bergamini

This is my first trip report, and I apologize for the length in advance.

After my 2.5 hour drive from Wisconsin and another hour trying to find a parking spot in lot E, I made it to the check-in counter and was greeted by a rather dour agent. He started out by telling me I needed to pay a $200 reissue fee due to a change I made within 24 hours of booking, which should be free. After talking them out of the fee, they studied my record for a while before giving me all 3 boarding passes. While the agents were wishing each other ‘Merry Christmas’, it didn’t seem the cheer was spreading to the customers. I used the elite security line which was empty and was into the terminal in seemingly record time.

I wandered down to the World Club/President’s Club. It appears to be co-branded, across from E4 which is a Continental gate. However, the employees are Northwest and the décor is definitely the new Northwest style. The club was surprisingly large, bigger than the satellites at DTW, and they had all the normal libations and snacks, but no Atkins products. There was a family of 3 (father, mother & 6 y/o daughter Sydney) and the father was louder than the daughter (more on that later). Kudos to the very friendly staff here, as this is a great club.

After about 30 minutes, I wandered down to the gate and inadvertently made eye contact with the GA. She called me over and there was a slight mix-up because she thought I was someone else and she was going to upgrade me, but alas I was not who she thought I was and I was of course in FC already. Boarding began at about 13:20 and we were told it was a full flight, the end of the boarding announcement was “Merry Christmas from all of us here at Northwest Airlines”.

NW1404 ORD --> DTW Seat 3D
N756NW DC9-30

Scheduled/Actual Departure: 13:44/13:39
Scheduled/Actual Arrival: 16:00/15:54

Once onboard, the crew was great. They were taking our coats as we boarded, not waiting for us to sit down. Nice touch IMHO. We were offered pre-departure drinks very early on, for some reason I declined though. After everybody quickly boarded and they closed the door, I noted that I had the only open seat on the plane next to me. I felt guilty about being glad, because it was Christmas day and I suppose I should have wanted to share, but I enjoyed the space and privacy instead. I was in 3D and the family from the World Club took up 2B, C & D. The little girl started crying when her dad sat next to her, so he had to switch with her mom to get her to stop crying.

In-flight service was also wonderful. The lead FA didn’t pass out the basket, he just gave everybody a packet of Spintzel’s and almonds along with the drinks. I ordered a gin and tonic and it was delicious. I feel like Meg Ryan from ‘When Harry Met Sally’ when I order drinks, because I ask for less ice and not all of the mini-bottle. If I don’t do this, the drinks are too strong in those tiny glasses. Fortunately, the FA happily accommodated me. He came back through the cabin and practically forced more Spintzel’s on us. We soon landed at A18.

In Detroit, I was happy to find the Brooks Brothers store open. I bought a white button down because I only have 1 and it always seems to be at the cleaners. I went to the main World Club and changed shirts and then asked about getting a better seat for the next flight. The agent told me that Row 1 was all taken, but if she were me she would move from 2B to 2G so that I didn’t have to get up if my seatmate needed to use the restroom. I took her advice and was glad that I did, the lady who sat in 2A was up and about often during the flight. I sat down and before I knew it, the family from the ORD WC and flight sat down right next to me. Because they apparently don't allow booze to be served on Christmas day in Michigan, I couldn't have my normal gin & tonic in the WC. They soon announced the boarding of the flight, and I headed down to the gate (A40) and saw the beautiful plane all ready to go. This gate is not good for photos because there are dual bridgeways blocking the way.

NW68 DTW --> AMS Seat 2G
N803NW A330-300 “Marcia Brady”

Scheduled/Actual Departure: 17:35/18:10
Scheduled/Actual Arrival: 07:30/07:52

As soon as I got to the gate, they announced WBC boarding. I was maybe the 3rd person on the plane. It was beautiful inside! I love the lighting and the feel of the cabin, very peaceful. The male FA took my coat quickly and female FA was offering champagne and orange juice. I took some of the Perrier Jouet and I found it to be delicious. I had studied the controls for the seat and AVOD in the World Traveler magazine the past month so I felt pretty comfortable navigating it. In the upright position, I find that the seat is too hard and pushes you forward. However, when you navigate to cradle position, it’s very, very comfortable. The flat position is OK, probably a bit better than the old WBC seat, and definitely OK for sleeping, but not amazing. The people that sat next to me in both World Clubs, and 1 row ahead on the ORD to DTW flight, was also now 1 row ahead of me (they were in 1G, H & J, I was in 2G). I took some pictures of them in the seats, and they did the same for me. We talked about how much we love the Z fare for business class.

