Last December I visited friends and family back home, in the Netherlands. I already posted my review of the fantastic Delta One Lounge at JFK’s Terminal 4. That absolutely was a wonderful way to start this trip, and I left the lounge truly delighted, having had good food in the surprisingly good, full service restaurant inside the lounge, having had a lovely spa treatment, and good drinks.

I already published a quick look for this flight, as well as for the flight back to New York. But in this post I will give a full flight review specifically for the flight from JFK to Amsterdam, which was on KLM’s Boeing 787-10’s World Business Class.

Briefly, KLM offers a solid business class experience on the whole. The servcie was friendly and I like the informal but professional service style. The food was nice as well, but one thing to know is that on a transatlantic red-eye flight like this, the dinner service is rather slimmed down to allow more time for sleep.

Specifically, this is flight KL644 from New York-JFK to Amsterdam, departing at 9:20pm and arriving at 10:30am.

1. Introduction: a brief comment on transatlantic flights
2. How I booked this flight
3. Boarding the flight
4. The KLM World Business Class Boeing 787-10 seat
5. KLM World Business Class amenities
6. Departure and takeoff
7. KLM’s entertainment system and WiFi
8. Business class lavatories
9. Dinner time: Transatlantic red eye dinner service
10. Bed time: KLM World Business Class seat in bed mode
11. Final hours: World Business Class breakfast service
12. Landing and arrival
13. A word on KLM’s service
14. Summary

Introduction: a brief comment on transatlantic flights

I thought it’s worthwhile talking briefly about transatlantic flights before starting the review proper. Obviously you can do these flights in two directions: US to EU, and then EU back to US. It is absolutely possible to take a daytime flight from the US to the EU if you leave in the daytime from the US, but you’ll end up arriving in the EU in the middle of the night. Personally I prefer to fly to EU on a redeye, and attempt to sleep on the plane. However, I have come to realize that this comes with a trade-off in the way of slimmed down servcie to prioritize rest. So, while my 5:30pm flight with Scandinavian Airlines there was a full dinner service, KLM offered a slimmed down dinner service on this 9:30pm redeye flight – as you will see in this review. As such, please don’t read this review and just assume that KLM’s service is always as described here! It will in fact differ based on the route you fly and the time of the flight.

How I booked this flight

I booked this flight all cash for about $2800. I initially booked a return flight, flying to Amsterdam in business class and flying back in economy. I did this because I thought I’d want to try and sleep on the way to Europe, but would likely stay awake the whole flight back, and so couldn’t quite justify flying back in business class. Later on, however, I decided I may want to upgrade to premium economy at least, but found that the upgrade to premium economy was $600 versus $800 to upgrade to business class. As such, it made sense to just upgrade directly to business class. I booked directly through KLM and this also earned me 60XP towards loyalty (100XP needed for Flying Blue Silver), as well as about 16.000 Flying Blue miles. While I had Flying Blue Silver status, that didn’t actually grant me anything extra since business class perks trump that of Silver status.

Boarding the flight

After leaving the Delta One Lounge, I walked through the terminal over to the B concourse, where my flight was departing at gate B26.

KLM’s boarding process in zone-based, with business class being in zone 1, together with the higher Flying Blue elite tiers. Unfortunately, the signage for the zones was set up rather strangely, with zone 1 and zone 2 on one side of the boarding door, and zones 3-5 on the other side, leading to some confusion as to where people were supposed to line up.

Boarding was supposed to start at 8:30pm for a departure at 9:20pm, but boarding started only about 15 minutes later, around 8:45pm. At that point passengers that needed extra time down the jetway were called first, with zone 1 passengers invited about 15-20 minutes later. By then people had started queuing up and some discontent had started under passengers that thought the boarding process was rather chaotic – which it was.

Once Zone 1 passengers were called to board, I walked through the gate doors and saw the Boeing 787-10 that would carry me to Amsterdam, only to find that we had to wait to proceed down the jetway. Not sure what was the hold-up exactly, but after another 5-10 minutes we were able to proceed. I was greeted by two friendly flight attendants.

Service in the Netherlands is a little different from other places, in the sense that it can be quite informal. I personally quite like that. For example, a passenger in front of me boarded the plane with a bag full of duty free shopping – and mind you, this was Christmas eve! The flight attendant laughed and commented: “My, I see you did a lot of shopping! And that’s for your flight attendant, right?” The passenger appreciated the sense of humor and chuckled. I thought this interaction set the tone for the service on this mind: friendly and generally informal, but also professional and helpful.

