Booking the Trip: Skyteam-ing it to Europe and Back
Review: Turkish Airlines Lounge Washington Dulles
Review: Etihad Airways First and Business Class Lounge Washington Dulles
Review: Air France 777-300ER Business Class Washington DC to Paris CDG
Review: Air France Business Class Lounge Terminal 2F Gate F30 (Schengen)
Review: Air France Business Class Lounge Terminal 2F Gate F50 (Schengen)
Review: Air France JOON A320-200 Business Class Paris CDG to Rome
Review: EasyJet A321Neo Economy Class Rome to London Gatwick
Trip Photos: A Brief Re-visit to Italy & London with a bit of Oxford
Review: Premier Inn London Heathrow Terminal 4
Review: SkyTeam Lounge London Heathrow
Review: KLM 737-800 Europe Business Class London Heathrow to Amsterdam
Review: KLM 747-400 World Business Class Amsterdam to Toronto
Review: United Airlines 737-800 Business Class Toronto to Chicago
Review: United Airlines 737-800 First Class Chicago to Santa Ana
YOUTUBE: Air France: Washington DC to Paris CDG
YOUTUBE: Air France JOON: Paris CDG to Rome
YOUTUBE: EasyJet: Rome to London Gatwick
YOUTUBE: KLM: London Heathrow to Amsterdam
YOUTUBE: KLM: Amsterdam to Toronto
YOUTUBE: United Airlines: Toronto to Chicago
YOUTUBE: United Airlines: Chicago to Santa Ana
After spending a couple of hours in the SkyTeam Lounge, it was finally time to board my flight 2 hours late.
LHR-AMS
Boeing 737-800
1/9/19
After boarding, I turned right into the cabin. KLM’s 737-800s have 5 rows of business class in a 2-2 configuration. But like most other European airlines, rather than having 5 rows of proper recliner seats, the entire plane is economy class but the 5 rows of business class just block the middle seat.
It’s not great but it is what it is for European airliners and can’t do much about it.
Now here’s what the seat is like. The back padding was hard but it was kind of molded to the shape of your back so that made it comfier rather than just having a hard slab on your back. The seat cushion was your standard economy cushion being mostly manageable for a 1-hour flight but a little hard.
I chose the bulkhead seat since they have the most legroom of all the seats. The downside is that you cannot keep anything by your feet like a backpack or a purse, an advantage that all other seats have.
There’s also power ports at the seats in between seats underneath the armrest.
Each seat also had individual power ports which is something I like considering some airlines keep their cabins hot.
The 2 crew members working class were functional, though not great at all. There was only a hello at the door and no other interaction pre-departure. This includes the 1 extra hour we were stuck on the tarmac due to the heavy winds in AMS delaying every flight into and out of AMS by an average of 2 hours.
There was no pre-departure drink or water bottle given. The only contact the crew had with others on the ground was when they were approached by passengers from economy about their impending missed connections and such.
We pushed back from the gate 1 hour and 50 minutes late but had a quick taxi to runway 27L as Terminal 4 is very close to it.
As I said, the crew didn’t interact much with the passengers. The only other interaction I had with the crew on the ground was them telling me to remove my go pro mount from the window for safety reasons…..something I’ve never been told ever on any other flight where I’ve been addressed about it. Mostly everyone else asks something like: What is that? or Are you recording? or That’s cool!
On the climb out, the sun was right on my side, but the views were still pretty nice I thought.
The crew wasn’t very charming as I had said, but they were efficient. Within 10 minutes . of departure they brought around breakfast. Kudos for providing a complete meal on a 40-minute flight. Whereas US airlines will provide nothing more than a snack basket on flights over 2 hours.
When the crew initially brought around the tray tables, all the side dishes came with the plastic covers and I took them off. It’s not that big a deal at all, but the presentation effect would’ve at least been better had they removed the plastic before serving.
As was the case with my JOON Air flight, the menu was not handed out prior to the meal, but rather I found it underneath one of the side dishes.
The star of the meal was a smoked salmon with cucumber cream cheese. The salmon was nice and chilled with little taste, as expected. But the cucumber cheese was a nice and tasty compliment to the salmon.
The fruits were chilled and fresh. There wasn’t anything too much else there.
The yogurt was also nice and tasty but a bit too sweet. The menu never actually specified what flavor the yogurt was, but based on the taste and color, it was some berry or mix of berries for sure.
A few minutes after, the crew also brought around a basket of croissant after and it was warm, soft, and flaky, just how I like my croissants. There was also jam provided for the croissant though I did not have it.
Overall, I was impressed with the breakfast across the board. The main meal wasn’t a hot dish but for a 40-minute flight, this was great and more than needed. So a big plus to KLM for that.
After the service, we had begun our descent into Amsterdam.
The winds didn’t pick up too much until we were around 15,000 feet. At that point, we hit some serious, serious chops the rest of the way down.
Despite the winds, the pilots did a remarkable job with having a smooth touchdown on our landing runway at 36C.
From there we had a 10-minute long taxi to the gate. I even saw my aircraft for the next flight as we taxiied to the Schengen gates.
Finally, we pulled into some D gate which was at the farthest end of the concourse from where I had to go.
Ultimately, looking at the flight itself, it was mostly a great flight. The food was great, the flight was quick, the seats were sufficient enough for what it was. If I had one complaint, it was the crew. They weren’t actively bad, but they were definitely not as interactive. But if I had to fly this flight again, I’d do it without any issues.