Fortunately being near rush hour traffic back to the airport was surprisingly light, and we made it there with plenty of time to spare. I had managed to check in online with no problem, but as per usual with this challenge wanted to make sure I had paper evidence of my Eurobonus number being on the boarding pass....just in case. Given the worth/value of a million miles it was definitely worth dotting every I and crossing every T. It was very clear on the digital boarding pass, but always good to have a hard copy as well.




This flight had been pretty frustrating to book. When we initially booked, economy could be had for well under $100...premium economy for about $200...and business was nearly $1,000. Ugh. We decided to go with premium economy in hopes that upgrades would open up for a reasonable price...and even if not it was a short flight and premium economy would certainly be just fine. About two weeks prior, the price for business class had dropped under $350 so I decided to suck up the change fee and book it. Given the incident with the airport clinic I was definitely glad that I had! FlyIgglesFly decided to stay back in premium and see what kind of offers were available at the airport.

At the check-in desk they initially seemed a bit puzzled by his request, but after a little bit of asking around they confirmed an upgrade was available for approximately $82. Score! With that all sorted we headed off to find the lounge. It had been several years since I'd spent much time in Jakarta, so it was a bit of a lesson in getting used to things. Ironically, I've now been through there three times already in 2025 with at least one to go...it's funny how travel seems to fall into patterns sometimes.

While heading to security we ran into one of the omnipresent asian tour groups. I'd noticed this in Tunisia as well....large group tours all with matching shirts and luggage. It was like we would think of in North America as something a school group would do....except these were adults. Is this something more unique to the Islamic world since I'd also seen it in Cairo and Tunisia recently?



Bit of a queue for security that took about 20 minutes, and from there exit immigration was super quick and we were off to find the lounge. Terminal 3 in Jakarta only has two lounges: the Garuda lounge and the Saphire Plaza Premium Lounge. Despite being SkyTeam KLM strangely uses the Plaza Premium Lounge, so that's where we headed...and ran into a snag. Apparently my actual paid business class ticket did NOT include lounge access, while FlyIgglesFly upgrade did allow it. Fortunately, they did take Priority Pass so was able to sort that out.

This may be one of strangest large lounges I'd ever been to. It was divided into three sections, and which one you got invited to depends on how much the airline is paying for it. KLM and Priority Pass got the "lowest" lounge which I'll talk about in a second. Earlier this year I came through on Etihad in business and was allowed this basic lounge or the largest lounge all the way in the back of the lounge. Honestly, it didn't feel like any "improvement" over the basic section so I'm not terribly sure what the point is. I also just went through last month, and now Etihad pays for the "first class lounge" which did have table service and a small to-order menu...and the major points were that the AC felt better in this section and it was much less crowded. So make of that what you will.

The lounge itself? Pretty basic. Beer and wine that you ordered from a very bored looking staff member, and two-three hot items on a buffet with a few cold options. Very basic, but it was a nice place to relax, and certainly beat the terminal. But definitely not somewhere I would ever get to the airport early for. Soon it was time to head off to our gate, where boarding was beginning shortly after we arrived.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight 810
Jakarta, Indonesia (CGK) to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KUL)
Depart 19:25, Arrive: 22:30, flight time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Boeing 787-9, Registration PH-BHP, Manufactured 2018, Seat 01K
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 210,799
Lifetime Miles Flown: 3,250,696

After boarding the first thing I noticed was the purple hue mood lighting, which was kept on for the majority off the flight. I found it strangely soothing, and the seat was a very generic 1-2-1 business class product. Plenty good, but also nothing standout. Happy to have it, however, so I could stretch out the injured leg. Wasn't real thrilled to get a broken seat, but for this short of a flight it didn't really matter. The one downside is that the "entrance" area to the seat was rather narrow, and with the injured leg it was a bit of a chore squeezing in and out.



PDBs were also offered...and while the super fancy glass wasn't my style at all (much prefer nordic minimalism) it was certainly a large step up in the classy department from the way US airlines handle business class.



Quite surprisingly for a flight under two hours there was actually a menu! Please forgive the purple hue to everything, but they didnt make it easy on photography!




I decided to go with the chicken percik which was surprisingly bland, but it was nice to see some solid veg after more than a week of eating sodium-laden airplane food. Overall, a pretty solid meal for such a short segment. As a side note since I'd commented on the champagne glasses...I love these minimalist water glasses!



Meal service was quick and efficient without feeling rushed, and overall this was an excellent crew. I know there are plenty of complaints out there that KLM crew often come across as "cold" but I guess having spent a lot of time in the Netherlands as well as having a Dutch ex I guess I appreciate the direct no-nonsense service sometimes.

I was talking to the flight attendant handing out the miniature Delft huisjes about them and she seemed shocked I didn't know there was an entire phone app for tracking your collection! Fortunately I don't live anywhere that mileage running to get them is possible because I'd be way too tempted to try and add to my collection of 7-8. Beyond KLM with the houses and Lufthansa with the First Class Lounge ducks, are there other airlines that have regular collectables?

Landed back in Malaysia, and thanks to eGates we were through immigration and out to our Grab in a snap. Made it back to the hotel around 11:30pm and there was just one problem: I still had to go for a daily run. Ugh. The knee was pretty stiff since it was finally starting to heal over, but decided to tough it out. Since I was aware from the night before where the best-lit parts of the sidewalk were I kept things mostly focused in that area, and since I was a little less jetlagged than the previous day had no problems. Back to the hotel, shower and crash...off to Taipei in the morning. 9 airlines down and 6 to go. We were beginning to enter the home stretch!