florin
Oct 26, 09, 7:46 am
My wife and I flew AMS-CGK and back on KL (in Y( and we were pleasantly surprised.
Status: As a DL Gold (I used to be WP Gold but got kicked over to DL because of the merger:() the status was not immediately recognized and I could not select any premium seats. In the CGK airport after a supervisor came over they did let me get premium seats (more about that below).
The 77W in Y: These were long flights to endure in Y, but the 77W wasn't that bad. Yes, it's 10 abreast but it's infinitely better than a 744. The seats are reasonably comfortable (for Y, that is), the PTVs have bigger screens that on the A332 and when seats recline the seat cushion moves forward a bit. It gives you a feeling of slightly more space when the person in front of you reclines, because they back of the seat does not take that much of the space in front of you (since the seat goes forward a bit).
BEWARE OF SEATS - SeatGuru is dead wrong here! We were in row 18H and 18J on the outbound. That row does not have a window. (Seatguru makes no mention of that.) On the inbound we flew on the SkyTeam livery plane.:-: Seatguru is wrong again - there was no 10H, J or K. Row 10 only has the 4 center seats (D, E, F, G). We got row 11 (H and J), supposedly premium seats. Row 11 is AWFUL! 11H gets bumped by carts a lot. 11H has a screen in the armrest which is considerably smaller than the rest of the screens. 11J is supposed to watch the screen which is mounted on the back of seat 9J, but that screen is EXACTLY in the middle of seats 11H and 11J.:td: The screen in front of 11K is also badly misaligned. What the heck were they thinking?!:confused: These seats should be half price, if you asked me. Row 11 is just AWFUL. Luckily we were able to move to much better seats (whew!)
Service, food: The food was ok and plentiful. Nothing spectacular, but I usually have low expectations when it comes to plane food. When I flew AMS-SFO I was starving when I landed; this time the food quantity was adequate. The service was nice and fairly attentive. On the return, the flight from KUL-AMS was exactly half-empty in Y and the FA's had everyone move around in order to have 2 seats. One guy was sitting across from me in a row of 4 and promptly laid out to occupy all 4 seats. It took 3 FA's to convince this <insert expletive here> to be more courteous and let every pax on the plane have 2 seats. He eventually relented. Kudos to the FAs! I thought this was a great effort on their part. They could have just not cared, but they made it a point to make sure that everyone is more comfortable. ^
At one point I went to bathroom. The one in my section was occupied so I went further back. As luck would have it, the carts were in the aisle serving breakfast when I came out. One FA tried to make room for me but I told him that I would just take a seat and wait until I could pass; I wasn't in a hurry. He gave me a tray of food that I initially refused; I told him I would just wait and go sit next to my wife and eat there. He insisted that I accept the tray and said it might be a while before I could return to my seat. Small gestures such as this one go a long way.
Overall, for a very long flight in Y I thought KL did a great job and I thought that credit should be given where it's due.
Thanks, KL!^
Status: As a DL Gold (I used to be WP Gold but got kicked over to DL because of the merger:() the status was not immediately recognized and I could not select any premium seats. In the CGK airport after a supervisor came over they did let me get premium seats (more about that below).
The 77W in Y: These were long flights to endure in Y, but the 77W wasn't that bad. Yes, it's 10 abreast but it's infinitely better than a 744. The seats are reasonably comfortable (for Y, that is), the PTVs have bigger screens that on the A332 and when seats recline the seat cushion moves forward a bit. It gives you a feeling of slightly more space when the person in front of you reclines, because they back of the seat does not take that much of the space in front of you (since the seat goes forward a bit).
BEWARE OF SEATS - SeatGuru is dead wrong here! We were in row 18H and 18J on the outbound. That row does not have a window. (Seatguru makes no mention of that.) On the inbound we flew on the SkyTeam livery plane.:-: Seatguru is wrong again - there was no 10H, J or K. Row 10 only has the 4 center seats (D, E, F, G). We got row 11 (H and J), supposedly premium seats. Row 11 is AWFUL! 11H gets bumped by carts a lot. 11H has a screen in the armrest which is considerably smaller than the rest of the screens. 11J is supposed to watch the screen which is mounted on the back of seat 9J, but that screen is EXACTLY in the middle of seats 11H and 11J.:td: The screen in front of 11K is also badly misaligned. What the heck were they thinking?!:confused: These seats should be half price, if you asked me. Row 11 is just AWFUL. Luckily we were able to move to much better seats (whew!)
Service, food: The food was ok and plentiful. Nothing spectacular, but I usually have low expectations when it comes to plane food. When I flew AMS-SFO I was starving when I landed; this time the food quantity was adequate. The service was nice and fairly attentive. On the return, the flight from KUL-AMS was exactly half-empty in Y and the FA's had everyone move around in order to have 2 seats. One guy was sitting across from me in a row of 4 and promptly laid out to occupy all 4 seats. It took 3 FA's to convince this <insert expletive here> to be more courteous and let every pax on the plane have 2 seats. He eventually relented. Kudos to the FAs! I thought this was a great effort on their part. They could have just not cared, but they made it a point to make sure that everyone is more comfortable. ^
At one point I went to bathroom. The one in my section was occupied so I went further back. As luck would have it, the carts were in the aisle serving breakfast when I came out. One FA tried to make room for me but I told him that I would just take a seat and wait until I could pass; I wasn't in a hurry. He gave me a tray of food that I initially refused; I told him I would just wait and go sit next to my wife and eat there. He insisted that I accept the tray and said it might be a while before I could return to my seat. Small gestures such as this one go a long way.
Overall, for a very long flight in Y I thought KL did a great job and I thought that credit should be given where it's due.
Thanks, KL!^