Just as we thought the situation at Schiphol couldn’t get any worse, about 16,000 suitcases are piling up inside (and outside!) the Dutch airport. 😨
The rising amount of abandoned luggage is due to the current staff shortage in the bag handlers department.
One baggage worker explains that this issue of mismanagement is because a big amount of airport staff was fired during the pandemic and is now being replaced by temporary and part-time workers.
Just how bad is the situation?
A group of baggage employees told the NOS that there are about 16,000 suitcases in Schiphol and only 100 to 200 suitcases on average are being collected per day by their rightful owners.
While this may seem like good news, there are still tens of thousands of suitcases left on the grounds. 🧳
READ MORE | Schiphol passengers are now jumping on the belts to grab their luggage
How is this happening?
The overall chaos at Schiphol has travellers waiting in queues for several hours and eventually missing their flights due to mismanagement or cancellation.
Due to these circumstances, many of those passengers’ suitcases have to be removed from the plane they were supposed to board.
Even though baggage handlers may try their best to sort out the problem, the combination of staff shortages and extreme accumulations of suitcases has them completely swamped.
Have you travelled via Schiphol in the past weeks? Did you spot any abandoned luggage? Tell us in the comments below!
Its a world wide problem. A giant sink hole left in many airport and airline systems due to the pandemic and will it take ages to fill that hole in. Luckily we got through in March and April with a few delays at Schipol and Manchester. BUT. Get used to it for some time. It was always going to happen as the world returned to normal. And it aint over yet.
I was on probably the first KLM flight( from KL) to be affected by the baggage handlers strike in April. From the airport l was taking a train to Germany but instead had to find accommodation in Amsterdam , buy some clothes etc and waited 4 days before l felt l couldn’t stay longer. KLM said l should stay longer until they found my suitcase but it was terribly costly in TIME and MONEY. As l was travelling around in Germany l left the address of where l was billeted by a friend of a friend in Alkmaar( waiting for my suitcase). Eleven days later my suitcase arrived there and from there it took another few days to finally get my suitcase in Germany.
KLM had initially informed me that l could buy some necessities and that I’d be reimbursed. I waited a few days then bought the very basics . Since then their claim service has been more of a disservice and extremely reactive and never proactive. Over two months later nothing not even a courtesy follow up. I know they’ve had a bit of a meltdown but sending out some sort of reassuring sms to all the other passengers every couple of weeks couldn’t be that hard or could it?
I left Europe two weeks ago and KLM’s flight from Schipol ( back to KL) and service were excellent although l was so worried l arrived six hours before my flight departed just in case. Next weekend l continue my journey home to Melbourne and ‘ hopefully’ look forward to some contact from KLM in the weeks ahead.
The money involved wasn’t very much but the stress, frustration and more importantly the time l lost waiting for my suitcase and not knowing what l had to do, where would l stay etc etc makes me really want to have this issues resolved. For KLM the longer more people like me are left with these unresolved claims it only makes it harder for us to regain their trust and fly with them again.
Does Schiphol have any advice on what to do if your bags are in the pile?
I was in schipol end June catching a flight to msia via Doha… flight was scheduled to depart 4.15pm. From all the prior info.. I arrived at 12noon and starting queueing to check in.
The queue was horrifying towards check in counter… and the bee line towards security was even more painful…so dont be too happy after your checkin/ drop baggage…
Finally arrived dept Hall at 3.45pm and took a breather… before going into the plane.
Sat inside the plane for the longest time waiting for other passengers and missing my connecting flight starts to wonder in my mind…
Finally took off at 5.30pm after the last passenger made it thru the cabin.
Was so worried that my luggage was missing due to the chaos in schipol and fortunately it manage it pop out onto the luggage conveyor belt in my homeland upon arrival.
I reckon u need a good 4.5 to 5 hours to start checking in prior to your flight.
Surprisingly the queue was faster for those who have not checking vs the bag drop queue counter as.drop bag has less counter open.
I flew back from England on July 5 and when I went to retrieve my suitcase from the baggage hall, there were about 60 suitcases lined up alongside the belt and similar numbers by other belts. I was relieved that my suitcase arrived on the designated luggage belt.
Hi. We went on a family holiday to the Netherlands on June 26 th with Aer Lingus. Our bags never arrived. We were left for a week in your beautiful country with none of our belongings!! We are home a week now and still no sign of our luggage! We were told in Dublin airport our bags were sent to Schiphol on Fri 1 st July . Despite being told by Aer Lingus they would get them back to us there is no sign of our bags!! CAN YOU PLEASE HELP FIND MY LUGGAGE??
Even for a week long vacation, I only had a carry-on and my rucksack. Why do these people all need suitcases if they know the situation? Stupid is as stupid does. 🙄🙄🙄
Had to be a man saying this. Yes dear, what about people taking items to family or wanting to take souvenirs, or not having space for the liquids they need. I mean this broad statement calling people stupid for using a basic service is unnecessary and nasty at best. Don’t be a d*ck. Be a dude. or say nothing.
I was on my way to family vacation and had lots of souvenirs and gifts for my little nieces and nephews in my checked bag….and it got lost in schiphol ..There are quite some things that you can not bring on a plane from the US to Europe (only a certain amount of ml of liquid allowed in carry on – I wasn’t even allowed to bring my nephews favorite peanut butter in my carry on etc.). That’s why certain people check bags …. don’t be so fast with judgement please! Thanks
I have been reporting my baggage missing. Call center is Philippines says they will locate. It is two weeks
All airport are facing the same chaos =(((( I work at Brussels Airport and we are having the same issues unfortunately….maybe a bit less bags 🤞
Yes, we couldn’t believe how many suitcases were in cages in the hallways on the way to the carousel. It turns out that our bags never got on the KLM flight in Boston. Luckily 2 out of our 4 bags got on a Delta flight and arrived the next day. I went back to the airport and was allowed to get my bags. There were still 2 bags missing. Those bags arrived the next day but we were already on our cruise. Luckily, our bags were sent to Reykjavík and brought to our cruise ship. A true miracle! I wasn’t too optimistic based on what I saw.
