Hi Everybody!
Here's the first of a series of recent flights beginning in Manchester to China via Amsterdam, with KLM, China Southern and China Eastern.
The flights are as follows:
MAN-AMS KL1082 - we are here
AMS-PEK CZ346
PEK-XIY MU2106
XIY-PEK MU2115
PEK-AMS CZ345
AMS-MAN KL1073
As usual my journey begins with the train from my home in Sheffield direct to MAN taking around 1:20.
The train station at MAN is directly connected to Terminals 1 and 2 with walkways. KLM departs from T3 which requires you to navigate through T1 first.
Check-in in T3 is up on the 1st floor. My first stop was to the KLM ticket counter. As my second leg was with CZ it was unable to book my seat and order my meal online. I had contacted KLM in the weeks prior to the flight to request a window seat and a vegetarian meal. These were confirmed to me over the phone a few days before departure. I still wanted to try my luck with an upgrade using some of my miles for the long haul flight. So as suggested by KLM on the phone I went to the desk to see what could be done. The nice KLM lady said she couldn't do this as it was CZ (even though I had a KL flight number) and I would have to check again in AMS. She also gave me my boarding pass. It seemed I had a middle seat on the long haul flight despite KLM telling me I had a window just a few days before. She couldn't change this either and said I would have to do this in AMS. Also my meal was down as a vegan one instead of a vegetarian one, again despite them asking me specifically if I wanted vegetarian or vegan. So far so bad…
Anyway, I proceeded to drop my bags at the SkyPriority check-in desk.
I headed to the security check, which passed relatively smoothly. Airside it was time for a late breakfast
Followed by some spotting
Plenty of exciting destinations such as Philadelphia, Dubai, Orlando, and my not so exciting Amsterdam flight.
Here she comes
Boarding proceeded quite orderly. Well at least for me. SkyPriority coming through!
We were welcomed on board and I took my seat in 7F.
Standard amount of leg room for KLM, but I did have a box in front which narrowed the foot area.
Here are the magazines and safety card.
China - my final destination
The fleet
An advert for the new 787
Soon we were off and on time.
The in-flight service began. Today we were offered some cake (why not a sandwich today as it's lunch time?)
The dutch coast was approaching.
And we arrived in AMS on time.
Soon to be followed by the long haul flight!
Thank you for sharing this FR with us!
It seems like an exciting routing!
Sorry to hear about the issues with KLM at MAN, I wonder how it went.
Nice spotting shots at MAN!
A pretty normal flight with KL, I like the small bag for the cake.
Have a good one, see you!
Thanks for your comment.
I know for future reference that the two booking systems don't talk to each other so no complicated requests :P
Now I have the glimpse about their intra Europe economy flight. It's good that they still serve that cake.
Thanks for sharing the info.
Haha yes, I've had that cake a few times too. It's not too bad!
Thanks for this FR.
You're either very faithful to KL or they're really competitive ex-MAN.
The sandwich that usually comes in that box is indeed more appealing than this cake...
I have a soft spot for them it seems! But in reality they tend to offer decent prices and connections that are useful for where I want to go. I therefore collect the miles and hence tend to choose them if there's a choice. My next long haul will be to to India, I doubt this will be with them as star alliance seem much stronger in that region.