New WBC on your flight?

Of course the main issue for passengers is finding out if their specific flight is operated by a retrofitted aircraft. Unfortunately, KLM does not have a tool to find out if that's the case, unlike some of their competitors. There are various ways to determine if you can enjoy a full flat seat on your flight, which I will explain on this page.

Method 1: Looking at the seatmap on KLM.com when booking or in Manage My Booking far in advance.
If you have booked your flight, you can choose a seat in Manage My Booking on KLM.com. You can also see the seatmap during booking (even when making a dummy booking). If the seatmap of the B772 features NO MIDDLE SEAT, that means the flight has the new WBC.
However there is one BIG CAVEAT: planned aircraft are subject to change due to a large number of reasons. Especially long before departure. So you are never sure until Online Check-In where you can, once again, check the seatmap to get an idea of the layout. If the seatmap during OLCI also has no middle seat, you are practically guaranteed the new seat.

You can be more certain closer to departure by the following methods:

Method 2: following 'trends' of aircraft's assigned routes close to departure day.
Although KLM, as far as I know, does not have dedicated routes for the modified B772s, it is possible to notice a trend in destinations served by retrofitted aircraft. This was also the case with the B747 which flew mostly on a handful of destinations with the refitted aircraft.
To do this, you can look up the registration of the refitted aircraft (for a list click on the respective type in the menubar) and input the registration on this site (click). Then you will see the destinations the aircraft flew to earlier and you might discover a pattern. Of course, this is not waterproof and only gives an impression.

You can almost be 100% a few days before departure by the following method:

Method 3: check the scheduled specific aircraft for your flight.
You can check exactly which registration is scheduled to perform your flight on the Schiphol website (click). Fill in your flight number or destination and click on details. On the bottom line you will find the aircraft type and after that the registration (PH-XXX). Compare this with the lists on this site and then you are almost 100% sure if you will get the new WBC or not. Of course, this is also subject to last minute changes for example due to cancellations or mechanical issues.
The data is often loaded only for the next day. But if you are flying from an outstation, you can also track the inboud plane which will operate your flight.

I will follow the routes operated by refitted aircraft closely by using method 2 and of course post about it on this site when I notice a trend.

So method 4 is probably very important as well: keep following this site! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment