KLM 789 J
 

Flying J from AMS-PVG in December in the 789.

I've read that the 789 J seats aren't as comfortable as the Diamond seats on the 777s, but they do all have direct aisle access. And of course, it's a Dreamliner and I'm looking forwards to eating my KLM regulation meatballs in a higher cabin pressure.

Does anyone have any personal experiences? Not a lot of reviews on it round atm.

I flew a 787 AMS-SFO this summer, and the experience was as comfortable as on any other with flatbeds. The only minus is that the entire J cabin has a grand total of one restroom to its disposal, which is insufficient when the cabin is fully occupied.

Interesting that comments on Seat Guru state that seat map only shows 1 lavatory but there were 2. Possibly 2 versions of that plane?

The 5 times i flown in a 787 it had 2 lavatories.
Smallest world business class seat i have encountered until now, especially when your seat is in the upright position the legroom is quit dissapointing.

Agreed, the whole plane seems to be optimized for cramming as many people in it as possible, from Y to J.

There are 2 lavatories. Seatguru is wrong.

Agree with the "cramped" feeling, although the space is actually not so bad. My explanation is that the shell of the seat in front extends into your space at the aisle. The actual pitch at other points is OK. Especially travelling with a companion in the middle seats (it is possible to move the seat forward without recline so that during dining for example you can actually see and talk to each other) the gap to get in and out of the seat becomes quite small.

My overal conclusion is that I prefer the B747/B777 seats.

Which are the best rows for the 789 J seats? Is row 3 too near to the galley?

I just flew the 787 SFO-AMS and was pretty excited about it. I have to say it was by far the WORST business class seat I can ever remember being in. Completely uncomfortable in lie flat and pretty uncomfortable in upright. I did happen to find one position which was OK. On another topic the food was beyond terrible too (I actually vomited midflight-which has never ever happened but I guess thats another topic). I for one will actively avoid the KLM 787 for my future travels.

I couldn't find much on the KLM Dreamliner before I flew, so here's a Trip Report I just wrote:

KLM 7889-900 Dreamliner review

Nice review, Dave. Very disappointing on the Wi-Fi front.

Possibly, I know for sure row 6 could be a little on the noisy side for some on a night flight with the economy galley behind you. Row 4 or 5 are probably best, though row 5 only has one window, if this is an issue for you?

I hope not, as I'm in 3A. :)

Thanks Dave. I flew on KLM's 773 that Wifi from AMS-BKK a while ago and it was ok, although expensive. They did explain to me that it worked better over land and when we weren't flying too far north, but even before the flight took off, they were telling everyone that if it didn't work, they would arrange refunds. They didn't seem too confident in it.

I see the food on the flight is standard KLM food. Never mind, I like fatty and overpowering beef.

Let me know after your flight in December :D!

Flew KL607, AMS-SFO, in WBC today.

Got rebooked today, BIO-AMS-SFO instead of the original BIO-CDG-SEA-SFO.

Because of the much better routing, I was happy to be on the flight and I assumed what was a much newer plane.

Had a bit of a hassle the day before confirming/choosing seats. I logged into Delta.com which ticketed me and for checking in, they redirected to KLM.com but neither my ticket number nor my DL record locator was recognized. But there was a chat available and they gave me the KL record locator. Even then I had to go through several attempts to select seats for KL607. I managed to do it but the My Flights never updated to the new seat.

But when I checked in at BIO, it looked like the seat I wanted was saved.

Beautiful big windows and very clean pods. They passed out the amenity kits after everyone had boarded.

So several things were wrong:

1. The seat would not go all the way back up. After takeoff, I reclined it a little and then when they started serving lunch, I tried to bring it back up and none of the buttons were responsive.

Two attendants later came over and referencing instructions on an iPad, they reclined it all the way down and then removed cushions and snapped something into place. They said something was locked up.

So it reclined in both ways after that.

2. Power outlet didn't work at all. They tried resetting the pod, which reset my movie wishlist selections. They offered to let me charge at the bursar's station but the USB port worked so I just used that, though I had several devices.

3. The port for the noise-cancelling phones stuck out and the headset lost sound repeatedly if the plug was bumped. So I had to repeatedly unplug and replug to get sound on both sides as well as the active noise-cancellation working.


Otherwise the pod was clean, the screen bright and sharp, nice ability to tilt up and down to minimize the reflections. The controller was like a little smart phone with a multitouch screen and you could send the video to the controller instead of the main screen. So I had the flight tracking display running on the controller while watching movies.

The food was okay, not the best nor the worst. They didn't really have a vegetarian choice though, chicken, fish or a veal dish as the main.

The bed didn't seem to go all the way flat but still got a couple of hours of sleep.

All in all, not a bad experience. Despite all the glitches, I just appreciated being rebooked on a much better routing than my original return routing.

Oh and of course, the AF TATL in/out of SFO is on a 777 which may or may not have lie-flats in J so that was a big win right there.

Usually never see J awards offered to DL SM members on KL flights, especially the direct SFO-AMS ones. It's often some AF flights or DL flights while connecting through a midwest or east coast city.

The cushions are contoured so actually "flat" is impossible, but it does recline to be parallel to the floor.

One needs to book these 330 days out if you want to use DL miles (same as for LAX-AMS). There are usually a few (1-2) J seats available on some flights each week. And they are gone when they are gone...

FWIW, it's plenty 'flat'. If there was significant contouring it was hard to notice when sleeping.

I've said before the cabin layout feels like they crammed a lot in it, but it's still a very comfortable and good J product. I flew DTW-NRT on the much-praised (on here) Delta One 747 and it was basically identical. Perhaps a bit more 'shelf' on the 744, but I barely use that.

Horror stories are exaggerations of people who perhaps solely fly AF's new P cabin?

Wasn't sure if I should post in here or in the sticky seating thread. But I wanted to comment since there seems to be no reviews of travelling in 789 J with small children. We found that row 8, with both middle seats and a window were ideal for 2 parents plus a 2 year old. With the child seated in between us ( the middle seat closest to the parent in the window seat) she could easily see both of us at anytime during the flight. I sat in the other middle seat and was able to pass her things without getting up. Also, it was easy to zip around through the economy galley to go for a visit with my wife and daughter. One other minor detail, although the seat maps do not indicate it, the middle (D&G) seats are about 6" forward of the window seats in the same row.