mot29

I don't fly AF/KL much, maybe 8 flights a year. Yesterday I flew AF ATH-CDG and KL CDG-AMS. On both flights, the captain gave the preflight briefing from the front of the cabin, rather than the cockpit.
It was a nice touch; wondering if this is something AF/KL encourage their pilots to do or if I just happened on two very friendly captains?
Tom

carnarvon

It has happened to me once in two years. There does not seem to be a pattern.

irishguy28

They are probably trying to make a good impression on the displaced Lufthansa passengers, and distract them from the fact that AF are just as strike-prone and that KLM are on the verge of similar actions!

Goldorak

It happens from time to time. Just an individual (nice) initiative.

nldogbert

Indeed, this happens once in a while - and when this happens (at least in my case) you know that you will have a very informative captain that will give you very good information about the flight (ok depends if you are interested or not).

Just about a month ago while flying from CDG-SFO on the A380 of AF - I had a very very interesting Pilot. I think he could be one of the first trained Pilot for the aircraft and he certainly showed his passion not only for the aircraft but for his carrier as a Pilot.
- before take-off - he gave a brief but very interesting history of the aircraft we were in.
- a very informative yet comprehensive routing overview
- while taxiing - we passed the AF Concorde display and he pointed this out to all passengers
- after take-off while passing the city of Paris, he again pointed this out
- while we were at cruising attitude, he came out and walked around and talked to different passengers at random (those that were not watching or reading).
- he seemed to be also good with cards - he did some magic card tricks to a group of guys travelling together - joking with them, etc
- he did his walk I believe just around the J-cabin. I did not see him go into the PE cabin.
- While landing into SFO, he again came on to give a good rundown of the whole event and the weather and pointed out the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz (we had to do a huge turn close to the city because of the weather system)
- after landing, we had to be towed to the gate (information provided before landing) and when we stopped, he pointed out for us to look at the cameras for the indication that we were being towed.

This has got to be one of the most interesting Pilot that I have ever flown with in my life - really showed his passion of flying and his customer service part. I think he most probably just have a few more years of flying before retiring.

If anybody knows his name - please report. He should be really an example to all pilots out there. Such dedication.

Cheers!

Mcflyneo

bodory

+1

sbams

I have it from a very good source (a KLM captain!) that KLM cockpit crew are actually going to be doing more of the PA's in the near future. It seems that they (up front) have more time than the ladies and gents in the cabin and the idea is to transfer some of the workload from the cabin attendants to the cockpit. I know from another good source (me!) that on some occasions the cockpit can be a buzz of activity when things are not going 100% to plan so I wonder how this will work out.

bodory

FWIW AF pilots (don't know about KL) have already a lot of commercial information about the pax. See in the example below with their PilotPad app:

mot29

Interesting -- many years ago flying KL from AMS-NBO, I asked about visiting the flight deck during the trip (this was already not allowed with US flag carriers but still allowed by some Intl flags so you can tell how long ago it was).
After lunch, the purser escorted me to the cockpit of what as I recall was a 767. We were over the Mediterranean at the time and getting set to cross the African coast.
2 pilots on the flight deck and they invited me to take one of the jump seats; the 3rd pilot returned and I got up to leave and he said -- no, there is another jump seat for me. Probably spent about 45 minutes talking with them about their jobs. They explained that at this part of the flight it wasn't too busy but that flying over Africa did require a bit more attention because of less ground control?

On the other hand, I'm sure it can get busy. On the return flight to AMS the plane got struck by lightening a few minutes before landing in AMS. Complete silence for what seemed a long time but was probably less than 2 minutes, but then the captain came on the PA to announce that it was a lightening strike and that they hadn't come on to announce anything immediately because they were busy making sure all was okay. We landed without incident.

Looking back, that was a pretty interesting trip!

tom

KL4805

I have "met" many KLM Captains in the last few years: when our flights landed and the passengers were on their way to leave the aircraft, the Captain often left the cockpit and stood outside, saying goodbye to the pax. Maybe I was just lucky, but it looks like a very common practice on the flights between CPH and AMS ^

carnarvon

Just happened on AMS NTE flight. The captain did the greeting speach.

And before that, as I was trying to catch the steward's attention, he noticed it, motioned himself to where I was seated, shook my hand and asked what I needed!

I did not wash my hand for several days after that!

Andrew_G

I'm sitting at the gate waiting to board a delayed flight from AMS, and the captain just came out to address us all and explain the reasons for the delay and what was happening. It certainly made a good impression.

And on BUD - AMS recently the captain made his pre-departure speech in the cabin in English, Dutch and Hungarian (he did say it's very difficult but he'll try) and earned a well-deserved smattering of applause from the Hungarians on board.

irishguy28

So, what does -5 free seats mean?

cityflyer369

Negative numbers could be overbooking. But what does SPML mean? Could refer to status passengers, but in what way exactly?