MarcusUK flew KLM World Business Class, on a B777-300ER (24/05/2013 20:13)

KLM alternate a 772/3-ER every other day (roughly) on this AMS-BKK route. The 777-300ER's are all less than 2 years old, and 777-200ER's around 6 years old +.

Check in for Business Class and Elite Plus members, offers fast track at Schiphol via immigration, and security at the gate, as well as boarding.
Use of the Intercontental Crown lounge is always a pleasure, calm, one of the largest lounges in Europe with terrific views and a nice ambiance. It is set between E/F terminals, the principle long haul gates at AMS.

But always remember what Shiphol offers to everyone, not to miss...
There is a Mini Museum arranged by the Rijksmuseum very near between the levels, which changes the paintings there each month or so. An library with ipads, and paper books also, A special area for children to read and play, also. There is a piano anyone can come along and play. A Physio holistic centre (with Dutch Registered Physiotherapists), offers massages, reflexology, fish and feet experience (urgh), O 2 boosts,and a water massage system, through a sunbed like machine. You feel wet but never get wet!

Schiphol has all the usual airport facilities but some amazing areas to rest, sleep, eat, and flavour Dutch culture, including a casino, and many things that simply do not exsist in Europe's airports.

The crews are always professional, natural and warm on KLM. The Senior Purser came round to introduce herself to all in WBC. The Cabin was also managed by the Junior Purser. Seats remain the best KLM have on the new 773's comfortable, nice large pillows, but are angled lie flat. You do find yourself slipping down a little and unless you sleep on your back it can be uncomfortable.
This is going to change with their new seats being fitted through the fleets now.

The menus were excellent featuring michelin star Chefs from Holland.
KLM have in the last 2 years greatly improved meals, using the aim "restaurant fresh" as from the kitchen, and it really is wonderful food. The tablewares were recently re-designed by Marcel Wanders, and all catering equipment now weighs 1/3rd of its orginal to save weight and fuel. It looks great also.

The wines features some world award winning Australia Dessert wines, and several chile, french, New Zealand experiences, with all the usual other refreshments. The presentation was excellent, standards one of the highes on board any Airline these days, and impeccable quality, ingredients.
I often fly and have Asian Vegetarian for long haul, so was given an abundance of breads, flavours of pickles, curry, fragrant rice, and really healthy aromatic foods.

Entertainment was easy to navigate, very wide screen as wide as the seat in front.

Slept for only around 4 hours, but with some quiet and peace, ready for breakfast served about 2 hrs before landing. KLM have a Hotel style breakfast card where you select your items before, which is delivered all ready in the morning, individually

Landed as always with KLM on time, luggage came out first as usual priority tagged.

An excellent flight for Long haul with KLM. New Aircraft, fresh natural friendly crew, clearly enjoying and happy in their work as compared to many Airlines these days, where you feel unhappiness and inexperience.

The Business Class will be upgraded as per the seat on 747's from now, and 777 fleets will follow next year, a little slow, but it is being done.
Schiphol itself can always be a rewarding an remarkable airport, if you look around and take some time to enjoy it, unique in Europe.

The fare was taken from a KLM sale of Business class. £1,340 (Equiv) each return Z class AMS-BKK, saving over £1,200 from the cheapest Airline option for two, ex LHR, and all its associated taxes, charges, and poor service.

AMS will remain a simply excellent gateway choice for travel througout Europe , worth travelling too, and is well utilised now for Ex UK business and leisure travellers. Great for KLM having such a hub, but they remain an impeccable Airline, well run and reflected through the whole experience from purchase to leaving the aircraft. One of Europe's best Airlines.

myspirow flew KLM Economy, on a B777-300ER (12/01/2013 08:49)

Flight KL810 is serving Jakarta (CGK) to Amsterdam (AMS) with intermediate stop at Kuala Lumpur (KUL). This review took details of the first portion of the journey.

Check-in
At Jakarta International Airport, the ground handling for KLM was handled by third party. At check-in, the ground staff were wearing KLM uniform (blue colour). There are three check-in area; one for Sky Priority, one for internet check-in (baggage drop), and lastly is economy class check-in section.
Arriving 2 hours ahead for my 19.25 departure and having checked-in on the internet (web check-in opens 30 hours prior to scheduled departure), I proceed to internet check-in area which was relatively empty. After my bag was weighted and the airport tax was paid (Rp150,000 per person for international flight), I proceed to immigration. Immigration line was also a breeze and I was at airside departure area in no time.

Boarding
Boarding was printed at 18.50 but boarding call was made at airside departure area shortly after 18.10. I walked leisurely to Gate E7, going through another security check before entering gate area. The gate was in walking proximity from immigration and airline lounges. There were two separate lane for entering the gate; one for Sky Priority and another lane for the rest of passengers. Line was formed in the general lane but it was moving quickly. Gate agents (wearing the purple uniform of the third party company) were welcoming the passengers.

