Last December I flew to the Netherlands to visit friends of family, and flew KLM’s World Business Class there and back. Previously I already published my full reviews on the excellent Delta One Lounge at New York’s JFK Terminal 4, as well as the red-eye flight to Amsterdam with KLM. I recently also published a review on KLM’s flagship lounge in Schiphol Airport’s non-Shengen zone, the KLM Crown Lounge 52.

Here I will provide a review of the return flight. Specifically, this is flight KL643 from Amsterdam to New York-JFK, departing at 5:05pm and arriving at 7:20pm.

I actually wasn’t going to write about this flight initially, since I thought it would be quite similar to the flight to Amsterdam. As it turns out, the flight turned out to be quite different, in a good way: first of all, there was plane swap and rather than flying the Boeing 787-10 (as on the flight to Amsterdam), I flew back on a Boeing 777 – this plane features an updated business class seat, so it’s worthwhile describing the differences between the 787 and 777. Secondly, the day flight has a full dinner service, with individually served courses, compared to the all-on-one tray affair on the red-eye flight to Amsterdam.

All together, I thought this flight was superior to the red-eye to Amsterdam. The staff was friendly, the full dinner service was good featuring nice food (though some flavor combinations a little odd), and the seat definitely a (small-ish) step up from the seat on the 787.

That said, I will not dwell on topics that are barely changed from my flight to Amsterdam. This includes the amenity kit, headphones, lavatories, and a few more miscellaneous things. For these things, I refer you to my full flight review on my flight review on JFK-AMS leg.

1. How I booked this flight
2. Boarding procedure
3. The 777’s seat is a nicely updated version of the 787 seat
4. KLM World Business Class amenities
5. Departure from Amsterdam
6. KLM’s day flight dinner service: full three-course dining experience
7. Lounging in KLM’s 777 business class
8. KLM’s business class lavatories
9. Entertainment and Wifi
10. KLM’s pre-landing meal
11. Fun quirk: countdown to 2025 – a Happy New Year!
12. Arrival at New York-JFK
13. KLM’s service was friendly and professional
14. One inflight problem was dealt with professionally and gracefully
15. Summary

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 procedure

I came from the KLM Crown lounge 52, which I reviewed in a previous post, and walked to gate F8, where boarding was going to commence in another 15 minutes or so. It was the 31st of December and I was hoping it wouldn’t be too busy at the airport – as it happened, it was basically dead:

I don’t think I’ve seen the airport this empty before, but it was kind of awesome! The quiet was very pleasant. If anything I would recommend others to fly on the 31st, even if only the prices are a lot lower (since clearly nobody wants to fly on the 31st of December). Still, passengers or not, flights and routes operate mostly as usual, and so it was nice to spot Aeromexico in one of their beautiful special liveries:

Further along at the very end of the F pier is gate F8, and here’s where my big surrpise of the night revealed itself. I had not bothered looking up if here were any changes to the flight, but as it turne dout there was one definite, big change:

Waiting for me at gate F8 was not the Boeing 787-10 I was supposed to board, but rather KLM’s iconic ‘orange pride’ Boeing 777-300ER! What a ncie surprise, especially because the 777 is equipped with an updated business class hard product compared to the Boeing 787. The difference is not supposed to be big, but noticeable, and I was very curious what it would entail. Indeed, it was at this point that it became clear that I was going to write a bigger review of this flight than I was originally intending, since I assumed I’d be flying the exact same product back to New York-JFK.

At Schiphol, most gates have some sort of barrier system already setup to guide the flow of passengers sin various lines, and the ‘widebody gates’ are certainly no exception. Hence, the gate area had two fairly clearly demarcated lines: one for SkyPriority passengers, which includes business class and premium economy, and then a second line for all other passengers.

Boarding commenced more or less in time, with pre-boarding of people needing more time down the jetway, and families with children. Soon after, boarding group 1 passengers (essentially business class and top tier SkyTeam/Flying Blue elites) were invited to line up at the SkyPriority line, and so I took position. About 10 minutes later were invited in.

Perhaps it was the day of this flight, but this was boarding procedure was a night and day difference from the procedure at New York-JFK. Calm, quiet and organized. The spacious setup certainly helps, which is quite different from the relatively narrow boarding area that New York-JFK’s Terminal 4 has to offer.