I boarded through the second set of doors and was invited to turn left into the second isle, where I was seated in seat 3K, the third window seat from the front on the right side of the plane’s fuselage.

The KLM World Business Class Boeing 787-10 seat

KLM currently has two kinds of business class seats in its fleet, and they are both roughly the same. Of the two, the seat on the 787-10 is the older one. The other kind can be found on the Boeing 777 fleet, and is an updated version of the same seat, having largely the same features but also includes a door and wireless charging, plus some design changes. This updated seat will be the subject of my review of the return flight back to JFK, which was on a 777.

The seats KLM uses are reverse herring bone seats, in a 1-2-1 configuration. As you can see, all seats are essentially the same, so there isn’t really a ‘choice’ here where one seat is clearly better than the other. it would just depend on whether you travel with somebody and want to sit ‘next’ to them. In that case you’d want to take a center pair of seats – otherwise the window seat is probably the favorite:

First impression was good. The seat doesn’t appear super spacious, but still comfortable. I certainly found that I wasn’t restricted in terms of getting in and out of the seat, and there was plenty of legroom for me. At my seat I found a substantial pillow and a blanket, as well as an amenity kit, menus and a bottle of water.

Sitting down the seat is comfortable with good padding and a headrest that can be adjusted in several directions to make you comfortable. The entertainment screen appears bright and clear. At 18″ these are not the biggest screens in the industry, but given that you don’t sit too far away from the screen, I didn’t feel like that was a problem.

One detail to look at is the shelf that’s below the screen. I found this a good place to store things like my wallet, and there’s also a USB-A port. You could, for example, charge your phone here and then also store it while you’re not using it.

To the right of the seat are a number of amenities and seat functions. There’s an open compartment here where the headphones are placed, as well as a 33cl bottle of water. there’s also the controller for the entertainment system, a reading light which can be turned on or off by simply flipping it in or out (currently in the flipped-out configuration, turning it on), and also a variety of a charging plugs. I thought this design was pretty good, with everything being within easy reach.

A closer view at the charging ports show a standard universal charging port, with a USB-a plug right under it (so together with the port under the screen, that’s 2 USB-A plugs), a standard headphone jack. and then the weird triangular plug is for the KLM-provided headphones.

Immediately in front of the storage compartment is something of a counter, and this is where a food and a wine menu were waiting for me along with the amenity kit. I’ll describe their contents in a later section.

Then under the menu were a series of seat controls, including a crew call button, dimmers for the overhead lights, and preset seat positions. These were the only seat controls I could find, mind you: there didn’t seem to be a way to control specific parts of the seat, so it was an all-or-nothing situation. The presets are upright, lounge, and full-flat, but you can choose any intermediate between those positions as well by holding and releasing the button when the seat to gets into the position you want.

Then below the seat controls were two pockets: the lower was a literature pocket, and contained some magazines and such. The upper one was fairly shallow and wasn’t in use, but during the flight I thought this was the perfect spot to keep my valuables, including my phone, wallet and passport, especially when in bed more. I don’t like putting such items ‘on display’ for everybody to see, so I wouldn’t use the counter or the storage compartment for that, but this pouch was exactly at my height when in bed mode and provided a safe place to keep such items. In that photo you can also see the handholds for the table peaking out from under the seat controls: the table is stowed under the counter and is easy to slide out.

Overall, KLM’s seat is comfortable, if not terribly high-end. it does seem a little bit basic in some ways, with little customization options for seat position and the lack of a closed storage compartment. That said, I think the overall design is convenient and easy to use, with plenty of pouches and shelves to store your stuff.

KLM World Business Class amenities

As I had mentioned, waiting for me at my seat were the headphones, a bottle of water, menus and an amenity kit. Starting with the amenity kit, the first thing to consider is it’s overall design. Clearly KLM was going for something a little bit different here, and some will like it and others won’t: because this is essentially a reusable bag-turned-kit:

First glance it doesn’t strike as something particularly premium, but I thought the design was thoughtful and convenient – practical, for all intents and purposes. you undo the button, which then also undoes a strap that goes around the kit, to reveal the bag:

As you can see, it’s actually a bag with hand holds and everything. The material appears durable, fit for Dutch winter weather – rain and wind. Then, to hold the actual amenities, there are a series of fabric pouches sewn on the front (or the back?) of the bag, containing a variety of useful amenities, including a toothbrush and tooth paste ‘tablet’, socks, an eye mask, and some lip balm and face cream. I later found that there was also a small pen that I had overlooked when I made this picture.

