sgopal2
Mar 25, 02, 11:22 am
JFK-AMS: 3/19/2002
15:15 Arrived at JFK for flight departing 18:30. The lines at JFK are short. The security check is a breeze compared to EWR and other US airports that I've been in lately.
15:18 Checked into the NW WorldClub. The new Terminal 4 at JFK is actually pretty nice. Large open ceilings remind me of the UA terminal at ORD. A number of other airlines also depart from this terminal: SwissAir, Kuwait, Air Pakistan, Aer Lingus, National Airlines. The WorldClub here is spacious, had 18 comfy chairs, 4 or so were leathered. The rest of the chairs were hard wood/iron types. There were lots of free dataports, so I could login to the internet. The only complaint I had about this club was that the closest bathroom was downstairs. There also is no place to lock your valuables either, so you run a risk of leaving your stuff out in the open when going downstairs. The club had the usual assortment of sodas, beer, wine, cheese, crackers, pretzels, peanuts and oranges. There also was a coffee machine with some cookies laid out. Overall pretty good, nothing spectacular but had a nice view of the runway and tower.
16:05 KLM 747-300 pulls up into the gate where I will be leaving in about 2 hours. Strange though, the back third of the plane seemed to be filled with cargo. I've never seen that before. I wonder if the plane will take cargo on the way back or if they are going to put some seats back in?? The markings on the plane read "PH-BUK"
17:45 Announcements made in WorldClub that KLM #0642 is now boarding. I walk to the gate and am the first to board. After getting into the plane I noticed that there are no WBC seats downstairs (only coach). The back third of the plane is walled off -- I presumed that the cargo was sitting back there. Upstairs I went and was greeted by a nice attendant who took my coat. I settled in.
18:05 Attendant passes out glasses of water, juice or sparkling wine before take off.
19:05 We finally are cleared for take off from JFK. After a quick ascent the captain turns off the seatbelt sign. The attendants bring the cart around and serve a bag of nuts and another beverage. I opted for the Pipier-Heidsieck Champagne Brut. They also passed out the dinner menu and wine list.
Wine list: Piper-Heidsieck, Chateau Barreyres 1997/1999, Tempranillo Raimat 1998, Raimat Chardonnay 2000, Chardonnay Reserve 2000 Montes (Chile), Fonseca Port 1995/1996, Moscatel Capricho de Goya (Navarra).
Dinner menu: Option #1: Kohlrabi Salad with Parma ham, Chicken with horseradish potatoes or Fish with spicy pasta, dessert tray (Tart, cheese, or fresh fruit). Option #2: The Indonesian Meal: Nasi Goreng, Ikan Boemboe Bali, Sambal Goreng Beans, Desert Tray.
I chose the Indonesian meal, but later wished I hadn't. About an hour after finishing my dinner I felt my stomach rumble. I tried to shrug it off and fall back asleep. I couldn't sleep. About an hour before landing, I went to the toilet and had the runs. I felt a lot better, but now I was sure that the indonesian meal was the culprit. I do, however, highly recommend the chocolate tart -- superb. It was very rich, so be prepared to only eat half of it. I tried to go back to sleep, but with only another hour or so before landing, I couldn't manage much.
About a half hour later the attendants came by with continental breakfast: fresh fruit, yogurt and a croissant. The fruit was quite sour. I ate a few bites and then went to the toilet again. Thank god we were about to land at Schiphol. Right before landing, I noticed that some passengers in the row ahead of me had the little Delft houses. Since we were right about to land, I didn't want to bug the attendants about mine. After we landed and exited the airplane, I asked her if I could have my house -- she said that they were all locked up because they had liquor in them. I guess I was in the bathroom at the time the delft houses were beind handed out. Oh well, I guess I'll have to get mine on the way back.