Before we even took off I began to have concerns about the cabin crew. The two forward FA’s, both male, did not appear to have it all together. The lead FA worked the left side of the plane and he was older and seemed friendly. The guy who worked the right (my) side of the plane was a younger and kept saying it was his first time on this plane. A female FA from back came up to do pre-departure beverages and she actually snapped at the father in front of me because she had to put some dirty glasses away before she could help him. This crew was younger than most Int’l flights and their lack of caring showed. They passed out the menus and came around in a very informal and hasty manner to take our dinner orders, by sampling asking if we wanted “chicken, fish or pasta”.

After they closed the door, the captain came on and said we first had to de-ice, and then we would have to wait for a while to take off. He explained that we had a very direct flight path to AMS and due to ATC couldn’t get there before 07:30. We waited about 30 minutes to get de-iced and then we took off shortly thereafter. During the de-icing, one of the rear male FA’s came forward and was talking to the front FA’s in the galley. I’m not sure what was going on, but the conversation literally ended with him STOMPING his foot and yelling “shut-up” and then him walking briskly back to his cabin. Little Sydney turned to her mother and said “You should never tell anyone shut-up” and I told her I agreed. This was when I knew I would regret this cabin crew. We taxied over for take-off and I heard the lead FA ask the other if the captain had made an announcement to prepare for departure, which he hadn’t. However the engines soon revved and we were up and off. This plane is so quiet in all phases!

FOOD MENU

Small Bites
Cocktail or beverage of choice served with assorted appetizers and mixed nuts

Main Meal
Salad
Mixed seasonal fresh greens with garnish of the day

Assorted Breads

Main Course

Roasted Chicken Stuffed with Mushroom Gratin on a bed of steamed rice
-or-
Black Cod in Malaysian Lime Sauce with asparagus and rice with mangos and raisins
-or-
Mediterranean Lasagna with eggplant, wild mushrooms and roasted vegetables

Desert A La Carte

Fresh Fruit and Cheese
Ice Cream
Gourmet Cookies
Gourmet Coffee or Tea

On Arrival

A light breakfast with seasonal fresh fruit and warmed breakfast breads will be served prior to arrival

Soon after take-off I saw them preparing for the first drink service, and I heard the one FA ask the other if they were supposed to do the appetizer now. Apparently they were because we got it with the first drink. The appetizer consisted of a piece of curry chicken, cashews (not mixed nuts) which were very cold and some boat shaped pastry filled with red sauce and topped with shaved crab meat. I have a shellfish allergy, so I only had the chicken, which was great, and the nuts. I saw several people did not finish the crab appetizer though. The FA came for a 2nd drink service and I asked for more nuts and he said, “Oh yeah, I forgot” and ran back to the galley and came back with the nuts and spoon. The passenger in front of me asked what the wines were and the FA snapped “they are in the menu!” Well, there are 10 whites and 10 reds listed in the menu, so he wanted to know which ones. The FA said he had a chardonnay and red zinfandel (no brand or vintage, etc). The menu says we are supposed to have 2 of each, so not sure who to believe. We also never were advised which chardonnay or red zinfandel they were serving and I didn’t see enough of the label.

While the FA’s were preparing for dinner, I played with the AVOD. In the beginning, it was very slow and I would end up pressing select twice and it would take to screens I didn’t want to be at.. I’m guessing the system bogs down because everybody else is firing theirs up. I wanted maybe 10 minutes and it started to behave normally. The lady in 3H had a screen that flashed on and off throughout the flight, they reset it several times to no success. She was pretty ticked, as I would be. While the right FA was preparing our dinners, I noted that he was sucking on a sucker the whole time. Is it me, or is that not just disgusting and unprofessional?

Dinner was soon served, again with champagne, and overall I was very impressed with the food. The salad had the tastiest mushrooms and artichokes on it. The lead FA was asking people on the left if they wanted vinaigrette or Parmesan dressing, while my FA was asking people on the right if they wanted 1 scoop or 2 of the Parmesan. Although I wanted the vinaigrette, I took 1 scoop of the Parmesan which instead of being sprinkled around was just dropped onto the center and left for me to spread around. My first roll was whole grain and delicious, so I asked for another and was brought a sourdough that was just OK. The chicken was just fine. For desert, there were no cookies, but we did have chocolate ice cream in a chocolate waffle cone and some delicious aged cheeses.

