Originally Posted by
NickB
I am not especially enamoured of KL's food but these are the kind of things on which different people will have different views. On transfers, I find CDG pretty painless these days and I don't find AMS much superior on that front anymore. The one thing on which KL is, imo, manifestly below par compared to other major European airlines is lounges and in particular the very low quality of catering in Crown lounges at AMS: very limited choices and canteen slop-style of food for the warm dishes. Not the end of the world but to me KL is decidedly average: I will neither avoid them nor make special efforts to fly them. They're OK but no more than that.
My main connections are Schengen-EU to Non-Schengen EU (and vice versa) and Non-Schengen EU to U.S (and back). I don't use CDG that much but when I do I always seem to have to go through security again which hasn't been the case in AMS for a couple of years now. For me that alone is a defining difference as it allows me to book shorter connections and is overall just plain more convenient.
Regarding the lounges, I'm not a big lounge eater (I avoid buffets in general) so I can't comment on that. In terms of seating the Crown Lounge is no worse than the 'regular' CDG AF lounges. And given I usually just want a diet coke, I quite like the burger place style soda machines in AMS, didn't see those in CDG.