This weekends fun and frolics is a long weekend to Malaga to finally crawl over the line to Flying Blue Gold status. These flights were booked an absolute age ago and in retrospect I should have deferred them even further as I will not have need of the gold status for a few months but it�s a first world problem and not one I shall lose sleep over.

Outbound is KLM NCL-AMS-AGP tomorrow and the return is AF AGP-CDG-NCL on Monday and if everything goes to schedule there will be time for a wander around both the Air France and KLM lounges respectively.

I only flew a handful of times on both AF and KLM last year and was pleased by the in flight service and generally horrified by the food, especially KLMs cardboard box and bamboo utensils so we shall see what this weekend brings.

It�s a 6am departure so once again I have booked the doubletree airport hotel for the evening and I am writing this from the Uber as we head to the hotel in the dark.

Weather in Malaga is around 16 Centigrade so it will be a nice escape from the snow and sub-zero temperatures we have been experiencing in the North of England of late.

And because I am hopelessly slow typing and editing on the phone the airport is already in sight.

Next Stop, Newcastle airport.

Checked in and up to the room which is a bit more traditional than last weeks funky layout.





Standard array of goodies, and I even remembered to take the cookie out of my pocket this week! By the way, these warm cookies smell amazing, its a fun thing to greet guests with.



One small issue with the rooms here, there are no USB sockets. I have made the schoolboy error of buying a new multi travel adaptor and not testing it before bringing it on a trip, and its dead. Luckily I always bring two, but the second one only has a single port so there may be a bit of airport shopping tomorrow. For tonight I’ve a fully charged brick so that will get me by.

On the way to the room I passed a sign to the gym so did a slight detour to check it out.




And then down to the bar that was completely packed. No seats in the lobby overflow area either so I’ve wandered across the reception to the restaurant drinks area.



And with that update it is time to enjoy this fine brew and catch up with the world for a little while.

With my usual stunning powers of observation I had failed to recognise this huge pizza oven during previous visits!



Obviously this made the main course choice simple, and I have opted for the meat feast pizza preceded by the firecracker chicken wings as a starter.

Is it just me or is the finger bowl very retro? I’m so used to getting the foil wrapped hand wipes these days that the lemon bath feels like a real throwback! The chicken wings were delicious, and a bit like padron peppers… the first three were tasty but without heat and then the fourth blew my socks off!








If the pizza is as good as the wings I will be very happy.

The restaurant is busier than I’ve seen it on my previous trips, in fact I never made it to a table in the restaurant itself, I’m sat in a booth in the drinks area and our server is run off her feet as almost every table occupied.

Pizza arrived and, well, it’s definitely a plate full



Again, really very well done, each meat was identifiable and full of flavour. Once I had eaten a couple of slices I realised the crust was going to be a challenge so I requested a pot of the blue cheese dip that came with the gunpowder chicken wings and this worked surprisingly well with the pizza and is my recommendation of the week

Servers choice for desert again and she has chosen the caramel churros. If you do not have a sweet tooth then these are not for you! Luckily I have a very sweet tooth albeit that I try not to indulge it too often, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.




And with that its time to wander off to the bar for a nightcap and then off to bed for an early night.

Next stop - Newcastle airport in a little over eight hours time

So this time it�s the other way around! I�m on the inbound to your outbound tomorrow morning. Currently boarding and looking like we will be on time so you should be ok tomorrow.

Just caught up on your Milan TR which I started on Sunday and then everything got a little busy�.

Enjoy Malaga.

One of these days our schedules will merge Glad you were out on time, KL clearly the better option late Fridays!

Another 2am start to the day although this morning the reason was obvious. Breakfast was a couple of Imodium

Bored with the hotel by 4:30 I took the short stroll over to what appeared to be a very quiet airport, and looks can definitely be deceiving



Very glad not to be on Jet2 this morning



Renovations are clearly ongoing within the departures area and the coffee shop is the latest part of the concourse to be boarded up.



Security was definitely improved this morning, rejection rate from the scanners was in the order of 10% but of course mine was part of that 10%. A new wrinkle, there was nobody manning secondary security and so we stood staring at our bags for a good five minutes whilst various staff wandered back and forth.

Eventually someone appeared and the iPad received what is becoming an almost mandatory swab and away I went.

Fifteen minutes from land-side to lounge is impressive by any airports standards and we are spoiled at Newcastle by how quick it is.

