I had booked this flight as an award ticket using my Flying Blue miles (FB is also the official FFP of KQ) online via KLM. KQ operates a single daily service at noon, while there are morning and evening flights with KQ code-share partner Precision Air (PW). I would have preferred to take one of the PW-codeshares for scheduling reasons, but it seems to be impossible to book sectors on PW metal with FF miles (whereas you can earn miles on some PW sectors including the one between NBO and ZNZ). Anyway, it cost me 12.500 miles and 55 Euro in taxes, as opposed to about 300 US$ for the one-way ticket, so it turned out to be a good deal.

THU 18DEC NAIROBI - ZANZIBAR 1230 1345 KQ 492 B737

I arrived at NBO about one hour before the scheduled departure. Terminal 2 was empty at this time and check-in at the elite counter a breeze. After completing the immigration formalities, I picked up some gifts from the Java House and went to gate 4. KQ has two lounges in NBO, one which is open to elites and a much nicer one reserved for premium class passengers. Given the time, I decided to skip the lounge and to go straight to the gate. It was the same departure areas as my flight a few days ago to Juba. NBO has a strange setup where boarding cards are collected at the entry to the gate area, followed by a secondary security check while nobody is actually checking boarding cards when entering the apron. At this time, there were passengers boarding the PW flight to Dar-es-Salam as well as those of us going to Zanzibar on KQ. While our flight ended up being delayed by about 45 minutes, there were PW passengers arriving from the security check-point and seeing their plane already boarding outside of the window, continuing through an unlocked door, down some stair and onto the plane. All of this without any gate agent to escort them..

Finally, our own flight boarded as well and the gate agent explained that the delay was due to some minor technical issue with one of the toilets (which found taped shut later on). The load was extremely light with may 25 passengers in the B737 and I found a seat near the front of the plane. Before departure a flight attendant asked me whether I was willing to move a few rows back to sit at an emergency exit, supposedly they always need somebody capable of understanding English and of physically opening the exit there. Fine with me, even though space was really not a concern on this empty flight. We took off shortly after.

Service on this short, 90 minute-sector consisted of a towel service and a pass by the drinks cart (complimentary alcoholic drinks were served, but I chose not to partake). A few minutes later we were served a snack in cardboard box containing a small chicken sandwitch and some cake. Not much really, but it was a short flight and I had indulged in a full English breakfast that morning at my hotel. No separate coffee service was offered, but when I asked a flight attendant, she brought me a cup of, unfortunately terribly tasting, coffee soon after. As on my other flights within Africa, the best inflight entertainment were the spectacular view, especially on descent into the Zanzibar archipelago.

We arrived at Zanzibar airport, which is a rather small affair given the fact that there are direct charter flights to Europe and scheduled services to Oman. Immigration was painless (one has to part with 50 US$ for the visa) and so was baggage delivery. A few minutes later I was in the taxi for the brief (15 minutes, 10 US$) drive to Stone Town and my hotel, the Serena Inn.