Orlando via Amsterdam with KLM.com|& Martinair - Anyone Done This?

Nordictat2

AMS airport is big so by the time you get off the plane, have some food, have a look around, have a loo break..it'll be time for you to be at your gate If it saves you quite a bit of money...it's surely worth it.

old_motters

I've done this, not ex-MAN though. I did LHR-AMS-MIA with the European leg on KLM. Martinair are a decent enough airline, the flight crews were young and efficient although not very friendly. For some that's an issue, personally, I like them to be efficient. The connection will be fine, definitely don't worry about that.

It was a few years ago but, the food was some of the best economy food of any airline. The only issue I had was the seats, at the time there were no headrests which is surprising for a transatlantic flight. Delta did the same thing to me recently and the journey is a bit more fatiguing without the headrest. There was also no IFE.

As to why KLM and Martinair, they've had a long standing relationship and KLM provides feeder flights for the Martinair flights. I believe with the right fare class, you can even get FB miles with Martinair.

nw_man

We did Man - Orlando this summer in a similar fashion with Lufthansa.

Saves an absolute fortune on going direct. :rotfl:

leew

I've been looking into this on the Klm website and came across this:

Transferring at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

If you are travelling to/from Schengen countries, you should count on having to go through security checks and customs inspections. These can substantially extend the time it takes to complete your transfer procedure. Your hold baggage is automatically labelled through to your final destination.

I'm guessing by this your bags are taken care of untill you get to Orlando like you guys have mentioned :T

Transfer documents

When you check in for the first flight of your trip, you receive these documents:
• a boarding pass for your connecting flight;
• a mini-folder containing important information about your transfer from Schiphol to your connecting flight

Sounds ok that to me! It's put my mind a little more at ease!!

gjchester

We looked at a similar routing to Orlando thorough Ebookers. It was £60 each cheaper than direct with Virgin. (Martinair rings a bell so probably was KLM). End of the day the extra time taken meant we would need to get to Gatwick a hour earlier and hit Orlando about 10pm. Adding on an hour for customs at the orlando end and then car hire it would be a fair drive in the dark at the end of a long day.

We thought about it (just two of us) and the saving wasn't worth the potential hassle it could be, getting into Orlando in the dark, not knowing where we were going and maybe not getting to the hotel to midnight.

lisaloo1977

I always book using these.

http://www.charterflights.co.uk/?onlineBooking=d5a88e325e508cc2666369135592539b

We have actually flown for £159 each more than once. I always find it comes out heaps cheaper than Virgin. It is obviously cheaper if you can leave it late to book.

richard.hall99

Martinair generally fly to these type of 'holiday' destinations!!

Your bags will be checked all the way through to your final destination and you will get your boarding card for the flight in Manchester for the second leg so you wont have to worry about checking in again.

Once you arrive in AMS like people said time will fly as you have to go through security, have something to eat and then do some shopping before the connection.

PUREHOMES

broadway before and last year and the previous year paid approx £250 each direct from MAN to SANFORD.

Flights were with Monarch but for £810 for 2 adults and 2 kids, it was a bargain

Amcham

This is a sample of part of the email that my husband may be about to send to KLM (still drafting). The flight we took was for our honeymoon and going there and coming back was a nightmare. I do not want anyone to suffer what we have suffered.

“After a relaxed check in at Heathrow Airport on Sunday 30th of May 2010 and an equally pleasant flight into Schiphol, Amsterdam-we were informed by the flight attendants that our flight to Orlando international Airport had been rescheduled to the next day months ago and that we did not a flight out of Amsterdam that day.

Both myself and my partner were significantly upset by this news, not only were we in a foreign country with little to no local currency (having only anticipated a short stoppage in Amsterdam) but also our honeymoon which we've worked so hard to plan and organize was stalled before it had started. The flight team informed us that we should have been stopped at Heathrow and informed of this and that we should not even have been allowed to board the plane into Amsterdam but rather had given replacement flight towards Orlando from London.

The team also pointed out that you had not only our e-mail and postal addresses also contact telephone numbers [which we verify what all correct and true] and should have been informed us of the change months ago. I'm happy to say that due to the hard work and dedication of your staff members, we were able to reroute a flight from Atlanta with a five-hour transfer via Delta Airways to Orlando.

Again we were able to have a very pleasant flight towards the US however this rerouting put us significantly behind our planned schedule. Once we finally arrived in Orlando, we again received some unfortunately news – our luggage had been put on a later flight. At this point my partner became very distraught not only as we were off our planned schedule, had missed our transfer to the hotel but also because she became worried we had lost our luggage. Thankfully your staff in Orlando were very nice to us and were able to find the missing luggage and 90 minutes later we were reunited with our bags and headed to our hotel.

As a result this flight being rerouted and the lost luggage, we missed the ‘wishes’ firework display at Disneyland that evening and was also severely jetlagged the next day. Even though we were six hours later than originally planned, this amazingly large oversight deeply affected our plans and caused a huge amount of stress that put my honeymoon at jeopardy.

I would be prepared to let this go had it been the only problem; however I am sad to report that returning to the UK again I was faced with similar amounts of misfortune.

On my return journey I had the opportunity to fly with Martinair, an affiliate of KLM in the US. Partly because I had such fantastic service with KLM towards the US, I was exceptionally displeased with the service I received with Martinair. The level of service and the comfort of the aircraft did not match that of KLM, Delta or Air France and was closer to what would be experienced on a budget airline. Upon arriving to the airport I was informed that I was not sitting with my wife, and that if I wanted to sit with the person I wanted to I would need to pay out $160 in order to be upgraded to ‘comfort class’. Not expecting this revelation to come as I was leaving the country, I had neglected to bring such funding with me and was forced to remain in economy class. Upon boarding the plane there was an almost riotous amounts of pushing and shoving from other passengers eager to sit next to their own partners and families completely ignoring the seating plan and being ignored by the air stewards. When I attempted to negotiate to my allocated seat and failed, a rather bemused air steward informed me that I would "HAVE to sort out myself” and simply walked away.

During the takeoff procedure I was not shown a video of any safety requirements instead it was half muffled by a flight attendant wearing a life jacket while laughing and smiling at the other attendant in a life vest. Had this been my first flight, I would have been simply appalled and probably would not have wanted to fly should I actually need a life vest.

This brings me to my next issue regarding the onboard services available on the flight. Where I was sitting there was no personal TV for entertainment and food and drink were absent as well. During the flight I had to watch a very distorted and discoloured screen, 10 rows in front of me while using headphones that stopped working two hours into the flight. The flight attendants were unable and unwilling to help.

During the flight both myself and my wife were passed over for food and attempts to gain flight attendants attention simply fell on deaf ears. This meant for eight hours, I was barely entertained, I was in a seat that I had not planned to be in, I was not fed and was considerably un-refreshed for my journey to continue once I reached Amsterdam.

Although I'm happy to say the remainder of my journey was to the usual care and standard I had received previously with KLM, once I reached Heathrow I found that my wife’s case had actually been broken with its large plastic handle snapped off completely. There was neither a note nor explanation available at the time to why this occurred however given it was intact when we checked in at Orlando.”