WAW-AMS-EDI with KLM 10/09/18

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Comet
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Joined: 05 Jul 2003, 00:00
Location: Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England
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WAW-AMS-EDI with KLM 10/09/18

Post by Comet »

We had an excellent week in Warsaw - the weather was warm and sunny (apart from alot of rain one night after we'd returned to our hotel and some cloud on one morning). While we were there we had our first proper trip on a Polish train when we had a day in Łódź, which was enjoyable. As usual with holidays, the day to return home came all too soon :cry:

KL1364 Warsaw to Amsterdam

A sunny morning at Warsaw Chopin Airport. I had checked in online the day before, and printed our boarding passes from the machine at the airport. We had seats 6A and 6B, the same seats we had on the outward leg to Warsaw and the same seats we had on this flight last year. We waited ages to check in and there was a long queue at security, but the staff were efficient and we cleared the security checks with plenty of time to spare. We made our way to gate 28, with time to spot along the way. WAW is very good for viewing.

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An airline I rarely get chance to photograph!

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Danish-registered LOT Q400 - something else I don't often get chance to photograph.

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LOT Embraer 175 passes.

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Our aircraft arrives from Amsterdam as a LOT Q400 prepares to leave.

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Our aircraft was PH-BXU "Albatros"/"Albatross", our old friend from the flight from AMS to NCL in 2017.

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Enter - an airline I've never seen before. I think it might be a Polish holiday airline, there were long queues at their check in desk.

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The WAW control tower.

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The view from my seat towards a LOT Dreamliner in regular livery.

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The winglet.

Our flight was due to depart at 12:25, and boarding was completed at 12:10, the aircraft was almost full (there were only about two spare seats from what I saw). Normally I enjoy hearing the pilot's pre-flight information but on flights into AMS I have come to dread it! Our expected flight duration would be one hour and forty minutes, but the bad news was there were ATC restrictions in place at AMS meaning we would be waiting in WAW for one hour and ten minutes before we could leave! A big worry for those (I assume the majority) passengers who have connecting flights in AMS. The same thing happened last year, though that was only a 25 minute delay some passengers missed connecting flight s to Africa, Canada and the Scottish airports because some connections times in AMS are only about an hour. That is the only concern I have with flying KLM because otherwise they are a fantastic airline to travel with and their crews are excellent. The pilot kept everyone informed and eventually the delay was reduced to around fifty minutes. We finally pushed back at 13:16.

We took off at 13:27 and had a smooth climb through clear skies.

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Climbing away from Warsaw.

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Leaving Poland behind - until next year.

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Light cloud along the way.

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Snack time :mrgreen: In previous reports I have said that the snacks served on those flights were not my favourite KLM snacks - well this one is! The Beemster cheese sandwich served on organic seeded bread. I love this sandwich!

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The seeded organic bread - very nice.

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The sandwich. I had orange juice to drink.

The cloud increased alot as the flight progressed.

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Thick cloud.

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A jet's trail above us.

We descended through thick, heavy cloud. The pilot announced that there were south westerly winds and cloud in AMS.

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Closer to Amsterdam.

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Canalside town.

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Port.

We landed at 15:10 and taxied to gate C6. Once again those poor passengers travelling to Montreal and Vancouver had missed their flight connection in AMS.

Our route on this flight took us south of Poznan. We flew north of Berlin at 38,000 feet, 402 knots and a heading of 281 degrees. We passed to the south of Bremen and headed to Amsterdam by flying close to Volendam.

Transfer in AMS

Our transfer in AMS was much smoother than I had expected after our delay in WAW. I even had time to buy a beautiful bottle of jenever in a lovely presentation box before heading to gate D42 for our last flight of the holiday.

KL1289 Amsterdam to Edinburgh

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The sign at gate D42.

D42 was a bus gate, we prefer a boarding bridge because boarding is much more efficient than messing about with buses, and it was certainly to prove inefficient today! As we were about to go through the doors to the bus the revolving door stopped working, with my Mum still inside it, and as I had got to the outer door to go and board the bus, the door had closed and we were trapped at the bottom of the steps. Eventually one of the staff got the door working again and we were able to board the packed bus to go to the aircraft.

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Our aircraft was Embraer 190 PH-EXV of Cityhopper (I really don't see the point of "Cityhopper"). This would be my first flight in an Embraer 190.

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A Cityhopper Embraer 175 viewed from my seat.

We had seats 8A and 8C, in a 2-2 configuration (I actually prefer this to 3-3). The seats were leather, unlike the seats in the 737 which are fabric.

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The winglet.

I have to say I am not impressed with the 190 seating. It was like sitting "between" windows, with a window mostly behind me, a window quite a way in front of me and an expanse of wall level with where I was sitting. To get photos I had to point my camera back through the window behind or lean right forward to the other window.

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Front end of Embraer 170.

Our scheduled departure time was 16:35. The captain announced we would be taking off from Polderbaan ( :D :D :D :D ) but we were to be delayed (again!!) because two passengers had checked their luggage in and not turned up for the flight, so their luggage had to be found and removed.

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The Embraer 175/190 safety card.

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A solitary pushchair waits to be loaded onto the aircraft.

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Inside the Embraer 190.

After the luggage had been removed, the Captain came into the cabin and used the address system to apologise for the delays and then said there would be another delay because winds had forced the closure of Polderbaan ( :( :( :( :( ) and we had to wait for a slot on another runway.

We finally pushed back at 17:23 and had a short taxi to the runway. We took off at 17:33.

Our flight was expected to take one hour fifteen minutes. It had been cloudy in AMS and we had slight turbulence as we climbed through the cloud.

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Climbing away from AMS.

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Between the clouds.

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Thick clouds.

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Thick clouds.

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Tomato wrap with cheese salad, spring onion, tomato and fresh spinach. The same sandwich as we had on AMS-WAW the previous week. I had tea to drink.

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The wrap. They are nice but they don't compare with Beemster!

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Above thick cloud. The whole flight was cloudy with some turbulence.

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Over Scotland.

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I don't know what island that is.

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Getting closer to Edinburgh.

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Approaching Edinburgh.

We touch down at 17:45 (45 minutes late) in rainy Edinburgh.

Our route had taken us across the North Sea and along the English coast, passing Flamborough head and Scarborough at 36,000 feet, 317 knots. We crossed the coast just north of Whitley Bay and flew inland over the Northumberland National Park.

Overall another brilliant experience with KLM, but those ATC restrictions are a real nightmare (not the fault of the airline and it doesn't detract from the fact that flying on KLM is an excellent experience).

Sabena and Sobelair - gone but never forgotten.
Louise

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