I'm back

I arrived home last evening - even though the massed power of the Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij attempted to keep me from my native soil by selling me a ticket that didn't meet their own transfer-at-Schiphol guidelines and running the first leg of the trip late, I arrived home 4½ hours later than planned after being bumped to the next onward flight, which was then delayed due to a lack of crew.

Weather on departure from Arlanda airport in Stockholm was sunny & 28°C, upon arrival at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol it was sunny and the temperature was reported to be 30°C. Upon arrival at Edinburgh Turnhouse I thought it was November! A nippy (it's all relative) 14°C, foggy and damp. To a seasoned northern European like me it was heavenly to have to walk across the tarmac although most of my fellow passengers were moaning about the cold.

Lesson learned for the day - for transfer at Schiphol you need 50 minutes at least for a Schengen/Schengen or a non-Schengen/non-Schengen transfer and an additional 10 minutes on top for a Schengen/non-Schengen transfer (to cover the security check that you need to traverse).

With a connection of 50 minutes, KLM - in association with the airport operators - will do their utmost by either landing on time and taxiing for 20-30 minutes or by landing late to make sure that you miss your connection so that you have to spend hours moping around in the airport wishing you were home whilst awaiting the next flight to your destination.

I was 'lucky' in that I was only bumped from 1500 departure to 1900 departure - those travelling onward to Glasgow were bumped from 1505 to 2115. There may have been others for whom the 'bump' was 24 hours - those for whom there is only one flight per day.

Still for my trouble I got a €10 meal/drinks voucher - so that filled about 5 minutes. Thankfully I had no hold baggage to get lost in the bowels of Schiphol's Luggage Losing System (they call it Baggage Handling of course).