AMS-CUR-AMS
I came in from Curaçao CUR this morning after a 24 hour stop. It was not in the planning, but crewco called me Thursday night asking if I minded doing a quick run to CUR. Sick people etc. Yeah... big surprise! Sick people after 'Koninginnedag'. What a concept. Since I was home the whole week and I am required to fly one type of aircraft at least once every six months, I agreed. You know me and the MD11 already... not my favorite aircraft to work on and especially not to CUR with those sometimes obnoxious, rude people. Not all of them, mind you!
Anyway the flight was a breeze. I was once again galley slave by choice. It's my fave position on the Mad Dog 11. When I arrived in CUR the rest of the crew went to 'borrel' (have drinks), but I went straight to my room. Those Dutch people like a 'borrel', you know. First thing in the hotel is always "laten we gaan borrelen!" (Let's have a drink).
Final approach into Hato
30 degrees of warm pleasure
Unlike the rest, I was returning the next day. I ordered room service and watched TV. The next morning, I went to Punda to visit a cousin of mine who lives there. After about 2 hours, it was back to the hotel to rest and get ready for 15.00... calling time.
In the bus, I met the crew I would be travelling back with to Amsterdam AMS. I guess they were friendly enough, but I just didn't care. Jet-lag, too little sleep etc. It was getting to me.
Well... at Hato was a disaster! I didn't realize there would be 3 flights to Amsterdam leaving around the same time! Who the hell thought of this! Saturday is the day for KLM, Martinair and Arkefly. OMG. So many people and passengers. Also security was a bitch. 100% control of course. Even the crews! Ugh! Although 1 person is travelling to Amsterdam, the whole family comes to say goodbye. The departure hall was pure hell. The sight of the three AMS bound aircraft was weird to see. It doesn't happen often. This is a picture taken from jetphotos.net depicting the same situation as yesterday.
KLM, Martinair & Arkefly
Reminds me of this pic from a few years back. Same airport.
KLM, KLM & KLM (747-400, 747-300 & MD11)
The flight back to AMS was uneventful and the Senior Purser let me make the arrival announcement. What? You think only Arkefly with their Curaçao based crew had Papiamento announcement? Anyone ever flew them to the Caribbean? Those stupid people are really stuck-up in my opinion. Even my Mom thought so and she flies often.
Anyway, back in Rotterdam I went straight to bed and now I am up. Vacation is over and tomorrow it's back to work. Yippie! Yeah right....
Anyway the flight was a breeze. I was once again galley slave by choice. It's my fave position on the Mad Dog 11. When I arrived in CUR the rest of the crew went to 'borrel' (have drinks), but I went straight to my room. Those Dutch people like a 'borrel', you know. First thing in the hotel is always "laten we gaan borrelen!" (Let's have a drink).
Final approach into Hato
30 degrees of warm pleasure
Unlike the rest, I was returning the next day. I ordered room service and watched TV. The next morning, I went to Punda to visit a cousin of mine who lives there. After about 2 hours, it was back to the hotel to rest and get ready for 15.00... calling time.
In the bus, I met the crew I would be travelling back with to Amsterdam AMS. I guess they were friendly enough, but I just didn't care. Jet-lag, too little sleep etc. It was getting to me.
Well... at Hato was a disaster! I didn't realize there would be 3 flights to Amsterdam leaving around the same time! Who the hell thought of this! Saturday is the day for KLM, Martinair and Arkefly. OMG. So many people and passengers. Also security was a bitch. 100% control of course. Even the crews! Ugh! Although 1 person is travelling to Amsterdam, the whole family comes to say goodbye. The departure hall was pure hell. The sight of the three AMS bound aircraft was weird to see. It doesn't happen often. This is a picture taken from jetphotos.net depicting the same situation as yesterday.
KLM, Martinair & Arkefly
Reminds me of this pic from a few years back. Same airport.
KLM, KLM & KLM (747-400, 747-300 & MD11)
The flight back to AMS was uneventful and the Senior Purser let me make the arrival announcement. What? You think only Arkefly with their Curaçao based crew had Papiamento announcement? Anyone ever flew them to the Caribbean? Those stupid people are really stuck-up in my opinion. Even my Mom thought so and she flies often.
Anyway, back in Rotterdam I went straight to bed and now I am up. Vacation is over and tomorrow it's back to work. Yippie! Yeah right....
posted by Traveller at 9:45 PM
7 Comments:
You damn right, ARKEFLY Curacao base crew i don't even know why they are there for!!!!!!! Ze voelen zich hoger dan ik weet niet what. Especially this short bald head one I guess his name is Jonathan pfffffffffffffffff... There is also this Arubian stewardess Tatiana Loaiza or something like that she so .... Grrr
Anyway, Ryan thanks allot for your help. I had a blast in AUA
but i need help again.... i want to do this same trip again in december and with delta if it's possible can you please start checking the prices for me etc. etc.
Ow by the way i went shoppinggggggggggggggggggggggggg in Miami thanks allot Ryan. I stayed at Howard Johnson plaza hotel i payed 55euro. There's this big mall Westfield Mall nearby damnnnnnnn shopping...
Ow by the way my flight DL81 to JFK went so so fast, my flight JFK-MIA was a mess that night. The flight had to make a short stop in Tampa because the JFK-TPA flight was cancelled so they packed all the tampa pax in our aircraft. I arrived very late in miami so i missed the hotel shuttle bus, i had to pay taxi but that wasn't a problem. grrrr...
When i booked my ticket i had the travel agent change my flight instead of leaving the morning with AA MIA-AUA i let her put me on the AA MIA-AUA @ night...