There was no Sky Break basket up front, which I have grown accustomed to in WBC. Does anybody know if they’ve done away with this, or was this just another slight of this crew?

During dinner I got the chance to chat with my seatmate, who was going to visit his dad in Beiruit. It was a nice conversation, but after dinner we both began using the AVOD. I watched ‘Dickie Roberts’ and ‘The Camp’ and thought both were OK. My seatmate watched some movie about dentists that he didn’t like. I then used the jukebox feature to try and create a playlist I could fall asleep too. I kept getting out of the list inadvertently because it was a bit tricky, but I got the hang of it. The musical selections were OK. I felt there could have been more pop or light tunes because most of it was either classic rock or country, but I found enough to keep me happy.

I tried to sleep, but this soon proved difficult. Many of the FA’s had congregated up front, along with 2 non-rev’s flying in WBC and they were having a very loud conversation. My seatmate was really upset about this and even tried earplugs which he said didn’t help much. Also, Sydney’s dad was able to sleep BUT he snored very loudly. I just ended up turning the volume up on my AVOD to try and drown this out.

Soon enough I smelled breakfast getting warmed up and my FA had a sucker in his mouth again so I knew he must be preparing food. I got up and used the restroom. I just love those Aveda face sprays, they really are refreshing. The FA’s came out with steamed towels and they were actually too hot, my seatmate and I both had to set them down for a second to cool down.

Breakfast was either a croissant or a delicious banana nut bread (but not both as a previous poster was offered) with yogurt and fresh fruit. I’m kind of surprised we didn’t have eggs, but this was OK as I knew I was also getting breakfast on my KLM flight to LHR. The breakfast dishes were cleared and we began to prep for landing. By the end of the service, the FA wasn’t even speaking to people, just picking things up and moving on.

It’s not that this crew was malicious. They just didn’t do much right. They never addressed any of the pax by name, were not friendly, had to be reminded to dim lights and offer more cold nuts, were loud during the sleeping times and just made us feel like we were lucky to have them there at all. They should probably be working the DTW --> ORD run and not working in WBC. The gentleman next to me and the family in front of me were all really disappointed in the service, and we were all on paid tickets! As you will see from my KLM trans-Atlantic journey, the little touches like having the purser introduce him or herself, smiling, not disrupting the passengers while they try to sleep, all go a long way to a pleasant journey. Based on this trip, NW has a LONG way to go before their product is competitive with the big boys.

The captain came on and advised that there was a passenger with a “medical condition” and that after we landed, everybody should stay in their seat until medics had a chance to attend to the sick passenger. When we landed I felt a big bump and it seemed like we may have bounced back up (my seatmate is convinced of this) and then back down. All I know is that it wasn’t smooth and they had to use a ton of reverse thrust to get this baby to slow down. We had a quick taxi to the gate and again were reminded to stay in our seats. At the gate, they quickly brought the jet bridge over and I saw 3 EMT’s board and go to the center section of about row 16 in coach. They then announced that only WBC customers can get up and exit the plane. I felt a bit guilty because I wanted to make sure nobody was in the way of the EMT’s, but they were still attending to the person when I got off. I will never really know what happened.

After we got off, I noticed that for some reason we were actually about 20 minutes late and I had to run from EXX to D4 to get to my connection and I had maybe 10 minutes to do it, as they were already boarding. This was my first time at Schiphol and it seemed nice, the signage kind of reminded me of Narita.

It took longer than I thought, but I made it to the gate in time and was greeted by an ID checker with a cheery “Bon Jour”. He asked me where I came from and how the weather was in Chicago. Not sure if this was out of curiosity or because he was trying to verify my identity for security purposes.

KLM1007 AMS --> LHR Seat 2A
PH-BZC “Brooklyn Bridge” 767-300ER

Scheduled/Actual Departure: 08:25/08:25
Scheduled/Actual Arrival: 09:00/08:48

It was SO nice to board this old (’85) bird and be greeted with a smile. I was promptly led to my seat and one of the male FA’s actually put my carry-on up for me. I was offered a drink (sparkling water) and given a newspaper. I actually liked the interior of the 767, in some way it reminded me of a DC-10. And in the upright position the seat was much more comfortable than the 330, although the recline wasn’t. There were only 6 people out of maybe 30 seats in this business class.

