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"House of KLM" - Crown Lounge redesign

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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:10 am
  #301  
 
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Originally Posted by CoMooter
(...) Also was a bit surprised to see the bar was charging for about anything you might want to drink - hope the Heineken stays free.

KL appears to be following the recent DL model (and the old UA one) in their lounges. If you want anything decent to drink - pay up.

That's quite awful indeed Thank you for the experience return. What decent drinks can you still get without paying?

In AF lounges you can get Grey Goose and decent Cognac, not to mention laurent perrier, despite their J fares being cheaper than KLM...

I am going to the new crown lounge in a couple of weeks and intend to leave a review here but at this rate Im wondering whether I should use my lounge card to go to Aspire instead... ( i got free charges left...)
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:29 am
  #302  
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Originally Posted by Maestro Ramen
In AF lounges you can get Grey Goose and decent Cognac, not to mention laurent perrier, despite their J fares being cheaper than KLM...
On which routes are AF J fares cheaper than KL J fares?
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:34 am
  #303  
 
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
On which routes are AF J fares cheaper than KL J fares?
Sorry I should have said short haul. Long haul is roughly the same. And I am based in the UK, so this may be a regional thing.

But yeah, Ive never seen a KLM J fare short haul under £500, whilst AF has plenty.
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:35 am
  #304  
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Originally Posted by Maestro Ramen
Sorry I should have said short haul. Long haul is roughly the same. And I am based in the UK, so this may be a regional thing.
Perhaps, but which routes specifically have you seen AF post cheaper fares than KL?
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:38 am
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
Perhaps, but which routes specifically have you seen AF post cheaper fares than KL?
From the midlands... every single route to any EU country. Even from HUY (very regional airport). Af stock via ams-cdg is always cheaper than kl stock.
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:46 am
  #306  
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Originally Posted by Maestro Ramen
From the midlands... every single route to any EU country. Even from HUY (very regional airport). Af stock via ams-cdg is always cheaper than kl stock.
HUY is only served by KL. Therefore, to book an "AF ticket" means adding in a third (AMS-CDG) sector, which of course brings the price down....

A more interesting example is from BHX, where KL is over twice the AF price - though AF requires long, long layovers which may explain the differential.
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:50 am
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Yeah, that was an example. Try find me a KL fare that is cheaper than AF from MAN or BHX, for any connection flight in Europe.

I will be impressed if you do.
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:52 am
  #308  
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Originally Posted by Maestro Ramen
Yeah, that was an example. Try find me a KL fare that is cheaper than AF from MAN or BHX, for any connection flight in Europe.

I will be impressed if you do.
The very first attempt was a success!
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:52 am
  #309  
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
Perhaps, but which routes specifically have you seen AF post cheaper fares than KL?
Well,just to give you a few examples from LHR:
LHR-MAD, LHR-MIL, LHR-DUS, LHR-FCO, LHR-TXL, LHR-ARN, LHR-OSL, LHR-BCN, LHR-GVA, etc....
I guess I could draw up a list of something like 400 intra-European routes on which AF has cheaper J fares than KL but it would be a little tedious.
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 10:56 am
  #310  
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
The very first attempt was a success!
AF offers an O fare at GBP447 on this route, which is about half of the cheapest KL business class fare (GBP850).
Basically, whenever AF offers an O fare on an intra-European route, it normally beats the cheapest KL business class fare by a very long margin. There are a handful of exceptions but KL does not tend to offer intra-EUR fares in the €400-550 bracket in which many AF O fares sell.
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 4:46 pm
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I can second the fact that AF regional J-class fares from the UK are advertised as being cheaper and this is prominent on KLM's website. I recently made a round trip that was MAN-CDG-ARN for the price of £369. KLM, however, did not go below £500.

Although, I discerned from reading the conditions that the difference was that KL's fare was for full-flex business tix, the AF fare was not.
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 5:22 pm
  #312  
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Originally Posted by Lawrious
I can second the fact that AF regional J-class fares from the UK are advertised as being cheaper and this is prominent on KLM's website. I recently made a round trip that was MAN-CDG-ARN for the price of £369. KLM, however, did not go below £500.

Although, I discerned from reading the conditions that the difference was that KL's fare was for full-flex business tix, the AF fare was not.
The KL fares are indeed fully flex but they are also considerably more than £500 return (typically from over £900 return for the cheapest Z class flights).
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Old Sep 22, 2019, 6:03 pm
  #313  
 
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Originally Posted by NickB
The KL fares are indeed fully flex but they are also considerably more than £500 return (typically from over £900 return for the cheapest Z class flights).
Must be to do with the current dynamic pricing? I have not done that much research into it myself, but, at the time of booking I could choose a KLM roundtrip business flex for £554. I went for the cheaper AF option instead.
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Old Sep 23, 2019, 2:16 pm
  #314  
 
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Originally Posted by Maestro Ramen
That's quite awful indeed Thank you for the experience return. What decent drinks can you still get without paying?

In AF lounges you can get Grey Goose and decent Cognac, not to mention laurent perrier, despite their J fares being cheaper than KLM...

I am going to the new crown lounge in a couple of weeks and intend to leave a review here but at this rate Im wondering whether I should use my lounge card to go to Aspire instead... ( i got free charges left...)
House brands free...upscale not so much if memory serves me well. They had something with bubbles in that mix of house brands (I think) but it did not strike me as anything notable...Did not look at the hard liquor choices as it was the morning. But based on what I saw, not overly optimistic on where that is headed either in terms of being complementary.

Someone has to pay for that fancy new bar and all the people working at it I guess.
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Old Sep 23, 2019, 3:09 pm
  #315  
 
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Originally Posted by HalconBCN
To be fair, the lounge is not "free" - we are paying for it indirectly through our tickets and/or our loyalty programs.

Also, the marketing language was not "standard" - see example below. KLM's mission was to create the "most attractive lounge in the world". It failed, unless the extra space being opened is really something special.



^

What were they smoking? This could be the only explanation why they would claim that no other lounge in the world has an outdoor area. I have been to more than a handful this year alone and there are definitely more.

Will be there next week and was wondering whether the complimentary food would still be enough to make a meal or whether one would have to use the restaurant on a longer layover?
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