I recently undertook two impromptu trips, the first to Washington DC and the second to Amsterdam, to visit my family and friends over a long weekend. This is the second in a series of three lounge reviews covering my second impromptu trip to Amsterdam. I previously published my review of the Delta Sky Club at New York-JFK Terminal 4, near gate B31, which I was able to enter on my flight from New York to Amsterdam thanks to my Flying Blue Gold status benefits.

In this review I will review the fist of two lounges I was able to visit on my return flight, which brought me from Amsterdam back to New York via Paris. Again thanks to my Flying Blue Gold status benefits, I was able to enter the KLM Crown lounge No. 25 in the Shengen part of Amsterdam Schiphol airport (AMS)

Briefly, I thought the KLM Crown Lounge No. 25 (Shengen) was a pleasant lounge overall, with a pleasant and functional design, nice food options (some very nice croissants!), and showers, but there is no denying it gets absolutely packed.

1. What got me into the lounge?
2. Access Requirements
3. Location and Hours
4. Seating and Design
5. Food and Drinks
6. Restrooms and Showers
7. Summary

What got me into the lounge?

I recently took two short trips, the first of which I already reported on by way of two Admirals Club reviews (at JFK Terminal 8 and at DCA’s Terminal 2, E-gates). I didn’t report on the flights as such beyond explaining how I booked them, since it was all in economy and otherwise completely unremarkable.

Here I will now report on the second trip: a quick trip back the Netherlands to visit family and friends. This is one of three reviews, since in this trip I was able to visit three lounges: since I’ve made it to Flying Blue Gold, that also means that if I fly SkyTeam airlines, I will get a bunch of benefits, including priority services, a free checked bag, free seat selection, and lounge access. Like with the first trip, I flew all economy, which I won’t be reviewing.

I booked a basic economy ticket flying from New York-JFK to Amsterdam AMS with KLM, and then on the return flying first from Amsterdam AMS via Paris CDG to New York-JFK, with Air France. Obviously these are all SkyTeam airlines, and so my Flying Blue Gold status granted me the aforementioned perks. I was able to visit the Delta Sky Club at New York-JFK Terminal 4, then the KLM Crown lounge No. 25 at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS), and finally the Air France Lounge at Paris CDG Terminal 2E, Hall M. In this review I will cover the second of those: the KLM Crown lounge No. 25 at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS).

Access Requirements

The KLM Crown lounge No. 25 can be accessed in a variety of ways:

• Complimentary access is provided to all passengers flying on a same-day flight with Air France-KLM or a SkyTeam partner in business class.
• Complimentary access is also provided to any Flying Blue member at Gold level or higher, regardless of the cabin in which the passenger flies.
• Access is also provided to SkyTeam Elite Plus members, as long as they are transferring between a domestic and International flight that are within 24 hours of each other.
• Finally, a lounge pass can be purchased by anybody for 50 Euros on a space-available basis.

Location and Hours

The KLM Crown lounge No. 25 at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) is open from 4:45 AM to 10:00 PM.

To get to the lounge, you can take the long way or the short way there. After security, you’ll likely want to turn right and follows signs towards piers A-D (Shengen). This is regardless of whether you were able to take the normal or priority security lines, as these are side by side.

You should run into a doorway and corridor on your left, with a sign directing you towards airline lounges. The sign will not specifically call out the KLM Crown Lounge, but instead you’ll see lounge number: the KLM Crown lounge is No. 25. Note if you look to your right, you’ll see the escalators going down to the main floor of the concourse, but that’d be the long way around. Take the corridor instead. As a side note, Lounge No. 26 is the Priority Pass-accepting Aspire Lounge, which I reviewed earlier this year.

As you walk to the corridor, you will finally emerge into the pier D area, and a large sign right at the end of the corridor directing you to turn right for lounges 25-29. You will soon see the KLM Crown Lounge on your right, the windows allowing you to view the interior before you reach the entrance proper.

As you walk onward you’ll bump into the entrance to the lounge, with large glowing letters above the glass doors. I thought it was an attractive entrance, with the large, flowering plants on either side. Though the blue lettering really reminded my of Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn… Look it up if you don’t know what I’m talking about. To enter the lounge, you can either approach the desk and the staff can help you get checked in, or you simply scsn your boarding pass at one of the scanners. It may take a moment, but will then beep confirming your entrance eligibility.

Seating and Design

I got to the lounge at around 7AM, for my 9AM flight to Paris. Keep that time in mind, because you’ll see that even at this early hour, the lounge was quite busy already.

The KLM Crown Lounge No. 25 is not huge, but it is sizable. The design and aesthetics are very reminiscent of that of it’s non-Shengen counterpart. When you enter, you’ll find three broad areas to the lounge. Turning left you’ll find a large seating area, immediately in front and to the right will be a dining area, and all the way over to the right will be another large seating area. Each of these areas is roughly separated by a circular buffet with food and drink that rotates throughout the day.

