Come back BA, all is forgiven
 

More out of necessity than choice, I had to be unfaithful yesterday and flew EDI - AMS - TXL instead of my preferred route via LHR on BA.

However, due to the lateness of the booking, I ended up in C, rather than the travel policy of Y, so thought it couldn't be all that bad.

How wrong I was.

EDI Lounge
Is fairly awful and basic. Crowded, horrible ambience poor food and drink selection, no newspapers to read, never mind take with you on the flight. I should have gone to Costa Coffee instead.

EDI - AMS
Was cattle class by another name. 3 across seating in what felt like a very claustrophobic business cabin. No newspapers worth reading available (I'm not into the International Herald Tribune). A half decent business class meal, and some drinkable red.

AMS Transfer and Lounge
Awful. Firstly we landed at the end gate on one of the D piers which meant a long, long walk. I started counting steps and gave up at 1,000. I know T5 does require some long hikes, but this was ridiculous.

The queue for passport control and security (which you need to get into the Schengen area) was huge and I spent 30 of my 45 minutes connect time in line waiting to get processed. To add insult to injury, as we were reaching the front, an AMS airport goon leapt forward and decided my line was the premium line, and anyone who wasn't a Flying Boo elite had to go to the back of another line. My business class ticket got me through, but otherwise, I'd have been more than slightly incandescent, being sent back to the end of the line after 20 minutes queueing..

The security check required you to open your laptop (WHY?) which meant that mine wouldn't shut down again and I had to play about with it to shut it down. I know we moan about T5 transfer security, but this was much worse.

Lounge was crowded but not too bad, although only choice of one red and one white wine.

Finally, the departure gate was at the far end of the D piers again, meaning another long, long walk.

AMS - TXL
Was essentially a repeat of GLA - AMS with the replacement of a half decent red by some battery acid disguised as white.

The one good point os that was we'd entered the Schengen area in AMS, there was no passport control at TXL.

So, apart from the fact that the planes were running, the only thing in KLM's favour was the absence of a passport control at the other end. In almost every other aspect, it was a substandard product.

Well, I've never had a problem reading papers in the Servisair lounge at Edinburgh - always had a fairly full set of qualities when I've been in. Perhaps too many people had removed them from the lounge ignoring the big 'Do Not Remove from Lounge' stickers? Sad if so. Yes, it can get crowded - but the ambience is fine. If you want something a bit quieter, the back room is great, and the sweet morning rolls are very, very addictive. I find a better breakfast in there than in the BA lounge as a result :o (that could be due to the addictive quality of the rolls though - lord knows what's in them!). And where else in the airport can you find a Breakaway to take on board with you and remind you of how BA used to serve food? :D

I think your problem is that you are unfamiliar with the airline (you don't say which, but I presume KLM). None of the other things you encounter are that unusual, and experienced KLM flyers are aware and know how to mitigate - just as those who fly BA already know the tips and tricks to make flying them and transfers with them more enjoyable. So ES is 3 across, it's very well publicised on the KLM forum, UK flights always arrive at the top end of Pier D (and you make judicious use of both the hand baggage trolleys and the moving walkways to speed you on your way!) and you always check the length of the queue at the Schengen passport check, and chose your lounge accordingly.

I've seen people on this forum receive fairly short shrift if their complaints about BA are caused by a lack of familiarity with how to fly BA - a number of these complaints seem to be generated by a lack of familiarity with how to fly KLM. You still haven't worked out the tips and tricks which make flying KLM more tolerable - but of course you worked out the equivalent tricks on BA (for example, I bet you check how long the transfer queues are in T5 before deciding which route to take - landside or airside!) so it's not really a true comparison. Each airline has their plusses and their minuses.

And last time I flew J on KLM (award - I don't pay for ES ;)) the food on EDI-AMS was actually really nice - about a 1000x better than EDI-LHR during the day and 10x better than the breakfast.

I couldn't agree more with the OP - it's only when you are forced to fly with an airline other than BA (with a few notable exceptions) that you realise how relatively good they are.

In my own case Mrs PtF and I had to fly bmi :eek: CAI-LHR in Economy :eek::eek:. To describe it as the pits would be too generous.

I knew we were in for a lousy experience straight after check-in; we got to passport control before realising that bmi's check-in staff had forgotten to give us the necessary departure forms to fill out, necessitating a journey back to the check-in desk.