I thought this was a nice amenity kit overall, fairly ‘classic’ in its contents. It’s clrarly not the most premium kit out there but I appreciated the practical intent, that it’s not merely a souvenir but something you could use afterwards as well.

The headphones seemed like standard noise canceling head phones to me. I’m not an audiophile, so am not too obsessed with the sound quality. I thought they were pretty good overall. More important to me was they did are comfortable to wear for the duration of the flight, which they were – by the end of the flight I didn’t have any pain or discomfort around my ears, as some over-the-ear headphone cause me.

At my seat were also a food menu and a wine menu, with the details of all the meals and drinks for order. KLm carries a few wines – the selection isn’t particularly extravagant, but the ones that I tried were tasty. Apparently they were picked to go with the meals, though I couldn’t comment how well that has worked out. As you can see, there’s two whites and three reds.

The other menu contains all the meals and the rest of the drinks selection. This menu (actually also the one with wines) is offered in both Dutch and English, but I will only show the English one here. The introduction aside, there’s a menu for the main meal service, which is dinner, as well as the breakfast that is served before landing:

I thought the meal service sounded appetizing, so I was looking forward to try this. Truth be told, the reviews I had read suggested that food on KLM is not great, but I kept an open mind.

Then finally, the back of the menu had the full selection of drinks. It’s nice that KLM offers a cocktail (though I didn’t try it) as well as some mixed drinks. Otherwise, KLM carries a standard selection of beverages with soft drinks, wines, beers and some liquor. I appreciate that very strong Dutch emphasis on the selection, though I do wish it was more extensive. For example, the only beer was Heineken. The Netherlands has so many good beers to offer – it’s a pity that the only one that KLM offers is the one that is mass produced and available everywhere.

Then, finally, there’s the bedding. At my seat were a pillow, which felt soft and quite substantial, and a blanket, which also seemed decent. Remember this flight is fairly short, only about 6.5 hours, so it’s not like I’d have much time to rest. Then on the other hand, these amenities probably also make it on flights as far as Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg, so you should expect that this bedding may have to serve you on flights that are much longer than this.

With that I’ve gone through all of the amenities. These were all waiting for me at my seat on this flight. Overall I think it’s perfectly sufficient. I can see not everybody may agree, but I quite liked how practical the amenity kit is, while also including some fairly classic items.

Departure and takeoff

After I got settled, it took another 10-15 minutes or so before everybody had boarded. Meanwhile other passengers got seated around me and I observed how the flight attendants dealt with any issues that came up. What struck me as interesting was how flight attendants talked to passengers with generally the same demeanor regardless of whether they were in business or economy. That is, the tone and intonations were mostly the same. I sometimes feel like on other airlines it matters how friendly staff is depending on whether you’re in business or not – here I didn’t see that so clearly. I do believe this is a good thing overall, assuming that that ‘overall’ demeanor errs on the side of pleasant rather than rude…

Anyway, after a little while a flight attendant came by offering a pre-departure drink, served in glassware, with choices being orange juice, water or champagne:

A little later the safety demonstration was screened. KLM’s version of this is fun: it uses paintings of Delft Blue ceramic tiles to make a stop motion animation, which is a unique and fun way to involve Dutch cultural heritage into the flow of flying. The screening ends with all painted tiles laid out on a table so you can see that every single tile was actually painted, and wasn’t a computer animation. I embedded the full video from KLM’s Youtube channel, below:

Soon after we were on our way to the runway. I believe we were taxiing over to runway 31L, for a departure in a northern direction, towards Manhattan. We were right behind an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787, which, incidentally, I may be flying with a year and half from now on a vacation to South Africa!

As soon as we got onto the runway we were cleared for takeoff and started our takeoff roll. We lifted off smoothly and almost immediately turned to the left.

As we turned I got a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline, though the pictures didn’t come out very good. It’s not easy to take good pictures at night, what with the reflection of the cabin in the window, the constant window and the sea of dazzling lights that makes it hard to make out any points of interest. All to say that the pictures really aren’t worthwhile to put on here…

KLM’s entertainment system and WiFi

I tend to start playing with the entertainment system before takeoff, to find a movie to watch as I wait for things to start. This flight was no different, but I wanted to discuss the entertainment system in a separate section. Hence you may notice on some photos that the plane is still on the ground – now you know why.

