Hi everyone, a new series of flights before New Year :)
My first intention was to go to Yukon where a school friend of mine opened a coffee in Dawson city. As I was there last year, I was hoping to return. But he decided to come back to France for winter and close the coffee for the cold season. As I wanted to go to cold anyway, I changed my mind and switched to Alaska.
Alaska can be (and is) very expensive. A bit of research later, I found a good deal from Brussels for EUR 1'700. - (a flight out of Basel would have been EUR 3'500.-) in business.
To go to BRU I had the choice between EasyJet and KLM. EZS was around EUR 80. - without luggage. Saturday flights are usually pretty expensive to BRU. KL offered the one way for EUR 200. - but I needed a return flight as well (my long haul ticket was due to leave from BRU and be back to CDG, onwards to BRU with the train that I would not take). KLM considers BRU and CDG in the same fare zone, and a quick research later, I found a round trip BSL - AMS - BRU // CDG - BSL at a promotional fare of EUR 150.-
Now you got the beginning and the end of the trip. For the rest, I leave a bit of suspense :)
- EuroAirport - Amsterdam / J KLM E190: Here we are
- Amsterdam - Brussels / Y KLM F70: soon
- Brussels - XXX :
- XXX - XXX :
- XXX - XXX :
- XXX - XXX :
- XXX - XXX :
- XXX - XXX :
- XXX - XXX
- XXX - XXX
- XXX - XXX
- XXX - XXX
- XXX - XXX
- XXX - CDG
- CDG - EuroAirport / Y AF E170
The airport is not that busy this morning, I head to my favorite lounge:
Quite foggy today:
CRK for ORY and Air Berlin's A319:
DHL - A300 Cargo and a 737C:
Not for me, RYR, 738:
Again, the CRK to ORY and the E70 to CDG:
LH 737-300 to FRA:
Departure screen:
Some of the food offerings:
My selection not that much as there's going to be a meal in the plane:
I upgraded this flight at time of checking, KLM did propose an upgrade for EUR 49.- but only for that leg. The AMS BRU was sold at … EUR 119.-
I took the first leg upgrade opportunity and left the other ^^
At boarding time I head to the gate, priorities are respected, very nice welcome from the purser.
The cabin:
Didn't know that:
Before door closure, the purser comes to see each business traveler and announces us that there won't be any meal service as no catering had been uploaded for business class in Amsterdam. It will be coach service for all.
This isn't acceptable. The plane landed at 10AM at the EAP, there is a catering provider Gate Gourmet, and there was plenty of time in the hour turnaround to upload 5 meals or at least 5 sandwiches. The purser was really sorry for that, but for a business ticket, this is in no way something to do.
The seat pitch:
Safety card:
Push back in front of the Easy Farm, some little airplanes from the aviation school and very powerful take off. While taking off, you'll see BA's 319 to LHR, TK's 739 to IST, FedEx’s 757, Jet aviation and the new cargo area with EK's 77F:
Some nice shoots over Basel:
Foggy valleys:
And the great lunch we had:
Again, the purser apologized for the inconvenience…
We arrive into Netherlands airspace:
Air to Air with Emirates and Iberia Express:
Almost landed:
Landed:
Dash 8-400 Fly Be and some locals:
We blocked on time, pax bus to reach the terminal. I only have a short 45' minutes connection, I hope my suitcase will follow :)
Stay tune for the next part!
Thank you for starting this yearly odyssey to the frozen tundra of Alaska.
LH 737-300 to FRA
- I'm surprised these haven't all ended up in storage yet...
KLM did propose an upgrade for EUR 49.- but only for that leg. The AMS BRU was sold at ... EUR 119.-
- The prices seem very sporadic since a different report had AMS-FRA at closer to EUR 150.
This isn't acceptable.
- Why wasn't this plane catered in AMS for both legs? No booked J passengers at the time of catering since all were upgrades at the airport? Interested to see what your complaint gets you in terms of miles... hopefully more than EUR 49 worth ;) Either way, if the plane wasn't catered in AMS, they should have known at the time of your paid upgrade and informed you of this.
Standard E-Jet seat but with Y snacks, not quite the C experience.
Great spotting at BSL and AMS and the air-to-air with the EK A380 was excellent.
See you for the next one as I creep through the series.