KLM Royal Dutch Airlines > Reviews > CLOGGING UP THE DUTCH SKIES

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Satisfactory
Customer Service	Friendly and attentive
Punctuality	Good
Space	Comfortable
Value for Money	Good

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

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

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 Dutch airline, KLM.

KLM – Royal Dutch Airlines
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 a corporate credit card we ended up booking through their telephone ticket office which cost us a whapping 30p more than it would have done on-line, and lo and behold 2 weeks later I received my tickets, quite a rarity in this day and age; the likes of EasyJet and BMI Baby work solely on the basis of issuing a reference number at the point of sale, which you are supposed to state at the point of check-in along with your passport (or alternative photo ID if travelling within the UK), although I must admit I have never been asked for the booking reference.

Cost: £160.10 – considerably dearer than my last visit with EasyJet from Luton of two flights for £45 return.

I could have reduced this cost by 50% had I have been willing to get the 6am flight out of the UK on the Sunday, but it was promising to be a long enough week as it was without this added unnecessary incumbent of such a ridiculously early start.

CHECK-IN
With this airline you get an allocated seat - this is becoming a rare occurence as the likes of RyanAir and EasyJet swamp the market with their cheap offerings.

At Cardiff
In line with most European Scheduled flights check-in opens 2 hours before departure and arrival in my usual timely fashion ensured that I was awarded an extra leg-room seat for my troubles, although I wasn’t over-enamoured at being asked if I was physically capable of opening the exit in the event of an emergency, as someone who doesn’t like flying at the best of times, this was nearly a step too far – although when my other half turned up to see me off and assured the check-in clerk that she could rest assured I would be first off the plane if something did happen, she seemed a little more relaxed.

At Schipol
If you are flying from here I suggest you allow a bit of extra time, unlike the last time I was there 15 months ago, you now can no longer go straight to check-in, as all bags destined for the hold now have to be scanned through the X-ray machine BEFORE you can check in, and you are not permitted to open them again, this is very reassuring for nervous passengers, however, is guaranteed to slow down the check-in process as staff were sitting around for substantial periods of time doing nothing. Once you are checked in, your only route is to move towards departures and here again, every passport is checked and every part of removable item is security checked, and if you bleep going through the scanner you will be checked rather thoroughly as well – as the airport that classifies itself as the ‘gateway to the world’ this is one venue that thankfully is not taking any chances.

You will however be pleased to know that if you are subjected to a long stop-over or wait in Schipol you will not suffer from lack of things to do, with it well equipped duty free shops where you can pick up your favourite brand of cigarettes up for around 2/5ths of the UK price, even cheaper if travelling outside the EU, plenty of cafés, bars and other shops.

Your ticket entitles you to carry 20kgs (44lbs) of luggage each way

BOARDING
Phew, swift or what – whether this was something to do with the smallness of the plane or not I am not sure, I have been on smaller and they haven’t been this efficient – at Cardiff we were only called 15 minutes before take-off and still got away on time. The plane in question was a twin engine Fokker 70, which as I believe its name suggests carries 70 passengers.

In Schipol, we were called around ½ hour before the flight departure time and left 10 minutes early.

THE FLIGHT
Being a Dutch Company, as one might expect, all announcements were made in Dutch first and then English and I have to say the quality of the acoustics was very poor, not something you would come to expect on such a small plane, where I am sure my ‘dulcet’ tones would have woken up all but the deafest of passengers fairly quickly. Emergency demonstrations sounded fairly standard fayre, although bi-lingual and poor quality acoustics with high seat backs made it impossible for a midget like me to see properly – thank goodness I am a fairly regular flyer.

Boy, these flights are nippy, but of course as all the figures were in km’s rather than feet and inches, my brain, addled from an early morning breakfast of strong lager from the Prince of Wales bar at Cardiff Airport was not really in the mood for calculating everything back - I believe, through the muddled assistant pilot narration that we were flying at a height of around 9km and 1100km an hour.

Unusually for flight this short, KLM provide a small snack on board of a ham or cheese sandwich, a sweet or packet of snacks, depending on how the mood takes the cabin crew, and a free drink. I initially thought this was a soft/hot drinks option only, but quickly discovered it also included the normal back of the bar shots – including a double G&T for me, although I’m afraid no Gordons here – still, I was flying so down it went. I understand that EasyJet have now stopped selling sandwiches on board and restricting their offerings to simply drinks and snacks.

KLM also offer a whole range of Dutch and UK daily papers for your perusal during the journey, this is something I haven’t seen since my last flight with BA some 11 years ago.

The plane had two toilets, one at the rear of the plane and one at the front –and a longer turnaround time meant they smelt considerably fresher than EasyJet’s.

THE STAFF
From where I was sitting, all Dutch, but with English language skills that would put all but the most eloquent native tongue speakers to shame, they were friendly and accommodating.

The pilot on the way out however, seemed to think he was riding a bike on the Brand’s Hatch circuit as he twisted and turned, hopefully to dodge the clouds rather than any low flying aircraft. Colleagues who had flown in from other regional UK airports told similar stories.

THE OVERALL EXPERIENCE
Would I use them again? Most certainly if flying out of Cardiff, although I suspect that at times of high demand, price could become prohibitive, or at least certainly dissuasive when considering the bargain offers to be had from the London airports which mean that 2 can often fly much cheaper than one from regional sites; 2 colleagues from one of the other local universities flew back into Luton arriving back home some 6 hours after me – shame eh?

To find out more – why not visit their site yourself:
http://www.klm.com/uk_en/index.jsp

Sue