Teesside Airport (MME) is a tiny airport in the North East of England with very few flights. One is to Amsterdam and here we talk about the difference between business and economy and what happens when you miss you’re connecting flight at Schiphol.

The daily flight to Amsterdam (AMS) now seems to be operated by Eastern Airlines on behalf of KLM.

The flight time is only one hour and fifteen minutes. It really isn’t worth paying a business class fare, especially if you Sky Team status that will give you access to the business lounge. Although be prepared for the strict lounge guardian (more about that later).

Flexible economy tickets for this flight are truly flexible as I was able to go online and change the departure from Tuesday to Wednesday without any charges.

Usually, during online check in, you’ll be offered an upgrade to business for £50 – it isn’t worth that unless you plan on spending a few hours in the lounge.

Teesside Airport have new scanners at security that mean you don’t need to remove liquids or electronics from your hand luggage. Liquids can’t be over 100ml. The security staff are bored – so they’ll likely check inside your bag and probably take your toothpaste away (more about that here).

The recently-refurbished Rockliffe Lounge is guarded fiercely (more about that here).

If you’re lucky, they will board your flight direct from the lounge – just depends if they have staff available.

If not, the departure gate is just next to the lounge. Here’s, a flight operated by KLM – my recent flights have been with Eastern Airways.

If you decided to pay for business, you’ll likely have the entire front row to yourself.

And a Water, biscuit and a wet wipe left on your seat.

The business food plate is nothing special.

If you choose the exit row in economy, there’s plenty of leg room.

And they even give you a sandwich and drinks.

Schiphol airport is huge, you have to go through passport control for a connecting flight and KLM sell tickets with just over an hour to make the connection. One good thing is that the aircraft usually arrives at a stand – no messing about on a useless bus.

My last flight from Teesside was delayed enough that KLM sent me a text message to say that I would miss my connecting flight.

On arrival, I just followed the baggage reclaim and exit signs until I found a KLM desk. There is a dedicated desk for KLM gold card holders. They were really helpful, rebooked my flight to the next day, handed me a €15 voucher and told me to take the Van der Valk Hotel bus from Stop 9. Hotel review and bus times here.

I had a checked bag and KLM said they would keep it overnight and load it on to my next flight. That worked well. I could have also asked for the bag.

I didn’t use the voucher as I could eat and drink in the lounge the next day.

I later submitted a claim under EC261. KLM responded that the delay was due to air traffic control and therefore no compensation was payable. I may use one of the claim agencies to pursue the claim.

https://www.klm.com/