We quickly took off and again the friendly FA’s were all over the cabin providing us service. The fact that there was a 1:2 ratio didn’t hurt, but still they were just so friendly. We had a quick breakfast which consisted of some fresh fruit, pastries and this wonderfully delicious yoghurt that had fruit and muesli mixed into it. The yoghurt came in a prepackaged cup, and I don’t recall the brand.

We soon landed at LHR in terminal 4 in what seemed like a really remote area and I scooted over to the Heathrow Express for my quick ride to Paddington Station. I won’t bore you with what I did in London, but I will say that I stayed at the Hilton Paddington Station and it is a wonderful property. Also, Jerry Springer the Opera is a great show!


RETURN JOURNEY

KLM1007 LHR --> AMS Seat 4A
Unknown KLM 737-900

Scheduled/Actual Departure: 06:30/06:47
Scheduled/Actual Arrival: 09:05/09:17

The first Heathrow Express left Paddington at 05:10 and didn’t get to terminal 4 until 5:33, and I didn’t want to risk it so I had the Hilton arrange a car service for 38 pounds. It was a stretch Mercedes and I enjoyed chatting with the Croatian driver on the trip. I’m surprised at how far from the rest of Heathrow terminal 4 is. I got to the airport at 4:40AM which is a record for me arriving so early. I noted there was a ton of signage up for the Concorde still. It made me kind of sad.

When I entered the check-in area, I almost had a heart attack. There had to be 300 people waiting in the KLM line, it stretched the entire length of the terminal. The business class line was smaller, but still significant. I tried the kiosk to check-in but was advised that there was a problem with my e-ticket, so I went to the back of the business class line. The KLM counters didn’t open until 5:00AM so we all just waited. When they opened, it seemed to take forever, but at about 5:15 a lady came over to me and asked if I only had hand luggage, which I did, so she tried to check me in at a separate counter. However, she couldn’t check me in and told me to go to the ticketing counter at the end of the terminal. I went there and waited in line for 20 minutes, and then a nice lady helped me but she couldn’t get it to work. She finally called the help desk and about another 20 minutes later I finally had my Fast Track marked boarding pass. She claims the problem was with the e-ticket tripping over from the NW system in KLM’s database.

Fast track was closed, so I waited another 25 minutes to get through the 2 security lines and by now it was 6:10AM and I ran to the gate. I had wanted to try the Holideck, but it was not to be with all the problems today. I’m still not sure why the line was so big for a 737 flight, but I’m guessing that many of them were there for the next flight which is a 767. They announced an all-call boarding as soon as I got to the gate. I realize that this is only “Europe Select” but I’m surprised they didn’t even do a pre-board for elites or handicapped individuals.

It was dark out on departure, and I forgot on arrival, so I never got the tail # of this plane. But I was not impressed by the interior. Northwest’s older A320’s feel much newer inside. The cabin was slightly odd. The business class area had 2x3 seating was maybe 7 rows deep and there was a divider. However, behind the divider there were another 2 rows of seats that were 2x3 with the business class seats. There were 3 open seats in business class, and a man asked to move to one and the lead FA told him no because he was going to move up the KLM Platinum’s from tourist class, which I thought was a nice touch. This was my first flight on a 737NG and I was not impressed. I like CO’s older 737’s better, but that may be related to the 2x2 vs. 2x3 seating.

There was a family of 6 in the 3 section across from and 1 row behind me. The 2 boys, aged about 2 and 4 respectively, were the absolute worst children I’ve ever traveled with. I’m sure it had something to do with the early hour. They would be quiet for about 2 minutes and play with each other, and then would make the other angry and the offended would scream shrilly. I would have paid to move into coach after about the 5th itineration of this scene. I wanted the mother to move from the aisle to the middle and separate them, but alas peace was not to be had for this flight.

The cabin crew was fairly friendly and competent, but they seemed overwhelmed by the load and late departure. They didn’t offer to take my jacket, but did for the people in more forward rows. After a long taxi, including time spent waiting for a tug to move a 747 because you can’t use thrust at that early hour due to noise abatement restrictions, we finally were off in the air.

There was a rushed breakfast service with yoghurt, rolls, pastry, fruit, cold cuts and some hot tea. It was passable, and I ate most of it because I was starved. The FA’s had a rough task because the front cabin was so full, and to do a meal service on a 227 mile flight with so many people is quite a feat. I would have preferred no meal and better service.

