I am glad to introduce you to a new routing to North America, to Canada, Toronto as final destination, with stopovers in Montreal and Amsterdam.
Why Montreal? Because I'M IN LOVE WITH THE MD11
As per the link above, the MD11 is my favorite plane. (Now I have to say was as all pax variant have been retired from active service). I was supposed to bid farewell to that bird in April 2014 but I could simply not stay with this last flight. Mid-August there was a Flying Blue special offer for Montreal, 62'500 miles + taxes, return, and in J class. I checked if the MD1 still operated to YUL that was the case. Then I checked what flights were available, and I took a return ticket. It was shortly before October 25th when the plane was taken out of service from KLM. A while after, KLM offered 3 last farewell flights on November 11th. (The first of the sightseeing flights left AMS the 11.11 at 11:11. All tickets for the 3 flights were sold within 6 minutes!!)
Watch this video that KLM made for their 95 anniversary, using a MD11, really impressive:
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch'v=-fVKAW_cCls][b] You tube video[/b][/url]
OK, this to introduce you to following routing:
[list=3]
[b][s]Outbound[/s]:[/b]
[*]Euroairport - Amsterdam, KL J / E90: Here you are.
[*]Amsterdam - Montreal, KL J / M11: Soon
[*]Montreal - Toronto WS Y / 736: Soon
[b][s]Inbound[/s]:[/b]
[*]Toronto - Montreal WS Y / 736: Soon
[*] Montreal - Amsterdam KL J / M11: Soon
[*] Amsterdam - Euroairport KL / F70: Soon
[/list]
I decided to go to YTO for two reasons: I did not know the city yet and I wanted to log the 737-600, the one and only 737 variant I had not flown. AvGeek forever ;)
I arrived an hour before takeoff at Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg EuroAirport, living 5 minutes from the airport helps a lot! Lots of people at check-in as the self-check-in kiosks are out of order. I had to ask one of the AF agent to open me the Sky Priority lane, as it is usually corded off.
The friendly agent, noticing I only had hand luggage, offered me to check me in at his kiosk. That was much appreciated.
Lots of people at the check in, but nobody at security, strange, but I took it ;)
I headed to the lounge to have a small breakfast (no lounge pictures, but if you read my former reports, there are plenty on them)[/text]
[image]https://static.flight-report.com/media/photos/mMh7tP75aL/DSC_0979.JPG;https://static.flight-report.com/media/photos/mMh7tP75aL/DSC_0980.JPG;https://static.flight-report.com/media/photos/mMh7tP75aL/DSC_0981.JPG[/image]
[text]The scrambled eggs were soggy and add absolutely no taste. The chicken sausage was good, so were the cold cuts and the cheese.
Soon enough it is time to proceed to the boarding gate, where the actual boarding was launched with a strict respect of all priorities. But the English accent of the agent was terrible. One would have said she was speaking English like a Spanish cow, but worse, you had the feeling she was absolutely not speaking English. Not very professional indeed.
Unfortunately no pictures of the cabin as my neighbor was already seated when I entered the plane. As for the lounge, in my former reports, you'll find lots of them.
As my neighbor stood up, I quickly snapped a picture of the window. I really like them on the Embraer, they are really big:
Breakfast is quickly served by a very friendly purser. Last time I was seated on row 1 and when you have a seat mate, it is almost impossible to store everything on the tray table. This time, I learnt my lessons and booked a seat on row 2 as I knew business was going to be full.
Everything was good and fresh, it's adequate to a flight of that length. What I did not and will never like is the box and the plastic cutlery.
That's the pitch, very good at the first rows (up to row 6):
On time arrival, long taxi and deboarding via bus. That will allow me to take some picture of our ride:
The second part is to come very soon!