Starting with the area to the left, there is a wide variety of seating options. Just at the entrance to the lounge are large chairs arranged in a circle, which is right by the customer service desk. If you have any questions about flying with KLM, or require assistance with your booking, this would be the place to go. Of course, all in the signature blue of KLM, and I like how this is mixed in with plenty of wooden elements ion the walls and tables.

Right by the customer serve desk are about nine large high-top tables with high-top seating, in communal fashion. Truth be told, when I entered the lounge these seemed to be about 40% full by when I left it looked like nearly every seta was taken. It seemed rather tight to me, bordering uncomfortable.

Continuing past the high-top tables are two large, carpeted zones with lounge seating consisting of KLM-blue lounge chairs and wooden side tables, each with a lamp to provide additional lighting. By the windows, that look out over the opper floor of the D concourse, are more chairs, arranged in pairs with tables. I thought it’s a nice and comfortable setup, but I do want to point out how busy it already was at this early hour.

A little beyond this seating area is a circular area with a combination of different kinds of seating with various purposes. In the center is something of a banquette with tables and chairs for eating or drinking perhaps. Then as a semi-circle around that, is a ring with desk-like booths on both sides of it, the difference being the configuration of these desk spaces. On the inside they face orthogonal to the ring, whereas on the outside of it the desks are parallel to it, with partitions preventing face-to-face contact. At all of these ‘desks’ are actual office chairs, that are quite comfy and should be good enough for a work session of an hour or so. As you can see from the fifth picture, there are a series of plugs at each desk as well, and a light that’s built into the circular structure.

At the back of the lounge is a large circular area that is entirely enclosed in glass, with a striped pattern on it for privacy. This area is specifically for Flying Blue Ultimate members. From a quick look through the glass, though, the seating is no different from what’s in the rest of the lounge – it’s just a private room to provide Air France-KLM’s ‘most loyal’ passengers a quiet space.

Just to the right of the Flying Blue Ultimate’s room are a few more high-top communal tables with different kinds of high-top seating: some with and other without a back rest. What’s nice here is that, unlike the other high-top tables closer to the lounge entrance, these seats are spaced a bit more generously. The big blocks you see on top of the tables are outlets, allowing you to charge your devices.

As you walk back to the entrance to explore the rest of the lounge, you will also pass the restrooms, which will be on your left. The showers are also here. I’ll get back to this later.

As you walk passed the entrance to the lounge, you also walk by one of two food stations. This is the smaller one, and it is more focused on bites and drinks rather than a full meal. Walk beyond it, and you’ll get to the true ‘dining’ area of the lounge, with restaurant-style seating consisting of tables with up to four chairs. I found this a relatively comfortable area to sit and eat breakfast, though by the time I left, around 9AM, it was pretty much packed with few free tables remaining.

Just beyond the dining area are a few more communal tables with an interesting design: in the center of the tables are little planters, proving some green. I thought this was a nice idea. And right behind this space was what you could consider the ‘alcoholic bar’ of the lounge, with various alcoholic drinks. I’ll get to that later as well, but here I’ll just mention that this bar had a special seating area seemed to be sponsored by Heineken, given the decorations and big ‘beer tanks’ in the back. If I’m honest, I didn’t find the blue floor and bright lights to be a particularly appealing place to sit, and I suppose others agreed, because I reckon this was the last part of the lounge to fill up. I did appreciate the variety of plugs that were available, installed in those black blocks you see on top of the tables.

On this side of the lounge (meaning, to the right of the entrance), is also a large seating area. Similar to what I already described before, the main difference was that the colors of these lounge chairs was more of a shade of mahogany, rather than the KLM-blue. It’s no surprise that this part of the lounge was also quite full, as these chairs were indeed very comfortable.

Overall, the lounge has a nice design aesthetic with a variety of seating options, ranging from dedicated work spaces, to nice lounge areas, and a well-defined dining area. I found all seating options to be quite comfortable and at the very least functional. I appreciated the wide availability of plugs essentially everywhere besides the dining area, where they were sparser.

However, I do get the sense that the lounge is a bit small for the demand, as the lounge get very busy in the 1.5 hours that I was there. And by the time I left, I’m not sure there were any seats left.

Food and Drinks

As I had mentioned, there’s two main food and drinks bars/buffets, and then there’ a small drink station near the Flying Blue ultimate private room, and something of a bar of alcoholic drinks as well. The smaller buffet is near the entrance to the lounge, and is predomianntly for drinks, smaller pastries and fruit. At least while I was there, I didn’t see hot options, but they were still setting it up.

Around the circular center to this buffet were various kinds of drinks, including a soda fountain, a juice machine, a tap for draught beer, and water fountains. There was also a coffee machine for hot options.