Walking down the jetway, one things that’s nice at Schiphol is that they still have the double jetways at the widebody gates, and so you can actually enter the aircraft through the front set of doors. As you can see, turn left for rows 1-6, all others go straight ahead. As I got to the door, I was greeted by the loveliest senior purser that I have had the pleasure flying with. She was smiling broadly and seemed to be in a great mood in general (I did ask ehr permission for the photo, by the way!). I loved the ‘Happy New Year’ hairband that she was wearing! It was a lovely little personal touch, that I later saw all crew members participate in. This definitely set the right tone of the flight!

The senior purser invited me to board and guided me directly to the right, where I had selected seat 3A, which is the third window seat from the front, on the left side of the plane.

The 777’s seat is a nicely updated version of the 787 seat

Once by my seat, there is no doubt that the layout of the seats in the 777 are identical to that of the 787. KLM has reverse herringbone seats made by JAMCO in a 1-2-1 configuration, that become fully flat. However, the seats installed on the 777 are a slightly newer generation than those installed on the 787. While their overall form factor and design is essentially the same, there’s a few extra features, which I will highlight. Note that I previously reviewed these seats as installed on the 787 – though here I will cross-post some of the pictures of the 787 version of these seats, to make the differences clearer.

Let’s look at the seat itself. Below, first have a look at the seat that wa son the Boeing 787-10:

Now, let’s have a look at the seat that is on the Boeing 777-300ER:

They look virtually identical, right? Nevertheless, there are a few important differences that I think make a seat that is already quite cozy and comfortable, just that little bit better that I would prefer the 777 version of the seat, rather than the 787 version of the seat.

In terms of the general design of the seat, not much is different. The seat itself is identical it seems. I liked the it on the 787 and I like it on the 777 as well. I find the seat is padded well enough and is comfortable to sit on for the extent of the flight. One thing I thought was pretty neat: there is now a storage space under the ottoman. It’s not big enough to store a carry-on, but it’s perfect for your shoes: so, now you have an actual space where you can keep them. On the Boeing 787 the shoes were kind of ‘stuck’ without a proper place to store them.

Like on the 787, directly to the elft of the headrest is a storage compartment. However, you’ll notice that here is where the first difference is with the 787. Rather than an open compartment, on the 777 it’s instead a closed compartment. Inside are a pair of noise canceling headphones, and there’s a little shelf above and under which you can store little things. During the flight, this compartment is where I kept a bottle of water, for example. The headphones, once removed from their packaging, can be hung on a grey hanger that is installed on the far wall of the little storage compartment. I also like that the door has a little mirror – that’s a nice touch. Generally, I prefer closed storage compartments to open ones, so I thought this was a useful improvement over the 787. Everything else you see – the circular reading light which can be popped out to activate it, and the entertaiment controller are the same.

Another minor difference from the 787 is the location of the headphone jack, which is that strange plug that’s just to the right of the controller. On the 787 this was under the open storage compartment, but since there’s a door now, I guess have to move it. I actually liked this position a little better, as it’s a little easier to get to.

Another detail hat has changed is that besides the universal plug, there is now a single location of USB plugs, with 1 USB-A and 1 USB-C plug right next to each other. In the 787, there were two USB-A plugs, with one being by the universal plug, and another within the little shelf thats below the screen. I actually thought that was a nifty idea, as you can charge your phone while it’s in a handy storage shelf, but invariably I noticed that if I then want to put other stuff there, it’s actually easier to put your phone elsewhere. So, I think having the two USB plugs in the same spot may be more practical, and I also like that one of them is USB-C.

Another change has appeared in the form of the seat controls that reside alongside the arm rest. On the left are the Boeing 787 seat controls, and then on the right are the Boeing 777 seat controls. As you can see, there’s several new buttons there that give you a little bit more granular control of your seat position, rather than just having the three pre-set buttons. This is a very nice evolution! There’s also a button labeled ‘massage’, but honestly I didn’t feel anything when I pressed it… More about why that was in a moment.

There is one more difference worth mentioning in the console of the 777 seat, and that is the inclusion of wireless charging! By the door to the storage compartment is now a labeling that shows you where to put your phone for it to charge. Alas, I don’t have a great experience with this when I flew JAL’s A350 business class, as there the charging was incredibly finicky. Also on this flight I wasn’t able to sue it unfortunately – more on that later.

The last difference with the Boeing 787 seat is no doubt the biggy: The 777 version of KLM’s business class seat HAS A DOOR. I was very excited about this. When I experienced having a door on JAL’s A350 business class, I really liked it, even if it seemed to make the flight attendant’s job harder and I missed having more interactions with the cabin crew. However, the door on KLM’s seat is honestly not really a ‘door’ as such. Think of it more as a privacy screen. The material is lightweight and it slides open easily, but it also feels a bit flimsy. That said, I was excited by it and very much welcomed it. The screen is locked for takeoff and landing. What surprised me was that it was only unlocked after dinner.

