KL 1340 - Heathrow to Rotterdam
by JFC AdminKLM Cityhopper flight KL 1340 from London Heathrow Terminal 4 to Rotterdam. As someone who enjoys flying from London City it may seem a bit odd that I decided to take the KLM flight to Rotterdam from Heathrow rather than taking the numerous VLM flights from London City. The reason was purely for miles, if I was not a member of Flying Blue I would have taken the VLM flight from London City (KLM does not fly to Rotterdam from London City). My Flying Blue gold membership does make Heathrow less of a pain, at least when travelling KLM.Flying Blue gold and platinum membership is gets you a number of benefits when flying KLM, Air France or one of their SkyTeam partners, the most important one when at Heathrow is access to fast track through security. KLM uses Terminal 4 which has a fast track lane, however Air France and SkyTeam members Alitalia and Czech Airlines currently use Terminal 2 which has no fast track which can mean very long lines at security when flying these airlines. It is planned to move the other SkyTeam airlines in to Terminal 4 with KLM mid 2008 after BA moves in to Terminal 5. Terminal 2 will then be demolished, this will make flying from Heathrow a more viable option in the future.
Anyway, the day started a relaxed one, the flight wasn’t until 21:00 and I wasn’t working that day. So I had mid afternoon lunch with a friend in a pub on the Strand and had a bit of a walk around London. I decided to take a relaxed walk to Hammersmith and then jump on a Piccadilly Line train to Heathrow T4. I arrived around 18:00 so had about three hours to spare. There was no queue at the baggage drop off so I left my luggage there and asked the check-in agent to add a fast track sticker to my boarding pass. The regular queues for security looked very long but fast track was reasonably empty, also the fast track line tends to move faster as the people in this line are more frequent travellers and so are familiar with the rules (pathetic that they are). They are still asking you to remove your shoes at Heathrow which is something they have stopped doing for the most part at London City now. I was through security in about 15 minutes.
The lounge in Terminal 4 used by KLM is called the Holideck and is operated by KLM Ground Services. As usual access is free to those who hold the appropriate frequent flyer cards or travelling business class. This particular lounge is also accessible to Priority Pass cardholders and those who want to pay for entry.
As a lounge it’s one of the better ones in the Air France KLM network, it’s significantly better than the offerings by Air France and Alitalia in Terminal 2 and is one of the few plus points of flying from Heathrow, if you have a few hours to spare in Terminal 4 it’s definitely worth a visit. The lounge is spread over 3 floors and has different areas depending on your mood. There’s a number of quiet areas where you can sit on comfortable chairs and relax, there’s a sports bar, observation deck and childrens area. The lounge is well stocked with a decent range of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and you’re never more than a few seconds walk away from a fridge. The beer selection is better than most lounges. The KLM lounges in Amsterdam just offer Heineken whereas here they had a number of alternatives to choose from. I was drinking London Pride most of the evening. The spirits selection looked well stocked too. I couldn’t see any hot food, but there’s a good selection of snacks including crisps, nuts and some rather good cookies.
Flight took off on time, but thanks to the easily accessible beer my memory was starting to get a little hazy at this time. The aircraft was a Fokker 50, the same aircraft KLM use on their flights from London City Airport. It’s a 50 seater turbo prop with seats arranged in a 2-2 formation. It looks out of place at Heathrow where it makes a Boeing 737 look like an A380 when it is parked beside one. The aircraft was fairly full, I noticed a few empty seats on the plane but not too many. All KLM Cityhopper Fokker 50 services are operated in a single class configuration so drinks service and catering is identical throughout. Oddly enough the catering on the Rotterdam route is still the old style KLM sandwiches where you have a choice of either ham or cheese. On other routes KLM has changed the offering to a pack that contains two sandwiches. The flight was pleasant and the crew was decent, they offered drinks multiple times but after the lounge I decided to stay off the beer for a while.
Plane lands, short walk across tarmac to the terminal, baggage on the belt within 15 minutes and then straight outside to the bus stop. I had a strippenkaart that was mostly unused from my last trip to Amsterdam so I used that to pay for my bus fare. The bus goes direct to the centre of town and from there it was a short walk to my hotel.