I was recently in Amsterdam to visit family and friends, and I already published a quick look of my flight to Amsterdam on board KLM’s 787-10 business class. A full review of that experience will come after I finish up the review for my Japan trip, with JAL 787 still incoming. Originally I wasn’t going to publish much about my flight back to New York, since I thought that I’d have the same experience as on my flight to Amsterdam. As it turns out, there was plane swap and I flew back to New York-JFK on board KLM’s Boeing 777-300ER rather than the 787-10, and the service is quite a bit different on the way back to New York-JFK. So, I will first publish this quick look, and full review will come later.

briefly, I really enjoyed this flight. KLM’s 777-300ER business class seats are an upgraded version from those found on the 787-10, and I find that those upgrades make the experience notably better. Given that this was a day flight of close to 8 hours 9rather than a night flight of a little over 6 hours), service was expanded, as sleep was not a priority, with a proper three-course meal service. The food was tasty for me overall, though some dishes were a little strange. I personally really enjoy the service that KLM flight attendants provide, and so overall found this was a very pleasant flight. I’d be happy to fly KLM back to New York.

1. Lounge experience at AMS: KLM’s flagship Crown lounge 52
2. Boarding experience
3. KLM World Business Class Seat (Boeing 777)
4. Full, three course meal service
5. Onboard entertainment
6. Further amenities and service
7. Summary

Lounge experience at AMS: KLM’s flagship Crown lounge 52

If you’re flying a SkyTeam airlines in business class out of Amsterdam, you will be directed to the KLM Crown Lounges. Of these, there is one in the Shengen and in the non-Shengen zone. Given that I was flying to New HYork-JFK, I was flying out of the non-Shengen zone, and so was directed the flagship Crown Lounge 52.

The entrance is truly unique: you follow an escalator up to the upper floor, surrounded with KLM’s iconic Delft Blue ceramic houses, of which you receive one at the end of a flight in business class.

This lounge is massive. There are two floors, with distinct interior design. The lower floor has ample seating in all sorts of configurations, and also sports a barista coffee bar, a beer bar, and a buffet.

Other amenities you will find here include ample shower rooms, sleeping rooms and a spa. Unfortunately the spa is not free (and this is a bit of a theme at this lounge).

If you go to the upper floor, you will find a big bar with seating at the bar as well as tables and niches. There is a deck that can go out to and sit outside as well.

Finally, there is a restaurant of sorts, which nice-looking seating. It was completely empty though, and I quickly found out why: checking the menu (which is extensive), it seemed as though nothing here is actually complimentary. When I looked at the bar menu, I also realized that only the basic alcoholic drinks are complimentary. This is disappointing, given how so many other lounges offer more premium drinks and food for free – just take a look at the Delta One lounge at New York-JFK’s Terminal 4, which I visited before my flight to Amsterdam.

I decided to sample some of the food at the buffet downstairs, which was very nice overall, and I had a Heineken beer to go along with it (since that was the only complimentary beer). I then moved over to one of the chairs looking out over the apron, even though the view was blocked by a large walkway.

About 15 minutes before supposed gate opening, I left the lounge and walked about 5 minutes to gate F8, one of the gates at the very end of the F pier. Overall, I really like the lounge for its design and food selection, but it’s a little sad that so much seems to be for payment.

Boarding experience

Boarding was at gate F8, and a group of people had already gathered in anticipation. Two lines were already signified: SkyPriority, which is for business class and premium economy passengers, and then everybody else.

To my delight, when I looked out the window I realized there had been a plane swap: rather than a Boeing 787-10, KLM’s signature Boeing 777-300ER with the orange front was parked outside! This was great news, because I’d be able to experience the updated business class seats with doors (or rather, privacy screens).

Boarding commences right on time with those needing extra time down the jetway, after which boarding group 1 was invited to board. I was greeted by a the lovely purser on this flight, who happily directed me toward my seat.