Finally, and something I forgot to cover on the 787 review: KLM does not offer individual air nozzles in business class:

For the rest, there is little difference between the 787 seat that I previously reviewed, and the seat on the 777 that I was flying on now. I like the improvements, though they are definitely more ‘quality of life’ improvements then revolutionary changes, and even the word ‘evolution’ feels too strong to describe these upgrades. But, no doubt that all these improvements are favorable.

KLM World Business Class amenities

KLM’s business class amenities on this flight were essentially the same as on the flight to Amsterdam, so I won’t get into too much detail. Waiting at the seat were a bottle of water, wine and main menus and the aforementioned headphones. The menus are provided in both Dutch and English, but for your convenience I’ll only show images of the English version:

The food menu also included lists of non-alcoholic drinks, and alcoholic drinks that weren’t wine:

And then there was a separate menu for the wine list, which included a rather small selection of 3 whites and 2 reds, and this selection seemed to be the same to me as what was available on the flight to Amsterdam:

As I was reading through the menu, boarding was still ongoing. A flight attendant passed by to deliver the amenity kit. This was essentially the same kit as the one I got on the way to Amsterdam, but it was in a white, rather than blue, color. I did find that this white bag was prettier than the blue one, so it’s kind of nice to haver both variants:

The contents is fairly standard, with a toothbrush, toothpaste ‘tablets’, an eye mask, comfy socks, a pen, ear plugs, as well as lip balm and lotion. The latter are by Marie-Stella-Maris, which also provides the lotions and creams in the lavatory. The bag itself turns out to be a reusable, with the content stored in side pouches.

Finally, a blanket and a pillow were also provided. The pillow is pretty substantial and I thought it was comfortable. The blanket was comfy, but not of particularly memorable quality. On this day flight, I didn’t think I’d make much use of the blanket, but I do like to have the pillow as a support for my back.

Overall the collection of amenities on this day flight is identical to that of the red-eye. Like on that flight, I thought these amenities are practical and quite comfortable, but not particularly fancy or anything. Overall, perfectly sufficient for the short duration of the flight. And, like on that flight, I do like the practical nature of the amenity kit, and I can see myself use it in the future for shopping and such.

Departure from Amsterdam

While I was getting comfortable, boarding proceeded rather quietly. I already thought the business class cabin would remain half empty, but a number of passengers arrived in the last 10 minutes or so of boarding. As I was waiting for departure, the senior pursers came by and introduced themselves – one of them was the crew member who had greeted me at the boarding door and whom had allowed me to take a picture. They knew my name, and welcomed me on board, even switching to Dutch. I’m assuming they simply guessed from my name that I’m Dutch, but I thought it was a nice touch. The female purser was quite funny – she joked how her colleague was very good at guessing whether to spekas Dutch or English, and we chit-chatted a little about the various passengers on board. She really set the tone for the service on the flight, which was courteous and friendly.

A little later the flight attendant came by with a pre-departure drinks, including orange juice, champagne, water, as well as an odd-looking blue concoction:

Apparently, KLM introduced a signature mocktail some time ago: the Royal Blue Legend, made with lemon, ginger and spirulina. I at first thought this was a new thing but I realized that this mocktail was also in the menu on the red-eye flight to Amsterdam – they just didn’t offer it as a pre-departure drink. I’m not sure why they didn’t, as it’s a fun thing to be presented with.

The boarding doors were closed more or less on time, and soon enough we were pushing back from the gate. It only took about 10 minutes to taxi to our runway, andwe were cleared for takeoff immediately. Takeoff was smooth, and soon we were above the clouds flying into a beautiful sunset.

KLM’s day flight dinner service: full three-course dining experience

I was incredibly curious what KLM’s day flight dinner service looks like, because on the red eye everything was serve don a single tray. This is to get the food over with ASAP so that passengers can turn in and rest. So, would it be the same on the day flight, or would we get the full three courses? Well, I’m happy to say that the three courses were individually served, allowing for a nicely paced dinner service.

After about 30 minutes, dinner service started. At first a lovely flight attendant came by with warm towels to wipe your hands, and not long after a drink cart passed by. I got one of the red and a glass of water, which was served with a ramekin with warm, mixed nuts. As you can see, the flight attendant, who was really very nice, really filled up my wine glass! I don’t think I ever got such a generous poor of wine on a plane!

