New Orleans to Helsinki 5-6 December
Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport
I'm teaching in Helsinki this week, so the flight plan is New Orleans to Atlanta, Atlanta to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Helsinki.
The flight to ATL was a bit bumpy. This happens on about half of my MSY-ATL (or return) flights. The air gets choppy over Alabama, sometimes to the point where the flight attendants have to shut down their service in the main cabin of the plane. My platinum status with Delta means I'm usually upgraded for this leg when I buy the ticket or within a day or two after purchase. This flight was no exception. Other than the bumps, the flight was what you'd expect for an hour.
(continued behind the jump)
Once at ATL, I had some time to kill. The timing of the MSY-ATL flights was such that I'd have either an hour or a three-hour layover. When I'm teaching, it's more than essential that I get to where I'm supposed to be on Monday morning, and that means making sure there are no missed connections. That made the one-hour layover dangerous. ATL is such a large hub, better to be there early. We came in from MSY on "B" and the flight to Schipohl departed from "E" so I made my way to the international concourse after a bio-break. I had lunch at the upscale sushi place on "E" (detailed review to follow). Then I headed over to the always-crowded SkyClub and did some work until time to board.
Usually I'm early to the gate, so the "breezeway" thing isn't a big deal, but they started boarding before I got there, so being able to legally jump the line was a good thing. I was nestled into seat 28G in no time, next to a nice gentleman from South Carolina. The plane was an older B737-300, with no individual entertainment systems. Luckily my iPod Touch was charged fully. We were only about 6 minutes off of an on-time departure.
As soon as we got to 10K feet, I put on some self-hypnosis stuff by Dick Sutphen, and was out like a light. And I mean out to the point where I passed on all service, first beverage, dinner, snack, and breakfast. No complaints, I don't need to be eating all that airplane food, anyway. We arrived at Schiphol Airport at 0730CET, a full half hour ahead of schedule.
Schiphol is set up so you're not immediately routed off to immigration. If you've come in from a non-EU country (like the US), and are transferring to a flight to another non-EU country, you stay on one side of the immigration barrier. If you're like me and connecting to a flight within the EU, or if AMS is your final air destination, you got through passport control. The lines were about twenty-deep, but moved quickly. Looking at the time (0830 and I had a 0900 boarding time), I passed on going to the KLM Crown Lounge and headed in the general direction of the gate for the AMS-HEL flight. I stopped for a quick breakfast (photo at top).
The AMS-HEL flight is usually an A320, but this time it was a regional jet. This is the first time I'd flown a regional for KLM. Other than having to take the steps down to the tarmac and back up the plane's steps, no problems. I quickly nodded off again and slept through most of the 2:15 flight to Helsinki. The flight was uneventful except a bit of chop as we hit the cloud cover over Helsinki. Once on the ground, no immigration or custome--the Finns trust the Dutch, I guess. Taxi to the hotel and all was well.
