KLM
 

The other day I was due to return from Amsterdam to the states and patiently awaited the aircraft to come to the gate. Must be 747-400, A340 or something......Nope, a 737 in Swiss Air colors parks there. Im saying, here we go another gate change.
Not even, it turns out this puppy is not only going across the pond, its going to Houston. Amazing.
Bottom line is it was a 737-700 with range out the kazoo. Further that it was configured for only 44 pax. (I was going World Business)
Trip was great, weather was great, staff were great and with only about 20 pax on board,(no screaming kindersh1ts) a very pleasant experience.
So to those of you who may have some influence.ha ha. Please suggest to KLM that they do this on the Amsterdam/Johannesburg routing......Its obviously capable.
Thanks Privat Air/KLM

KLM have been operating this service for a while now, and it's proving to be very popular. Privatair crew operate using KLM service (as you know)
Rumours around the company are that we will start to operate using our own crew/aircraft, I can't see it myself. There are also rumours of Dubai being operated on the Privatair 737, we'll see. Glad you enjoyed it.

Does anyone have any information on the Amsterdam- Cardiff KLM service?:ok:

Could Air France expand their dedicate service to KLM at AMS?

AMS - Cardiff! F70/100, hmmm, slightly unreliable!

What Air France are gonna do, who knows, I think they will start doing more in 2008! We'll see!

Yes, not exactly the greatest are they.:ok:

KLM
 

From the BBC website

KLM unveils fuel surcharge cuts

KLM had vowed to keep an eye on oil prices
Airline KLM Royal Dutch has announced it is cutting its fuel surcharges, after a fall in oil prices.
The group said international fuel surcharges would fall by 5 euros ($6.34; £3.36), while the charge on flights in Europe would fall by 1 euro.

Oil prices have fallen to around $61 a barrel, after surging to record highs above $78 in July.

KLM last month promised to review oil prices and cut tariffs once oil prices dropped below $70 for 30 days in a row.

Airline fuel surcharges had been rising with oil prices, and KLM - which is part of Air France KLM - raised its fuel surcharge most recently on 10 August.

KLM's decision comes a day after the group's freight operation announced it was cutting its fuel charges, citing falling oil prices.

Well said... Exactly the kind of thing a sharp CEO needs to keep any eye out for. KLM are obviously thinking ahead of the others

First time for everything I suppose, why has this only got anything to do with BA as apposed to all the other airlines or is this just a way to keep BA at the top of the thread list.

most airlines hedge on fuel prices, so they will be fixed for a period of time so it would take a while for the reduction in oil price to actually kick in.

The extra security being introduced comes and will come at a price!

It will all balance out....

Well I just hope that by KLM doing this it does start to have a cascade effect on the other airlines!

Golden Ticket - You cynic!

It is not to keep BA at the top of the thread list.
As I work for BA, I find it IS a missed opportunity for BA.
It is also a missed opportunity by other airlines (especially Virgin).

KLM airfares
 

I am totally at a loss to understand some airfare rules.
I want to book Leeds - Moscow. 7thDec.
Return fare - 214GBP, fantastic.
But, one way fare (which I need) 1,081GBP !!!!
What do they do with all those empty seats when the pax throw the unused
return ticket in the rubbish bin?.

I'm not quite sure how they work, but have often found myself booking "dummy" returns to get a cheaper sector.

Whether this makes a difference in a country like Russia where you need a VISA, I don't know.

You may find that most of the seats aren't empty, because from experience the airline revenue managers know they'll have a higher no-show rate on the return leg of cheap return tickets, so they set the overbooking level correspondingly higher... :cool:

Oh, and incidentally, return fares being much cheaper than single fares is neither new nor unique to KLM - carriers have been doing this for decades.

(Oh, and incidentally, return fares being much cheaper than single fares is neither new nor unique to KLM - carriers have been doing this for decades.)

Yes I know its not new I have been doing dummy tickets for many years but I have never seen a fare which cost 5 times more for single before.
Not all mainline airlines have this policy now.
The LOCOS I think never.

KLM
 

I thought seen as KLM is a big player in the UK market, it was worth starting a new thread with a little update.

This winter will see some changes to the KLM UK network.

Aberdeen goes from 4 flights a day to 5
Bristol goes from 4 flights a day to 3
Cardiff goes from 4 flights a day to 3
Edinburgh gets 2 737-700 flights a day
Glasgow gets 1 737-700 flight a day
Humberside goes from 4 flights a day to 3
Newcastle gets 1 737-800 flight a day

Regards

Mike

EDI and GLA have had 737s operating various KL flights for years now - Forgive my lack of knowledge, but why are 737-700 flights worthy of special mention? Are they new to the KL fleet or something?

