Part 8: Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) and the KLM Crown Lounge

After the copious amount of beer and shots the previous day celebrating carnival, it was hard to wake up in the early morning. Somehow I did manage, and after a double espresso, some fresh orange juice and a good breakfast I was all set to return to Amsterdam Airport for what would be a long long day of flying. First to Paris, then to Moscow, then on to Irkutsk where I would only arrive after 24 hours and a brutal red-eye flight. Even though the travel schedule was quite killing, I was immensely looking forward to it as it meant trying out two new airlines in business class: Air France and Aeroflot. After saying goodbye to my family members, I was off on the leisurely 20 minute walk to the train station.


Lovely morning skies over Tilburg


Another cup of coffee for in the train

This morning's connection saw me changing trains at the station of Breda, from where a train would directly take me to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. It being a school holiday week for the Southern Part of the Netherlands, it meant that the normally overcrowded trains were remarkably empty.


Dutch IC train interior


Crossing the Moerdijk Bridge, the boundary between the (Catholic) southern Netherlands and the (mostly) Protestant north-western part of the Netherlands (and the border between the province of Noord Brabant and South Holland.

Schiphol Airport is a favourite by many travelers due to its easy layout for connecting passengers (which is true!). It never was a firm favourite for me however due to the often massive queues, long taxi distances in planes, even longer walking distances if you lucked out and ended up at a faraway gate, as well as the very underwhelming lounges (more about to follow). This is why often when visiting the Southern part of the Netherlands I prefer to fly through Brussels (BRU) as the experience is nicer, or the regional airport of Eindhoven (EIN) on a low-cost flight as it is much faster.


The central arrivals hall where also the underground train station is located. Departures are a level up from here.

I managed to OLCI for the AF flight to Paris, but not for the two connecting Aeroflot flights. Somehow I could select a seat for the first Aeroflot flight (CDG-SVO) but not for the domestic Russian flight following it (SVO-IKT). Luckily, it was relatively quiet at the separate business class/priority check in counters, and after a five minute wait it was my turn. The friendly check-in lady had no problem selecting a seat on the final Irkutsk flight and printing all my boarding passes (actually, only one boarding pass which listed all three flights on it).

Amsterdam Airport has a dedicated priority security check line, with this time a wait of less than 5 minutes. Great, as the queue for the commoners was in true Schiphol-style much, much longer. From the security check, it was an easy 10 minute walk to the lounges, where a friendly lounge dragon let me into the realm that is the KLM Crown Lounge.


Schiphol's lounges are one level up from the main shopping area of the terminal

For those who have never been at the KLM Crown Lounges at Schiphol: they are massive in size. At times it can feel a bit overcrowded, but somehow there is always enough seating for everyone. To me, it mostly reminds me of an industrial size canteen of a large company. For smokers, there is a smoking area. The toilets in the lounge were very clean.





Even though there are a couple of different seating areas, there is little privacy whatsoever. Yet I don't think the lounge is that ugly or necessarily bad. It's for sure decent enough, lots of seats, lots of plugs, fast wifi, not a bad place to kill time. Also the booze selection is not bad when it comes to hard liquors, although I'm not a real fan of whatever cheap French sparkling wine they have on offer (Crémant de Limoux) and its a pity the only beer on offer is Heineken. I get that Heineken and KLM are close partners, but Heineken owns dozens of brands. Why not offer Affligem Abbey beer for instance as well? Personally, I also don't like the McDonald's like taps for soft drinks and water - I just don't think it's classy.



There is however one big factor which is a true letdown: food quality. I don't know the latest in-and-outs (I heard they recently changed the catering company to something else?) but 1-2 years or so ago it was catered by the same company which used to stock my old university canteen. And believe me, the food was also intensely disliked by students having a bad hangover who normally would really not be picky about food at all! It's not the offerings taste disgusting per se, most of it is just bland and pretty "meh", it's more that it looks absolutely disgusting how it is showcased. I have seen canteens serving better tasting and better looking food to blue-collar workers! This is really not something what I would say is acceptable for a premium product of one of Europe's major airlines. I like KLM as a company and their staff and service, but food is almost always a big let down. Cannot they learn something on this front from their French partners when it comes to catering?

Sorry for the blurry pictures - but as the crowds where huge at the food section I didn't feel to comfortable stopping for too long to make snaps. No idea why the food is so popular with Dutchies grabbing huge plates of it - I guess it is because it's free...


All food items are spread out along this round bar


Some very dry looking macaroni and pizza bread


Nasi goreng rice and satay balls

Instead of going straight for the food, I started with a glass of decidedly average Crémant de Limoux.



For the sake of writing the trip report, I figured I better get some food as well to taste.



The chocolate brownies were too dry (I've tasted much better bought in supermarket packages), as was the pizza bread snacks. Again very underwhelming.


Satay and krupuk

I've visited the lounge before, and tried probably every food available (pasta, meatballs etc.). The only thing which in my opinion is acceptable enough is the satay. It's Dutch-Indonesian comfort food you really cannot do wrong. Sure, I've tasted way better - both in Asia and in the Netherlands. But it's tasty and goes well with the krupuk and a beer.

After about one-and-a-half hours in the lounge it was time to slowly walk to my gate to board my flight to Paris.

In short: The Crown Lounge is perfectly acceptable for a short stay. If you want to get some work done, there are plenty of seats and plugs, although the lack of privacy is a minor disadvantage in the huge lounge. For those wanting some alcohol, the lounge is well-stocked in general.

However, the food is decidedly sub-par and not really a premium experience. The likes of KLM are often complaining about unfair competition vs. the Gulf airlines, but how on earth can KLM even think of competing if their lounge and food is like this? Other airports and airlines are constantly improving, but KLM seems to aspire to be more akin to the canteen of a local steel mill than the lounge of one of Europe's major carriers.

Next up: Flying with Air France in business class to Paris CDG