As I entered the gate area; the plane was already sat there. It was a B777-300ER PH-BVB named National Park Fulufjalet. It's wearing KLM Asia livery design and I've been on it for more than half dozen times.

Boarding was made shortly before 18.50 based on priority and row sequence for economy class passengers. I was among the last group to board as I was seated on row 23, the first economy class section behind the business class.
Boarding completed around 19.25 right in time for 19.25 scheduled departure time. We were pushed back from the gate at 19.33 and due to runway congestion, we had to take turn to take off. Our plane was cleared for take off at 19.56 from runway 25R.

In-flight
After reaching cruising altitude, the fasten seat belt sign remained on. Apparently the weather condition was rather rough. Cabin crew walked around the cabin to distribute headphones and in-flight entertainment was soon switched on. However, there is no hot towel service as was in other KLM intercontinental flights.

Meal service followed soon with cabin crew distributed kids meal first. Before the crew got any chance to start meal service, weather got rougher and forced meal service to be delayed.
Rough turbulence was soon experienced by the plane. It does not helped of being a larger aircraft to have a smaller effect of turbulence. The cabin felt shaky for few minutes and it repeated several times until we were approaching Singapore that the weather was getting better. With half-an-hour remaining flying time, the cabin crew rushed to distribute the rest of dinner service with no coffee/tea service followed afterwards. Also, inflight-sales service was also skipped.

Meal
Having ordered a vegetarian meal; I was quite pleased with the offering. KLM served a full tray of 3-course meal. It had a nice presentation however the quality is a different story. I had a papaya and mango salad for appetizer, a slightly Asian dish. For entree, it was potato cakes served with boiled potato vegetables - clearly a Western dish. For dessert, it was a jelly with slice of apricot on top - another Western dish. Adding the meal tray was a cup of mineral water and warm bun with butter.

The appetizer was quite good - both in taste and presentation. For entree, there is a mismatch of nutrient that one needs for a balanced diet - why serving too much potato for single serving? Also, the vegetables are overcooked - signalling that the dish was prepared when the plane left Kuala Lumpur before coming to Jakarta and being left too long at the food warmer. For dessert - it was nothing to rave about but the excessive coloring on the jelly did stick to the canned fruit.

It's a courtesy of the airline to serve meal to passenger, but with current offering, it's hardly a sign for KLM to symbolized its meal offering with "quality" and "being healthy".

Entertainment
I had the same inflight entertainment program for 2-month straight traveling on KLM (it was the same program offered in December 2012 as in January 2013). While the choice is extensive, but not updating IFE program on monthly basis can leave frequent travelers in boredom especially those who fly intercontinental flights couple times a month.

Seat
Good thing about economy seat of B777-300ER for KLM is there's no IFE box below the seat (in B777-200ER, entertainment box is located on seat A and H reducing legroom and flight comfort for long hour flight). Seat pitch was of industry average but it still felt roomy. With economy cabin of B777-300ER is set at 3-4-3 configuration, there is a considerable less aisle width as compared to the aisle of B777-200ER that the company operates. Also, B777-300ER economy seat has larger TV screen and better IFE console, one would feel like returning to dinosaur era when flying B777-200ER aircraft - two of the aircraft which KLM use alternatively for this route.

Service
If there is a constant plus point for KLM is its service from the crew. However, KLM needs to standardize its inflight offering to ensure that the guest receive the same experience each time flying on it. Things like hot towel service, inflight sales, and others which have been performed on this route but not consistently.

Arrival
We touched down at Kuala Lumpur International at 22.25 (scheduled arrival time was 22.25) and was at the gate some 10mins afterwards. All passengers need to disembark the aircraft with transiting passengers required to collect transit card and return to the gate in 30mins time.

Verdict
A rather bumpy ride for a short hop from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur. Inflight entertainment may offer sufficient entertainment for the passengers - but it was not updated on monthly basis. Meal service was rather disappointing but the excellent service from the crew made up the whole experience. Overall, there is room for improvement for KLM to have a more standardized offering to complete passenger experience.

On a side note: it is rather amusing to find a passenger who asked for the "smoking lounge" onboard aircraft these days. On this flight, I found this passengers while on previous KLM flight of the same leg, I found passenger who was caught smoking in the lavatory until the crew came and reprimanded that passenger.

Binman62 flew KLM World Business Class, on a B777-300ER (21/08/2012 22:05)

KLM world business class

Recently flew DPS to SIN with KLM as they offered a great deal on the 2 hour flight in business for a family of 4.

Checkin was swift and efficient though the development work on the new DPS airport means that getting into the airport was a bit of a chore.

The lounge was awful with some pretty dire food and lousy white wine and beer only. Annoyingly, wifi was not free and I really should 
have headed for one of the 3 other lounges which accept priority pass and which do have free wifi.

Boarded on time and was met by a character right out of a Wagnerian opera! She was terrifying and was taking no prisoners. I had boarded first and had quickly settled which seemed to please her. Others did not please her and came quickly to regret their actions!