Not too long after this, the friendly flight attendant came down the aisle again with the first course. For the first course, there was either a tomato soup, or something described as a ‘crep of smokes salmon and quinoa salad’, so I packed the latter as it sounded much more interesting, see below. It was served with a side salad and a warm bun, and I asked my wine to be topped off, which the flight attendant happily obliged.

If anything, I thought it was a very nice-looking dish. The center is split into one half of salmon, the other half the quinoa salad. The truth is I’m not actually much of quinoa fan, so maybe that’s why I thought the dish was a bit odd in its taste profile. It’s been my experience hat in modern Dutch cuisine, chefs try to be a little adventurous, but in ways that don’t necessarily always work out. I thought this dish was kind of an example of that… Again, it was tasty enough, but also a little odd. The ingredients didn’t seem to work all that well together, and I put the blame on the combination of the quinoa salad with ‘salty fingers’. At least for me, the salmon half of the dish was actually really nice.

The next dish was the main dish, and here there was a choice of vegetarian hachée, chicken beurre blanc, or the spicy beef tartlet. The latter was described as the signature dish, so I went for that, see below. Definitely the plating is not very nice. With KLM, the palting is done at the catering facility, rather than on the plane, so these sort of stewy type dishes end up looking a little messed up when brought out for meal service. However, I’d say that what’s important is how it ends up tasting. Fortunately, the dish tasted much better than it looked. The center ‘heap’ is the beef tartlet, which was very tasty and… really not spicy at all, I would say. But I’m okay with that. Once again, the flight attendant also topped off my wine, and again was quite generous with the poor!

Last but not least was dessert. The chocie here was between a cheese plate or a ‘sepculoos bavarois’, which is a typical Dutch thing. The flight attendant described it well:

“It is a typical Dutch taste. I promise it’s very tasty!”

I, too, promise it’s tasty, even though it may not look like it. Speculoos is the same taste as speculaas, which is a typical Dutch ginger cookie that we tend to eat with the festival of ‘Saint Nicolas’, or ‘Sinterklaas’ (it’s also what Santaclaus is derived from). So, this dessert was made into a bavarois with mango and ginger (another interesting flavor combination), topped with chocolate and speculoos crumble. This was served with a hot drink of choice, and I chose a cup of tea, served in a nice, traditional-looking cup.

For me, having grown up with these flavors, I was quite delighted! I really like speculoos, and thought the combination with mango was surprisingly delightful. Speculoos, combined with chocolate, can get a little overwhelming in larger amounts, so the mango freshened it up. I agree with the flight attendant: it was a tasty dessert.

Overall this was a very nice dinner, and a totally different experience from the red-eye flight to Amsterdam. Like i said, the dinner service was my main point of curiosity on this flight, so I was delighted that it was a ‘proper’ 3-course experience. I thought the food overall was nice, and I enjoyed every dish. The wine was plentiful, thanks to the generous pours I kept getting.

Lounging in KLM’s 777 business class

After dinner, the flight attendants came by and specificall announced that we had the ability to use the door for added privacy. Throughout dinner service the doors had remained locked, which surprised me but it makes sense. After all, opening and closing the doors makes it harder for the flight attendants to deliver th service, and that’s exactly the problem I felt in JAL’s A350 business class. That said, when on this flight rhe attandants unloicked the doors, I was eager to try it:

I have to say, the doors really make a big difference. I didn’t expect the seat to feel so spacious, yet so cozy, and so I kept the door closed until the pre-landing meal service started. Until then, I watched another movie, putting the seat in lounge mode. With the pillow to prop me up and the blanket, this was a very comfortable way to pass the time, and with the door closed it felt like I was in something of a cocoon. Clearly, because the height of the door is not that great, it’s not nearly as private as the suite on JAL’s A350, but it’s still a noticeable improvement over the older seat.

I finally decided to snooze a bit and reclined all the way into the full flat mode. I have reviewed what the seat is like in bed mode in my previous review of KLM’s Boeing 787 World Business Class, so won’t go into detail here. Suffice it to say that it’s comfortable enough for the sort-ish transatlantic flight. KLM does not provide a mattress or pad, but the seat’s padding is not too bad. That said, I don’t sleep well on planes and I really wasn’t tired enough to actually sleep. So after an hour or so of sneezing, I went back into a half-relcined lounge position and continued watching a movie.

