Alon’s Blog

An Israeli in the bay

Business Class

KLM Miniature HouseSpecial Update from Amsterdam Schipol Airport… I got upgraded to business class (”Europe Select”) on my flight to Amsterdam because the flight was overbooked and Economy was full, so I got to feel KLM shorthaul business class service. The seats are standard Economy seats, but the service is improved. The food is served with real utensils and plates, and every passenger gets a personal video player with a selection of movies (I saw “300″), high quality earphones, and a kit with earplugs and eyeshades (among other stuff).

However, the two best things about “Europe Select” are the fact that the center seat is always free, and the fact that they clear trash and trays from your seat much faster than in Economy, several times during the flight. And the last useful perk is lounge access, which I am using right now to write this blog post.

Now I need to explain why there’s a model house in this post. Well, that’s another benefit of KLM Business class. You get one of these collectible model houses for free. Not very useful, but serves as an icon for this post…

July 1st, 2007 at 11:42 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer, Germany, Travel | one comment

On my way again

KLM Fokker 70Yes, the airplane is here for a reason. I’m writing this post from the DAN lounge at Ben Gurion airport (TLV). I’m flying to Frankfurt via Amsterdam, and then wait to join my colleagues in a taxi to Dagstuhl, Germany. There, I plan to attend a Dagstuhl seminar titled “Computational Social Systems and the Internet”. My talk on Personalized Ranking Systems will be given tomorrow afternoon.

So, why am I flying via Amsterdam when EL-AL and Lufthansa each operate two direct flights on this flight daily? The reason is of course miles. I am a frequent flyer of KLM and thus prefer to earn KLM frequent flyer miles instead of Lufthansa’s.

That’s all for now. Next update from Dagstuhl itself, on their free wifi and wired network.

July 1st, 2007 at 03:20 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer, Germany | no comments