Introduction and General Waffle
This will be my first TR and hopefully not the last, I’ve spent the last year or so reading other peoples so I thought I would do my own to add to the forum. I had hoped to complete a TR for my Seattle trip over new year, courtesy of BAs 2 for £2014 business class offer but this didn’t materialise. At this stage I’m not sure how it will turn out, how often I will update, if people will bother to read it or even if it will be finished! Any comments, suggestions or recommendations as we go forward would be appreciated. The idea at this stage is to run a semi-live TR, so that it can become interactive as I will be travelling by myself and writing will help fill in time during early mornings with a coffee or late at night whilst nursing a beer or two.

The idea for the trip came around 9 months ago and was somewhat fine tuned on an all inclusive holiday last June in Mexico. I’ve been intrigued by Asia and after doing 4 trips to North and Central America last year for both work and pleasure I decided 2015 would be the year to head East. The idea and excitement for Japan came from one of SFO777’s TR's on Japan and the Cherry Blossom season. What better than a big city with an event other than just the normal attractions to concentrate on.

A quick run down of the trip will be Newcastle to Amsterdam (1 night), Amsterdam to Tokyo (4 nights), Kyoto (1 night), and a last night in Narita so I don't have far to go for a 1030 return flight home.

For 11 hours in the air and being 6’3” I wasn’t interested in Economy, that left Premium Economy / Business on BA or Business on KLM. After looking at several options KLM World Business Class came out around the same price (£1800) as BA World Traveller Plus (NCL-LHR-NRT) when booked over 2 PNR’s (NCL-AMS / AMS-NRT). The price for a complete trip on KLM was around £2800 so the risk associated with 2 PNR’s was a no brainer due to the cost. Fingers crossed I don’t become a cropper, if so this part maybe edited quickly! To reduce the risk of 2 PNR’s I decided to fly to Amsterdam the night before and use a free night stay I had with Hotels.com.

I was excited to try KLM’s New World Business Class, which I have seen mixed reviews for. As a regular traveller with KLM and Flying Blue Gold I was happy with this option and it would be my first time with KLM long haul. I had flown BA WTP in October to IAD and liked the refurbished product. This was actually the first time I had slept for 7 hours coming home, partly due to the 20c day temperatures and walking around Arlington, Jefferson Memorial and Georgetown. However the price for WBC on KLM made the choice easy.

I’ve used the Japan forum on FT, where I managed to gain valuable information, guidebooks and the internet to gather my itinerary together. Due to a busy time at work and business trip last week to Lisbon it is not totally set at the minute. I’m hoping to use some of the 11 hours in the air to firm this up and work out what I want to do when I arrive in a jet lagged haze on Friday morning. When I travel back from America I’ve always felt sorry for US travellers arriving in London on the back of either no or lack of sleep and needing to be functional in a new environment when ideally you want to cherish every site, sound and moment of a new place. Going West generally is better deal for myself when wanting to arrive be on the front foot. So now it is my turn to experience the other way. No doubt a business class seat will help but I’m still nervous for the first few hours and feeling tired in a new environment. Coffee, exercise and writing this TR will hopefully help me deal with jet lag.

This report will be a mixture of text (hopefully of some use and sense) and photos taken with an iPhone 6 and Sony RX-100 which I used during my Seattle trip and gives great photos for an very amateur photographer. I'm not one for happily taking photos of things at the inconvenience of others so the iPhone will be useful when I'm brave enough to be obviously taking a photo of plane seats, food or other small things which will hopefully tell the story of my trip.

Route NCL-AMS
Flight Number 0964
Departure 1725 (Actual 1740)
Arrival 1955 (Actual )
Seat 12A (Economy exit seat)
Aircraft 737



After working away from home on Monday and Tuesday I needed to catch up with office work from home on Wednesday along with a few calls. This would work well for a sharp finish and leaving for the airport. I’m generally an early riser however I seemed to develop a cold overnight, not an ideal start to the day. Turning the computer on around 0630 to catch up before colleagues and customers arrive into the office, I managed to be on top of things by around 1130. This allowed me to turn my attention to packing, drinking a Lemsip (blackcurrant if you are wondering) and day dreaming of a nearly 2 weeks off. As it transpires my trip coincided with Easter when I return so for 6 days holiday entitlement it nets nearly 2 weeks off, not a bad deal. I travel a fair amount on business so packing was relatively easy, certainly easier than a late arrival home one night and early departure the next which I often seem to find myself doing. Finishing laundry at 2300 and hoping its dried by 0500 to pack has its turn offs and I'm sure it can't make me popular with neighbours when the spin is doing its thing. Main question was whether to do one bag travel with my Rimowa Cabin or add a second bag for laptop, camera and reading material. The case would of fitted everything in but I didn’t want to keep going into my case so decided to add my Herschel backpack as a ride along. Generally I travel HBO with one bag but the extra space of my backpack made things easier. I love both Rimowa's that I own but the lack of outside pockets does make things difficult at times for easy access during security and boarding. Anyway style outweighs substance most of the time!