You were truly lucky! I was travelling from Boston to Germany through Amsterdam on June 29th (flight already rescheduled due to strike) and my bag did not arrive till today…it’s been almost 2 weeks and I am losing hope…I was travelling with a 2 year baby and had there many clothes and things that I use on daily basis…
We travelled to Amsterdam for our Honeymoon on 1st July and had to go to Barcelona on 4th July. First it took us 6hours to clear the security and then Vueling airlines did not board our luggage. We had 4 bags and we were later told that due to staff shortage no bags were loaded on this flight. Since then we have been following up with the Lost and Found department and they say that they don’t know when we will get our bags.
Honestly, it seems that Schipol airport is doing no efforts to send those bags back to its rightful owners. Vueling is flying 4-6 flights a day from Amsterdam to Barcelona but is not making any effort to send back the luggage of the passengers who have traveled with them. It was so hard for us to be in foreign country without any of our stuff, and the airlines have given us no compensation even for the basics. It is really surprising to see that something like this is happening in a developed country like Europe. We have incurred such a huge loss due to this delay and the airlines continue to fly without any repurcussions.
We will discourage any of our friends and family to travel to Amsterdam. Please help us in escalating this forward. We spent all our savings on this trip and those bags had expensive stuff.
We travelled back from Trondheim to Nuernberg via Amsterdam on 7th of July.
There ist still no sign of my luggage and KLM does not even know if it´s really at Schiphol!!! I had a lot of presents and personal things in my bag, I really miss
Anybody in Amsterdam who could help me looking for my bag?
I lost hope after spending hours in the Hotline just to hear “we have no idea”
Is this ever going to be resolved?
I had a transit through Amsterdam on 21 July 2022. Out of my 4 bags only one came. I had apple air tags in my bags so i can see that bags are still in the Amsterdam Air port . This is so frustrating. And I don’t think they’ll ever send it back.
Hi my 6 bags are also missing / delayed. Do you have any update on yours? I also traveled via Amsterdam to Bangalore.. and it’s frustrating coz not getting any answers.
Report from Berlin — where 100s of passengers arrived without bags — left behind in Amsterdam on July 20th. The next day, KLM refused to accept check-through bags. No news from KLM; no word at all from Delta, the sister airline that sold us the tickets. The WISAG jobber company that tracks bags for KLM is a font of misinformation and incompetence at handling lost baggage claims. So Ishan’s post above is helpful — tens of thousands of bags are piled up in Amsterdam. My advice: avoid flying KLM or Delta to Europe, if you can — it’s not worth the discourteous treatment and airport chaos in Amsterdam. What a shame!!!
I hope there will be a class action lawsuit filed against KLM if they don’t get their shit together and get these bags returned.
We’ve lost four suitcases and can’t get through to anyone for help.
I had a connecting flight in Amsterdam to Vienna with KLM – coming from San Franscico and my checked bag was lost by the airline on July 1. I have tried to reach out to KLM via whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, phone every channel I could find but unfortunately I haven’t heard back from them ever since. I don’t believe that being mad, looking for whose fault it is or company shaming on social media is the way to go. I would love to help KLM getting their act together, whether it is to create a fundraiser to organize a group of students to helo them to scan the bags and get them sent back to their owners or to somehow else getting some manpower to the airport to helo deal with all those bags. I think that the poor people working on the airport or at the service lines don’t deserve to be yelled at on a daily basis because at the end of the day it is not their fault that the airlines and airports are managed incompetently atm. There must be something we can do to help resolving this issue.
omg. I also flew on July 1st and still no suitcase. reported it that day and now no word, nothing online and it sucks knowing that If I just flew back over there right now it is prob sitting in a room… as I am replacing some things that I need or love. what a mess… hope we get them back! I have even been trying to figure out how to hire someone there or connecting to go look…
They lost my bags from Amsterdam to Barcelo, I still sheaching them from 07th june. Somebody can help me? i really need to recover my personal items, please help me, the airline doesnt response me. 🙁
I watched my luggage get rolled away from the airplane loading ramp for some unknown reason – baggage handlers seemed to be confused. I am kicking myself for not notifying flight attendant – instead I watched my luggage get left sitting on Tarmac all alone with no one around. My air tag shows it still sitting at the airport with no movement whatsoever. Getting ready to go on our dream trip with no clothes, Chargers, or toiletries. Baggage service in Frankfurt horribly rude – no information whatsoever and no apology. I see many of the daily flights to Frankfurt are cancelled so praying it is on first flight of day – but realistically it is likely part of the big pile of luggage in Amsterdam.
I few through from Kyrgyzstan back to Newark, NJ via Istanbul and Amsterdam. On the way there, I flew JFK->Frankfurt->Istanbul->Bishkek. My checked luggage made it to my destination. However, on the return journey, it ended up in Amsterdam (despite flying Turkish Airlines Business Class and having tags which the final destination was EWR). I can confirm this, because someone actually looked me up on social media and took a picture of my suitcase: With no baggage tag from Turkish Airlines.
I flew CVG, EWR, Amsterdam, then RIX on September 25th. My bags reached Amsterdam but were never made it to Riga. 24 hours later I have still not received my bags. Hoping for the best!