In general, the system is fairly easy to use, both by touching the screen itself as well as with the controller. Movies, shows, music and games can all be selected, and besides internationally acclaimed Hollywood movies and such, there’s also a selection of European movies, including Dutch movies and shows. My memory of the entertainment selection on KLM was that it was rather extensive – on this flight it seemed to me like there was perhaps less choice than before… Still, there should be plenty to keep you busy, including major blockbusters, though maybe not the newest of the new.

I actually used the Dutch language version of the interface, but of course there’s many languages you cna choose from. To be clear, you can of course select English as the interface language. Above, I’m in the Movies (‘films’) section of the interface, looking for something to watch, specifically in the ‘new this month’ category. Whatever you do on the controller tends to be reflected on the main screen as well.

Given that you have the option to use the controller, and the controller works well, I personally find it more comfortable to sit back comfortable and control the system with the controller. The main screen is not that far away but far enough that you’d need to sit forward to touch it. It’s just more comfortable to use the controller, in my opinion.

Besides the various movies and shows and such, there’s also a bunch of settings that you can access, including dimming the lights and the screen brightness, you can select different languages, call a crew member, and access the moving maps. On the right column, where there’s a black square with text overlaid, you’d normally see media player controls if I had been watching or listening to something.

The moving map is overall pretty standard, with automatic and manual modes. In the automatic mode it will cycle through various pre-configured views and information displays, but I thought it was more fun to take the controller and navigate around with my fingers. It;’s kind of cool that you have this kind of control and it’s nice how, over the years, the moving map has become more and more functional. Who remember the time when you just had a pixelated map on those big CRT monitors that hung over the aisles?

One thing I ntoiced that was a little annoying was that, when you select a movie or show and back out of it again, you end up being kicked back to the main menu rather than going back to where you were in the movie selection menu. It’s a little annoying that you have to go back into the movie menu again, find the category of interest and resume flipping through options. Seems like a bug that ought to be fixed.

In the end I went with a Dutch movie about some workaholic woman who quit her job and went to run her aunt’s B&B in Groningen, which is one of the northern provinces of the Netherlands. Overall, KLM’s entertainment system is modern and functions well, and can easily be controlled through controller or the main screen by touch. The selection is decent and I reckon nobody will be bored by what’s available.

I did have a look at the WiFi options for this flight. Getting connected to the inflight Wifi network was easy enough, and getting to the pass selection interface was done in a minute. You’re asked to login into your Flying Blue account, which was speedy.

There are three Wifi passes, with only the first one being free, regardless of whether you’re in business class or not, and is a messaging pass. The second pass is a surfing pass, which is available for 1 hour or the full flight, and finally there is a full-flight streaming pass.

The full flight surfing pass seemed like it may be worth it for 22 Euros (or 4400 miles), but given the short duration of the flight, and if you want to enjoy the meal and also sleep, honestly the cheaper 1 hour flight may suffice. 38 Euros for streaming seemed rather pricey, given how short the flight was. I opted for the free messaging pass, mostly to check out the ease of use. I’m happy to say that it worked very well for me: the pass activated quickly and wifi speeds were good, with messages being delivered quickly. Other than that, it was also easy to check the status of the flight through this interface:

On the left is the status after departure, while on the right you can see the status after I woke up from sleep, before breakfast. You can see it is kept updated as the flight progresses, and also shows arrival information, which is useful. These pages loaded quickly for me, suggesting to me that the wifi network performed well.

Business class lavatories

Takeoff was smooth and soon we were racing through the clouds and up into the full sun – as it turns out, the sun was shining; you might forgot that sometimes, living in the Netherlands! The seatbelt sign stayed on for perhaps 10 minutes or so, and when they were turned of, the crew came into action. They closed the curtains to the front galley and to the premium economy cabin.

Before service would start in earnest, I decided to go to the lavatory. It’s always nice when airlines customize the business class lavatory, and stock it with some special amenities to make your flight more comfortable. In that vain, KLM has added some little extras. The lavatory is such is rather standrad, and isn’t particularly spacious.