We arrived at Amsterdam and I had enough time to check out the lounges. I made my way to the one by terminal F, as my next flight was leaving from F4. I was surprised at how huge this lounge was, and that they had a fairly open smoking section. The selection of food and drinks was impressive. They had holiday cider, cracker and chips, cheeses, mini-muffins, salami bits, nachos with guacamole, cheese and salsa, fresh cookies and multiple wines, including sparkling. I found a comfy seat and had some salami bits, cheese and cookies. They were all delicious. Soon enough, I saw the board show my flight was boarding, so I headed down to gate F4.

Once at the gate, I saw that most people already had boarded and I got in the regular line. I was checked in and given a blue card to board with the blue group. We then had to go through another metal detector and security line. Is this custom to AMS? After that, I headed down the jet bridge and gave my blue card to a gentleman who directed me to go to the left for upper deck. I found this process highly inefficient and it could have caused a big bottleneck with a higher load.

KLM677 AMS --> ORD Seat 77B
PH-BFO KLM 747-400 (Combi) “City of Orlando”

Scheduled/Actual Departure: 10:40/11:37
Scheduled/Actual Arrival: 12:25/13:13

I got upstairs and was very impressed. The times I’ve been in WBC on NW’s 747-400’s, I was on the main deck and I’ve decided I definitely prefer the upper now. I have flown an old NW 747-100 in ’00 on the upper deck, so I was a bit disoriented when I got to the top of the stairs and saw the cabin was to the left and not right. I had seat 77B which is an exit row and has a huge amount of space. The female FA took my carry-on and said she’d put it in the closet as the overheads were small. She was a strong Dutch woman because she didn’t flinch at my fairly heavy bag.

They had the same Christmas music on as in the 767, along with moving images on the main monitors of swans and people ice-skating and it was a bit hokey, but still pleasant. I quickly was offered a glass of Piper-Heidsieck and given my noise-canceling headphones and amenity kit in a nice metal tin, which included a shoe horn, comb, toothbrush and toothpaste, moisturizer, lip balm, washcloth and tissues. The lavatory also had upscale face wash, moisturizers (for both dry and normal skin) and a neutral eau de toilette.

The captain came on and said there was a problem with loading some of the freight, so we would be delayed. I didn’t mind too much as they kept the champagne coming and I didn’t have to worry about a connection. I would guess that there were 30 seats in the upper deck, and at first there were only 6 of us. They then brought some people up that I would guess were status upgrades, but there were still only 10 people and I had an open seat next to me. One of those they brought up had problems fitting into a coach seat. He needed an extender for the WBC seat, and those belts were huge, I had like 16” extra on mine. He wore very traditional African garb and was a very interesting character.

We took off a good hour late and they soon started the meal and drink service. I had a bad gin & tonic, but I’m guessing that it’s that I’m so used to Bombay and Tanqueray gin that the Damrak gin they had just wasn’t my style. I switched to the Shiraz for the rest of the flight as it was quite good.

White Wines
Chardonnay 2001, Tintara (South Australia)
Chardonnay Suavignon Blan, 2003 Norton (Argentina)

Red Wines
Cabernet Sauvignon 2000, Max Reserva (Chile)
Shiraz 2001, Hoopenburg (South Africa)

Champagne
Piper-Heidsieck (France)

Port
Noval, 1997 (Portugal)

Dessert Wine
Kaisergarten Beerenauslese (Austria)

Appetiser

Quail and asparagus salad

Main courses

Chicken with mustard sauce
Or
Monkfish and jumbo shrimps
Or
Venison stew

Desert

Caramel tart
Assorted cheeses
Fresh fruit

Light hot snack

Shortly before arrival we will be serving a light snack with a choice of a vegetarian or non-vegetarian club sandwich and a quiche filled with mushrooms and truffle.

I’ve never had quail before, but this appetizer was phenomenal, perhaps the best bit of airline food I’ve ever had, it was so delicious. I selected the chicken entrée and it included snow peas and risotto with porcini, while not on par with the appetizer, it was still quite good. I had the caramel tart as my first desert course, and cheese as the second. The deserts were not served on a trolley, and when I asked for both to the FA, he said he’d have to wait and make sure everyone else go their first choice before brining my seconds. Given the 30% load up here, and that it was supposed to be trolley style, I thought this was a bit much, but I soon was able to gorge on my second desert without problem. I was definitely very full after all of this food!

