ALM - by Clemens Gjertsen
15 October 2001

We flew ALM in their so called 'Comfort Class' on the Amsterdam-Curacao v.v. section, as they present their business class. When making reservations they told us there should be a 44-inch seat pitch - but the seats would equal normal economy seats and service should be of business class level. ALM leases their plane from Sobelair, a Belgian lease and charter company. Ticket price was not of regular business level, but about 2.5 times the economy fares. Then you should at least expect something - it was lousy. Seat pitch was only a 35 inches (we realized that economy must be a punishment to travel in) and food and service was not even of normal economy class level. All served on plastic trays and not enough to fill the slightest corner in your stomach. Check in (they did offer separate counters) took longer than economy (in Amsterdam) as there was only one business class counter for about 60 passengers and about 6 for 200 economy passengers. Only one toilet was available for the 60 business class passengers, which is not sufficient. Service from the Belgian (Sabena-paid) crew was of not more than basic economy level - always in a hurry, no smiles. Trash bags in the galley, dirty toilet after 2 hours, not enough toilet paper and no refill. Not surprised that we will never use this airline again, which makes it difficult to fly in business class to Curacao as KLM is the only other carrier to Curacao and uses its monopoly position to charge very high rates.


 

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