Kronoskrant

The Fokker 100 carries four overwing exits, two on each side. The Fokker 70 is the same aeroplane with two fuselage sections taken out, and with the shorter cabin two of those exits were no longer needed. One went from each side.

What is left sits at row 11, which is well aft of the middle of the cabin. That surprises people until you remember where the wing is. The engines hang on the tail, so the wing sits further back than on an aircraft with engines under it, and the overwing exit sits with the wing.

The practical effect is that row 11 has legroom the rest of economy does not, which is why it costs a little more to sit there. Behind row 15 you are level with the Tays, and it is loud. That is in the seat notes when you choose, because finding out at rotation is not the same as being told.

There is no row 13. KLM's own charts for the type skip it and so do ours.

Choosing a seat used to be a wish. Now it is a hold: the moment a booking is made the seats come off the map for everybody else, and the database refuses a second sale of the same one rather than trusting the screen to have been up to date.

If a payment is never finished the hold expires after twenty minutes and the seats go back. Nothing has to be tidied up by hand, and nobody ends up holding a row they never paid for.

The same applies to changes afterwards. Moving seats, adding a bag, adding something to eat: none of it takes effect until the payment settles. An abandoned change leaves the booking exactly as it was, which is the behaviour you want when the thing you are changing is a real reservation.

Every payment on this site is simulated. Kronos is flown in Microsoft Flight Simulator, nothing is charged, and no card or bank detail is asked for anywhere.