"Airport warning for H gates." Schiphol by leics

I haven't really been to Schiphol, just to the airport.

Which is a lovely airport indeed, with super-convenient double-decker trains direct to Amsterdam Centraal (and to lots of other places too).

Lots of shops and places to eat, pleasant people, very clean, efficient luggage delivery etc.

But.......for those who are travelling from the UK on budget flights which depart from 'H' gates.......read on:

I flew with Bmibaby from East Mids, a short and perfetcly good flight with a good budget carrier. No probs.

Check-in opened a couple of hours before departure. No probs there either.

Large signs noted that passengers departing from 'H' gates should stay in departure lounge 3 until their gate number was posted 40 minutes before departure.

Large signs and departure boards kept saying the same thing. So I did what I was told, and stayed in departure lounge 3.

40 minutes before departure the gate number appeared. Two other UK-bound flights were departing at roughly the same time, from H gates.

A couple of minutes' walk brought me to H gates.....and security. And a loooong queue. Only two scanners were open (another opened 5 minutes or so later) and there were 3 planeloads of passengers trying to get through.

Not good....but it only took around 10 minutes so I thought I was ok for what turned out to be a long-ish walk to my gate.

Not so. Departure boards announced my flight was closing (and the others). Cue panicked running by numerous passengers.

I arrived at the gate out of breath to find that the flight was indeed closing (I really couldn't believe it).

I was ok in the end, as were the passengers who arrived up to around 5 minutes after me. But it made me realise that next time I need to be actually at security (or through it, although there are no facilities on the gate side) well before the flight details appear on the departue boards.

The businessman I sat next to, a regular flyer on the route, said he'd learned his lesson earlier on when he'd actually missed his flight for exactly the same reason. He now comes through security early and waits there, at the end of the pier, for the gate number to appear.

I shall do the same next time, and advise you to do so as well. Especially if you are a) incapable of running or b) have small children.

It may be that Schiphol will change this...they certainly should do so. But if they don't, do be aware of the possibility of missing your flight through Schiphol's poor arrangements rather than through any fault of your own.

• Pros:Lovely airport entirely.
• Cons:H gates!!
• In a nutshell:Super airport, but be careful of H gates.