KLM’s business class lavatories

The lavatory situaiton on the 777 is identical pretty much to those on the 787, so I wont dwell on this much. Generally they are an average size, with some customization to their appearance. I like the print of the Delft blue houses, which is the signature parting gift all business class passengers receive before landing, and I liked the orange (of course) flower as well. Special amenities are in the form of Marie-Stalla-Maris lotions, but other than that there isn’t much else in terms of extra amenities. The crew seemed to keep the lavatory generally clean and tidy during the flight (though not spotless), which was appreciated.

Entertainment and Wifi

I wrote about the entertainment and Wifi aboard KLM in my previous review of KLM’s Boeing 787 World Business Class, so I won’t go into detail here. Rather, I will just briefly repeat the main points.

Accessing Wifi inflight is possible by getting a Wifi pass. Wifi is free for just messaging, while the ‘surf pass’, good for generic browsing, is 10 Euro for an hour or 22 Euro for the full flight. the ‘Stream pass’, supposedly good enough to stream content, is only available as a 38 Euro full-flight pass. See below for the specific descriptions. However, I find these prices steep, especially for a short flight like this.

I only got the free messaging pass. While I couldn’t surf beyond the directly available KLM inflight information screen, or the Flying Blue login screen, that was enough for me to get an indication of the performance of the network. While on the flight to Amsterdam the network speeds seemed good overall, the speeds on this flight were rather bad. The Flying Blue login screen would regularly time-out. I’m not sure if buying the surf or stream pass would allot you the higher ‘rank’ of some sort to allow you better speeds, but if I’d have paid these prices and had this performance, I’d be pretty miserable.

KLM’s pre-landing meal

As we were getting closer to New York, the flight attendants started the service for the pre-landing meal. This was about 2 hours before landing, as attested to by the in-flight map feature:

After a little bit of time, the cart came down the aisle to provide the meal and a choice of drink. In this case, a main dish, side, dessert and a warm bun were all served together on a single tray. Interestingly, the choice here was for the warm side dish rather than the main dish, which was a salmon poké bowl. The side dish choices were cheese ravioli or chicken with sudachi sauce, and I picked the latter. The dessert was a chocolate cake:

I gotta say, I was delighted by the poké bowl. it was genuinely tasty and very refreshing dish. The fish was pretty good quality, and the surrounding ingredients were all pretty good – remember this is airplane food, so I didn’t have significant expectations. But I was very happy with this!

The chicken was the only hot dish in this meal, and was tasty. The presentation of it was not particularly good, but I enjoyed the taste even though the chicken was a little dry. I do find that the chicken didn’t part too well with the poké, but that’s a minor gripe. Then, the chocolate dessert was delightful. As for the bun, it was warm and soft, and was very happy to be presented with a second one a little later during the meal!

Oevrall, I thought this was a lovely pre-landing meal that I ate with much enjoyment.

Fun quirk: countdown to 2025 – a Happy New Year!

I had mentioned that I was flying out on december 31st. Of course New York is ‘back in time’ compared to Amsterdam, so while my flight departed around 5:30pm, I’d be arriving ‘1.5 hours later’, at 9pm. However, in Amsterdam we’d be crossing midnight and into 2025. So, I thought it was great when the below message as displayed on the entertainment screen:

As the message was displayed, the pilot made an announcement saying that in Amsterdam it’d soon be midnight, and that we would all count down together. Indeed, 8 minutes later the pilot came back onto the PA, and announced it’d be 2025 in about 30 seconds (in Amsterdam), and he urged everybody to join in for 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The entire cabin crew and quite a number of passengers joined in for the counting, and I loved the enthusiasm! It really felt like we were all together in this, flying into the new year. A special message was displayed on the entertainment screen wishing everybody best wishes, and then flight attendants passed by and individually wished passengers a happy new year, which I thought was lovely.

Arrival at New York-JFK

Following the entrance into 2025 (Amsterdam time), we went straight back to 2024, by getting to New York. As we flew along Long Island, the pilot announced we’d be descending shortly. At this point the flight attendant came by to offer all passengers a Delft blue house. Delft blue is the signature pottery from the Netherlands, specifically from the town of Delft. It’s actually a bottle filed with jenever by Bols distillery, a kind of Dutch bourbon. Though I don’t like the drink much, I find this to be a charming souvenir, and it’s something that is collected by some people. There are currently over 130 houses in the series, I believe, and inflight there’s always a selection of 6-8 or so houses you can choose from. All houses are replicas of actual houses, form various cities in the Netherlands.

