KLM

[BRUpax]

Anyone travelled in KLM Business Class on intercontinental services lately? Good, bad or indifferent? I'm asking because I may be doing a JFK with them later this month.

[The Sleeping Pax]

BruPAX. In the Jan/Feb edition of Business Traveller Asia/Pacific (acknowledgement that is is indeed published in Hong Kong) There is a stinging letter from a Dutchman who claims that KLM is a National Disgrace!

To Quote the letter "The current financial turmoil it is undergoing shows that passengers are abandoning their loyalty to the airline just as it has abandonded its loyalty to them.... The reason why KLM cannot make alliances in the industry is that it needs to make alliances, ie friendships, with it's own passengers first.... Today.....KLM is a disgrace and I am ashamed that is associated with my country as its national carrier"

I never thought I'd hear that from a Dutchman.

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Wake me up when we get there

[This message has been edited by The Sleeping Pax (edited 07 February 2001).]

[This message has been edited by The Sleeping Pax (edited 07 February 2001).]

[BRUpax]

I should have an interesting trip then! I'll post my findings upon my return.

[flapsforty]

BRUpax, to assuage your fears a bit, the Scandinavian magazine Travel News has just chosen KLM as Best International Businessclass.
KLM are currently installing new major recline seats, and a whole new on-board-service concept, geared to satisfy different passenger needs at different stages of the flight, has recently been implemented. (Try the Indonesian Rice Table for your dinner, it's delicious!)

And as for the letter mentioned earlier, a certain segment of the traveling Dutch public has always seen it as a sport to cr@p on the national airline. Those are the same people who'll do anything to avoid buying a Philips product, or fill up their gas tanks with Shell petrol. http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/confused.gif http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/confused.gif

Couldn't begin to tell you why, but believe me, it's true!

Enjoy your trip, and please us know how it went!
rgds
f40 http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/flowerface.gif

[BRUpax]

Well folks I did that KLM trip (AMS-JFK-AMS) and I found their Business Class an adequate product for the price I paid (less than the standard Business Class fare). The cabin personnel I encountered were friendly and efficient. In fact, on the return flight I considered the male F/A looking after our cabin to be excellent and a great ambassador for his company. If I have a couple of comments they are that I wasn't too impressed with their practice of serving the first and main courses together. I think that serving them seperately (as most other carriers do) is a better touch. And that Business Class pax had to get in line for the security check at the gate in AMS and then again spend ages in line on the airbridge to access the aircraft. It kind of makes a mockery of the seperate check-in etc. Once again I haven't experienced this with US carriers out of AMS who have a seperate access to security for their C and F class pax. I'd like to see KLM address these issues but it wouldn't prevent me from flying Business with them again.

[criscokid]

http://www.schiphol.nl/engine/indexfilm06klein.html?url=/home/schiphol_group/press/index.html&lang=en&id=1317


This summer Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will initiate a centralized security system in its terminal. From that time on, passenger security checks will take place directly after the passport or ticket check. Current security checks are decentralized and located at the entrance to each pier. The structure will remain the same, equipped with metal detector portals and x-ray machines for the hand luggage.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol arrived at the decision to change its security structure following extensive deliberation with the Dutch Ministries of Justice and Traffic & Public Works, the Seceurop security agency, the Royal Marechaussee, KLM and other airlines represented in the Schiphol Airline Operators Committee. Many major European airports are already employing centralized security.

Quality Improvements
The introduction of centralized security will improve the quality of service to passengers since it will result in fewer waiting periods. The passengers will go through passport (or ticket) and security checks in rapid succession and then find themselves in a clean area. From there they can progress straight to the aircraft without any further interruptions. This should also work well for general takeoff punctuality. The situation will be similar for transfer passengers. After passing through centralized security they can change planes more quickly.

Extra Portals for Passengers and Personnel
All Schiphol staff and their belongings will also be checked before they can move into the clean area. New personnel portals will be created in the terminals for this purpose. To limit the length of waiting time for passengers at the combined passport, ticket, and security checkpoints, Schiphol will build extra checking areas in the months to come.

Departures Hall 1 (the Schengen terminal) will have two ticket and four security checkpoints. Departures Hall 2 and 3 will each have six passport and four security checkpoints.

[man in black]

Rest easy. Its a good service and very comfortable seats. Actually one of the best.