In the end, the meeting I was attending finished sooner than expected, and I turned up at Schiphol shortly after 5pm. I wondered if I could have got on an earlier flight - as I've done this with VLM in the past. It turns out that if there is availability in your fare bucket, or the flight has plenty of space, they will let you go early. However, being 'rush hour', the two flights leaving beforehand, one about 1740, and one around 1820, were both 'almost full', VLMs criteria for trying to sell those seats at a higher 'walk-up' price. I could have 'upgraded' at the ticket desk, if I wanted to leave earlier.
So, I settled for the 1840 as planned, and picking up dinner at Schiphol to kill time at the Dutch end, and save time at home.
There was a short line to get through immigration - the line I was in originally was also the one where crew have queue-barging rights, and luckily, I saw two 747 loads of KLM crew approaching. I queue hopped rather quickly!
One of the nice things about the non-Schengen side of Schiphol is that the security check is usually done at each individual gate. This means that when you're travelling on a small plane like a Fokker 50, security lines aren't something you worry about.
A couple of slices of pizza and a Heineken later, it was time to trek off to D20-something to get the plane. While VLM have sensibly secured real gates to avoid bussing to the 'commuter area', they are a little ways from the central area, down near the gates BMI often use.
This has been something that VLM have used as a marketing advantage on their AMS flights, as KLM would always park on some remote in the middle of nowhere, and you would have a scenic bus ride to the terminal. I've noticed that KLM have now retaliated - they have moved their LCY operations at AMS from the remotes onto one of the piers, avoiding the bus ride. Someone must have suffered by having their flights moved to a remote, as even big bad KLM can't magic gates out of thin air!
Just as I got to the gate, our aircraft, PH-FZG, was arriving, very slightly late. VLM work their fleet very hard, very fast 20-30 minute turn arounds are possible with 50 seat aircraft, and these short turnarounds are the norm. Did security at the gate, not too much of a fiasco, and it's hard to believe the efficient and professional individuals at Schiphol are employed by G4S, the same company as Virgin's hired-in security who do document checking and the gate security at LHR. With the occasional exception, the G4S staff on the Virgin contract are generally rude at worst and unhelpful at best. There's no excuse to appear gruff, intimidating and unpleasant because you're in a security based job, the G4S staff at Amsterdam prove that, and remind you how dreadful places like LHR at their worst can be.
Anyway, after a few minutes wait in the gate lounge area, the dot matrix printer (quaint, but a good way of making multiple copies of one document on self-carbonated paper) burst into life with the pax manifest and weight and balance sheet for the flight, and it was time to head down the stairs and board. I noticed that the handler is now stationing someone to divert people down the stairs to the apron, rather than down the jetway, despite there being an elastic barrier closing off the jetway. I wonder if someone has gone down there and had an accident, or maybe everyone else followed them and there was a gridlock? There's also a person at the bottom waiting to corral you toward the waiting aircraft, even though the walking route to the aircraft seems fairly obvious and clearly marked. I mean, what are you going to do? Go wandering off because you don't like the look of your plane because it's blue? (This is at AMS, where about 60-70% of the planes are blue, so good luck trying.) Ah, I miss common sense. Come back Darwinism, and remove this stupidity from the gene pool!
Was about the 3rd person on board, and settled into my assigned seat of 5A, just forward of the wing, so with a full-size (for a Fokker anyway) overhead bin, but next to an engine and propeller. I settled in, cleaned the grease-clad window (I hate all the greasy stuff people put in their hair these days, because it leaves muck on windows and train/plane seats) next to my seat so that I could see out clearly, and watched the plane fill up. I was surprised when someone said 'Hello' to me, and when I looked up it was the Dutch girl from the outbound flight, heading home to London, but her seat was much further back.
A lady came and sat next to me, while her husband was about 3 seats further forward in 'Business Class' (as such as it is on a Fokker 50!), and very soon, we were closed up, issued with our sweeties for takeoff, starting engines, and pushing back for the long taxi out to the new runway 36L (which has the nickname 'Polderbaan', apparently chosen by a local teenage schoolboy), via the Northern side of the airport. However, the taxi was accomplished very briskly, there was no queueing for takeoff, and we were rocketing through some fluffy clouds, we must have climbed very quickly to avoid most of the clouds, we seemed to cross the coast quite high after completing our left turn to take us toward the Thames Estuary.
