Get Collectible House with KLM Business Class Flight

If you fly business class on long-haul flights with the Dutch Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, or Royal Dutch Airlines, there is a surprise waiting for you at the end of your flight. The cost of the ticket from Ft. Myers can easily run over $6,000 roundtrip at this time of shocking price increases on most international first and business class seats. However, you will be presented with a house. Mind you, not a place to live in, but certainly a unique remembrance of The Netherlands as it is part of the renowned Royal Delft Blue production. It is a numbered collectible miniature that copies a notable building in The Netherlands or from one of the former Dutch colonies, Curacao and Aruba in the Caribbean. 

KLM is the world’s oldest commercial airline, founded on October 7, 1919. Albert Plesman, a Dutch Air Force pilot, became the Chief Executive Officer for the company and remained at the helm of KLM for 35 years. On May 17 of the following year, 28-year-old pilot Henry “Jerry” Shaw flew from London Croydon Airport to Amsterdam with two British journalists, a collection of The Times and Daily Mail newspapers, and a letter from the mayor of London for his counterpart in Amsterdam on board. 

The covered passenger cabin featured space for four passengers, but the pilot had to sit in an open cockpit in those days. Two hours and fifteen minutes later, they landed to a grand welcome in Amsterdam. Three years later, the airline operated a five-day flight from Amsterdam to Indonesia (a Colony of The Netherlands at the time, called the Dutch West Indies) with sixteen refueling stops on the way, maintained in cooperation with the Dutch Shell company. Today, in cooperation with partner Air France, the company is one of the largest airline groups in the world, operating 551 aircraft. 

Delft Royal Blue (Delft Blauw) is an iconic style of ceramic originating in the charming old canal city of Delft around 1600, during the Dutch Golden Age. Originally, this art was inspired by Chinese porcelain brought to the Netherlands by the well-established and known East India Shipping Company. The Dutch copied Chinese artists but eventually were able to develop this into a unique art of blue-on-white ceramics featuring Dutch life, landscapes, and the country’s hegemonic power on the world’s seas of the Golden Age. The distinctive blue paint is created with cobalt oxide. It begins as grey in color but changes drastically when fired in a kiln at between 2,000 and 2,400 degrees to a spectacular blue that is the trademark of Delft Royal Blue. The title “Royal” was bestowed on the company by Queen Wilhelmina in 1919 in gratitude for the work the company did that caused the city of Delft to flourish. 

There is a museum in the city dedicated to these unique ceramics with a collection of beautiful pieces as well as a display of the production process of Royal Delft Blue. 

Around 1950, KLM was grappling with new regulations restricting gifts to passengers. They could serve alcohol, but gifts were restricted. A well-known Dutch alcoholic drink, Jenever, was served then on board and still is today. The drink’s main ingredient is Juniper but in lesser amounts than in regular gin and therefore milder on the palate. It is normally consumed straight from shot glasses. Instead of delivering the drink in miniature bottles, the company came up with the idea to serve the well-known and unique Dutch Jenever from the company Bols in miniature houses created by Delft Royal Blue specifically for KLM. It was a clever guise as the airline officially did not gift anything but “only served Dutch Jenever and passengers could take home the ‘bottle-house’ as a souvenir. The practice continues today and has created a lucrative market for collectors all over the world. At the entry to the Business Class lounge of KLM in Amsterdam, there is an ascending display of miniature houses along the escalator leading up to the lounge, where there are more displays. And if you end up with a duplicate house on a KLM flight you can exchange it here for another one. Once a year, on the October 7 anniversary of KLM, the CEO introduces a new numbered edition. The invitation to the so-called “reveal” party is much sought after. All the houses are miniatures of Dutch architecture. The last one was the 105th house, introduced by Marjan Rintel, President and CEO of KLM.  

She said: “The unveiling of a new KLM house on our anniversary is always a special moment. KLM has continuously shown to be creative and resilient, and we are laying the foundation to connect the Netherlands with the rest of the world for the next 105 years.” This last house, called “The House at the Three Canals in Amsterdam,” a Dutch National Monument, has a special history. It is a 17th-century heritage house in Renaissance style that was renovated in 1909 and is the oldest privately owned building in Amsterdam. There are also some special editions, such as the Royal Palace on the Dam Square in the center of Amsterdam, the formal residence of the Royal Family, with a very limited production, and the Royal Palace Het Loo in the city of Apeldoorn, that was a regular residence of the Royal Family. These special-edition houses are gifted to KLM’s most frequent flyers and corporate clients. There were only 100 produced of the latter. Dutch architecture is displayed in a myriad of interesting designs that are pleasing to the eye. Originally, wooden homes had triangular roofs in the 15th century. That changed around 1600 with brick-and-mortar houses and gables that featured spout, neck, bell, and list gables. The decision as to which building to copy is carefully made by a team of people at KLM with the CEO having the final word. Every house is numbered. Some of the most sought after are Anne Frank House, number 47, Rembrandt’s House 48, Palace of the King in Apeldoorn 100, and the Heineken Brewery 95. Back during the 75th anniversary of KLM in 1994 the company produced fifteen houses in that one year to match the houses with the age of KLM. We have been fortunate enough to collect several of them over the years, but to keep the value, we have never opened one to sample the Jenever inside. If you don’t fly KLM you can still purchase one of the beautiful miniatures on the resale market or from a collector.  

However, the cost might very well surpass the purchase of a business-class flight ticket for some of the rare models reported to be valued at up to $10,000. In the meantime, the present KLM alcoholic signature drink is a combination of Damrak Gin,* Bols blackberry liquor, fresh lemon juice, and sugar syrup over ice. “Proost!”  

*Damrak gin is named after the central square in front of the Royal Palace, that is one of three residences of King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, and their three daughters.