Journey time: the figure agreed before a Schiphol booking is fixed

At Schiphol there is no standing arrival window. Instead, every booking is answered with a journey time: an estimate of how long the trip out to the airport, Schiphol-Oost or Schiphol-Rijk will take from where her evening begins. The hour of the booking follows from it. If you asked for eight and the journey means half past eight, the reply says so, and you agree to it or pick another hour before anything is fixed.

The journey time depends on the hour and the day. An evening after the office traffic has cleared is usually straightforward. The end of a working day, a conference week or a peak date can lengthen it. The reply takes those into account, which is why regulars who book at Schiphol tend to write earlier than they would in town.

There is no charge for the journey itself. The rates are the same at the airport as in central Amsterdam, all taxes included, and a room out by the runways always carries a deposit of half, as the deposit entry explains.