Both the cabin crew were male, and I recognised one of them from the outbound trip on Sunday. I think he also recognised me, as he acknowledged me as he walked along the aisle.
Once the service started, the man in business class sent his meal back to his partner sat next to me - and it looked like a halfway decent tray meal - crusty roll, salad, cold cuts, some cheese, I think, and a piece of gateaux for dessert. Respectable for a short trip on a little plane, considering most airlines only offer what I call 'dead weasel sandwiches', even in the front of the bus! Having said that, if how much she had eaten was an indication of how good it was, maybe it wasn't that great, as she seemed to pick at it.
Us in economy got the usual choice of sandwich and drink/bar selection, however, on this flight, we actually got a real tray place setup, with a little square of cake in a plastic bowl - like on a 'real' airline (with the plastic see-through lid and everything!). I didn't take a sandwich on this flight, having already eaten, but as I fancied a dessert, I took a coffee to go with my cake, and a Spa rood, of course. The cake was quite nice, a light chocolate sponge flan-type base, with a creme Anglais filling, topped with berries. I think the sandwiches on this flight were something like roast pork, and I think the other was either a cheese or egg salad. I wonder if VLM's sandwich supplier for the Amsterdam route, a Dutch party catering company (i.e. someone who is used to making huge platters of sandwiches!), is careful not to put things in the sandwiches which will make them go sweaty or soggy? If so, that shows good foresight. It was also nice to see a different sandwich selection compared to a couple of days previous. So many airlines have the same old tired food, day after day, week after week, month after month.
Drink top ups were offered as usual after the main service, and it was soon time to descend.
During the tray pickup, there was some sort of kerfuffle at the back of the plane, and it turned out that a woman had got red wine spilled over her, by accident I'm certain. She was wearing quite a nice dress, and went charging down to the tiny toilet screaming for salt to try and neutralise the stain (does that really work?). However, I really think she over-reacted, as at the end of the day, I avoid wearing uber-nice/uber-expensive clothes for travelling, as they are going to attract schmutz, or get slopped on during turbulence, especially so in Y or smaller planes like the F50 where there isn't bags of elbow room!
Of course, this kerfuffle meant we didn't get offered the usual Leonidas chocolates before landing, the crew simply ran out of time, as by the time the lady had calmed down and taken a seat, we were already being sequenced for arrival - which in itself was quite odd, with quite a few zig-zags.
When we reached Southend, we hung a sharp left and headed across the Thames Estuary for the Isle of Grain, overflying Rochester and Chatham, almost making it to Maidstone, before being swung around to the right again, back toward Dartford, and then left into a downwind leg for Runway 10 at London City. It was evidently busy at LCY, from the zig-zagging around to get us in sequence (and probably buy enough time to make sure there was space on the ground for us!). Did the usual flight over Eltham, Lewisham, Forest Hill, and toward Vauxhall, before making the right turn back to the airport, getting a good view of the bottom of a 767 only 1000ft above us heading for Heathrow, where they were landing west!
We still seemed to be going very quick compared to normal, and as we just turned onto the final approach, the aeroplane was 'dirtied' very quickly with a sudden change in propeller pitch, lots of flap down, and the lowering of the gear - the deceleration was noticeable, despite diving down London City's 5.5% glideslope. We ended up with a smooth touchdown on Runway 10, about 5-10 minutes late, followed by a smart U-turn to back track the runway and exit by the terminal, parking on stand 3, so right by Immigration, which helped with a bit of queue barging! I'd never seen such a long immigration queue at LCY. It is getting quite busy these days, but still coping quite well, I think.
Popped to the bathroom in the baggage hall, and when I came out, my bag was going round on the carousel (and everyone else from the flight had already got their bag and gone!), out to the DLR, and home.
Definitely very happy with the service on VLM, despite the slight lateness of the flight, and the dirty/greasy window! Offering 'real food' was a nice surprise to end the day, and the baggage delivery at LCY was very quick. Generally a pain and hassle free experience