08:00 (AMS time) we land at Schiphol and get to our gate. I looked at the map and noted that my connecting flight to HAM was quite a distance away (the walk from Gates F to C was about 20 minutes!!). I decided to try to make it to my gate quickly so I proceeded to walk. After getting to the T section of AMS, we had to go thru a section where everyone gets their passport checked (I presume these were all for flights going within the EU). I noticed a KLM ticket counter and went to it so I could ask for seat 74J on the way back (JFK-AMS). The gate agent asked if I would be willing to be bumped. The compensation was $225 Euros travel voucher or $125 Euros cash. I opted for the travel voucher. She told me to go to the gate and wait until I was called by the ticket agent. I went downstairs and waited patiently. After nearly everyone had boarded, the agent told me that they would offer me a voucher. Great, the next flight was only in about 2 hours. I now had some time to shop at AMS for gifts. Since my hotel in Hamburg wouldn't let me check in until 2 PM there was no sense in getting there early.
10:00 I shopped around and bought some gifts for everyone...the shopping at Schiphol is amazing. I bought some flower bulbs, chocolate, cigars and some small knick-knacks. I then went over to the KLM Business Class lounge to rest for an hour before my flight left. I walked in and noticed that there were two separate areas: 1 for Business Class and 1 area for RoyalWing members. I wonder what the RoyalWing lounge was like. The WBC lounge was fantastic! Ceramic coffee mugs, plates, sweet crackers, cake, cappucino, OJ and lots of newspapers. There was a great view of the runway as well.
11:15 After trying to connect to my corporate email account from the phone lines here, I gave up. My only grip with this place was that there weren't any phones for local calls. You had to swipe your credit card to even make a local call.
AMS-HAM: 3/20/2002
11:30 This flight left on time. Remarkably they did NOT allow elites to board first. They did not call for even their own elites (KLM Royal Wing, and certainly did not call for NW or CO elites). Luckily I was about 10th in line to get on the plane. It was a 757 in the same configuration as a southwest airlines plane (3-3). The arm rests were quite big and allowed both people to share the same armrest with plenty of room. The flight was only about 45 mins, but the flight atttendants managed to serve a sandwich and a drink to everyone on the full flight!
The flight landed and I got off the plane. After going thru customs, I was surprised to see that there was no customs check.
HAM-AMS: 3/24/2002 10:45 The flight starts boarding. As usual they make no mention of giving preference to RoyalWing, NW/CO Elite at boarding time. The plane was smaller than the one I flew in on, a Fokker jet with a 3-2 configuration. We were delayed in departing from HAM but made up for it in the air. The attendants still managed to serve sandwiches and drinks to everyone on the plane before landing. We land at Schiphol at 12:30. My flight to JFK doesn't start boarding until 13:15, great I figured that I had time to do some shopping and take a toilet break -- WRONG! I started walking to gate E. In order to do this, I had to leave the European terminal area and walk thru a passport checking station. This took about 15 mins of waiting in a long line. I then saw a nice delicatessan where I wanted to pick up some cheese and perhaps a delft ceramic. By this time it was about 13:00. I started walking towards the E gates and noted that there was a HUGE line to get in. They were doing security checks on everyone going thru with their hand luggage. Random body checks were done as well. This took nearly 45 mins to get thru this area. I'm glad I didn't spend much time shopping in the airport, if I had, then I would've missed my flight!!
AMS-JFK: KL #641 3/24/2002 13:45 I get on the plane. The plane is labelled PH-BFS, and is a combi, because I can see them loading cargo in the back third of the plane. This airplane is a 747-400. On entering, there were WBC seats downstairs as well as upstairs. The coach cabin looked terribly cramped. Upon entering we were given a travel pack (earplugs, toothbrush, etc in a nice tin box), socks, and a choice of drinks: wine, OJ or sparkling wine. Prior to take off I asked for a heineken instead of wine/OJ from the attendant but never received it. As she came by later for drink choices with dinner, she suddenly remembered that she had forgotten my initial request and apologized.
