KL554/KL1561 - Cairo to London City via Amsterdam
by JFC AdminThe final leg of the trip to Cairo featured an upgrade to World Business Class on the 747 after a few hassles with airport security. A relaxing end to an interesting couple of weeks.
The taxi to the airport was organised by a local taxi driver rather than with Hertz, whose driver was part of a scam back on day two. The taxi was more authentic, a 20 year old estate car, the lack of luxury added to the local feel of the trip and was enjoyable in a weird sort of way.
Upon arriving at the airport I was presented with the most pointless waste of time which was Egyptian airport security. Before going to check in you had to go through a metal detector and all the bags needed x-ray. However, the guard didn’t seem to be paying attention to the beeping metal detector or the x-ray but was checking names off against a passenger list. The x-ray did nothing to increase security, if anything it was just for show.
At check-in I was given a pleasant surprise, we’d been upgraded to World Business Class on the top deck of the 747, this was particularly fortunate as this was an overnight flight and sleeping in economy is extremely difficult, also on the 747 KLM does not have personal TV’s in economy class unlike the 777 that has excellent in-flight entertainment. The flight was totally full so a large number of economy passengers were upgraded.
After a 40 minute queue for what is a very inefficient passport control queue it was off to the lounge. The lounge was operated by Air France but was nothing special, a few decent snacks but no alcohol.
At the gate there was another security checkpoint, this one was just as inefficient as the first one. Boarding the aircraft was via bus.
The aircraft had the old style WBC seats which tend to be preferred by most people. The seat has manual controls and can recline to 150 degrees which is good enough to get a few hours sleep. As the entertainment system has not been upgraded on this aircraft the personal TV’s in business class offer 12 different channels, there’s no interactive capability. As mentioned earlier economy on the 747 has no personal TV’s instead relying on shared screens.
Catering consisted of an evening snack followed by a drinks service. I’m too tired to remember what food was offered but the service was quick and efficient. Once the meal service had finished the lights were turned off, those wanting to stay awake could use their reading lights. I decided to sleep so reclined my seat and made use of the noise cancelling headphones and found a music channel playing relaxing music.
An hour before landing breakfast service was started. I enjoyed the breakfast, it was the most substantial meal on the flight. After the breakfast service was complete the crew handed out the delft houses that KLM gives as a gift to all business class passengers. The flight arrived on-time in Schiphol. The connecting flight to London City wasn’t until 18:05, the plan was either to spend the day in Amsterdam or stay in the Mercure hotel in the airport terminal depending on how tired we were. As we were both still very tired we got some rooms at the Mercure hotel within the airport terminal and caught up on some sleep.
The flight to London City was on time so upon arrival it was time to have a few beers at the landside bar. This year the bar became table service which has slowed things down from when it was a regular bar. I personally don’t think table service adds any benefit to the bar area but it’s still a nice place to have a few drinks before heading on the DLR home.