Cheers to that: KLM’s Delft house is a winery

It’s our favorite aviation geek holiday: KLM Delft house day.

Every year on its anniversary, Dutch airline KLM releases a new tile house that it gives as a souvenir to its business-class passengers. These adorable collectibles have become a cult favorite among aviation enthusiasts over the years

TPG attended the unveiling of the latest Delft House in a tiny town far out in the Dutch countryside, and we can say with confidence that this edition is bound to be an instant classic.

Why do you get tiny tile houses on a KLM flight?

KLM began giving out Delft tile houses in the 1950s as a way of thanking first-class passengers for their business. Since then, the airline has released one new house each year, plus a large batch of them in 1994 to celebrate its 75th anniversary. There are now as many houses as there are years of the airline’s history, and the airline releases a new one each October on its anniversary. To snag one, you have to fly KLM business class on long-haul routes.

There are even several special edition Delft houses that you cannot get on flights, including the Royal Palace and the Concertgebouw symphony hall in Amsterdam, as well as a recently released miniature version of the New York Historical that was created to commemorate the 80th anniversary of KLM’s first flights between Amsterdam and New York City.

Recent Delft houses include the Villa Rameau in the Dutch city of Leiden, the house on three canals in Amsterdam and the Valkenburg train station in Limburg, The Netherlands.

Around half of KLM’s Delft houses are found in Amsterdam, but you can also find them farther afield, including various regions of the Netherlands and even former Dutch colonies like Aruba and Curacao.

If you pick up a Delft house yourself, you might hear a little sloshing sound from inside. That’s because each house is filled with Bols Genever spirit. This was originally the airline’s clever way of skirting rules that prevented airlines from giving gifts to passengers. Thanks to their alcoholic content, the houses were considered to-go cocktails rather than presents.

You can read about the history of each Delft house in historian Mark Zegeling’s deeply researched work, “Little Kingdom by the Sea.” The two-book set is a compilation of the houses that he updates regularly with detailed descriptions of each structure and its history. There’s even a walking guide for folks who want to visit some of the houses on their next trip to the Netherlands.

Toasting to this year’s house, which is a winery

I traveled to the unveiling event on Oct. 7 to see which historic building KLM had selected for this year’s Delft house.

I alighted in the magical medieval town of Drieschor, about a 90-minute drive from Amsterdam in the province of Zeeland. Dreischor is a gorgeously preserved exemplar of the Netherlands’ famous ringdorps, or ring villages, so named because they form a circle around a central church and tend to have moats (and this one is intact). Given its pristine condition, the entire town is heritage-listed and protected.

This year’s house is the Wijnhoeve De Kleine Schorre — a quaint black-tarred barn on the outskirts of town, originally built in 1735, that became a winery in 2021. In fact, you can find De Kleine Schorre on board KLM from September to November, and it has supplied wine to the airline for 20 years. “We always try to surprise with our choice of the house,” explained KLM president and CEO Marjan Rintel in an interview during the event, “and to connect with Dutch brands.”

“For 107 years, KLM has connected the Netherlands with the world. In doing so, we not only bring people together but also showcase what the Netherlands stands for,” Rintel said in a statement. “With our 107th Delft Blue miniature house, we honor De Kleine Schorre, a partner that, like KLM, dared to pioneer and has demonstrated how Dutch quality and craftsmanship can earn international recognition. That makes this house a fitting symbol of our 107th anniversary.”

This marks just the third house from the region of Zeeland in KLM’s collection. The first was released in back to 1955 and is believed to be the Sint Petrus house in Middelburg. The next was house number 22, the so-called “Little Lamb” of Veere, a 16th-century merchant’s house built in the late Gothic style that was released in 1963. So it’s about time this region had the spotlight again. As Rintel pointed out in her speech, “When we pass through the clouds and begin our descent, the first part of the Netherlands to appear is always Zeeland,” so it’s always the region that welcomes her and other Dutch passengers home.

“We fly our guests to the world’s most renowned wine regions…” Rintel continued. “but believe me when I say that nowhere are we prouder than of the wine that grows right here in this Zeeland soil.”

“It is an enormous honor for our wine estate to become part of KLM’s miniature house collection,” De Kleine Schorre owner Johan van de Velde said in a statement. “Twenty-five years ago, we started with the conviction that excellent wine could be made in the Netherlands, at a time when Dutch wine was nowhere to be found on wine lists. Thanks to our long-standing partnership with KLM, travelers from around the world have been introduced to wine from Zeeland. Having our wine estate immortalized as a Delft Blue KLM miniature house feels like a wonderful crowning achievement for everything we have built over the past 25 years.”

A surprise announcement: Free high-speed Wi-Fi coming to KLM flights

As part of her speech, Rintel announced that free high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi will be coming to KLM intercontinental flights starting in mid-2027. Right now, Flying Blue members can enjoy a free texting package on intercontinental flights and free full-flight Wi-Fi on European flights, but this new service will be available across all classes of service and on the whole intercontinental fleet by mid-2028.

Coming soon to a flight near you

Now that the new house has been released, passengers should start seeing it on flights immediately. In fact, the next few weeks are the best time to pick it up since the airline tends to flood its flights with the latest edition before it joins the rest of the collection. So if you like the look of it, book that KLM flight now.

While the house is so new, you’re unlikely to get a duplicate; if you’re a frequent flyer with KLM, the airline has an app (for iOS or Android) to help you keep track of which ones you have so you don’t select the same house twice. If you do get a repeat, though, there’s a customer service desk at the KLM Crown Lounge at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) where you can swap them out from a fancy service cart.

Of course, you could always buy a Delft house on eBay or stop by an Amsterdam souvenir shop like Kramer Kunst et Antiek on the Prinsengracht canal. But that’s kind of like cheating in our book.

Instead, why not make a full trip of it and book your own business-class ticket with KLM using miles? Awards between the U.S. and Europe start at 60,000 Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles each way, though you can sometimes find them available for as few as 45,000 miles thanks to monthly changing Promo Rewards. Just beware of taxes and fees that can cost $300 to $600 each way.

What do you think of the latest KLM Delft house? Leave a comment below!

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Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

Source: thepointsguy.com