Wine list: same as before (see above)
Dinner menu: Regular meal: Appetiser of Guinea fowl rilette, Main course: Steak of veal in red wine or Pike perch with basil and sun dried tomato. Dessert tray.
Indonesian meal: Ajam djahe and meatballs, Udang goelai lodeh, Sambal beans Bali. Dessert tray. Considering the bad reaction I had last time to the indonesian meal, I decided to try the regular dinner menu.
Also another note, it seems as if the attendants start taking menu requests from the front of the plane to the back. The meal was less than spectacular. I've had better meals in coach to tell you the truth. If you are really hungry, then I suggest picking up one of the nice box lunches at Schiphol -- I saw a few really nice restaurants there that offered boxes to go.
The usual nuts and warm towels were passed out before dinner. After dinner the dessert tray was passed around. I tried the tart again -- this time it had a raspberry bottom which gave it quite a different taste than the tart I tried leaving from JFK. Perhaps they have separate catering services in the US?? Anyway the US version seemed to be a bit better. The attendants came by a few more times with bottled water, coffee, soda. I was getting a bit fidgety in my seat by this time, so I decided to go downstairs for a walk.
The front cabin of the 747-400 had a WBC section in a 2-2 configuration. I noticed that the first two seats didn't seem too much different than upstairs. There didn't appear to be any extra legroom either. The right portion of the front cabin was devoted to the galley and a crew rest cabin. The poor souls in coach seemed squished tightly into the middle third of the plane. I went back upstairs and decided to work on my laptop for a while.
About an hour before landing, the attendants came by with a "snack". The snack consisted of a cheese or meat sandwich, a cheese pastry and a green apple served with whipped cream. As soon as we started making our descent, the attendants came around and handed out the Delft gin bottles. I made sure that I grabbed one this time.
Overall I was quite impressed with the service at KLM, and I would definitely fly them again. The 747 seats upstairs, in my opinion are better, especially window seats because of the storage lockers next to you. The next time, I will, however make plans to bring my own food instead. Bon voyage!
15:15 Arrived at JFK for flight departing 18:30. The lines at JFK are short. The security check is a breeze compared to EWR and other US airports that I've been in lately.
15:18 Checked into the NW WorldClub. The new Terminal 4 at JFK is actually pretty nice. Large open ceilings remind me of the UA terminal at ORD. A number of other airlines also depart from this terminal: SwissAir, Kuwait, Air Pakistan, Aer Lingus, National Airlines. The WorldClub here is spacious, had 18 comfy chairs, 4 or so were leathered. The rest of the chairs were hard wood/iron types. There were lots of free dataports, so I could login to the internet. The only complaint I had about this club was that the closest bathroom was downstairs. There also is no place to lock your valuables either, so you run a risk of leaving your stuff out in the open when going downstairs. The club had the usual assortment of sodas, beer, wine, cheese, crackers, pretzels, peanuts and oranges. There also was a coffee machine with some cookies laid out. Overall pretty good, nothing spectacular but had a nice view of the runway and tower.
16:05 KLM 747-300 pulls up into the gate where I will be leaving in about 2 hours. Strange though, the back third of the plane seemed to be filled with cargo. I've never seen that before. I wonder if the plane will take cargo on the way back or if they are going to put some seats back in?? The markings on the plane read "PH-BUK"
17:45 Announcements made in WorldClub that KLM #0642 is now boarding. I walk to the gate and am the first to board. After getting into the plane I noticed that there are no WBC seats downstairs (only coach). The back third of the plane is walled off -- I presumed that the cargo was sitting back there. Upstairs I went and was greeted by a nice attendant who took my coat. I settled in.
18:05 Attendant passes out glasses of water, juice or sparkling wine before take off.
19:05 We finally are cleared for take off from JFK. After a quick ascent the captain turns off the seatbelt sign. The attendants bring the cart around and serve a bag of nuts and another beverage. I opted for the Pipier-Heidsieck Champagne Brut. They also passed out the dinner menu and wine list.
