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Finding Level 1 Delta business class awards to Europe (Sweden) – Part 1
Virgin Atlantic Upper Class outbound via Manchester – Part 2
The Escape Lounge Manchester T3 – Part 3
KLM Euro business class to Amsterdam & Gothenburg – Part 4
The smallest lounge EVER – the Ford business class lounge in Gothenburg GOT- Part 5
The Club Carlson Park Inn by Radisson Stockholm – Part 6
Hertz Presidents Circle GOLD club rental in Sweden – Part 7
KLM Euro business class to Amsterdam & Manchester – Part 8
The KLM Crown Lounge Amsterdam #25 – Part 9
ASPIRE lounge #26 Amsterdam AMS Priority Pass lounge review – Part 10
SPG Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel Schiphol suite review- Part 11
The Escape Lounge Manchester T2 for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class guests review- Part 12
Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Manchester to Atlanta – Part 13
Final thoughts, costs and Virgin vs. DeltaONE to Europe – Part 14
Time for our trip home. We ended up doing an overnight at the Sheraton AMS but I will cover that later on. For now, and for simplicity’s sake, I will cover both the flight down to AMS and then onward to Manchester the next day.
After an all call boarding for Sky Priority (no 1st class announcement in GOT – rather common btw) we settled in to the mostly empty 1st class section.
As you can see on a KLM City Hopper E-190 I just love the amount of leg room you get in the bulkhead row. The only downside is there is no blocked seat if 1st is full.
With a light passenger load we waited at the end of the runway for a Norwegian Air jet to land. I love these guys for helping to bring some semblance of rationality to European flights and if you are looking for a Delta mileage run be sure to compare where NAI flies and Delta does as well.
We skipped the dinner salad for the short hop down to AMS and turned in from over the water. Love that view of the coast every time I see it.
We did the bus ride in from a tarmac parking spot and the evening was perfect. I wish I had had more time to run into town, but that did not work out this visit.
Gosh I was SO impressed with the new security setup at AMS. The morning rush was so fast I barely had time to look around and express how impressed I was with the change.
The rest of the airport was still a mess and big construction zone.
I also did not, since I was on my way to Manchester for my Virgin flight home, have a chance to try out the new DeltaONE security screening section in Amsterdam. Maybe some readers have now had that chance and can comment how it went.
We did have a nice quick breakfast at the Sheraton but since I did not have a lot of time, and did not know the new and improved security would go so well, I wanted to get on the way. So, it was interesting to see what catering would bring us for second breakfast as my mom likes to say. It was very nice.
After tea and juice we had a nice meat and cheese tray as well as yogurt and fruit. Just the right amount of food and again just impressive for a 1-ish hour flight. KLM knows how to do this domestic service and it just puts Delta domestic short hops to shame. I mean compare this to breakfast “snack basket”. ‘Nuf said!
It turned out to be a perfect day arriving at Manchester and the views were, as they always are from above, just spectacular.
Once again we were bused from the domestic terminal (T3) over to the one that serves Virgin (T2) for a ride home to the USA but more on that later on.
Let me wrap up by again and again saying how great KLM people and service is. The food (well other than the dinner salad) is always good and just enough. While I do like the blocked seats on the 737, I would still rather have a large seat but this does work. Now on the smaller jets, they need to do something to either change the seat or block one off there as well. Having the same seat and space as coach does not make a good impression.
Is it worth 1st class for these short domestic hops with no big seat? I say YES if you are already booking a business class award ticket. If booking it just to get from A-B, stick with coach as the service is still good, drinks are still free, and for an hour or two you get the same seat as business class anyway! – Rene
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
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“Gate D1”, confusingly, has nothing to do with Delta ONE business class. It is where all Delta passengers are supposed to go to complete the stupid “did you pack your own bags” interview that used to be done at gate security.