After dinner, they brought out bottled water and maybe mid-way through the flight they asked if we wanted some Haagen-Dazs or a cheese sandwich. I took the cheese sandwich and it was quite good. I wish I’d had some room for the ice cream too. They did have the Sky Break basket set up, which of course we were all too full to use.

The pre-arrival snack was very good. The club sandwich had a rosemary taste to it, probably from the bread, and was not an American style club sandwich, but good nonetheless. It has cucumbers and some sort of darker deli meat. The quiche was also delicious, though it had a very unusual shape to it.

Mid-way through the dinner service, the purser came up and introduced herself to me. She apologized for the delay and asked how the flight was going. This was a very nice touch. Towards the end of the flight she came and asked how the flight and service had been, and I gave it a big thumbs up. At this point, she noted my elite status and thanked me for my loyalty and asked me about my travels. We also talked about the new 777’s that KLM has and she said they are very quiet with huge engines, but she’s not quite used to operating all the new features. She was sad that KLM had sold all of the older 747’s, but admitted the 747-400 was her favorite. I noted that she was the same lady who was in the security video, do they customize all of there videos by purser? Anyway, I really liked this lady and she clearly runs the best of flights.

IFE was not as good as the A330, but just fine. They had 12 channels that cycled through. If what you were watching ended before the others, you had to wait for the other channels to finish before watching something else. For the first cycle, I actually fell asleep in the chair. I consider this chair to be very comparable to Classic WBC on NW. Perhaps in the fully reclined position it doesn’t cradle as much, but I slept for about 2 hours without a problem. I then watched the comedy channel which consisted of holiday episodes of a British show called ‘My Hero’ (which I found hilarious), ‘Becker’ (not funny), ‘Taxi’ (very funny), ‘Friends’ (OK) and ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ (pretty good). The next and last cycle, I watched a movie called ‘Scorched’ which I really, really liked. They had 12 audio channels as well with some great music, including one that featured a lot of Emmylou Harris.

Soon enough we were advised of landing, and we began our descent. I selected the Blue Delft House #53, as I'm not really a collector and this looked prettiest to me. It seems to me that all of my KLM descents were really, really slow, but I doubt that’s company policy and was more likely just a result of circumstances. After a beautiful landing, the large man had requested a wheelchair, but then wouldn’t wait for everyone to get off and this caused the male FA quite a fit. Right after we got off the plane, they asked for our passports by Customs Officer on the jetway, which was a first for me. I had no problems clearing customs and made it to lot E and my car in no time, and soon enough I was back home in Madison, still kind of wishing I had a few more days to be in London.

In closing, sorry for the length, but it’s my first attempt and in future reports I will try and trim extraneous information. In this contest, KLM’s classic WBC soundly thumped NW’s highly touted new WBC. I’m really disappointed with NW’s WBC on this A330, exclusively due to the mediocre service. My last WBC flight from NRTJFK had phenomenal attendants, and so did this KLM flight. I’ll give NW another shot, but if they fail again I would have no qualms using KLM much more often, even for indirect routings. I’m guessing that the holidays had normal WBC crew out of commission so perhaps we had more inexperienced people, but it’s still no excuse.

I’ll try and post photos of the seats and planes after work today.

[This message has been edited by bergamini (edited Dec 29, 2003).]

aw

Marvelous report. Don't worry about the length, I enjoyed reading every bit of it. Even though I do not fly on NW/KL as frequently as I want to, I'd be more inclined to fly on KL for an international flight. In my mind I perceive them to be more porfessional and consistent than NW.

bergamini

Thanks for the kind words.

Here are some photos from my journey. Not quite airliners.net material yet! They include NW A330 WBC seat, DC9 close-up and normal and KL B767 WBC seat.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/montog...bum?.dir=e916&

I was too satiated to photograph the KL B747, but here's a great link of what the seat looks like:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=234221

Edited to fix URL for photos.

[This message has been edited by bergamini (edited Jan 05, 2004).]

basejumper

I've been Purser on 13 A330 roundtrips to Amsterdam (#54-53). I'm sorry your flight wasn't what it should have been for you, I was cringing as I read your report. This is our chance to make a great impression, and this flight crew obviously failed. Most of us work very hard to showcase our new plane and provide the kind of service our customers expect, and even surpass that if we can.
One small note; champagne is not served until after takeoff as it is under customs seal (or should be). We offer sparkling wine (this month it's Australian), although you'll often find the attendants not making this distinction.
Anyway, I was glad to hear that you'll give us another try, and I hope and expect that your experience will be a much better one.