Into the lounge and no fizz this morning! After the unsettled start to the day I decided to play it safe for a little bit



Still the standard food offering, not expecting this to change until phase two of the renovations are complete. Again decided not to partake, will see what KLM have to offer, or may even wait until Schiphol, in either event I�ll not starve.





And with that update it�s about 25 minutes to boarding so time to enjoy the coffee and watch the world go by.

Gate announced at 05:30 and a short stroll to gate 20 where boarding is already in progress. Straight through the sky priority lane and a walk up gate to this mornings conveyance





Five rows in the business cabin this morning and I�m the only business passenger . The back of the plane is also pretty quiet so should be a nice easy start for the in flight team before their Geneva and back later today.

We are now all on board and the doors are closed and it is still 12 minutes to our scheduled departure.

I have just been offered a blanket and a pillow which I laughingly declined after asking �do I look that old�

A Pre-departure soft drink offered and we are pushing back



Next stop, Schiphol

Another adventure! I will as usual be following

Best wishes for safe travels from a frozen over Chitose airport and its JAL F lounge, which is surprisingly pleasant.

Safe travels and happy landings. Plenty of snow at the side of the runway here in Amsterdam but a balmy -1C, considerably warmer than Chitose

Take off was exactly on time and a little bumpy going up through the clouds however that only lasted a minute and then the Seatbelt sign was switched off and the crew were in motion.

The meal box this morning contained bread, bread, bread, bread, and mixed fruit/nuts






I gave the pain au chocolat a try and it was very dense and dry. The rest remained uneaten although I did snag the little peppermint for later. Just a coffee to go with it, and I do like those little KLM cookies/biscuits. There are at least three varieties and they�re all very nice.




This flight is barely an hour long so there was time for a second coffee and then the pilots standard announcement and the seat belt sign was on and we were descending into Amsterdam.

I have a four hour transit in Amsterdam so there will be plenty of time for a proper explore of the airport departures area and lounge. It feels like a very long while since I was in Schiphol airport but it is only a couple of months, although the transit times on that trip were pretty short.

A couple of minutes before landing the crew surprised me with this little package� sick bags have more than one use on airplanes, from notepads to broken crockery wrappers, and I thoroughly approve of this particular use



A vibrant sunrise above the clouds which this photo really does not do justice to




We were on the ground at 07:52 local time so a 52 minute flight in total. Quite a long taxi around the airport and into gate D5 a little after 8am Once I took the phone out of airplane mode KLM helpfully informed me that I have 4hrs and 42mins to get to gate C12. Pretty sure I�ll make it

Once again a really nice crew, as have been all the crew I have met whilst flying KLM.

And the long march to the KLM crown march begins�




I like that the boards show an estimate of time to gate, I do wonder if this is dynamic to account for passport control.



As I made my way though the terminal I spotted this herd of ceramic cows above one of the shops. Shop was apparently unrelated to bovines so not sure of the significance, maybe there is none and they�re just for fun



And next came passport control which was a much much nicer experience than on any of my previous visits, the queue was short and I was through in under 10 minutes



I find Schiphol quite characterless and disorienting despite, or maybe because of, the plethora of signage pointing every which where.




Knowing roughly where I should be going I was up the escalator in Lounge 1 and over to the KLM 25 Crown Lounge

Once in the lounge it was time to muster some provisions. There is a wide choice of food in the lounge although some of it is a little odd to this British palate, the taster of the mustard soup for instance was a spoonful of heck no!















In the end it was the standard morning trio and a selection of cold cuts along with a very nice bread.



The spoonful of potatoes were a mistake, tried one and it was limp and lukewarm so will be staying on the plate.

All caught up to date now, a good hour and a bit after deplaning, so it�s time to finish off this breakfast and then maybe a little wander around the shops to see if I can find that replacement travel adaptor

Not an option if you�re stuck with a non-Apple laptop for instance, but I�ve spent years just travelling with just a handful of Apple chargers. The iPad/MacBook bricks with the changeable socket attachments are very handy versus a travel adapter IME. They�re also likely to work better, especially in the US where the laughable design of the socket means that any weight or moment means the plug will probably fall right out of the wall!

Enjoy the trip.

Thanks etiene I travel with iPad and iPhone and the only adaptors supplied are the UK standard ones so I don�t lug those around, just have a bag full of cables and a power brick or sometimes two on longer trips, along with a couple of multi adaptors. To be honest it�s not a major issue, I just have to be a bit smarter in sequential charging rather than just jamming everything on charge and forgetting about it all