KLM

KLM. Not a radio station, but an airline. Get that?

Fun Stuff

KLM Pop up

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is worried that not enough Americans know that KLM stands for Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, and that those letters are not the call letters for a radio station.

So the carrier has hired actor Ken Marino (Wet Hot American Summer, Marry Me) and put him in a series of odd, short videos in which he offers descriptions of the airline, airports and yes, fliers.

The campaign is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and a variety of other places, including its own microsite, ItsAnAirline.com which, KLM says, has some Easter eggs to discover.

Here’s a sample of the video series.

 

KLM’s new safety video – made of Delft

Safety, , , ,

KLM making of inflight safety Film 1

Given the wacky one-upmanship airlines are into these days with their safety videos, it’s refreshing to see one airline resort to a cool use of art and animation.

KLM called on the Delft Blue artists to help make a new safety video that will be shown on intercontinental flights starting November 1.

To make the film the safety instructions were translated into a series of Delft Blue-style illustrations, which were sent to a digital animator, who turned them into the series of images that would end up in the animated video. Those images were painted onto more than a thousand Delft Blue tiles and photographed using the stop the stop-motion technique to create the video.

This short film shows that process.

KLM has a long history with the Delft Blue design. Since 1952 the airline has been giving out miniature Delftware houses to World Business Class passengers on intercontinental flights.

The Delft Blue miniature houses are copies of real houses from throughout the Netherlands and the collection now includes 96 models.

KLM HOUSES

KLM’s new game: JETS

Fun Stuff, , ,

KLM JETS_edited

Like playing games on your smartphone when you travel?

Seems like everyone does.

Which is why KLM has a game – called Jets – that puts the two activities together.

Available free in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store the game is filled with familiar Amsterdam sights (canals, bicycles, drawbridges) and awards in-game currency – Wings – for accomplishing various tasks.

I’ve downloaded the app and am working on the first level – collecting 100 stamps in the city with my paper airplane – but I’ll certainly fall behind any player who’s also a KLM passenger taking a flight out of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

Thanks to beacon technology installed at the airport, KLM passengers can earn extra Wings when they show up on time for their flight.

KLM has another game you can download and play: Aviation Empire lets you own and manage your own airline.

Win an Airbnb stay in a converted KLM airplane

Airports, Fun Stuff, Hotels, , ,

Now here’s a great way to spend the Thanksgiving weekend: inside an “airplane apartment.”

klm shleve

From now through November 20, you can enter a contest to win an overnight stay – on November 28, 29 or 30 – inside a recently retired KLM MD-11 airplane parked next to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

The plane has been turned into an apartment with 116 windows, large living room, a master bedroom, an extra room with two beds, a kitchen and eight (!) small bathrooms. There’s also Wi-Fi, library, first class chairs, a game console and plenty to see outside the cockpit window.

KLM AIRBNB PLANE

Sound like the kind of Airbnb digs you might like to try out?

The KLM contest will pick one winner for each of the three nights and each winner may bring up to three guests. Even better: winners also get roundtrip flights on KLM to Amsterdam and a 500 EUR Airbnb gift card.

If you win a night on the airplane there will some rules:

*No flying.
*Don’t use the inflatable emergency slide.
*Smoking is not allowed when the non-smoking sign is on.
*No marshmallow roasting with the jet engines.

There’s more information – and details on entering the contest – in the Airbnb listing.