The flight, a 777-300 left on time. The seat was fine, the IFE good and the food perfectly satisfactory. Nice touch was the menu was printed with date of travel.

Amenity kits were distributed which was a surprise on such a short sector and then just prior to landing, passengers were given the little Dutch houses as a gift. Apparently there are now 92 so I had a good start picking up 4 on my first flight. It was a real surprise to be offered them at all.

My Wagnerian crew member clearly took a shine to my family and chatted to my wife and kids in between barking at others, in particular a very leggy and demanding blond! Consequently I can only speak highly of her and cannot fault the service provided to us.

I was most impressed by KLM but I am not sure if I would have the same view after 12 hours in that slope seat. However I had just 2 hours and the flight was very good indeed.

kempinski flew KLM Economy, on a B777-300ER (02/02/2012 15:23)

Flight KL0809/AF8399
Aircraft: Boeing B777-300ER PH-BVB (Nationaal Park Fulufjället)
Seat: 38K
Route: KUL-CGK (Kuala Lumpur International - Jakarta Soekarno Hatta)
Departure time: 1710, Arrival time: 1810 (2 hours flight)

Check-in>> all passengers departing from Kuala Lumpur need to do online check-in or kiosk check-in as KLM counters at the airport only handle baggage drop-off. There are plenty of check-in kiosks (since KLM has integrated their system into common check-in kiosk at KLIA) and the ground staff will make sure you're holding a boarding pass before queuing for baggage drop. Baggage drop counters open from 3 hours before scheduled departure time.

Immigration>> Immigration is always a breeze at KLIA as there are plenty of immigration counter available for foreign passport holders. There will be a security check after immigration before entering airside area.

Holding lounge>> The flight departs from Gate C4 which is at the satellite terminal. Passenger must take an aerotrain which link the main terminal building (MTB) with the satellite terminal (Gates C). Boarding was printed at 16.35 for 17.10 departure. There is a second security check prior to entering the gate area.

Boarding commenced slightly late than scheduled as gate agents are still busy checking-in the passengers - both who are originating from Kuala Lumpur and those transiting from Amsterdam.

Boarding was done in the following order: family with young children, elderly, and wheelchair-bound passengers, followed by World Business Class and Skyteam Elite members, and economy class passengers board according to seat row numbers starting from the rear of the plane.

Which seat to choose>> Other than economy comfort, bulkhead seat and seats near emergency exit rows, other seats are regular economy class seat with limited pitch and recline. The economy class of B777-300ER is configured as 3-4-3 layout. It is interesting to note that seats at column C and K has IFE box underneath the seat and it definitely reduce the storage compartment underneath the seat in front. One might want to avoid these seats for a long haul trip.

The flight>> Boarding completed shortly before 17.10 and the plane taxi down the runway and waiting for its take off slot. Immediately we were in the air and a welcome video was played immediately. Service began with flight attendants distributing earphones and immigration cards.

Meal service only commenced after 30 minutes in the air together with drink service. Coffee/tea service followed together with the meal clearance.

Service>> The service was so slow it almost took the entire flying duration of 1 hour and 35mins in the air to serve 390 economy class passengers. Also, an attempt to summon flight attendant by pressing the call button went ignored for the duration of the flight. Such slow and inattentive service left the whole experience to be abysmal at best.

In-flight entertainment>> The personal video screens on B777-300ER are of the latest generation with wider screen and personal console which is stored on the back of the seat. The selection of entertainment is pretty extensive and deemed sufficient to cover the long haul flight.

Amenities>> During stopover at Kuala Lumpur, the cabin is not well looked-after. Not all seat pocket is replenished with inflight magazine (Holland Herald) and no newspaper selection in the boarding gate left passenger with only PTV as sole source of entertainment.

Arrival>> The plane had to make few circles before landed at Jakarta due to runway congestion. The plane touched down shortly after 18.10 (scheduled arrival time) and it took another 15mins to park at the gate. Immigration at Jakarta was quite a breeze but it took another hour for my checked bag to arrive at the belt.

Verdict>> This short haul hop between KUL and CGK is popular among leisure travelers from Malaysia and Indonesia as it is one that provide cheap tickets. However, the service particularly on this KLM flight is very very lacking in terms of speed, attentiveness, and courteousness. Slow baggage delivery at Jakarta airport is another aspect whereby KLM need to observe for future improvement.

5n1013221 flew KLM Economy, on a B777-300ER (14/11/2011 22:15)

Klm is by far the worst airline I've been on.

The customer service, if it deserves to be called that was just horrible. The attendent was very rude and the supervisor wasn't any better. I will never fly with them again.

TominScotland flew KLM Economy (short haul), on a B777-300ER (25/07/2011 14:15)

SonySuliantiJuswara flew KLM Economy, on a B777-300ER (25/08/2009 10:48)

I will give my review as soon as I am on board . I will be flying with this aircraft very soon.