So i could of roam around in miami hmmmm. I bought lots of stuff in hort time i had.
Well flying thru Miami is a f*cking messsss, security, long lines, oh my God, paspoort checks. I counted total 4 times i gave my paspoort and boarding pass to uhmm.. I forgot the name they have, those security people. TC or TLC uhmmmm TCI ofzo weet ik veel.
And i noticed @ JFK Delta terminal only black people working there that whole terminal is manned by black.
And @ Miami only latins Oh My Gosh only latins.
Uhm my flight back was just tiredsome... I had 3 hours layover in miami, 5 hours layover in JFK. But am back in Holland better than ever thanks dude.
But help me get a cheap ticket in December Pleaseee... I got about 9000zoveel miles. Now i have a total of 34654 Award Miles.
So please if u can find a flight with delta or any skyteam members... leaving 22Dec back 6Jan
I DON'T WANT KLM, I WANT SOMETHING DIFFERENT AGAIN. NO ARKEFLY, NO MARTINAIR
JUST SOME ADVENTURE...
R.
Uhmm. I type very fast so lots of mistakes.. sorry about that...
R.
R... Remy right?
I am glad you had a blast. Travelling to AUA through the States is an adventure indeed, but it's not for everyone. Like my Mom likes to shop and she doesn't mind the transit times, so she does it often. But my Dad is another story. Non-stop, direct for him and preferrably with KLM.
It also depends on the city you are transferring in. Miami is alright because of the great weather and relaxed attitude of the Latinos. I like JFK because of NYC and its shopping. Washington IAD is boring and Chicago ORD can be cold and windy. Now that you did MIA and NYC, I suggest another city the next time. Be adventurous. You only live once.
As for the "TC or TLC uhmmmm TCI ofzo weet ik veel."... I think you mean the Transportation Safety Administration TSA. A royal pain in the ass if you ask me. When i went Aruba last X-Mas the bitches wanted to see my BP and passport soooo many times. Don't even talk about the fingerprint scan and that stupid webcam you have to look into to take a pic. I felt like a criminal! But that is an excellent example of the downside of travelling through the USA. On the flight back you don't have that problem, because you do everything in Aruba, although that business of checking-in, pick-up your bags again, drag them through customs and then put them on a belt again is a bit of a hassle. The thing that got me pissed, is the amount of times I had to remove my belt and take off my shoes! That's why I do what my parents thaught me... where flip-flops and put your shoes on when you finished all the security checks. Also I don't understand why pax bound for the USA have to go through security twice in Aruba. First local and then USA security. Isn't once enough??? They should get that shit checked out.
As for the blacks working at JFK... I don't know. I never used DL out of JFK. I use LGA, because its closer to the city and then connect in ATL to go AUA.
MIA is indeed Cuban, Puert Ricans etc. etc. You can speak Spanish the whole day if you want! Lol!
As for December... be early. If you want SkyTeam, you will end up with DL again. It's hard to find a good ticket with CO via EWR or IAH, although Junior flew them to AUA in March via EWR for only 588,-!! But that doesn't happen often.
My pal Lesley has a SkyTeam card with KLM, a Star Alliance card with UA and a OneWorld card with AAdvantage. That way he takes whatever flight is the cheapest to the States, SXM or wherever he wants to go. I have KLM of course and also OneWorld but with Finnair and Star Alliance with Lufthansa. But if you definetely want SkyTeam, I can check it up in Amadeus. I'll be in meeting the whole day tomorrow, so it will be until Tuesday when I'm at the office. But do note you have enough miles for a return trip to any city in the USA and back.
See ya, R!
Ryan
TSA's are a bitch! [angry]. My best trip so far was Amsterdam-Atlanta where I shopped for 2 days. Then Atlanta-Sint Maarten for X-Mas. On the return I flew Sint Maarten-Atlanta-JFK where I stayed for 2 days as well. Then JFK-Amsterdam all with Delta for a much cheaper price than KLM.
Micheline
Huh? What do you mean with ticket to USA... I tried on www.klm.nl it says my miles are to low...
And my vacation is starting 22dec until 6 jan
I dont mind flying thru another city but please try and find in amadeus a layover other than a city that has winter what i mean is that darn cold....
R.
R....
I'm sorry if I didn't explain myself well. What I meant was that if you log into your FB account online on klm.nl, you will find a section called PromoAwards. If you look at North America, you will find you can go to YYZ, DFW for 50% discount. So you only need 25000 points/miles. Now of course you might not want to go to any of those cities, but every 6 weeks KLM/AF update the PromoAwards and it ALWAYS includes different USA cities for 25000. PromoAwards are the best. Keep an eye on it! In December I flew AMS-CDG-JFK / LGA-AUA / AUA-ATL-AMS and made 12245 points. That was with DL. If you buy the cheapest ticket with KLM, you only get 25% of the mileage. Rip-off!
I'll check out the flights in Rez @ work tomorrow, but it's gonna be hard.... high season runs from 15-12-08 to 07-01-09. So you are in the hot zone! And by hot I mean expensive....
If you don't want cold... it would have to be in the south. MIA, ATL or IAH. The rest is... brrrrr
Well, I checked and checked and it's bad news... everything between the dates you asked for is above the 1000. AA is the cheapest via MIA on the way down and JFK on the way back without overnighting on either way for 1032. You will have to play around with more daates but as I said... you are in high season and quite late with booking. Also remember that the surcharges like fuel and now the 'vlieftax' after July 31st apply to these fares, therefore making them more expensive than usual.
BTW... hectic day at Menzies, Remy? I was at Schiphol today and it was chaos at times.
Ryan
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