Wine list: Piper-Heidsieck, Chateau Barreyres 1997/1999, Tempranillo Raimat 1998, Raimat Chardonnay 2000, Chardonnay Reserve 2000 Montes (Chile), Fonseca Port 1995/1996, Moscatel Capricho de Goya (Navarra).
Dinner menu: Option #1: Kohlrabi Salad with Parma ham, Chicken with horseradish potatoes or Fish with spicy pasta, dessert tray (Tart, cheese, or fresh fruit). Option #2: The Indonesian Meal: Nasi Goreng, Ikan Boemboe Bali, Sambal Goreng Beans, Desert Tray.
I chose the Indonesian meal, but later wished I hadn't. About an hour after finishing my dinner I felt my stomach rumble. I tried to shrug it off and fall back asleep. I couldn't sleep. About an hour before landing, I went to the toilet and had the runs. I felt a lot better, but now I was sure that the indonesian meal was the culprit. I do, however, highly recommend the chocolate tart -- superb. It was very rich, so be prepared to only eat half of it. I tried to go back to sleep, but with only another hour or so before landing, I couldn't manage much.
About a half hour later the attendants came by with continental breakfast: fresh fruit, yogurt and a croissant. The fruit was quite sour. I ate a few bites and then went to the toilet again. Thank god we were about to land at Schiphol. Right before landing, I noticed that some passengers in the row ahead of me had the little Delft houses. Since we were right about to land, I didn't want to bug the attendants about mine. After we landed and exited the airplane, I asked her if I could have my house -- she said that they were all locked up because they had liquor in them. I guess I was in the bathroom at the time the delft houses were beind handed out. Oh well, I guess I'll have to get mine on the way back.
08:00 (AMS time) we land at Schiphol and get to our gate. I looked at the map and noted that my connecting flight to HAM was quite a distance away (the walk from Gates F to C was about 20 minutes!!). I decided to try to make it to my gate quickly so I proceeded to walk. After getting to the T section of AMS, we had to go thru a section where everyone gets their passport checked (I presume these were all for flights going within the EU). I noticed a KLM ticket counter and went to it so I could ask for seat 74J on the way back (JFK-AMS). The gate agent asked if I would be willing to be bumped. The compensation was $225 Euros travel voucher or $125 Euros cash. I opted for the travel voucher. She told me to go to the gate and wait until I was called by the ticket agent. I went downstairs and waited patiently. After nearly everyone had boarded, the agent told me that they would offer me a voucher. Great, the next flight was only in about 2 hours. I now had some time to shop at AMS for gifts. Since my hotel in Hamburg wouldn't let me check in until 2 PM there was no sense in getting there early.
10:00 I shopped around and bought some gifts for everyone...the shopping at Schiphol is amazing. I bought some flower bulbs, chocolate, cigars and some small knick-knacks. I then went over to the KLM Business Class lounge to rest for an hour before my flight left. I walked in and noticed that there were two separate areas: 1 for Business Class and 1 area for RoyalWing members. I wonder what the RoyalWing lounge was like. The WBC lounge was fantastic! Ceramic coffee mugs, plates, sweet crackers, cake, cappucino, OJ and lots of newspapers. There was a great view of the runway as well.
11:15 After trying to connect to my corporate email account from the phone lines here, I gave up. My only grip with this place was that there weren't any phones for local calls. You had to swipe your credit card to even make a local call.
AMS-HAM: 3/20/2002
11:30 This flight left on time. Remarkably they did NOT allow elites to board first. They did not call for even their own elites (KLM Royal Wing, and certainly did not call for NW or CO elites). Luckily I was about 10th in line to get on the plane. It was a 757 in the same configuration as a southwest airlines plane (3-3). The arm rests were quite big and allowed both people to share the same armrest with plenty of room. The flight was only about 45 mins, but the flight atttendants managed to serve a sandwich and a drink to everyone on the full flight!