I have booked an exit row seat as I didn't want the severe come down from business, which I thought it might play in my favour if space is limited and I planned to make sure to be at the gate a little earlier than normal. NCL staff don’t appear to favour priority boarding for KLM.

I left home around 1430 as I decided to take the Newcastle Metro system to the airport as parking was on the expensive side for this trip, that and work weren't paying which surprisingly makes a difference! Arriving at NCL around 1520 I had plenty of time, this was probably the earliest I have been for a flight for some time. For instance on 0555 KLM flight I generally aim to arrive by 0500. However being unsure of the Metro times and duration I give myself enough time to sit back and relax.

Having check in online and security being next to empty I was airside within no time. I went through fast track just to avoid what looked to be a school trip. Again this makes a change from competing with charter flights on early morning visits.

The airport is half closed airside at the minute due to ongoing renovation so I headed straight for the lounge, not that there is much to entertain you when fully open. Sitting there with another Lemsip (brought my own, not on offer in the Aspire Lounge) followed by a beer I embarked on writing the Intro to this report and for the first time the trip and excitement started to sink in.

Lets start this report


Predictably no priority boarding was announced, so I was a good job left the lounge a little early to be one of the first on board as it was a full flight. KLM switch between the 737s and ?E190? However they are generally full especially on the early / late flights. I'm always surprised when BA withdraw their early morning and post 2100 flights as this reduces the connecting options through LHR.

I was seated in 12A with extra legroom due to the emergency exit, KLM have recently retrofitted their 737-700 to cram even more seats in and reducing the exit rows to what I assume is the bare legal requirement. The configuration is now similar to Jet2 where 14A has no seat in front. That seat is another favourite on the annual business trip to Faro.

12A - Extra legroom


Departure was delayed due to what was announced by the Captain as a new slot system at AMS which was 'severely reducing landing slots'. This meant we were 'not allowed to be airborne before 1750' but due to the quick flying time they expected to arrive on time.

Time for a wing photo, nice day for flying


In the end we took off around 1747, this Captain obviously had dinner plans, and landed at 1941 finally leaving the aircraft at 1957 after the normal long taxi and no one to connect the air bridge.

What seems to be a common Dutch trait of getting out of seats removing bags from the lockers before the plane has even stopped never mind seat belt sign turned off was in full force. Thankfully people disembarked through rows as opposed to people not allowing other out which is another mild annoyance.

Amsterdam City Centre - Crowne Plaza
Ironically this will be my first time on Dutch soil. I connect through AMS for nearly all my business flights however I've never set foot outside the airport. With my train ticket bought is was on the 2014 train to Amsterdam Central and in my hotel by 2040 after a slight detour. In other words I got lost which I’m sure is a common ‘excuse’ in Amsterdam but it was the case this time.

2 Central Stations, 2 different countries


I booked the Crowne Plaza hotel due to it being close to the station, as mentioned earlier this was with Hotel.com Welcome Rewards as a free night. A nice hotel in the centre, clean and modern. I was impressed on arrival as with my IHG rewards number I was given complementary wifi access, free bar drink, late check out until 2pm and several discounts for bar and restaurant redemptions. This is often hit or miss when redeeming free nights but on this occasion all the normal benefits were given.

Once into the room, unpacked a little and turned to air con to arctic as it was a little warm. Then headed to the bar to complete and upload the first part of my report. Surprising for some reason I feel nervous creating the thread but hopefully at least one person will find it useful.

Crowne Plaza Room


Thats it for today, not too long in the bar and then a good nights sleep before a planned early wake up to help with sleep on the flight. Gym, breakfast, walk around Amsterdam for a little sightseeing, Anne Frank Museum and then on the train back to Schiphol.

Meal, drinks and TR writing