When flying out of my "home" hub of IAH, I always find it interesting to walk over to the International Departures Terminal D and see what's shaking. Well, while connecting from CLL-ELP late yesterday evening, I saw KL 664 departing from gate D9. I walked over there, aware that KL added another IAH-AMS flight a few months ago on a 767-200.

However, when I got to D9, I saw a 737 (I think it was a 700 series), with red-and-white livery, a red tail with a white cross (similar to the old Swiss logo), but it said something like Privt Air on the side. Is KL operating a 737 nonstop from IAH to AMS? Does anyone have any information on this flight?

I know that LH operates business-only 737's from EWR to DUS, but I wasn't aware of a similar situation in that market. I didn't see any indication that CO had a codeshare with their closest ally on the boards either. Thanks!

This announcement was made a while back. But yes, they cut the 763 and are now flying a daily 744 and a daily BBJ.

Oh, and BTW everyone, we are getting another AF flight. We will go down to a 772 and add andother 332.

CO will not be codesharing or allowing frequent flyer mile accrual for these KLM Privatair flights on the BBJ, which is an enhanced 73G with around 45 business class seats.

If you look in the Earn Miles/Partners section of CO.com you will see restrictions that are specified for these flights.

LH relies on Private Air for two flights ex DUS ( EWR and ORD ) and one ex MUC, in addition to that Swiss used Private Air metal on one TATL flight as well.

However it is only working between key markets ( DUS has the third biggest catchment area in Europe, after LHR and CDG ) so it will not become an every day scenario.IAH is certainly a key market for KLM and Royal Dutch Shell, in addition to that AMS has always been a key hub for transfers into the Far East regions...

For the record, the PrivatAir flight for Swiss is ZRH-EWR.

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More information on Privatair:

http://www.privatair.com/airline_ser..._services.html

Wow, a BBJ from IAH-AMS...that's quite a haul on that type of aircraft. I wish that CO gave EQM's on this flight or I might be tempted to give myself an early holiday present.

Have you seen shots of the interior? It's not a bad way to spend a long flight! Big seats, good food and service, and well within the range of the BBJ and BBJ2, if I am not mistaken...too bad I'll never be able to afford a flight on one. (Or more appropriately, find it worth that kind of money.)

Funny, how pictures are interpreted completely different. My thoughts when seeing the pictures in the above link were exactly the opposite: no way! I especially based this on the recline example which showed very poor. I will be looking forward to a trip report since I'm frequenting this route.