Ben's Air Blog

See Part 2: British Airways A380 While pricing for my trip to Amsterdam for the last KLM MD-11 flight , I came across a fantastic deal in business class that I just could not pass up.  It was on a British Airways (BA) ticket from San Jose, California to Amsterdam for $2400.  The only catch - I had to make two connections to get there. The connection through LAX gave me an added bonus.  For the same price, I was able to choose to fly either on American (AA) or BA or a combination of both.  Of course, I went with the “enthusiast combo," flying outbound on the AA 777-300ER and returning on the BA A380 .  This also allowed for a BIS comparison between the new business class products from the two airlines.  How does the new American flying their newest airplane compare with the elegant old British queen flying their newest behemoth of the skies?

See Part 1, American 777-300ER Post Reservation Right off the bat, this flight got off to a bad start. After booking my ticket, I found out that I could not pre-reserve my seat.  Seats on all other legs on my ticket, including the codeshare AA flights and the European flights on BA, were available for pre-selection. However, seats on this leg from London Heathrow to Los Angeles on the A380 would cost an additional $105 to pre-select. I thought - I just paid for a premium ticket, why am I bring nickeled and dimed on the order of $100 plus to choose a seat?  Being cheap, I decided to take my chances and wait until check in. As the day of the flight approached, though, I noticed all the window seats at optimum locations were being taken up quickly. I was preparing for the worst.

On November 11, I flew on KLM's MD-11 Farewell Flight.  It was the last time where you can buy a ticket to fly on the distinctive trijet built by McDonnell Douglas in the 1990s.  KLM is the last airline to operate the passenger version of the MD-11 and they gave this old lady a grand send off fit for a queen.