Overall it’s a fairly standard lavatory. I appreciated the Delft Blue Houses print on the walls, which is o inspired by the parting gift that you get at the end of the flight. The sink is about what you’d expect in a standard 787 lavatory, and doesn’t include much besides some business class-specific creams by Marie-Stella-Maris – a Amsterdam-based brand of creams and lotions.

Then next to the mirror is a nice touch: some tulips that add a pop of color. it’s a nice but of customization that adds another bit of Dutch culture (or stereotype?).

I visited the lavatory a few times during the flight and was struck by the fact that it was kept reasonably clean for the duration of the flight. On Asian carriers, such as JAL, there is the expectation that the lavatory is kept clean but I didn’t necessarily expect that on KLM. It was nice to see that I was wrong on that.

Dinner time: Transatlantic red eye dinner service

It took a little while for service to start, but I reckon after about 40 minutes a flight attendant passed through to give warm towels, to wipe your hands. A moment later the cart was wheeled through, and I assumed this was for drinks – it turned out they were already serving the food at the same time! In this seat the table slides out from under the seat controls, and then you fold open the top left of the table. It’s agood ize – not super big but definitely big enough.

I was quite surprised, and wasn’t sure if this was to be efficient, or it was some sort of cost-cutting thing? KLM, after all, has been sliming down elements of the service for a while. I can’t tell you what business class was like 10 years ago, but flying economy throughout that time I’ve seen various changes that mostly meant that you got less food, less drinks, etc – though it’s unfortunately a bit of an industry trend.

Spoiler: as it turns out, this did represent a kind of slimming down of service, because on my flight back to NYC (a day flight), the dinner service was much extended. Here, a cart did come by to provide drinks before the food came. Ostensibly the shortened dinner service on the night flight is to give mor time for passengers to sleep, but the truth is that when I flew SAS from NYC to Copenhagen, I received the full service going there and back. Granted, the flight to Copenhagen is about 1.5 hours longer, so there’s also more time.

KLM gave an option to pre-order meals through the KLM app, though I didn’t on this flight as I was curious to see what all options looked like. Regardless, sitting in the front of the cabin would ensure that I all options would still be available to me. First the flight attendant laid out a tablecloth and gave me utensils, neatly wrapped in a Delft Blue-themed wrapper.

Another surprise here: the entire meal was served on a single tray, with appetizer, main and dessert combined by the flight attendants depending on what I’d want to have for each course, and then served all at once. Again, this is for efficiency’s sake: if they give everything at the same time, you can finish faster and get some rest. I thought this was not a bad idea, but I did feel like it detracted from the overall experience. But then again: some people actually go straight to sleep and don’t bother with any service at all.

The above is what it all looked like. Overall it’s not an unattractive tray of food! It looks nice with the different colors. Let me get through some of the dishes.

The below shows you nicely the appetizer and the dessert. I have to say, I thought the appetizer was surprisingly delicious! It was described as crab salad, salmon caviar and ‘microgreens’, and I wasn’t sure what to expect from that. The actual salad is a mix of fruits, vegetables and crab, and I gotta say that the crab went very well with the sweetness of the mango. Again, I was quite surprise dby how tasty this was. But I would also add that this sort of slightly weird combinations are quite typical for Dutch cuisine, which can be very experimental in ways and sometimes it works and sometimes… It really doesn’t. This, however, worked very well. I would also highlight the lovely Delft Blue-inspired dish it was served in.

It’s not the order in which I ate things but since we’ve got the dessert in the frame, I’ll comment on that as well. It was a chocolate/banana mousse, which was tasty as well. But, I love chocolate – there is very few chocolate desserts that I would not eat. I’m not a fan of the combination with banana necessarily, but I’ll take it.

For the main dish, I took the chicken. Frankly I was curious about the other option, which used a ‘typical Dutch winter vegetable’. I asked the flight attendant what it was and she explained to me in some detail what it was – apparently similar to a carrot of sort. She also pulled it out and showed the dish to me. However, I said I’d preferred something with meat and it seemed this dish only had vegetables – the flight attendant smiled and concluded: “well in that case the chicken it is, then”, and she proceeded to give me the chicken.

So the plating isn’t bad but it’s clear it was plated at the catering facility and warmed up on the plane and served as-is. The taste was fortunately quite a bit better than the way it looked. The sauce was what bound it all together, frankly. The chicken was a breast so it was a little dry, if not for the sauce. I enjoyed the vegetables, though they were a little cooked to death, and the rice was also fine. Again, the sauce is what gave it most of the taste. So, overall I thought the main dish was fine – it fulfilled its purpose and was a satiating dish.

