Advantages: Fly from regional airports; Provide a gateway to the world; Free sandwich and drink! Get a Demonstration on how to work the emergency exit doors! Disadvantages: More expensive than the standard budget options; pilots who think they are bike racers; get a demonstration on how to work the emergency exit doors
In the absence of any of the hotels I have been staying in this week in the Netherlands being listed on Ciao, heres a little about my experience with the Royal Dutchairline, KLM.
KLM ? Royal DutchAirlines
This company definitely seem to have the monopoly on flights from regional UK airports into Schipol, Amsterdam, and provides a convenient gateway to the world for people who can?t be bothered to travel to London or Manchester to reach their destination. So what was my business with them?
I needed a return flight to the Netherlands for a week long work exchange and checks on all my regional airports, Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham established that the most cost effective and convenient option was KLM Cityhopper from Cardiff.
THE BOOKING PROCESS
Flights can be booked on-line, although in this instance, as it was ...
Advantages: Good value for money, comfortable Disadvantages: Everything is routed though Amsterdam
I’ve read a few different reviews on KLM which suggest that their level of service appears to vary quite a lot and this ties in with my own experience. I travel on business quite a lot and recently flew with KLM from Edinburgh to Detroit via Amsterdam. I then flew up to Toronto and returned from there to Edinburgh, again via Amsterdam.
On this trip, I experienced both a KLM regional airline (KLM UK), flew in both business and economy sections and also used KLM’s code share partner, Northwest Airlines, for the first time. I guess I sampled a fairly wide range of the KLM product on offer so I thought it might be worth writing an op on it.
It was a long trip so it’s a long op – I’ve subdivided it into the different legs to make it easier to read and/or skip the bits that you may feel irrelevant ...
Advantages: Dutch Hospitality Disadvantages: Average space in economy
comfortable. In flight entertainment was supplied with seat back LCD screens and a limited supply of movies to watch.
The level of service was above average with typical Dutch hospitality and friendliness. The main meals were typical airline food though, nothing special but still eadible. One amusing sight was the choice of early morning snack, a choice between a “pot noodle” or a chocolate ice cream ! I could understand one or the other but the choice, ah well.
Schipol is one of the nicer airports to transfer though however, it is sometimes subject to delays going in and out. Although supposedly not as bad this year, it did have a terrible reputation for losing or delaying luggage. But this fortunately didnt happen to me. My luggage was booked straight through so no carting it around, yipee !
On the way back as is ...