We were cleared straight in and made an approach into runway 4L (I think), given that my view in the left window seat was a beautiful vista of the New York City skyline.

Truly, New York has one of the prettiest skylines in the world, if you ask me, and seeing the Empire State Building lit up is always a sight to behold. Soon after we made a smooth touchdown in New York-JFK and had a swift taxi to Terminal 4, parking next to a Delta A330-900.

From here, business class passengers were invited to deplane first through the second set of doors, and then it was on to immigration. Forutnately, it being December 31st (again), the airport was fairly empty, and I got through the Global Entry line in a matter of minutes.

KLM’s service was friendly and professional

A word about the flow and quality of the service. In the intro to this post I mentioned how I was curious about the dinner service, given how shortened it had been on the red-eye from New York to Amsterdam. Clearly, this was the ‘full service’, as you’d normally expect in bsuiness class and I was very happy to experience that!

At dinner, since all food and drink came off a cart that was pushed down the aisle from the front to the back by a single flight attendant, there wasn’t much personalization, other than the flight attendant remembering prior conversation and continuing any friendly chit chat that had been started before. This means that sometimes you’ll sit with empty dishes a little longer than you might want, or longer than you might expect compared to airlines that bring out dishes individually, based on individual passenger’s dining pace. But for me, I thought the pace was generally fine. It allowed me enough time to finish the course, but I wasn’t sitting with an empty plate in front of me for too long.

I’d also add that I much enjoyed the interactions with the crew during the dinner service. This is something that I really missed with Japan Airlines, for example. Every time the attendant came by, we had some chit chat. This started with her noticing that I was watching a Batman movie, and asking how it was. I answered that I thought I’d seen it before, but since it’s a 3-hour movie I’d have plenty of time to form an opinion about it. And then when she came by later, she asked ow the movie was progressing and we had some friendly banter about the movie, how long I still had to go, etc.

One could argue it’s because I’m Dutch and she’s Dutch, and that there is a level of familiarity there that’s hard to approach if you’re not speaking the same language (all our conversation was in Dutch). Cognizant of that fact, I listened to how the attendant was approaching other passengers, and I noticed that she made attempts to start some conversation, and it seems as though most people just didn’t really reciprocate. The flight attendant remembered that, too, and respected their apparent wish to remain business-like. I liked that approach to service, to try and be more informal or familiar, but respect and keep distance if it’s not really welcomed.

One inflight problem was dealt with professionally and gracefully

Here’s one annoyance though: during the dinner service I wanted to charge my phone, but found that the charging ports were’t working! I asked the flight attendant about it, and she brought the senior purser over, who observed that the green ‘power on’ indicators at the charging ports weren’t lit. She went to the pilot to see if they could reset it from the cockpit, but unfortunately that was not possible. After dinner, the senior purser came back and on the spot offered 4500 miles or 35 Euros compensation. She was also sincerely apologetic about the inconvenience. I selected the 4500 miles, of course… Meanwhile, she took my phone to the galley and had it charged there, and told me to ask for any help if I needed it back or needed anything else. I thought she had dealt with this issue in an efficient and professional manner, though it was of course disappointing that this part of the seat had an issue. Fortunately it didn’t affect any other functions of the seat, such as the entertainment screen and seat controls.

Summary

I very much enjoyed this flight from Amsterdam to New York-JFK on KLM’s World Business Class. I enjoyed the friendly and familiar service, I quite liked the food and appreciated that this was a full 3-course meal, and thought the seat was comfortable. Specifically, I thought this (slightly) upgraded seat was actually a substantial improvement over the older version that’s installed on the 787. That privacy door (or screen?) is actually quite a nice improvement to the overall experience.

So, overall, I would be pleased to fly KLM again. As I’ve seen others say: KLM’s World Business Class is not an experience I would specifically seek out (unless trying to maintain my status with Flying Blue), but it’s a comfortable way to cross the Atlantic and I would be happy to fly with them again.

So, to go back to the question I raised in the summary of the review of the red-eye to Amsterdam: is paying the price for business class worth it on a transatlantic flight? Yes it is, but (at least for me) only if I am able to get the full experience. That means that on the flight to Europe I’d need to depart earlier, so that it’s not strictly ‘dinner time’ (like I did on my flight to Copenhagen, which departed from Newark at 5:30pm), while the flight back to the USA should always give me the experience I’m looking for. So next time, I may just book economy for the red-eye flight to Europe…