Trip Report: AMS-IAD-SAN part I
I was so happy to book a nonstop flight from Amsterdam to the US, compared to last time when I had to connect in Frankfurt. I like flying Lufthansa, but connecting in FRA means leaving AMS at like 6am, and when buses don't start running until 8am or later, it meant I had to go to the airport at midnight and wait it out.
So United has a 12:20pm flight to Washington Dulles (IAD), and Continental has a flight to Newark after 1pm, which is also a nice option now that Continental is part of Star Alliance. I took the United flight to IAD.
United uses the Menzies lounge at AMS, and learning that made my heart sink because I was so underwhelmed by both Menzies and Servisair lounges in AMS when I flew Lufthansa and Swiss. But thankfully, this Menzies lounge in the non-Schengen zone of AMS is much nicer. The furniture is still a bit dated, but they had real food. Triangle sandwiches (tuna, bacon, chicken, cheese), and some mini pastries (labeled Halal, for the benefit of passengers on a Kuala Lumpur-bound flight).
Security for my IAD flight was conducted at the gate, and because of the Christmas underwear-bomb incident, I went early because I anticipated a long wait. Turns out that there was barely any wait at all (helped in part by having a frequent flyer / first / business line, but also having a TON of security agents). There was a pat down and search of my luggage, but actually on my last trip back before the Christmas incident, I was patted down both in AMS and in FRA, and my hand luggage was searched at both airports as well (and in greater detail too).
