Colleagues,

I am shortly making my first long haul (AMS-BKK) with KLM after a number of years regularly making the CDG-BKK trip with AF.

Could those more knowlegeable than me please give me a heads up as to what to expect from KLM in C class? Also any info about what I can expect in terms of benefits (if any) as a Frequence Plus Red/Skyteam Elite Plus member.

Incidentally, I have not left AF through any kind of existing dissatisfaction, merely their lousy flight schedule on this route for the coming winter season (23:35 ex-CDG!)

Thanks in advance for any help

If you head on over to the Trip Reports forum you'll find a recent thread by me addressing just these topics.

Make sure you pay as higha price as posible for your ticket on this route I have been bumped three times to people who paid more than I did.

KLM staff usually are the best ones to ask about C on this route as they usually take up the seats as a staff benefit.

Dont get worried if a fight breaks out as this is normal - I jest you not !

Once the meal service is over overdose on sleeping tablets as they will be nothing else until the egg slop breakfast is trust upon you at an ungodly hour.

The return is a joke and gets into AMS before anything is open.

Apart from that it should be fantastic as one benefit you get over Y class is water in a bottle, but make it last as they top it up if you ask for another one and thats if you can find a FA.

I couldn't agree more on this, happens very very often, especially on this route.

Steve is making up the usual bulls*** again. My colleagues and I fly this route regularly in C class. (together we have done 20+ returns AMS - BKK -AMS on KL this year alone) No complaints whatsoever. Never been bumped. Good service, reasonable food. Good schedule ex-AMS with 8 PM departure, so after dinner and a movie I usually sleep for 6-8 hours.
Have a good flight.

...
For your information I have only been flying this route since 1991 so I am still a novice by your claims. I only fly this route 12 -15 times a year so what do I know ?

Good schedule ??? what a load of bollocks. The flight is often delayed and the return flight arrives at the most ungodly hour and is often early and there is nothing open for transit passengers, [...] . If the outbound gets delayed and yu are travelling ton Taiwan, by the time you get there its very late at night and even later by the time yoy get to where you are going, bearing in mind Taichung ia another two hours if your lucky.

To say the food is good, again I guess you have never experienced real quality flying. The breakfast is always the same, stale bread, egg slop and a few other tastless items thrown in for good measure.

...

edited out some comments adressed at another member
ralfkrippner, moderator

Steve, if you look at Sjoerd's post carefully you will see that he is saying that he and his colleagues between them have travelled on that route 20 times this year (he said "together" rather than "between us", but being used to non-native English I know what he meant!)

Can you read? I wrote clearly that my colleagues and I TOGETHER have flown this route 20 + times this year in C. FYI, I flew this route 3 times this year so far.

I have been Royal Wing or Platinum Elite or Gold Elite since 1994. If in your terminology that is a KLM lurker that is fine with me.

yes, KLM have a good schedule between AMS and BKK. The flight out is just perfect: leave 8 PM, eat, movie, sleep, breakfast, arrive 12 noon. Back is the same schedule of almost all other airlines ex-BKK to Europe, and my final destination is AMS so it is not bad at all to arrive at 05:25 AM.

The food on KL is as good as on CX, LH, TG and AF (the other airlines that I have flown in C class between Europe and Asia more than once in the last 4 years.)

And I very much dislike the tone of your message. An apology would be welcome.


edited out quote of edited original post
ralfkrippner, moderator

Yes, indeed. I fly C for work and Y for pleasure. And sometimes I upgrade Y to C with my miles. (so far once this year)



edited out quote
ralfkrippner, moderator

Wow! They must fly really fast....

Heres my apology. It rhymes with Duck and cough stick lead

Many years ago whilst starting out on my own business I used another airline almost exclusively. Partly out of choice, partly through lack of finances.

I realised after a few years that I was not getting the service I deserved. I analysed the problems and tried to address them with the airline both directly and through the FF programme. In the end, I got nowhere. I had done everything I could to politely but firmly make my point. So I took my business elsewhere. My travel expenditure over the years increased significantly and I now travel almost exclusively in Business on long haul. The former airline lost out.

But I moved on. I found a new airline (KLM) and through their network of partners I am pretty well covered. Do things go wrong? Sure....but go on to any forum here and you will see complaints about a particular airline.

What I do not do is waste my time by going back to my former airline's site and bore the backside off everyone else by telling my tales of woe. I rise above it and I am sure that others would find it tedious at best.

KLM is not a bad airline, not great, it serves my purposes. I would encourage people to use it. Overall, you will find value for money. Sure, there will be people it p*sses off. But for every unhappy client, I am sure there are hundreds of satisfied customers. And they are the silent majority who read this site every day.

I love this site, I enjoy the forums. I find them very helpful and often a pleasure to read. Except, the KLM forum which to be honest is now a tedious read. Go figure.

Move on folks , there is more to life, honest.

Go in peace fellow travellers.

Tom