Wrt Scottish flights, this appeared a couple of weeks ago: Air France KLM set to expand service from Scottish airports - Scotsman.com Business

Apart from the extra ABZ flight, not really much in the way of the expansion suggested - Not on KL's behalf anyway. Perhaps something to come from AF?

Forgiving your "lack of knowledge"- 737-700's have never operated to Scotland for KLM, and yes they are new to the fleet. Well worthy of a mention IMHO :). It will be interesting to see if this is an upgrade from F70/100/50 on some services or downgrade from 738/9's.

According to the KLM web booking engine AMS-BRS and AMS-CWL stay at 4 times daily in Nov, Dec and March. They drop to 3 x daily in Jan and Feb with the lunchtime rotations removed.

This happened on both routes last winter as well.

Does anybody know when the Embraers are due to come online and which a/c type they will be replacing?

More problems at CWL today where KL1060 has been cancelled and the KL1066 (following flight) downgraded to F50. KL1069 also downgraded to F70.

Over the last few days we have seen the KL1060 being canx and F50 has ben in the last 3 days and will return again tomorrow.

Considering CWL is now a 5 crown station and is one of the priority stations, how come it is us thats getting all the rubbish?

Same with HUY too according to Amadeus

Klm Md11
 

Can anyone tell me what routes KLM currently use the MD11.
I Know they operate to YVR & YUL.

Has anyone any experience of KLM staff travel procedures at AMS? Is there a seperate check in area?

Regards

Mike

MD11 summer 2010: Bonaire–Guayaquil–Quito–Bonaire, Dehli, Montreal, Panama, Paramaribo, St.Maarten-Bonaire, Tehran, Vancouver

Maybe the same during winter?

@aeulad

No there is no seperate staff travel checkin anymore, it has been removeed some months ago.
You can however use the self checkin machines or go to a staffed desk. (or even checkin online)

Great! Thanks for the tips! After I have checked in, do I go to the gate like in the USA, or do I find out whether I am on or not before security?

Danke Weld

Mike

Depends on the number of pax. If the flight is really empty, they might give you a seat. If not, you have to report at the gate and about 20 mins before departure they will, or will not, give you a seat.

Great! Thanks! With BA at Heathrow you have to wait at check in if you are not onloaded straight away to find out if you have a seat. AMS sounds more like the states where you go to the gate, which I prefer, as there is no rushing through security!

Regards

Mike

Are KLM losing the plot?.
LBA-AMS return 2 pax economy, 198 pounds.Fine.
Euroselect (Premium economy) 1,200 pounds!
For what? Similar seat surrounded by empty ones and bigger rotten snack that nobody wants.Oh,and a pelmet disguised as a curtain.
Bye bye cloggies.You have been devoured by the frogs.

that is an art called yield managent. If you dont know how it works go and do your homework. Re the frogs. Because the Cloggies are better at yield management they have made more money than the frogs even though the frogs have MUCH better food.. so go figure :cool:

I wouldn't agree on that. The average meal you get in a restaurant in Holland is far better than the unvarying poncy dross dished up in France by a surly unwashed waiter. For me the Clogs win on all counts.

No RYR for me,

Having read many of wawkrk's well informed posts on this board, I'm sure he does not need to do any homework on Yield Management.

Perhaps the same cannot be said for KLM sales, because at the price of £1,200 those seats will be the highest yielding empty seats on the aircraft.

It's pretty easy to kick revenue management, but one piece of information we're missing is how far in advance of travel the original poster is booking. Several carriers I know of (Aer Lingus for one, potentially KLM for another) set their premium economy/full flex fare at a single level and don't change it as they get closer to the date of travel. That means that the premium economy fare looks completely uncompetitive until a few days before travel, when the economy fare has climbed far enough to catch up with it.

If I look at the fares for LBA-AMS-LBA for tomorrow, the cheapest economy round-trip fare is STG£537.50. At that point, the option of paying another £62.50 to get lounge access, fast track, full refundability, etc, doesn't look quite so stupid.

Now of course you can reasonably argue that an airline should offer advance-purchase premium-economy fares, and I wouldn't disagree, but it seems to me that right now KLM (or Aer Lingus, as the other example I know of) is choosing to make their Europe Select fares attractive only for late bookers.

C.

It is quite probable the seats wont be empty but will be occupied by people flying further afield, which I venture to suggest is exactly the passenger KLM want in those seats, not filled by someone just going to AMS or somewhere shorthaul.

The fares I looked at were for February next year.As a Flying Blue Platinum for life member I am just a few air miles short to get through to Sydney with 2business class award tickets.
The value of air miles seems to have come down over the last few years. In the past I already used 2 business class award tickets to Hong Kong and Singapore and 2 to Cyprus.Euro Select always seems to be quite empty to me and is poor value for money.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
 

Does anyone know which Weight and Balance System is being used at KLM?

CODECO, as far as I know.

The going to move to Amadeus Altea Flight Management.