KLM World Business Class Seat (Boeing 777)

Since I already gave an impression of KLM’s business class seat in my previous quick look, covering my flight in KLM business class from JFK to AMS, I will keep this short and only cover the differences with the seat you’ll find on the Boeing 787.

As you can see below, there are two main differences, besides a bunch of smaller design changes: the ‘privacy wing’ that shields you from the aisle is somewhat longer in this updated seat, and that is to accommodate the privacy screen that can be pulled out.

The second thing that’s a little different is the console, which now includes a wireless charging option, as well as the storage compartment just besides the seat. Whereas this was an open compartment on the 787, it’s closed, with a door, on the 777.

Some other, more subtle things I noticed are the location of the charging ports, which are now all located to the left of the screen, and they are all grouped together. The 787 seat had a USB-A plug under the screen, but here this has been relocated to the main charging port area.

Other than that, I noticed that there is now a space under the ottoman. On the 787, this area ost of sloped up and wouldn’t allow for any storage. While it’s too low for any carryons, I found this is an ideal spot to keep your shoes, and I for one was very happy to see this storage compartment added.

All in all, these updates are very welcome and elevate this seat to a level that will make it competitive with many current-generation business class seats for a while to come. I can only hope that the 787s might see these seats at some point, though I can’t imagine that will actually happen anytime soon.

Full, three course meal service

On my flight from JFK to Amsterdam, the flight was a little over 6 hours and was a night flight. The dinner service on this flight was rather short, with drinks and dinner all served at the same time, and about 1.5 hours after departure I was ready for bed. I was curious if it would be different on this flight, given that it was nearly 8 hours and a day flight. And to my delight, servcie was a more or less ‘proper’ three course meal service, as you’d probably want it to be when flying business class.

But, first, before departure, flight attendats passed by with pre-0departure drinks in proper glassware. Apparently KLM now has a new signature mocktail, which I had, as well as some orange juice:

Dinner service commenced perhaps 30-45 minutes later, with drinks. I had some red wine, a Pinotage, which was very nice, as well as glass of water and some mixed nuts. As you can see, the flight attendant truly filled my glass of wine to the top, which I certainly did not complain about:

A little while later the flight attendant came by with the cart, this time to serve the first course, for which I chose the ‘crepe of smoked salmon and quinoa salad’, served with some garnishes. This was a little strange in terms of flavor combinations, and is one of those dishes where I prefer the various components separately. Overall it was tasty, and prettily served.

Next up was dinner, for which I chose the ‘spicy beef tartlet’, which in terms of presentation was not so nice. I’m guessing it was plated at the airport and then heated as-is, and so everything looked a little jumbled. Looks notwithstanding, it was actually a tasty dish that I quite enjoyed. And, not that spicy at all. The flight attendant asked whether it was spicy or not, and I told her it really wasn’t.

Finally, for dessert the tray with items was cleared and fresh cutlery was provided. I had a chocie between a digestif (such as the typically dutch Genever), coffee or tea. Me being me I had a cup of tea, as well as the ‘sweet dessert’ option (rather than cheese). This dessert is jam-packed with typically Dutch flavors. I heard the flight attendant describe it to an American passengers: “All sorts of DSutch flavors. it’s quite tasty.” I smirked at that last comment.

Truly, this is something that you’ll love or hate depending on whether you like these Dutch-type flavors. if you like stroopwafels and speculaas, you’ll love it. If you don’t, you’ll hate it. For me, it was a nice ‘bye bye’ from my homeland on the way to NYC, so I quite enjoyed it.

With that dinner service concluded. I enjoyed the service flow, the fact that this was an actual three course meal (as opposed to the shortened version on the JFK-AMS leg), the food, and the friendly service.