While some things (lack of leg room, poor meal) come with the territory (flying Economy) I was more than amused to see the in-flight movie started - no AVOD - before the headphones were handed out. A departure delay of two hours didn't do anything to redeem the airline.

As we disembarked at LHR T1 (what a dump compared to T5) I actually thought to myself that maybe BA cabin crew are worth their supposedly high salaries. ;)

Flew Brussels Airlines once recently. Urghh. All is forgiven, BA.

Worst I ever flew was Aeroflot domestic (closely followed by Balkan). Hideous green mint flavoured drink that looked like it had come from Chernobyl. Food was all pickled. When the plane took off a row of seats capsized and then when landed in Murmansk I thought the thing was going to crash, so violent were the sideways swerves. Only when I looked out of the window did I summise that the captain was avoiding the potholes towards the end of the runway. Awful. I wasn't expecting vintage Salon and Beluga either.

Am I missing something or did the OP not actually mention what airline they were flying? :confused:

It's in the last sentence. It's fairly easy to guess anyway as there's only really one choice when going (UK region)-AMS-(somewhere else)

Sensible as usual and I completely agree.

Don't forget that BA CE was 3 across until rather recently (at least the D-E-F side).

....deleted

This is 90% a complaint about Schipol vs Heathrow, not KLM vs BA.

I've seen people having to open laptops everywhere at security recently, do they not do that at T5 then?
And buying your own newspaper would seemingly have fixed 50% of the other issues.

Following approx 100 transatlantic exclusively with BA since 1999 I have also had to adjust my flying and have had a rather different experience in the last 6 months.

Nov Continental EWR-MAN Club not as good but 1/2 price and direct and status matched to *Gold within 2 hours.
Delta JFK-MAN at Xmas booked due to strike not as good but 1/3 price of MAN-LHR-JFK with BA.
Jan Delta, Flat beds JFK-LHR $2850 very good, booked 3 days ahead.
Feb Old ticket from summer to use up BA at 0820 am LHR-JFK snow in NY caused ATC restriction so they moved me to VS at 0920. First time ever. Lounge great Prefer the flexibility of the BA beds and would not pay the same for VS.
March Indian Airlines JFK-BOM wow, Direct 5 hours quicker, First Class $3650 booked 2 days ahead. Outstanding service. Just dislike no mileage accumulation in the Big 3.Worry a bit about safety but treated like Premier. Love it.
April JFK-MXP Delta OK not cheap or good
Last week Singapore Airlines JFK-FRA Business $2950, Direct, Outstanding Service.

I will retain Gold this year with ex JNB RTW activity 2x DONE4 each year but I have decided not to bother with GUF2 or GGL and instead retain Platinum Delta and actually earn the Platinum *A.

I was a little frustrated with T5 buses but at 45 I am disappointed to say I was resistant to change. So I think the strike opened my eyes and I will not look back.

Surely Air India...? Indian Airlines is domestic only

So you compare EDI-AMS with EDI-LHR: on EDI-AMS you was in C and on EDI-LHR you would end up in Y with nothing to eat even when paying C. Hmmm - I would still prefer C. Also... I remember from my SkyTeam days that the middle seat in the first row is for some reason blocked on KLM. The next time just choose 1D or 1F and 1E will - in most cases - be left free. Normally, there is only one F/A working in C, so you should not have this Galley FM, BA was always annoying me with (why, why, why BA F/A talk so loudly in the first Galley, sometimes I could hear private stories even when seating in 3A:confused:).

There are quite a few airports, where sometimes they want you to open a laptop (WAW, FCO).

Champagne in the AMS Lounge is also a plus - IIRC champagne is only freely available in the Galleries First, so unless you hold an OW Emerald status (your profile only says: BA) flying via AMS has some advantages:D.

Thank you Darling - it would not surprise me to learn that KLM/Air France pay more - I am also certain that the "charges sociales" are vastly more than in the UK.

Jenbel makes a very good point - knowing how to get the best from an airline matters but it ought to be consistent in my view. However, I wonder how many others have tried other carriers and decided that the grass looked greener and return. The other direction is also true but onlyh time will tell who will not be returning. Frnakly I would not blame them if they didn't after all the disruption.

It can work the other way too though...fly bmi in business mid-haul and I challenge you to name one single thing that isn't an order of magnitude better than BA on similar length routes, apart from the lounges which are definitely still streets ahead. I was hugely impressed with a DME trip on BD. To be fair it's been a while since I've done a BA Band 4 but happily have one coming this week to compare, though I still think the answer will be clear as to which is better :)