RE: are budget airlines trying to take over europe !!!
This is weird I also flew MAN-AMS-JNB with KLM, last December. I would prefer to fly from LPL as its more handy for me and ok I could have done on Easyjet. However like you i flew KLM because they would check me through etc. Got to MAN checked-in waved good buy to the luggage and was present with both boarding cards. Got to the gate ( I was travelling with my partner) we looked at the boarding cards for MAN-JNB and we weren’t even sitting together (I was under the impression my travel company had done this, however !) I asked at the gate, the same girl who had checked me in was there and just said quite un-interested, im sorry there is nothing I can do about it, ask in Amsterdam. i was annoyed at her attitude, but I was even more annoyed that she hadn’t even bothered to mention this to me at check-in. So we were feeling abit down thinking that we wouldn’t be able to speak to one another the whole way to JNB. Got on the F100, yuck !! cramped, lighting dull, food even more yuck. If i was just going to Amsterdam I would always pick Easyjet, the plane is more comfortable and roomy, plus the food (if you want it) is as good as an M & S sandwich you might buy.
As luck would have it, got to the gate at AMS, was dealt with a very helpfull KLM representative, who was under a lot of pressure (this was between xmas & new year). The flight was packed (unlike MAN-AMS) and he worked his magic, we walked onto the 747 and sat in business for our flight to JNB !! So maybe the stroppy cow in MAN did us a favour, who knows, but I agree service can vary on the large national carriers. Generally I think for short hops around Europe the low-cost airlines are fine.
I was not as lucky on the return and flew economy CPT-AMS, but there was a big difference again when I stepped on the F100 at AMS to fly back to MAN as compared to the service on the long-haul.
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