#41 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
1054 reviews
My friend was over in Paris from a far away country and asked for a meet up to catch up for old time's sake, I decided to do so and started to search for some decent tickets. While Paris is easily reachable from the Netherlands by either car, train or plane, I of course opted for the plane as it's probably the cheapest option too as the TGV would've costed me about 260 euros (return), while KLM and Transavia offered me a return ticket for about 150 euros in total (excluding luggage). A car was really no option as I had no mood to drive for about four hours.
So here's the start to the journey of our fellow French reporters with a flight that is probably very very familiar for many of them with a flight of KLM from Amsterdam to Charles de Gaulle and the return would be on Transavia Holland from Orly to Amsterdam.
After a very early wake up call to go to the airport for an early flight and parked my car in one of Schiphol's long-stay parking garage (as it's cheaper to park it there than on a short-stay), I arrived at terminal one about ninety minutes ahead of departure in what was slowly becoming a packed terminal.
While I already checked in online and reserved a seat in advance free of charge due to my status with Flying Blue, I decided to obtain a paper boarding pass as I'd prefer those to have nearby in case my battery of my phone suddenly dies. While KLM is currently the world's oldest airline still operating in their original name, I'm still disappointed that they didn't really make an effort to celebrate their 100th birthday like BA did (while you probably can argue whether BA is really 100 years old). The only real reference KLM made to their 100th birthday are those 100 year stickers in a style that reminds me of a toothpaste brand called ''Aquafresh''.
Our flight would depart from gate C5 today and that means we either need to use the security checkpoint between terminal 1A and 1 or take the one at 1A itself. I opted for the later one as I've never been in this part yet (and the other checkpoint was completely packed), which is a temporary building until the new pier and terminal is completely build in a few years and was already decorated in some sort of a christmas style.
Security was done in a few minutes and we ended up airside in front of this beautiful Embraer jet of Austrian.
And as gate C5 is one of the closest to the terminal itself, our ride was soon in sight. A 18.1 year old Boeing 737-900 (PH-BXS) that has solely been in service to KLM and is named ''Buzzard'' and it's been a while for me to actually ride on a -900 once again.
Boarding was called a few minutes ahead of time and went with a decent pace. Five minutes ahead of departure time, the captain checked in with us to inform us that he would expect to be pushed back about 5 minutes past our departure time.
Legroom was no issue for me either and I'm about 1.83m tall.
The overhead panel.
The literature given to us in the seatpocket in front of us contained of a sickbag, a safety card and KLM's magazine Holland Herald which was a very borirng read from my perspective.
Pushback was initiated five minutes after departure just like the captain informed us and we were soon off to Paris with a southerly departure from runway 18L. Cabin crew informed us that lights would be deemed during take off and landing, yet they shut down lights partially, which made capturing a photo nearly impossible.
Soon after the flight reached a safe altitude, the flight attendants jumped into action to start their catering services. While I was waiting for my turn, I noticed that despite the older looking seats, the cabin was very clean for a 18 year old bird and had almost no signs of wear.
Today's cabin crew was not as engaging with their passengers as to what I'm used to with KLM and were rather slow in distributing catering as I only received my food/drink during the early start of our descent.
The package contained
* A cup of Water
* A slice of bread with a spread of sliced chicken, cream cheese, lemon and Dille.
* A stroopkoek. (not to be confused with a stroopwafel, which is similar yet different).
While the amount of the bag was sufficient for a hour flight, I absolutely did not enjoy that slice of bread as the spread felt like I ate some chemical spread and felt in nowhere near to real cheese and chicken…. Juices, coffee and tea were offered too, though I declined.
Though I must admit that I had a spectacular view during my snack.
Shortly after the catering service, the cockpit crew checked in with us again to inform us about our descent into Paris Charles de Gaulle with the current weather update and the usual statements given and thanked us for flying with KLM.
And after approximately 55 minutes of flying, we were already locked on the localizer of Runway 09L from Charles de Gaulle which gave me some spectacular views once again from Paris in sunrise to be suddenly disturbed by quite a hard landing from the pilots.
With a 5-10 minute ride from the runway to our stand at terminal 2F, we were waiting for our jetbridge to be connected, while this Airbus from Air France was docking right next to us.
Cabin crew wished us a pleasant day and we were off to Paris which was still yet a hassle to get there as it becomes very chaotic around the train stations at Paris Charles de Gaulle and my first encounter with Paris wasn't particularly nice as I received a fine for something I have yet to discover and they didn't even bother to check my ticket.
A short flight with KLM to Paris from Amsterdam which was a decent flight, yet plenty below expectations as cabin crew was not nearly as engaging with passengers as to what I'm used to with them, catering in terms of amount was decent, but quality was a lot to be desired. Legroom was sufficient and cabin was well-maintained for a 18 year old bird.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 140 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Amsterdam (AMS) → Paris (CDG).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Air France avec 7.5/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 29 minutes.
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4 Comments
Funny how flying is usually less expensive than the train between Paris, London & Amsterdam.
The train connection by RER to Paris, though convenient is poorly signed and in spite of some efforts the older staff from RATP is rude and cannot speak english.
Thanks for sharing!
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