I just reread what I'd written above, and darn if I don't sound like a management lurker! *grin* I'm not, I just realize that my future here is directly related to the satisfaction of our customers with at least those things that we can control.

alanw

Hmm. I wonder if since it was Christmas, they were playing a game where the NW and KL crews switched places?

My experience with WBC service on the 330 was quite different - very good. And this was on the 2nd or 3rd day. The KL crews are usually a bit frigid so it's interesting that you had this experience.

Also interesting that you were impressed with the food in the F lounge in Schiphol. It sounds like there were all kinds of things on offer there. In my dozens of times through that lounge I have never experienced more than the same little dried-out pastries filled with green goo.

Either KL has been hard at work, or you had a Christmas miracle!

Me, I prefer the KL flights (or the D10 NW flights) because I hate, hate, hate those new seats.

Nice report.

------------------
-alan in sitges, home of the new, improved Si-Re-Do

Uli

thank you for the report!

nice to see that KLM now has the 2001 hoopenburg shiraz on their wine liste. we are the distributor for this wine in germany and knew they had some trouble to get enough of this wine to cater it to KLM

bergamini

Basejumper, thanks for the heads up on the sparkling wine. It was definitely advertised as "champagne" and so I assumed it was the one on the wine list. It was good, whatever it was and I'm such a novice I couldn't taste a strong difference between it and what I had in the air. I definitely think this crew was an aberration from the normally very fine FA's I've met over the years on NW. I wish I had been on your flight instead!

Alanw, I suspect much of the food at the KLM lounge is a newer thing because it did seem a bit shoehorned on the counters, like it wasn't designed to have that much.

Uli, the Hoopenburg Shiraz was a very good wine, email me if you know of any place to get it in the states.

Thanks for the comments!

Wiirachay

IIRC, SkyBreak is just for the Asian flights. In CO, there is no snack basket on the European routes either.

- Pat

basejumper

Skybreak basket is available on all NWA flights from Europe to Detroit. There is one on the DC-10, and two on the A330.

johan rebel

Interesting report. Thanks.

The divider can be moved. If loads are light enough in C class, it will be moved forward to accommodate more Y pax. A lucky few economy pax thus get to travel in C class seats. Theoretically, these seats should only be alocated to full fare Y and top elite pax. KLM call this Select Seating.

At least you were not on a 733 or 734, which have standard 3+3 economy seating even in "Europe Select".

The smoking section in the Schengen lounge (B/C) is not partitioned at all! Disgusting.


The process should work fine in theory, and it just might in real life, if only the gate agents would see to it that pax actually board in the intended order. KLM may want to consider employing shepherds to herd the flocks.

Only 24, to be precise. Pitch is 60", which is excellent for C class.

An exception to the rule. In my experience, most KLM pursers are of the invisible kind. I've always wanted to know what exactly they do on board. How some pursers manage not to show themselves once in WBC during a 10+ hour flight beats me, especially given that there is a second purser on board who is in charge of Y class.

Personally, the front C cabin on the MD11 gets my vote. From what others report, I infer that the 777 WBC cabin is best described as a missed opportunity, and certainly not an improvement on the 744 and MD11.

Yes, they do, or are in the process of doing so.

No apologies needed. A comprehensive and very readable trip report.

johan



[This message has been edited by johan rebel (edited Dec 30, 2003).]

guy44134

On my flight to AMS, they served Seaview Australian sparkler at boarding, my favorite cheap sparkling wine (only $8.99 at World Market). It tastes as good as some sparkling wine 2-3x as costly. They crack open the Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut NV inflight. It is definitely a step or two above the Seaview.

Seat 2A

First trip report? Could've fooled me!

Thanks for a First Class report on these Business Class products!

JBLUA320

Same purser video with same purser we had AMS-JFK but not JFK-AMS
-AG

Threy

Thanks for the great report !

KLM changed the food some months ago, when they closed the Royal Wing lounges to operate only one type of lounge, the Crown Lounge.

With the name change, the meat and cheese/broccoli pastries were also replaced by the snacks described by bergamini.

Altaflyer

I enjoyed your report. It is a true shame when crews do not appreciate the impression that such laziness leaves on an entire premium cabin - some may not be as generous as you to give the airline another chance.