KLM 787
 

Hi,

I see that KLM mostly stopped flying its 777s to Asia this summer in favor of Dreamliners.

Last time I flew Air France's 787, I was less than impressed by the "modern" airplane. The J seat, for instance, felt oddly cramped compared to the 777's.
Browsing SeatGuru, I see that the feedback on KLM's 787 is quite bad, for both Y and J. Travelers seem to indicate that the new seats are very hard compared to the ones installed on 777 - to the point of being physically painful.

SeatGuru feedback being quite biased, do you guys share the same thoughts? Is an overnight 12h flight on a KL 787 sensibly more tiring than on the old 777?

As far as I can tell, the Y seats are the same.

As for J:
The KL 789 seat is a cheaper version of AF’s seat. (Zodiac Cirrus, when done right, one of my favorite J seats.)

The 78X has the JAMCO seat, which I’m not familiar with.

Both have all aisle access, which I vastly prefer over any seat that involves me having a seat mate opponent (like KL’s A330 and 777).

I thought it was much nicer than the 777. Equally comfortable seat but much newer feel and significantly more private, as every seat has direct aisle access as pointed out by Djokison. For solo travelers the window seats are the best because you'll get a view and no seatmate. If I were traveling by myself I'd consider the 787 an upgrade. When I travel with family I prefer the 777 and A330 though, because I like the side-by-side seats with our kids.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Indeed full aisle access is the biggest selling point (which actually made me avoid KL's J in favor of AF's as much as possible in the past).
It's good to see that no one jumped in to answer the question with stories of back pain and numb legs as one can read on SeatGuru.

Now I'll just need open borders to be able to give it a try...

as a solo-traveler I prefer the KL 787 over the KL 777, however have to admit that the trip from LIM to AMS last year on on the KL B777 with +1 was perfect (service + seat + space).

Aren't the KL 787s fitted with personal air conditioning vents whilst the 777s aren't? I'm curious!

If you schedule a flight within the next weeks, you can consider the 777 (if available). They fly pretty empty right now and the probability to have a window without a seat mate is pretty high.

That's true. The only tricky part for this strategy is to find long hauls from AMS that end up in a country where EU citizens are welcome...

I think the 777 seats were more comfy for sure.

Nope, no vents on the 787 either, unfortunately.

CUR is a daily 77W atm and allows Citizens from 14 European countries (for now).

But that route is packed with passengers.. chances of not having a neighbor on this route when flying J is close to zero.

I found some pictures that seem to show personal air vents on the 787. I wonder if KL installed them on some frames but not all.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f7c09fea0b.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...337d5e4007.jpg

Indeed, based on these pictures (and the 360 video of the 789), it seems the 789 has vents in J (but not in Y). The 78X doesn’t seem to have vents in either class.

Weird that KL did this so inconsistently

FYI, the good ol' 777 seems to be back to Asian routes.

I just booked Dec 2nd AMS -> HKG and the scheduled bird is a 777.
That said, the flight being two months from now, everything is subject to change.