There were some little additions that I should mention: there was a packaged sourdough flatbread ‘cracker’, which was actually really tasty. And there was a warm bun, which I also quite enjoyed. I asked the flight attendant for an extra one since I liked it, and she immediately went to the galley and came back with a basket that had two in it. She proceeded to give me one, then looked at me with a funny smile and asked if I’d want the second one as well – to which I said yes. She was very happy to oblige!

When I finished the flight attendant took the tray, and offered some coffee or tea, and choice to have a cup of chamomile tea – I was hoping it would put me to sleep. This was accompanied with a tasty house-shaped chocolate, obviously inspired by the Delft Blue souvenir houses that KLM hands out to business class passengers before landing.

With that, dinner service came to an end. It was a surprise that it was such a quick experience – I always look forward to the business class dinner service since it’s when the airline can really show what it can ‘do’, so to speak. I was a little disappointed that the entire meal came out on a single tray, though I’ve heard this more often on transatlantic red-eyes in the direction of Europe, and I was hoping that the flight back would offer full service (which it did). Also, I had been curious what the quality of the food would be like, given that reviews tend to note that food on KLM is not good.

So, in my humble opinion, the food is fine – I actually quite enjoyed it and thought it was absolutely fine. The crab salad was also surprisingly delicious. But, I can also see that the Dutch sort of ‘experimental cooking’ and combining flavors could just as easily lead to some dishes that are not so great (as was the case on my flight back to NYC, mind you). So I can totally see how other passengers may have mixed feelings on the food on KLM.

One thing to add: the design of the seat is such that you can actually scoot out from under the tray table to go to the lavatory. This I think is a great bit of design, because there are definitely seats were you are ‘imprisoned’ by the tray table!

Bed time: KLM World Business Class seat in bed mode

After dinner I made my bed to get some rest. Below is the seta in bed mode, which is full-flat. The pillow is quite substantial and I thought was of ncie quality. The blanke was thick enough for me, but I do tend to get warm quickly. The cabin temperature was kept at a reasonable temperature.

Lying down, I was afraid that the footwell may be too tight, but found it absolutely sufficient. I’m a side sleeper, and found I had more than enough space for my feet. It wasn’t tight, and I had space to get comfortable, and the soft pillow helped nicely with that. I did feel that the padding could have been a little bit better. The seat is not hard necessarily, and when seated it’s certainly sufficient. But for sleeping, I do wish it was a little softer. But, I’m picky: I’ve already found I don’t sleep well on planes and the best sleep I’ve had was on my flight from Tokyo to Boston, which is the one flight where I had a mattress. That extra softness was important for me to fall asleep, but even then it took a while. Judging by the snoring around me, plenty of people had no trouble falling asleep!

In the end I probably did sleep for maybe one or two hours, but unfortunately I didn’t get the rest I was hoping for. I blame that more on myself than the seat, though.

Final hours: World Business Class breakfast service

When the flight attendants turned up the light, I knew breakfast was coming. I went back into lounge mode, but otherwise staying with my blanket and pillow to slowly come back to consciousness. Despite having been mostly awake, I did eventually fall asleep, so needed a moment.

Soon after a flight attendant came by to serve breakfast. There was a choice of pancakes and a poached egg with hollandaise sauce (sort of like an eggs Benedict without the scone), besides a plate of cold cuts as well as a chia seed/oatmeal bowl. I chose the pancakes. The mood lighting was a blue hue, so the coloring on the photos is a little off.

The cold cuts were just that: some ham, cheese, an egg and vegetables, which was perhaps a little underwhelming. But, I’d say its an accurate representation of what the Dutch have for breakfast, which is a sandwich with some kind of cold cuts. Indeed, it was like breakfast at home – but then your’e flying business class and maybe wanting a little bit more?

Fortunately, there were the pancakes, which were warm and deliciously sweet. The chia seed/oatmeal bowl had some coconut mixed in it as well, and I honestly didn’t think I’d like it much. As it turns out, it was the highlight of the breakfast. I had all this with a cup of tea and some orange juice.

So, the breakfast was pretty nice! I enjoyed the pancakes and oat meal even if the cold cuts were underwhelming. I don’t think a plate of cold cuts like that really firs in well in business class if I’m honest, but opinions probably differ on hat. When I told my mum about it she seemed to like the idea (but she can barely at anyway in the morning, and just had a cracker with olive tapenade).

