New long haul economy service coming
Jun 22, 2018, 12:59 am
#16
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: AMS
Programs: Hilton Diamond, FB Plat
Posts: 312
And technically, a bottle of water is also a drink that you get pre-meal, so I guess they manage to get away with the claim like that.
That being said, if they manage to increase quality of the food while reducing workload like this, I honestly think it's a pretty clever solution. With the one attendant less on flights they had to make some kind of concession to keep workload manageable which on one side might reduce service a bit (no hot towel, no pre-dinner selected drink) but increases on the other side (quality of food).
Latter has yet to be proven though, I've only once been really amazed by the quality of food in the air and those were hamburger sliders on a Delta domestic flight in first. The presentation of food in business class is usually pretty good, but the quality generally..meh.
Jun 22, 2018, 12:31 pm
#17
Join Date: Feb 2018
Programs: FB Platinum
Posts: 279
I'm a bit surprised by the forum reaction. I can't see anything new here. When flying to South America in May in Y i got a pre drink, hot towels, warm meal of course, a salad, ice cream, chips, lots of water, cognac to the coffee, etc, etc...
Jun 22, 2018, 10:14 pm
#18
Join Date: Oct 2006
Programs: AS, FB, MB, MR, HH
Posts: 347
KL food is ok, it's the staff that make the difference. That became really apparent on a recent AC itinerary. AC's soft product is really poor, very poor food and service. I really missed my jovial Dutch FAs on that one. But the crux is that a carrier like AC offers a premium Y hard product that is actually very good value and KL has nothing that can compete. You end paying more for a KL Economy Comfort seat than a seat in AC's premium Y.
So if KL start scaling back their soft product then for me they stop being competitive. The press release is in really dressed up in language. The service offering is being scaled back. I mean who can judge better quality food in Y, by what metric? Quality of food is a very subjective phrase. However what I can judge is the amount of food/drinks and timeliness of service and both of these will change for sure.
Jun 24, 2018, 6:14 am
#20
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: NL
Programs: FB Gold
Posts: 42
1 FA less but still 2 pursers, 1 hugely overpaid one for doing completely nothing and 1 Y-class purser running his/her butt off because the lead purser is busy acting very busy.
Solution to the whole problem is having the lead purser do his/her job. But, unions....
Solution to the whole problem is having the lead purser do his/her job. But, unions....
Jun 25, 2018, 4:38 pm
#22
Join Date: May 2012
Location: AMS
Programs: BA KL LH Hilton Marriott
Posts: 1,230
But I do agree with your point. The slogans are lousy.
Jun 30, 2018, 6:03 pm
#23
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Zanzibar
Programs: Flying Blue
Posts: 1,319
Pursers... many of them... do not even know what a business class ticket actually cost...
Pursers... the art of walking around during the flight doing nothing yet pretend to be busy.
Yet if a purser actually does something it is a truly nice surprise... how sad is that for the pursers who actually care...
Pursers... the art of walking around during the flight doing nothing yet pretend to be busy.
Yet if a purser actually does something it is a truly nice surprise... how sad is that for the pursers who actually care...
Jul 5, 2018, 12:51 am
#26
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 14,352
Johan
Jul 5, 2018, 2:33 am
#27
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 112
The new service will be introduced on the following nine destinations on 1 July 2018: Bonaire (via Aruba), Entebbe (via Kigali), Fortaleza, Osaka, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Seoul, Rio de Janeiro and Houston.
Jul 5, 2018, 6:56 am
#28
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 14,352
Johan
Jul 8, 2018, 12:26 pm
#29
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: IND
Programs: DL DM, UA & AA Peeon, Hilton/Starwood Gold
Posts: 875
Experienced this service today flying AMS-EBB.
No pre-meal drink other than bottled water. There werent any expanded options of meals, just chicken or pasta as it has always been.
No ice cream/water service mid-flight and also the snack at flight's end was just a small pizza whereas this used to come on a tray with a salad and dessert. Overall, seems like this service is slimmed down and certainly left me much more hungry than previous flights on this route.
No pre-meal drink other than bottled water. There werent any expanded options of meals, just chicken or pasta as it has always been.
No ice cream/water service mid-flight and also the snack at flight's end was just a small pizza whereas this used to come on a tray with a salad and dessert. Overall, seems like this service is slimmed down and certainly left me much more hungry than previous flights on this route.
Jul 8, 2018, 12:35 pm
#30
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Montreux CH
Programs: FB Platinum, M&M FTL, BA Blue
Posts: 11,610
As usual everything gets less and less and less. I still think there is a minimum bottom to the service quality which the airlines would be unwise to descend below. I think passengers need to be vocal about it, let KLM know, not accept utter rubbish. I recall recently reading that the staff of Helvetic Airways in Switzerland made a scene with their management about what they perceived to be the unacceptable quality of what was being served to passengers.
I had hopes about this new KLM service, because I felt that they had genuinely improved their offering on European flights in Economy class in recent months.
I had hopes about this new KLM service, because I felt that they had genuinely improved their offering on European flights in Economy class in recent months.