johan rebel

To each his own, but I've felt like a person for as long as I can remember. I don't need somebody to come and remind me. On the other hand, it does happen that I feel peckish onboard and on such occasions KLM could show that they truly value my custom by serving me a halfway decent meal, preferably one that I won't have to eat with greenwashed Greta cutlery. I know that the one doesn't rule out the other, but I'll take the latter over the former any day. But that means KLM will have to put its money where its mouth is. They are Dutch, so fat chance.

Johan

Hafnia

Last year as Plat, I did two mileage runs CPH-AMS-CDG-KRK = 12 segments in total on AF/KL metal without any recognition whatsoever. I’m TK Elite (Gold) and was upgraded on two of my last 6 segments.

NumbThumb

Two days ago I got an op-up from AMS-CDG due to a full flight. Unfortunately my long-haul to DFW the following day was in Y due to the nature of this project and lack of budget for J travel. Flight was jam packed. The eco purser came by at the start of the flight and introduced herself and said to let them know if I needed anything. For long-haul flights I travel with a .5L bottle for water which they usually aren't the most pleased about. This time around one of the FA gave me a bit of a whole talking down about how if everyone had these bottles then they wouldn't have enough water for everyone. Fair enough but at the same time...it's water. Some people like to stay hydrated during a flight.

Anyways, I think he eventually had a look at his ipad because he came by later and offered some little deserts from J and was more than happy to give me all the water I wanted after and tried to engage in some friendly conversation. I also asked for green tea at the end of the 2nd service and was told they don't have any. As far as I recall, it's available in J regardless of route. I would have appreciated it if they had just gotten me a simple tea bag, that would have been a nice touch.

AnaTFN

I can confirm they had green tea for the new Premium Comfort in my two long-hauls in the last 10 days so you are probably right about them having it for J (regardless of configuration).

Fates

I just became a platinum member for the first time. Is it a fair summary from what I’ve read here that the on-board soft benefits have become somewhat more standard and regular recently, or is that wishful thinking?

Maestro Ramen

have you and I been reading the same thread 🤣

I was hoping that the unpublished soft benefit of being treated just as well as any other pax in your cabin would be honoured. But that was a bit hit and miss, as you will have seen in my recent post.

P.S. there was actually a semi-feelgood ending to that tale. As takeoff was delayed I asked the purser if I could perhaps get a bottle of water too.

He apologized deeply but as we were about to take off it would have to wait. 20 minutes and 4 queued departures later, as we became airborne he went to me immediately and apologized as the water bottles had run out.

...to which point one of the self upgraded pax behind me very unexpectly and kindly gave me their unopened bottle of water as they had overheard.

i forgave them and didn't think about it any further... until they finished the bloody champagne that is.

At some point the FA apologized to them for not being able to hand them a (salmon pesto) tray, as "they had run out of trays". I dont know if he was just that dumb or as Johan pointed out was playing his part in a charade.

Or maybe they were Y plat pax who had just been upgraded - like I was, precisely never 😱

Fates

Yes, my comment was perhaps not the best summary of the overall feelings of the thread!

I have to say, though, I took my first flights as a Platinum today and was impressed. Short-Haul DUB - CDG was offered to move to a row by myself with champagne from up front and the crew were helpful with my short connection. Then CDG - JFK, personalised welcome on board and champagne and snacks from Business delivered to all Platinums right after take off. If they are moving toward that as a relatively standard service, I think it's not so bad.

atflyer

I had some weird experience yesterday on CPH-CDG - on some seats including mine a water bottle was waiting on others not. Asking my aisle neighbour if he was Platinum too, which was confirmed, the penny dropped - seats with plats got the bottle! Also middle seat free while on the seat map it was occupied. Stewardess asking at the end if everything was ok. Seems AF hence gives some small extra's to Plats in economy (I guess if the flight would have been fully booked the middle seat would have been gone for instance).

Xandrios

That's great. And somewhat surprising as I don't think that the onboard crew has any power to do seat blocking. So this may have been some kind of organised effort.

If only they could turn something like this into actual published policy though. I'm not a big fan of LH but I do believe that they used to do this for their top elites (Blocked middle seat). That would greatly improve the economy class experience as an elite, and a real valuable added benefit. Even though if, like you mentioned, free middle seats won't be available if the flight is booked full.

Fates

That would be great if they made it official policy! It might just be anecdotal but, in my experience so far, in intra-Europe economy, they seem to leave the seats next to Gold/Platinum until last to be filled. Maybe I've just got lucky but it's been quite a few flights where the rest of the plane is full but the gold/platinum folks at the front have an empty middle seat between them.

BubbaX

I've seen it on AF. A few years back where a companion was on a second PNR, I could change my (plat) seat assignment and, on the second PNR, see the "unavailable" seat move as well.
Of course, charging extra for a seat up front has the same effect. Who is going to pay money for 5B, when 5A and C are occupied by strangers?

joyu12

I value interaction with on-board crew and when the occasional purser does come up to me it is appreciated. However I have seen on several occasions that they have greeted standard plats on the flight without greeting me (for example they greeted an entire row of plats seated just in front of me without coming up to me), which is a bit of a snub . Last time out I was seated with an Ulti who was taken great care of but no acknowledgment for other plats nor me which is easier to understand, and on the return leg no special hello but just great care overall by the crew for everyone which makes for a great experience anyway!

maalloc

While understandable, that's something that can quickly become uncomfortable for everyone involved.
Special care is best provided tactfully and discreetly on a full row.

For the sake of sharing a strange data point, I got to experience it the other way last week.

On a full domestic flight with 2h delay last week, I could see the purser do what I assumed was the "Platinum dance": specifically greeting 3-4 other pax seating in the first few rows ; keeping them informed of the delay; giving them a pre-departure water bottle while waiting and J cookies during F&B service. Given how these pax behaved in the cabin, I assume they were very frequent flyers, not friends & family. And that's a great way to make your FFs trips a bit less miserable especially on a full, delayed plane.

In the meantime, I had a 0.0, explorer-level flight.
I saw a lot of random service on AF, but that's the first time I see the Extra Mile Service offered to some FFs but not an Ulti pax!

joyu12

Oh i absolutely agree, he wasn’t super confortable about it as they weren’t super discrete about it to start either…

And your experience has what i would like to see consistently provided to Plats/ULTIs on one side and the complete let-down on the other side, not even bothering to go down a few extra rows with 2 hours to kill to check up on a ULTI (or another classic plat had there been one) is beyond lazy…

I was also on a half-full flight to BIA recently with an empty middle seat between me and a known ex-footballer who got his fair share of extra mile service + J cookies etc, while i didn’t even get a response to my « bonjour » at the door

One last anecdote, a coworker used to travel often with her CEO, both plats at the time, the CEO (not of a particularly known company either) would consistently get greeted while my coworker sitting right next to him would get absolutely nothing…

Anyway when they do pay attention they can be absolutely great at it!

Coder33

ORY-MRS-ORY on Tuesday and Wednesday, both flights were full but they managed to keep the middle seat available in the first rows and provided water bottles and refreshing towels for all Platinums ! Nice touch !