The flight landed and I got off the plane. After going thru customs, I was surprised to see that there was no customs check.
HAM-AMS: 3/24/2002 10:45 The flight starts boarding. As usual they make no mention of giving preference to RoyalWing, NW/CO Elite at boarding time. The plane was smaller than the one I flew in on, a Fokker jet with a 3-2 configuration. We were delayed in departing from HAM but made up for it in the air. The attendants still managed to serve sandwiches and drinks to everyone on the plane before landing. We land at Schiphol at 12:30. My flight to JFK doesn't start boarding until 13:15, great I figured that I had time to do some shopping and take a toilet break -- WRONG! I started walking to gate E. In order to do this, I had to leave the European terminal area and walk thru a passport checking station. This took about 15 mins of waiting in a long line. I then saw a nice delicatessan where I wanted to pick up some cheese and perhaps a delft ceramic. By this time it was about 13:00. I started walking towards the E gates and noted that there was a HUGE line to get in. They were doing security checks on everyone going thru with their hand luggage. Random body checks were done as well. This took nearly 45 mins to get thru this area. I'm glad I didn't spend much time shopping in the airport, if I had, then I would've missed my flight!!
AMS-JFK: KL #641 3/24/2002 13:45 I get on the plane. The plane is labelled PH-BFS, and is a combi, because I can see them loading cargo in the back third of the plane. This airplane is a 747-400. On entering, there were WBC seats downstairs as well as upstairs. The coach cabin looked terribly cramped. Upon entering we were given a travel pack (earplugs, toothbrush, etc in a nice tin box), socks, and a choice of drinks: wine, OJ or sparkling wine. Prior to take off I asked for a heineken instead of wine/OJ from the attendant but never received it. As she came by later for drink choices with dinner, she suddenly remembered that she had forgotten my initial request and apologized.
Wine list: same as before (see above)
Dinner menu: Regular meal: Appetiser of Guinea fowl rilette, Main course: Steak of veal in red wine or Pike perch with basil and sun dried tomato. Dessert tray.
Indonesian meal: Ajam djahe and meatballs, Udang goelai lodeh, Sambal beans Bali. Dessert tray. Considering the bad reaction I had last time to the indonesian meal, I decided to try the regular dinner menu.
Also another note, it seems as if the attendants start taking menu requests from the front of the plane to the back. The meal was less than spectacular. I've had better meals in coach to tell you the truth. If you are really hungry, then I suggest picking up one of the nice box lunches at Schiphol -- I saw a few really nice restaurants there that offered boxes to go.
The usual nuts and warm towels were passed out before dinner. After dinner the dessert tray was passed around. I tried the tart again -- this time it had a raspberry bottom which gave it quite a different taste than the tart I tried leaving from JFK. Perhaps they have separate catering services in the US?? Anyway the US version seemed to be a bit better. The attendants came by a few more times with bottled water, coffee, soda. I was getting a bit fidgety in my seat by this time, so I decided to go downstairs for a walk.
The front cabin of the 747-400 had a WBC section in a 2-2 configuration. I noticed that the first two seats didn't seem too much different than upstairs. There didn't appear to be any extra legroom either. The right portion of the front cabin was devoted to the galley and a crew rest cabin. The poor souls in coach seemed squished tightly into the middle third of the plane. I went back upstairs and decided to work on my laptop for a while.
About an hour before landing, the attendants came by with a "snack". The snack consisted of a cheese or meat sandwich, a cheese pastry and a green apple served with whipped cream. As soon as we started making our descent, the attendants came around and handed out the Delft gin bottles. I made sure that I grabbed one this time.
Overall I was quite impressed with the service at KLM, and I would definitely fly them again. The 747 seats upstairs, in my opinion are better, especially window seats because of the storage lockers next to you. The next time, I will, however make plans to bring my own food instead. Bon voyage!