I was at Schiphol today and saw that most of the rebranding to SkyPriority is already done. For regular Economy check-in more and more is done via self-service, only two full-service check-in counters were in use and only a handful luggage drop-off counters, the rest was done by luggage drop-off machines (which work quite well actually).

What surprised me though was that when my friend asked to sit a bit more in the front of the plane the check-in agent said it can only be done via the machine and with additional payment. Upon checking the machine it turns out that for the flight to MUC the seats in row 10 (exit row) and rows 4-9 (normal economy) were only available for a premium of 20 euro. Rows 11 to 20 something were for normal economy passengers. I read something about KLMs idea to add a European Comfort Class but didn't know it was already so that economy passengers without status cannot sit in the front without additional payment.

I made silver somewhere last year but even before that I hardly ever had trouble getting a seat on row 4-9 when I flew in Y, while my friend has no status and said she's never able to sit row 4-9 even when checking in 30 hours in advance online....

Another thing I noticed today which worries me a little bit is the change at Shengen security, normally Privium had its own private lane with hardly ever a cue. Today I saw that below Privium the new SkyPriority text was added, meaning in the future Privium and SkyPriority are allowed to use the same lane and that will most likely increase waiting time for Privium holders like me...