KL1018/865 LHR-ICN - 1st April 2006
Posted: 09 Apr 2006, 14:48Back in February, just after my girlfriend had returned to China, I booked my next flight to go out and see her. This was due to be April 8th for ten days, and was a good priced N class on Virgin to PVG. Then, for once in my working life, meeting plans panned out to mean I would be required to be on the right side of the world to roll holiday and meeting travel plans into one.
A project kick off meeting was pencilled in to start in Seoul for three days on April 3rd. A quick calculation showed that allowing for travel time this could have me arriving back at LHR on the 7th from ICN and then going back out to PVG on 8th, not a thrilling thought, despite all the potential airmiles!
So I set our Travel Coordinator into action doing a cost comparison of LHR-ICN-PVG-LHR, against LHR-ICN-LHR. Happily it came in at around the same price, so I could go to my boss and justify it. And even better, it meant travelling out over the weekend of 1-2 April and getting paid for it, and then arriving at my final destination of Nanjing 3 days earlier than planned, for no extra cost in holidays used. Win-Win, and like I said, not something that often happens in my world of business.
The next step was trying to swing travel plans so that I could get my first taste of Upper Class. I looked at various routings via NRT and back from PVG, but sadly other airlines were having fare sales at the time and in the end the option of KLM came in at half the price of Virgin. A price difference my company wouldnt accommodate.
So, after all the excitement of planning a meeting that would get me to my holiday destination early and in Business class comfort, the morning of April 1st dawned wet and windy. The driver from my companys preferred airport car company arrived 15 minutes earlier than planned, and since we also had to pick up another colleague I would be travelling with I seized the chance to arrive at LHR early. The car journey was comfortable and swift and had us at T4 3 _ hours before the flight.
Wed already used KLMs OLCI but sadly hadnt been able to pick seats in the same business class cabin on the long leg, and this coupled with the fact that the bag drop desk wasnt manned had us at the business class check in desk trying to reshuffle seats.
Now heres a tip. KLM allow you to print your boarding pass at home, but I dont like doing this for two reasons. 1) it becomes another anonymous sheet of A4 paper to go missing and 2) The bag drop desk may not notice you are business class and not give you a fast track sticker For what thats worth. The fast track queue through security was longer than the regular queue! Anyway, the seat assignments were changed, and on the AMS-ICN sector we both had seats downstairs in the front cabin on the 747, and we were directed through security and on to the KLMs Holideck business lounge.
Now, the colleague I was travelling with is a seasoned traveller, but he is new to my company, and knowing I had specific travel plans, he left me to sort all the arrangements out and he would fit in to what I had organised. He was also rather impressed with the research I put in to all the fringe benefits we should be able to enjoy. I did some research in to the Holideck lounge at T4, and because (from what you lot say) nothing can compare to the VS Club House, combined with the fact that this is also a paid access lounge, I was expecting the worst. Especially on the first Saturday get away before Easter. But the lounge was very quiet, and had very few families with kids in it.
The lounge is very well set up to entertain kids (young and old) with masses of games consoles dotted around the place along with the possibility to borrow PSPs for the duration. It is set across three levels with a number of self-service bar areas carrying a good range of alcoholic and soft drinks and snack foods along with a number of quiet zones and business areas with free wired internet access and paid wifi hotspots. Best of all the third level is a big green house affair, sticking beyond the roof line of T4 and over looking what was on this day the landing zone of runway 27L. So there we sat for three hours, making frequent trips down stairs to stock up on beer and snacks, watching all the planes landing and making figure skating like judgements on their performance, and with some nasty winds blowing that day, there were some pretty low marks awarded!
We saw our 737 arrive for our short hop to AMS, and were pleased to note that it was an even shorter hop from the lounge to the gate, so we had an extra one for the air and strolled on to our flight.
And here it seems ended the benefits of flying business class in Europe these days.
