. You'll go straight to the departure lounge from your incoming gate.

Were you sold this as one package? Because normally, the time to change planes will have been factored in during the arrangements.

 

[Kestra]

I've never gone through security while merely changing planes in Europe. But then, I haven't been on a plane via Europe where your checked baggage is returned to you between planes - it's just transferred over. If you get your checked bag back between planes, you'll go through security again definitely. If you're never outside the 'secured environment', there shouldn't be a need. You'll go straight to the departure lounge from your incoming gate.

I've never had to recheck baggage, but I have had to go through security checks while changing planes in Europe, many times. One time in France was particularly horrible in the fact that the layout was actually unsafe.

We had to go down a hallway, turn left and go up an escalator, and that brought us to a landing area with the security check. Only problem was that the area preceding the security check was tiny, and the line was progressing very slowly. So the landing quickly got filled up and people kept coming up the escalator. I had to lift some poor kid up because he was almost smushed! Finally someone had the good sense to turn off the stupid escalator.

Anyway my point is that you do sometimes have to go through security checks, and that they're not always well-designed!

 

[Captain Ice]

An hour is cutting it very close, but if you don't leave the secured area for any reason, you shouldn't have to go back through security. The hour is cutting it close because if your plane is late for any reason, you'll miss your connection.

 

[enlisted person]

American Express travel services set the whole thing up. My company uses them for plane reservations. It looks like it all delta or a "delta connection" on the way out until Amsterdam and then its Czech Airlines from there to Prague. I guess the main question I have with that is what is going to happen in Amsterdam. I have a bad knee and even with the brace, I cannot run. Hmmn, I wonder if I can find a map of the airport in Amsterdam online.

 

[enlisted person]

OK, google is not helping me much. Is passport control the same thing as immigration? That is a new term to me. What about customs, is that part of passport control?

 

[enlisted person]

I just looked over the map of the schiphol airport. It is quite possibly the worst map ever conceived by man. It shows none of the gates and none of the airline check in areas. I am starting to get a bit upset now. Does everything in every way government or corporate run, have to be a confusing chaotic mess? Would it be too much to ask to have a map where one could see their arrival gate and departure gate and know their route ahead of time and what all they are going to have to go through as far as security, immigration, customs, etc on a connecting flight?

 

[Roger Wilco]

I think normally you don't have to go through any security checks or anything in Amsterdam if you don't leave the international transit area; shouldn't you get the boarding pass for the follow-up flight already during your first check-in Asheville?

 

[stavrosg]

Expect to go through security check in every airport you land. And feel lucky if you don't.

Here's my story on this stupidness:
I was travelling from Heraklion to Rhodes through Athens, and checked-in both flights (HER-ATH, ATH-RHO) at the Heraklion airport, so all I had to do once on ground in Athens was to wander around the airport until the next flight leaved.

Unfortunately, we had a delay at Heraklion Airport and the plane landed in Athens just about the time my next flight was supposed to be leaving.
I told that to the airline assistant that was waiting for us on the ground, but she wasn't informed about that (to my surprise). After a short conversation through their comm system she confirmed it (and told me they were making announcements looking for me(what?!)) for the past half an hour[...], threw me in a company car and zipped for the terminal so I didn't have to wait for the bus to take me there.
"OK" I thought, "we are going for the other plane, and maybe my luggage will come with the next flight?"
but no, she ran with me through the normal route IN the airport, through security, to the gate, to get in the last bus going to the airplane, further delaying the flight. The good thing is that they somehow managed to put my luggage in the same flight and I didn't have to go back to the airport another day to get them.

But since I was supposedly in a secure area all the time, wouldn't it be much more efficient to just take me to the gate? They had a further 10 minute (at least) delay just because of this, how much more stupid could it be?

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

We transited Schipol years ago flying from Minneapolis to Moscow. We did not have to clear security once in the airport because we didn't leave the "secure area", but there was passport control at the gate for the new flight.

All flights were on NWA/KLM so we weren't changing airlines.

 

[cultcross]

OK, google is not helping me much. Is passport control the same thing as immigration? That is a new term to me. What about customs, is that part of passport control?

Passport control = what the US airports call 'immigration', yes. It's not called 'immigration' in Europe because not everyone who goes through it is an immigrant
There will normally be 3 queues; EU nationals (who have freedom of movement within the EU), non-EU (which is a bit slower, but not by too much), and New Immigrants. In smaller airports, there may not be the third one.

Customs is a separate thing - usually it is laid out so that you pass through passport control, then pick up your checked baggage, then go through customs to actually exit the airport. Sometimes the first two are the opposite way round though. If you're connecting straight to another plane, you shouldn't need to go through Customs - you only need to do this if you intend to take anything out of the airport (i.e. your final destination).

When I flew to the US connecting to Canada (I guess the same sort of thing reversed) I arrived, went through 'immigration', picked up my checked bag, walked all of 30 feet, put my checked bag back on a conveyor belt, and then go through security again.
I'm at an utter loss to explain why I had to be quizzed by a US immigration official when I was walking straight into the departure lounge to leave the country again.

 

[enlisted person]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I am going to make some phone calls tomorrow. I just realized that according to the delta site. You must be at the gate 45 min before check in to fly, and if my flight from asheville is on time. I will have only 46 minutes, so I will have one minute from my gate to the departing gate to make it on time.

 

[Roger Wilco]

We transited Schipol years ago flying from Minneapolis to Moscow. We did not have to clear security once in the airport because we didn't leave the "secure area", but there was passport control at the gate for the new flight.

That's just to make sure that you really are the person it says on the boarding ticket and not anything to do with immigrations or so though I think.

 

[cultcross]

Security is apparently pretty good there:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11365274

 

[enlisted person]

Security is apparently pretty good there:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11365274

Ah, I see you were talking about Amsterdam. I was going to say the security was pretty tight going into Moscow last time I was on the Continent of Europe, but those were different times. I was in England in 1999 but the last time I was on the continent was 1987 I think for a motorcycle race in Marseilles. I was US military stationed in East Anglia. Now I am going to the Czech Republic which was Eastern Block back then. My how the world has changed.

 

[Winged Victory]

We transited Schipol years ago flying from Minneapolis to Moscow. We did not have to clear security once in the airport because we didn't leave the "secure area", but there was passport control at the gate for the new flight.

That's just to make sure that you really are the person it says on the boarding ticket and not anything to do with immigrations or so though I think.

Same here. I flew from MSP to Amsterdam to Rome back in '08. I had to go wait in the line for passport control. And I had a pretty narrow window of time as well. By the time I got halfway up the line, I could see on an overhead screen what planes were in the process of boarding (of course, my flight was on there!) and I could proceed to a special line just for those flights on the screen so that I could make my flight. I didn't have to run or anything. Just showed security my boarding pass and passport, and I got to go right through.

 

[MikeH92467]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I am going to make some phone calls tomorrow. I just realized that according to the delta site. You must be at the gate 45 min before check in to fly, and if my flight from asheville is on time. I will have only 46 minutes, so I will have one minute from my gate to the departing gate to make it on time.

That really doesn't sound like very good planning to me. Even on domestic flights, I don't feel comfortable with anything less than an hour and a half and that's with bags checked through and no re-screening. I would think that Amsterdam would be well organized, but I'm just stereotyping the Dutch as well organized and thorough. My rule of thumb overall is two hours slack time for domestic flights, 3 hours for international. I usually buy a newspaper and a couple of magazines and try to chill out and stifle my overall feeling that the terrorists won.