Onboard entertainment

In terms of entertainment, this asn’t different from what was available on the JFK-AMS leg, so I’ll keep this short. The entertainment screen is bright and easy to navigate by tough or the provided remote control. There should be plenty of movies and TV shows to keep you busy, and while I was snoozing I enjoyed the vast selection of music. For me, the provided noise-canceling headphones are entirely sufficient, but I’m not an audiophile. Of course there is also the well-known map feature, and what I thought was quite cool is that you can use typical iPad-esque gestures to control your view of the map and the aircraft icon (but perhaps that’s a standard feature these days?). Overall, I’m confident you’ll keep yourself entertained for the duration of the flight.

Further amenities and service

The amenities were no different from my flight to Amsterdam, with the exact some items being offered. The only difference was that the amenity kit was white, and it seems this time a pen was included:

A word about the service. I already mentioned in the quick look for my flight to Amsterdam that I always really like KLM’s service style, as I find it personable and warm in a way that is quite unique to the Dutch. I realize not everybody will enjoy it. This time, however, I tried to takle note of how they address other passengers which may not speak Dutch, and found that they talk the same to everybody. The only thing I do differently is that I engage the cabin crew and try to connect ina. way most other passengers do. I do recognize that this is easier for me because I’m Dutch, but the accessible service style of the crew is very conducive to this, and if you’re into joking around a little and chit-chatting with the, they are usually happy to reciprocate. This has generally paid off, in terms of better, friendlier service, and more wine. Much. More. Wine.

Of note are two episodes. The first is that I realized after about an hour or two that the plugs in my seat weren’t working. I alerted a flight attendants who said that they should have been turned on, and to try directly plugging in my phone by cable rather than wireless charging. However the green lights weren’t turned on so it didn’t seem that would work – I tried anyway, with no luck.

A little later I decided to call a crew member, but found that nobody responded to the call button. I thought that was very odd (though I thought it may have to do with the fact that they were all busy with dinner service), so finally I directly addressed a crew member as she walked by, and explained the situation. She immediately saw the lack of the green light and apologized for this. To my pleasure she said that this is not acceptable, and after dinner she would return with her ipad to compensate me. Indeed, shortly after dessert had been cleared she came back and offered me 35 Euros or 4500 points – of course I chose the points. She once again apologized profusely, which I thought was very proper of her: a well-handled situation. She also suggested that if I needed to charge anything, they would happily charge my device in the galley.

As an aside, when I later did use the call crew button to ask to charge my device in the galley, they actually came running within seconds, so I do believe that they must have not seen my call earlier due to the dinner service.

An additional thing I liked were customized messages that the crew was able to broadcast. Since I flew on the 31st of December, about an hour or two before landing it was midnight in the Netherlands, so as you can see on the little pop-up message, they were actually counting down on the plane! Flight attendants and passengers alike counted from 10 to HAPPY NEW YEAR! It was a really nice moment that I was happy to be a part of 🙂

So overall, despite the lack of attention to my call button, I did think the service overall was very good. It’s not as polished as on some Middle Eastern or Asian carriers, but I certainly like KLM’s service and was very happy with how they dealt with the plugs in my seat not operating.

Summary

Perhaps a little longer than just a quick look, but overall I thought this was a particularly pleasant flight. I enjoyed the KLM Crown Lounge though I really wish that there was an expanded selection of complimentary drinks and services. The seat on the 777 is a very nice upgrade to the 787 seat, with privacy screen and enhancement to elevate the seat to better compete with current and next generation seats, even if they don’t offer the privacy of some of the newest business class seats.

Further, I always enjoy KLM’s service style, and this crew did not disappoint. They were friendly, engaging and handled my grievances with courtesy and were very helpful. I enjoyed dinner despite the… eclectic flavor combinations. So overall, a pleasant flight that I’d happily take again. As a matter of fact, this experience makes me think that I might be better off taking business class on the day flight rather than the night flight, given the expanded service. Plus, I seem to not sleep very well whether I’m in economy or business, so perhaps I ought to save the money where I can…