Back from my Christmas-trip to family in law in Sweden time to update you on my experiences. As I work for a daughtercompany of KLM I am quiet familiar with the airline, Schiphol Airport and procedures but I prefer to travel as any other passenger.
Sunday 22DEC02 AMS ARN KL1109 sked dep 10.00AM 737-400
(travelling alone as my girlfriend left couple of days earlier)
Arriving at the apt I found long check-in queues but was to my surprise asked to use the handluggage only E-check-in. My only bag was to large (allowed is 50x35x25cm and 10kg)and heavy so I never expected that. E-check-in is defenitly convenient and fast and help was available if required. Security check, again long queues, took me almost 15 minutes to pass them. Due to late incoming a/c boarding was 10 min late. When finally everybody was seated and the captain in a very hasty way introduced himself he came up with the message “due to an a/c blocking our runway due technical problems after landing we will have to wait a bit longer to get approval for take off from another one”. Finally we left at 10.30. Safety regulations were shown only “half”, safety card not mentioned at all! On board service was in one word lousy. Nothing wrong with quality though! Drink with a sandwich is normal but this is normally followed by a coffee with bisquit round, not on this flight though. Hastely the taxfree sales were offered though but without mentioning the onboard magazine with offers though! During the flight both captain and first officer passed by through the cabin towards aft galley, not seen by me before on a inner European flight. If toillet stop required why didn’t they use the one in the Business Class? Was defenitly not broke! About 20 minutes before landing the captain reported agin hasty, to my surprise ETA in Dutch was 5 minutes earlier as in English but both on time. We landed on time at 12.00, at gate 12.12 and at 12.25 I stood outside the airport building smoking a cigaret! Hence the advantages of travelling with handluggage only.
Sunday 29DEC02 KL1114 dep 16.10 737-400 (together with my girlfriend)
Early at the airport meant early check-in. No question asked about preferred seat but even after printing boarding-cards a seat change (aisle seat for me) was possible and new boarding cards were printed.
This time my bag went as checked luggage. We left almost on time and service onboard was as how you would expect it from an airline like KLM. Both service and captains talk were friendly, clear and with a :-). Landing was according schedule at 18.35 but far out. The advantages of checking-in early were proven again, luggage came on the belt as one of the first but after a long 40 minutes wait.
To put it in a few words: outbound terrible, inbound as it should be!
By: wysiwyg - 2nd January 2003 at 22:31
RE: Flightreport AMS ARN AMS with KL1109 and KL1114
Switzerland (and the US) are not member states of the JAA, however both are strong advocates of common sense and safety. JAA has largely standardised many things (mostly to the detriment!) since it’s introduction.
By: Bhoy - 2nd January 2003 at 14:13
RE: Flightreport AMS ARN AMS with KL1109 and KL1114
wysiwyg, as I understand it, the safety demo is dependent on the country where the a/c is registered…
For example, I’ve mentioned before that Swiss aircraft (ie HB registered a/c, rather than the airline) never used to do lifevest demos, and was told that the BAZL (Bundesamt fuer Zivilluftfahrt – Swiss CAA) only required a lifejacket demo where the a/c was crossing a body of water within 10 minutes of takeoff.
Having said that, they did do a demo when I flew with them from LHR to BSL ten days ago, so maybe they are standardising procedures across europe. In fact, they even asked the pax at the overwing exits if they were happy to operate them just in case… haven’t seen that since flying domestically in the US with FAA regulations…
By: Ren Frew - 31st December 2002 at 12:59
RE: Flightreport AMS ARN AMS with KL1109 and KL1114
You know that part of the flight safety demo where they say “In the unlikely event of landing on water…” ?
It always makes me wonder what the equivalent safety demo announcement was during the good old days of the flying boats…?
By: wysiwyg - 31st December 2002 at 10:09
RE: Flightreport AMS ARN AMS with KL1109 and KL1114
Nice one Fokker. I’m really surprised to hear that both flight crew individually made a trip to the back of the plane during the outbound flight. We are only allowed to leave the flightdeck for the purpose of personal relief (whatever that is supposed to mean!). The only thing I can suggest is that maybe the front toilet was unserviceable so they had to use the one at the rear? Eben so I would have thought that it would be unlikely that neither pilot can hold jis bladder for an hour and a half. I can usually do London to Tenerife (4 hours) without a pee!
Also, on the subject of safety demo’s there are certain criteria under which they are not technically required at all, although I can’t remember the criteria off the top of my head! I’m fairly sure that this flight does not meet those criteria though. I know that if you don’t go over water for more than a certain time from land (10 minutes I think) you don’t need to demonstrate life jackets. All good reputable airlines will do a demo regardless of these rules.
By: EGNM - 31st December 2002 at 00:47
RE: Flightreport AMS ARN AMS with KL1109 and KL1114
Yep a nice read – is it just the Barcelona El-prat runs they use the B737-900 a/c on??
By: T5 - 30th December 2002 at 23:33
RE: Flightreport AMS ARN AMS with KL1109 and KL1114
Another fine report there Fokker, again an enjoyable read.
Thats the third one in less than a week. Can’t you tell it’s Christmas? 😀
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December 30, 2002 at 9:26 pm