Flying KLM from Amsterdam to Singapore and on to Medan in northern Sumatra tomorrow.
I’m writing this from the Crowne Plaza hotel in Singapore’s Changi airport – we’re right in terminal 3 and I can literally hear the whine of the aircraft from my hotel room.
Tomorrow we move on to Indonesia via Silk Air where we will be based for the next five days. Internet access will be patchy and I will be busy so I probably won’t be blogging, though I might manage to get a Photo Friday post scheduled.
The flight with KLM from Amsterdam to Singapore was uneventful (I was routed via Amsterdam so I could meet up with a colleague travelling from Vienna). Sadly, although this was a business trip, my ticket was economy class. KLM was pretty middle of the road in terms of service – not bad but not good either. On the plus side, the flight departed and arrived on time without any mishaps and we had video-on-demand so I could pause and rewind my movies and TV – I watched Mamma Mia!, The Queen, Ugly Betty, Gossip Girl and The Simpsons – mostly trash basically, but fun trash!
On the down side, the flight attendants never came when I pressed the attendant call button. I finally went back to get water for myself and they were sitting around reading magazines. They did have water and snacks in the galley with a sign advising us to help ourselves but it’s hard to get to unless you have an aisle seat. The food was fine but not great and I did miss the fact that we didn’t get a pack with toothbrush, socks and eye mask. Then again, I’ve flown with far worse airlines before, including China Eastern and Air Niugini.
Another problem was that the people behind me whined when I put my seat back. I had it upright during the meal of course but they seemed to expect that I should have it upright the entire time, which is just not possible on a 12-hour flight. I sympathise – Dutch people are the tallest in the world apparently – but I’m not sure what I was meant to do about it given I also needed to sleep as well. To be fair, KLM gave you the opportunity to book exit-row seats for a premium and this was still available when I checked in about five hours before the flight, so it’s not like they didn’t have options).
Arrgh, the seatback dilemma–such a sticky etiquette point! On the one hand, I sympathize. It sucks to have your tray table in your lap and your forehead smacking the seat in front of you. On the other hand, tough. Safe travels!
Hmmm. Economy seats don’t give you a lot of personal space and that must be difficult if you are tall (though as I mentioned there were premium seats available for only €35 more). I noticed a lot of tall Dutch men on the flight who had to basically sit sideways. Mind you, the lady behind me actually wasn’t very large at all, so I think she was just whining.
However, while I sympathise, I’m don’t think there’s any debate about etiquette. I fly long haul quite often and everyone puts their seat back – it’s totally normal and expected and people do not tend to complain. Usually any extra discomfort (over and above the space being tight to begin with) is solved by putting your own seat back as well. Clearly, the seats should be upright during meal service and flight attendants are usually very good at making sure people abide by this rule. But to my mind, having it back during the middle sleeping hours of a long-haul flight is entirely reasonable. I usually give warning as I put it back so they don’t get jabbed unexpectedly by a tray table.
Sorry to give such a long response – I guess it’s still bugging me! I felt this lady was quite unpleasant and didn’t seem grateful for the fact that I had it upright for far longer than I wanted to. – Caitlin