On the outer ring that surrounded the central, circular ‘column’ were a variety of foods. Under a heating lamp were fresh pastries (which were quite good), and other breads. A little further was a variety of fruits, most notable oranges and bananas. If the selection of foods seems a little poor, it is because they were still setting up.

A little further into the lounge is the main buffet. This location included less of a variety of drink options, but had a much larger variety of both cold and hot food options.

For the drinks, there were two espresso machines that made most anything you’;d probably want it to make, including dispensing hot water. A variety of teas were also available.

Then to the right of that are the cold food items, including a variety of breads and pastries, particularly rather tasty (chocolate) croissants. Moving on are also a selection of serials, yoghurts, fruits, cold cuts and vegetable,s including cucumber and tomato slices. There were also various whole pieces of fruit and hams, and eggs.

Keep circiling the buffet and you’ll get to the hot options. First up were some soups, which came with a selection of buns. Right beside that was the hot buffet, which offered a full English breakfast with beans in tomato sauce, scrambled eggs, meatballs, a mushroom… something (it was tasty though), fried potatoes and tater tots.

I also mentioned there was a bar with alcoholic drinks. This was further to the back of this half of the lounge.

This bar probably had the most comprehensive selection of drinks in the lounge, save for hot options. First up were a large juice machine, various white and red wines, a tap for draught Heineken beer and grapefruit-infused water.

There was also a soda fountain, and a larger selection of liquors. I do believe all the basics are there, though I can’t vouch for their individual quality as I’m not much of a liquor person. But, if you like your drinks ‘on the rocks’, there was an ice machine right beside the liquors.

Overall, I thought the food selection at this breakfast hours was quite decent. I particularly enjoyed the (chocolate) croissants, of which I did eat several. I always like having some tomato and cold cuts as well. Truthfully, I didn’t think the hot options were anything special, but I liked the scrambled eggs and the mushroom dish, though I didn’t try the other options. Overall, the quality of this breakfast was not as nice, I thought, as the lunch options I had before at the non-Shengen Crown Lounge. However, I imagine this is largely due to the variety of options (which correlates with the fact that the non-Shengen Crown Lounge is much larger) and the time of day, since I visited the non-Shengen Crown lounge at lunchtime.

Restrooms and Showers

I briefly mentioned the location of the restrooms (to the left of the smaller buffet), but let me show you what it looked like on the inside. As you enter, you can go left towards the showers, or right towards the restrooms.

Entering the restrooms, you’ll first come across various sinks in a nicely designed area that feature a lot of wood and marble. I liked the bright lighting, and especially how clean the space is.

In a separate but adjacent area are various urinals. Stalls with toilets are along the back wall of the space. Unfortunately there was some traffic here with various people coming in and out so I wasn’t able to take a shirt of that. But, what I always like in European airports is that the toilet stalls have floor-to-ceiling doors and partitions, which really improved privacy.

Walking back and going the other way at the split, you’ll get to the showers. The staff was nice enough to open a shower room for me that they had just cleaned, and let me in to take some pictures. I thought it was a very nice space and while not particularly big, it was functional. The sink had some spaces to the left and right with small shelves with some basic amenities. The shower cubicle itself was fairly large and nicely designed, but what I particularly liked was that the stall can be closed with a glass door! I really dislike this trend where half the stall is open, allowing water to splash everywhere… Never understood the point of that design… Glad KLM went the other way!

Overall, the restrooms are bright, white, functional, and well-designed. The showers equally so, though they are not particularly large.

Summary

Overall, I was able to sit back, relax and have a solid breakfast at the KLM Crown Lounge No. 25. I liked the lounge design with its distinctive setaing areas and comfy lounge chairs. It’s not as elegant or beautiful as for example the JFK Delta One Lounge, or JAL’s Sakura Lounges in Tokyo – but that’s also not the design ethos of KLM. First and foremost, the Dutch – and KLM – prefer functional design. And I’d say that the KLM Crown Lounge is indeed functional, much like its non-Shengen counterpart. I liked the food generally, but wouldn’t say it’s something special. the restrooms and showers were clean and nicely designed.

There was one thing however that I didn’t particularly like: the lounge was already rather busy when I entered it around 7AM, but by the time I left it was really quite packed. I believe pretty much every free chair was taken, even the ones at those high-top tables that seemed a little cramped. This was around 9AM and KLM’s morning bank of flights peaks between 10-11AM. I can imagine that after 11AM the lounge would gradually become emptier but given how busy it was at 7AM, I wouldn’t expect the lounge to ever be quiet, unless it right at opening or close to closing time.

I do feel that KLM needs to look at expanding the lounge’s footprint, or opening a second one elsewhere. Since Schiphol is building a new terminal and new pier, that may be a good place for KLM to open a second Shengen Crown Lounge. But, only time will tell. For now, the KLM Crown lounge No. 25 is a nice lounge where I’d be happy to return to, to spend some time before my flight. Just don’t expect it to be particularly quiet.