Landing and arrival

After breakfast I sat with a cup of tea and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise. There’s nothing quite like sunrise or sunset at 30.000 feet, and I much enjoyed the views:

At this point we were about an hour from Amsterdam, and finally came the thing I’d been waiting for: the Delft Blue houses! I think many people in the Netherlands know about the little ceramic Delft Blue houses that KLM gives to travelers in business class, even if they’d never flown in business class themselves. It’s such an iconic souvenir, and something that is truly unique to KLM. So, I was excited, after flying KLM for so many years, to get my first one:

This house is actually a bottle, and in it is a typical Dutch liquor called ‘jenever’, or in English sometimes referred to as ‘Dutch gin’. I don’t care much for the drink – I just like the house!

Soon after descent started, and as e plunged through the clouds the seat belt sign came on and the flight attendants made their rounds to check all seats were upright, luggage was safely stowed and passengers wore their seatbelts. The weather in Amsterdam seemed rather sad:

Despite the bad weather touchdown was smooth. We slowed down soon and turned off the runway, and continued to taxi to our gate, at pier F. It was fun to taxi past pier G and see the widebody aircraft from all over the world – Dubai, Taipei, Singapore the US… Crazy how the whole world comes together at an airport, huh?

Once parked, business class passengers were invited to disembark first. I turned around and exited through the second set of doors, and only after I exited I realized that a jetway had been connected to the first sit of doors as well! I’ll remember for next time to exit through the front… And as I exited the aircraft and walked out the gate, I took a final look at the plane that carried me here:

A word on KLM’s service

I have flown with KLM for many years, and one thing I’ve always liked about KLM is the service style of the cabin crew. They are professional, friendly and want to be helpful, but they perform the service with a pleasant informality that I’ve always enjoyed. They like to make some jokes and have some chit chat as they provide service.

One thing I wondered was whether I am treated differently because I speak Dutch to the crew. So this time I made sure to observe. Here’s the thing: I noticed that the crew will engage with all passengers in the same way, regardless of the language that is spoken. They maintain a professional way of speaking, and are friendly. They will ask small personal questions, such as whether you were on vacation or business, or whether you enjoyed your trip, etc. In some cases, passengers give a short and polite answer, and the interaction ends there, keeping things largely formal. Others (including myself) will be more forthcoming and that allows for a more informal service relationship to develop. I find that KLM cabin crew is quite good at balancing the formal and the informal, and treat passengers in the way they prefer – more formal here, more informal there.

That said, I will add that they are not particularly detail oriented. They are not very proactive and don’t check up on you regularly to ask if you want another drink outside of the dinner service. During dinner they did indeed ask if they could top up my wine. And if you ask, they are more than happy to oblige and are quite generous, giving you more than you asked for. In that sense, there is no question that there is more personalized, friendlier and attentive crews out there. For passengers that highly value such interactions, KLM service may disappoint. But I find their more informal style to be quite unique, and I do believe it’s a service style that is typical for the Netherlands.

Summary

Overall, this was a nice flight. I thought the seat was comfortable, the entertainment selection was good, and I enjoyed the food. The service on KLM was nice as always – I’ve never had a bad experience with KLM flight attendants and on this flight I similarly had a good time. I wish the dinner service was not quite a slimmed down as it had been in this case, but given that it was a short, transatlantic red-eye flight, I do appreciate the efficiency with which the crew went about doing the service. It maximizes the time that you can sleep, and ultimately I got the feeling that that was precisely what everybody on the plane wanted.

So, to me, the question is not ‘would I recommend flying KLM business class’. The answer to that would be yes – it’s not the best or most competitive product out there, but on the whole I thought it was solid. Instead, I think you might want to ask ‘is it worthwhile to fly business class on a transatlantic red-eye flight?’ To that, I think it really depends how much you’re paying and whether you can sleep on planes. If you shell out hard-earned cash for it, I’m honestly not so sure, especially if you don’t sleep well on planes. For me, lying flat clearly didn’t help much. So, I think I may choose not to fly business on the red-eye, and rather fly business if I’m on a day flight. I did that one the way to New York, and that review should be coming soon. It was quite a marked difference in terms of the dinner service!

So in short, this was a solid flight, and I’d happily recommend to fly KLM. But just be aware that the red-eye sees a trimmed down dinner service that aims to maximize rest.