When it comes to airline collectibles, there’s no airline quite as cool as KLM. The Dutch carrier offers its long haul business class passengers miniature collectible houses, which are adorable enough to turn anyone into a collector. This might just be even cooler than Lufthansa’s collectible first class ducks.
Continue reading: KLM’s Delft Blue Dutch Houses Explained: 105 Collectibles, And Counting
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Why anyone would collect Skyteam collectibles is beyond me, but hey, each to their own.
The CAB absolutely did not have any say in this. The CAB was an American regulator that had absolute control over domestic routes within North America. It had absolutely no say over what a Dutch airline could do on its international routes, most of which did not even touch North America.
The real regulators that caused this would have been Dutch regulators or the IATA - International Air Transport Association. These were the regulators that would have had a say on what a Dutch airline could do on their routes, whether it was from Amsterdam to New york or from Amsterdam to Jakarta. You really should do better research if you're going to make claims like this and update your post accordingly.
You're missing the best ones 🙂 There are some specials that you can't get anymore, for instance when you did your Honeymoon in their First Class, called Royal Class, back in the day. Some more specials are there, but one that you can still get today is "Paleis op de Dam", which is twice as wide as the normal one. You get it when you reach Platinum for Life, which I just did.
Some specials can be found here: https://www.klmhuisjes.nl/14-specials
Well, it's not that I choose my flight because of the houses. But, with AMS as homebase, I now collected 90. It's a welcome break of the flight when they come by, have a chat, and find one you don't have. And they look nice in a row in the office. Many I collect on business. But, some are collected during special trips, like our honeymoon or a trip to Africa and a US West-coast tour with the kids. Where you get 4 per flight. They are nice souvenirs.
But if you live in AMS, I would fly through MUC/FRA with LH so you don’t have to experience the awfulness of skyteam
Flying KLM business class for the first time in a few weeks, and this is the primary reason I'm excited for it.
As a neutral but very frequent flyer, I’d turn your question on its head and ask why anyone in their right mind would want to fly Lufthansa when the alternative is KLM.
Also, the houses are nothing to do with the Skyteam brand: they’re very much uniquely KLM. I’d say absolutely collectible, though obviously not enough to sway my purchase decisions.
E39, you sound like you haven't been much to Europe or even on a single Lufthansa flight before. Star Alliance is great in Asia but in Europe, it's not the best alliance. LH, Brussels, Croatia, Lot, Tap are ok on their best days, but below average otherwise.
However it was related to regulations prohibiting airlines from giving gifts to customers. To get round it, KLM offered the last drink in the house.
Also flying through FRA/MUC to get to and from the Americas from AMS involves backtracking that just isn’t worth it for some.
Also KLM isn’t the best airline in the world but it isn’t awful either. On a good day it can be above average.
@Martin — True, as an European, I have never been there nor have I ever lived there, imagine that
@Aaron — Absolutely, KLM is not the worst, but skyteam is. I’ll quote a great person from ORD «if I fly star - I’ll go far. If I fly sky I’ll probably die»
Lufthansa is in star alliance so automatically 184847281 times better.
To be honest Air France > Lufthansa.
If I wanted to get to and from AMS on a non-direct flight would much rather transit via CDG on AF.
Great article, really enjoyed it (as a collector of blue and white porcelain). But as some others have pointed out: how does an American govt body have the 'right' to dictate what KLM can and can't do in it's global operations and non-American flights?! More research/corrections needed here?
As you wrote, each flight has a limited selection of house types to choose from — but the Crown Lounge in Schiphol has more, and they’re happy to swap if you didn’t get the one you wanted (although the choice available in the lounge is wider, it is never complete).
The problem is that the price of KLM business class these days is not worth for collecting the house. Interesting that they do not sell them too
E39- you must be an incredibly interesting people to have a conversation with at a dinner party or a cocktail bar.
You make a statement with zero logic to it, and then try to explain it by repeating it as is.
Little secret, there is only 104 houses as 11 and 23 are the same house they released twice! I am not sure, but it would be interesting to find out why!
Thanks for this history. I didn't see it when initially posted- but after a member of the flight crew gave me one of these in late September, when I flew on KLM (SAN-AMS), I decided to do some research out of curiosity and discovered your post.
FYI- I did not fly business class for that 11 hour trip- but I did arrive at the gate with a variety of snacks for the flight crew. As a former frequent international flyer for work: I understand Airline food gets boring for the crew members, so I now bring a variety of individually wrapped, relatively healthy snacks for the crew to enjoy on long hauls.
In exchange- and completely unexpected: The KLM crew gifted me a little Delft house as a thank you when we landed!
It was a bit confusing at first- I didn't know anything about it, or what was inside it- but now I understand the history and significance of this kind gesture!
Thanks again!