I used to fly business class in Europe in the days when it was still something special, with bigger seats, but this was a regular configuration and the whole flight was full. Oh well it was only 45 minutes, and I was well lubricated by now, so I didnt care. Shortly after a delayed take off the business class meal was given out, which whilst still something better than you get in Y, on such a short flight I felt it not worthwhile and the dessert and champagne had to be rushed before we landed!
During the meal, an American voice sat across the aisle from me said where do I know you from?, I looked around and paid him more attention, and realised it was the project director of the project management company from the last project I worked on in China. Small world eh? We passed the time catching up on our respective new projects. My colleague was out cold next to me, and couldnt even be roused for the meal and more free alcohol!
The poor cabin crew barely sat down in time to land, and then we had that massive taxi in to the terminal from the runway, which Im sure is in Belgium and Im sure you spend longer moving on the ground than you do in the air on short flights in to AMS!
We had just over an hour before our next flight, so we found the KLM Crowne Lounge nearest our gate for the next sector and settled in for yet more free beer.
Reading previous trip reports for AMS, I didnt hold out high hopes for this lounge, and I was right. It wasnt a patch on the Holideck lounge, was rather canteen like, and had a dirty feel to it, with lots of used and uncollected glasses, plates and food around the place. Well, at least the resident mice seemed happy with the left over food. Yes, Mice! This isnt a lounge for the faint hearted, and these ones werent little ones with clogs on either. Still, the beer was free!
Then it was time to head for our next flight. This is another area KLM are let down on. It was a long walk to our gate, and once there we had to fight our way through the masses to get to the priorty boarding line. Well this was only in fact the priority security line in to the gate holding area, where we had to mill around for another twenty minutes, with no free beer waiting to board our slightly delayed flight.
And then the long anticipated moment. For the first time in my life I turned left from the entrance of a 747! Again Id done all the research into the seat configuration and checked out ratings on seatguru, so I wasnt expecting the best in Business travel, and I wasnt disappointed. The downstairs business class on a KLM 747 consists of 3 rows of 2+2 with a forth row of 2+2+2 as the cabin widens out. This makes for an extremely spacious but intimate cabin, and the two cabin crew calling you by name and offering the pre flight champers top it off nicely.
The seats are nothing special, but the 60 pitch and 165 degree recline left me feeling far more relaxed after the flight than I ever have in Y.
The flight departed around 30 minutes late but the pilot promised us favourable conditions that would make up the time, which turned out right.
There was a choice of main evening meals, and these were of reasonable standard, coupled with a good selection of wines and spirits.
The IFE isnt up to much on KLMs 747s the business class seats at least get individual screens and multi channels, but there is a limited rolling choice. I elected to go for Crocodile Dundee (though there were new releases also available!)
After the film I settled in to try to sleep, and after swapping for some ipod music from my own more sleep friendly noise cancelling headphones I was soon in a fairly comfortable and relaxed state.
Im not a great sleeper on planes and this flight was no exception, despite the copious amounts of booze previously consumed, but I was woken for my pre ordered breakfast feeling pretty fresh and ready to spend the afternoon exploring my new locality.
Here is something I can not understand about flying through Amsterdam. It always seems so much quicker to the Far East. Is it because you have already travelled 45 minutes in that direction from LHR, or is it because KLM tend to use the faster 747s rather than A340s. I dont know, but certainly this flight was no exception and seemed to be over before I was starting to get truly bored with the experience.
Incheon airport for Seoul is certainly a pleasure, we were off the plane, through immigration and baggage collection without a stop. Outside we were greeted with a name board directing us to the Hertz desk to pick up our pre arranged driver and comfy car to whisk us to our hotel in Downtown Seoul.
All in all, one of the least stressful trips to a new land I have ever embarked on, and to top it off our Korean Hosts laid on three nights of rather excellent cultural entertainment. I am certainly looking forward to the 9 months residency I will have in Seoul from July onwards.