A couple weeks ago, my friend and I took a trip to Spain from Minneapolis. We got a very good deal on our flights at ~$630 round trip in main cabin. Originally, we had booked a Delta flight to Amsterdam with a two hour layover and a connection onto KLM. Long story short, there were a multitude of schedule changes which led us to having a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam and flying KLM for both legs.
Because our trip was so short, being only four days in total, we decided to move our connection to Madrid to the following morning and spend that afternoon in Amsterdam. I then decided to pay for a discounted (due to my SkyTeam elite plus status) economy comfort seat and had chosen a window and middle for us.
Unfortunately, there was a plane swap that we were informed about a couple of days before departure. We were originally on a 787-9 and got moved to a 777-200ER. I love the 777, but this caused us to get stuck in two middle seats or have to forfeit our extra legroom option. We ended up choosing the two middle bulkhead seats due to their significant extra legroom and would just deal with being stuck in the middle.
While I was looking forward to the trip, I was not looking forward to being stuck between two strangers. The day of our flight came and we headed to the airport. We first spent some time at the Delta Sky Club near the G concourse at MSP and eventually made our way to the gate. Somewhat jokingly, I asked the KLM gate agent if there were any paid business class upgrades available.
Due to the plane change, there were quite a few empty business class seats and amazingly, the upgrade cost was very low (around $500). Whenever I’m on an overnight transatlantic flight (usually Delta), I always inquire about upgrades, but they usually quote a price in the mid thousands and thus it is not worth it.
However, my friend and I decided that this was a rare opportunity and we went for it—I’m very glad we did.
We departed Minneapolis at about 9:30 pm central time and were immediately offered pre-departure champagne or orange juice. I naturally chose the champagne. Once we reached cruising altitude, we were served dinner.
I chose the Lobster Bisque and salad for the appetizer.
As well as the cheese Tortellini with a crab cake, spinach, and tomato.
The seat was very spacious of course and was incredibly soft and comfortable for sleeping
Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of dessert and breakfast, but we had an opera cake as well as shakshuka respectively. All of the meals were delicious.
We landed around noon, but just before our descent, we were given the traditional Delft houses as well as a chocolate Dutch house.
We then continued on to Madrid the following morning on a KLM 737-800 with the new interior.
(Bonus can you spot the Orange Pride 77W in the background)
Saw an Alitalia… cough cough ITA A320 when we landed in Madrid
Our return wasn’t as exciting as it was just in economy, but we flew an Air France A319 from Madrid to CDG and an Air France 787-9 to Boston from there after the typically stressful Paris airport connection.
Hope you guys liked the review… I’ll work on getting some more photos in the future.
Northwest