'The beauty and the beast'

By way of World Business Class on Northwest Airlines and KLM, I spent a few days in Orlando, the United States, last week and though nearly 70 years old, I enjoyed The Beauty and the Beast in one of the MGM theaters.

However, the trip to Orlando from Jakarta and back was not smooth with NWA and KLM. NWA is an airline with a fleet twice as large as KLM's. In the business transit lounge of Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, I heard the flight to Newark scheduled for 10:30 a.m. was postponed until noon. At noon the news came that the flight was canceled. I had to spend the night at the Golden Tulip Hotel.

The next day, the flight was on schedule, but my luggage did not arrive at Newark Airport. I did not travel just to see The Beauty and the Beast in Orlando, I also wanted to see The Phantom of the Opera in New York. I had made a booking six months earlier and also made several business engagements. One can imagine the rush to get some apparel in a city like New York which I visited for the first time. I would have missed the musical and several of the appointments had NWA and KLM postponed the flight for another day.

My luggage finally arrived on my doorstep at the Double Tress Suites in Orlando six days later.

On my way home from Dulles Airport, Washington, again in an NWA-KLM plane, I had to hand over my overnight bag to the authorities. It contained only some clean shirts, ties, pajamas, toiletries and slippers. I could not understand why other passengers were allowed to carry into the cabin their bags three times as big as mine. A World Business Class discriminatory treat?

The flight to Schiphol was on schedule. When we flew over Scotland the reading lamps on the right-hand side of business class began to flicker and off they went. One passenger protested and the stewardess succeeded in switching on the lamps. But I smelled fumes as though there was a short circuit. It was not a pleasant feeling, especially the idea that we were flying over Lockerby.

The marriage between NWA and KLM is like an episode of The Beauty and the Beast. NWA is big and rough, aiming at more and more quantity. KLM is not as big, but she retains her qualities, very gentle, polite and meticulous. But will there be a happy ending in this marriage similar to The Beauty and the Beast if their philosophy of life is indeed so different?

ZAHAR INDRA

Jakarta