I'll speak up for KL intra-Europe C, but not for ES... KL op-up AMS-LHR is great when you're on the 763/332. On one occasion we took off from the Polderbaan, 20-25 mins from the gate, then after the 22 minute flight we circled LHR for almost an hour, so all the more time to drink pre-Christmas alcohol at the expense of the blue demons. Then a long enough wait for BA to reluctantly allow KL to dock at T4 that I could almost detox. Almost three hours from boarding to disembarkation - I've been on CO IAH-EWR flights that take less net time (1415 air miles compared with 217). Nice to have a genuine WBC seat for that period.

In fact my last few op-nonups to ES on the 734/8/9 have resulted in worse flights (crowded, middle seats, non-stowage of my carry ons etc.) than I would have had if I'd remained in my carefully obtained regular M seat.

The truth is that ES product is not worth paying extra for as it stands. If they're serious about attracting paying customers for a C product there needs to be more leg/shoulder/butt room and more comfortable seats. This doesn't have to mean full WBC config, something along the lines of CO's domestic F would be good. To be workable this also means controlling the rampant overbooking in Y (M in KL-speak, I suppose).

But the KL revenue managers have clearly determined that the marginal increment in revenue created by a genuine intra-Europe C is not equal to the marginal increment created by mass overbooking in M and daily use of ES as a holding pen for displaced M pax.

RTS