KLM World Business Class to Dubai
 

KLM 427 Trip Report

Flight: KL 427
Routing: AMS-DXB (Amsterdam – Dubai)
Date: Aug 02, 2003
Class: C – World Business Class

(KLM has no first class and defines this product as to be between C and F)


I have done several trips on KLM now, but have never written a trip report about it. I was never too happy with them, and I prefer to write trip reports about nice flights and superior service (see my last trip reports). Something to dream about.


This time, we took KLM FRA-AMS-DXB. I will not write about the feeder flight from FRA to AMS as it would be a waste of time. Handling at FRA airport was sub-standard, as was the flight. A pain for holiday travellers, and totally unsuitable for business travellers. Not even coat hanging on Cityhopper intra-European flights.

At AMS airport, we tried the different KLM lounges after they introduced their new concept of “one lounge for all status customers”. Needless to say, all lounges were overcrowded, food was down to some prepackaged cheeses and sausages and there was no free internet at all. Also there was no cleanliness: all lounges (three of them) had a dirty floor, dirty bathrooms, paper-towels were used up and the total appearance was unhygienic. Really, I can confirm this again from my today´s return flight.

After boarding flight 427 we took our seats in the 2nd row in the upper deck of the 747-300 combi. Upper deck was full. We received the very nice aluminim amenity kits, sockets and headphones. Unfortunately the seats were cleaned by someone who did not care. All holes were filled with parts of nuts etc … and when I tried to get the safety card from the seat pocket, my hands just found the dirty KLM socks of someone who sat on the seat before. C class upper deck had 24 people, 8 of them below 10 years in age, plus one dog. Nice kindergarten party J but I can say all of them behaved nicely and seemed to be used to business travel.

The menu was handed out before take-off, and also we received a welcome drink. All other airlines which I know eventually refill your glasses, but KLM made sure all wishes were ignored and the glasses were collected 15 minutes before taxi started. Don’t do too much.

Take-Off was uneventful, and about 45 minutes later we received the next drink. Food orders were taken. Unfortunately I hate fish, and the appetizer was fish only, no choice given. All main courses were fish and meat, I do not know what a vegetarian would have done: I know you can pre-order a special meal, but anyway you expect an airline to have at least one vegetarian choice in their premium class (KLM has no first class).

Food was served from the trolley, appetizer, salad and main course together in one shot. Presentation minus minus. I choose the beef, and could not eat it. During the meal, nobody was ever asked for a drink refill. The ladies from the service were busy serving the cockpit, serving themselves, and making sure news were exchanged in the galley. After the trays were removed, we were offered either fruits, tarts or cheese. I chose the cheese – a big mistake. Holland is a country that produces a lot of cheese, no question. But usually they are realistic enough to admit that 99% of their production is supermarket cheese, no gourmet cheese http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif …

With the cheese, they offered South African sweet wine and also one port wine (from the standard wine list) and another port wine that was advertised in a special leaflet that came with the winelist. When asking, the sweet wine was not available, the port was not there, and the “special port” was also not there. Not a good planning. They should have known the catering situation, so why distribute a special leaflet about a drink that is not there?

Inflight entertaiment: First of all, everybody had to clean the screen with the hot towels because at KLM this is part of the passenger´s job. IFE showed three different movies, no blockbusters but at least there were movies. Comedy channel was nice.

Another point to complain about are KLMs blankets: they are blue, and the problem is, after you used them for three hours, your suit is blue as well. This had nothing to do with money saving etc, but the person who ordered the blankets simply did not give a thought. How can you offer blankets in business class that destroy what business man and woman wear for their work? If you are a business lady in a white dress and go to a meeting after touchdown, you have to buy new clothes first. This is just ignorant of KLM. Furthermore, the blanket is of a very bad synthetic quality. Nothing nice to touch.

During the flight, we wanted to order more coke and water. As nobody came, I was using the call button (I hate to do that). It was ignored all the time. The purser visited once, I told her I was trying to get some more water and did not want to go to the kitchen all the time. She said I should use the call button, that what it is for. She stood by my seat and used it herself, you could hear the ring in the galley, and really nobody moved. The purser seemed to be quite unhappy …

After the flight, world changed completely, as we were picked up by burj-al-arab staff in dubai, and I would love KLM to have their F/As stay there some nights and they would see how service could be … http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Return Flight:
Lounge in Dubai was full and dirty (but very nice food and drinks selection, and nice staff !!!), my seat and seat pockets again full of trash from the generations that used the seats before, but I was somewhat expecting this and did not bother so much. Also it was a night flight, everything a little darker so you cannot see the dirt http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Again one round of champaign before take-off (only I took one as the upperdeck was again full of kids only – again all of them seemed to be quite familiar with the KLM service), and menu cards and the amenity kits were handed out. The menu card said this flight has an arabic style supper. Two pages explained why Arabic food is so modern right now and how good it is for your body. Made you expect something fancy. Anyway, everybody received on small appetizer plate with two mozzarella balls, one artichoke and something else but sure nothing Arabic http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Drink service was much nicer, all selections were available, and the two F/As that mainly served the upper deck were really nice and professional. They saw whenever somethings was missing or need to be refilled – really a nice personal service. I slept a while and skipped breakfast. My lady tried the warm breakfast but refused it after trying it: unacceptable. Maybe all the good food at the Burj Al Arab upgraded her taste a little bit and so the situation was not in favour of any airline catering. When I woke up I was immediately offered juice or coffee.

I also discovered the F/As had placed lots of creams and soaps in the bathroom (not available on the flight from Amsterdam). KLM seems to put the fasten-seatbelts sign on pretty late, which is nice as you can sleep longer. Landing was uneventful.

The short Fokker flight AMS-FRA was also uneventful, besides that KLM lost my luggage. In FRA this was handled quickly and professional. They said KLM is known for that, and on most flights from AMS something is missing (not sure if the fault is on the side of KLM or of AMS airport). The luggage is found in AMS now and should be arriving at my home later today, so not a big deal, at least I did not have to carry it around the airport http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

In the end, I can just say I do not find KLMs C class impressive at all. My report sounds truly bad about KLM as I read it again now, but everything happened as reported. To give it a slightly better smell I like to say that the WBC seats in KLM offer lots of space, the wine list is quite interesting (because of the South-African touch to it) and KLM sure has some F/As who are really great.

Thanks. I will strike KLM off my list.

Thanks, being KL PE (but with not a single K: flight ever posted to it) I'll stick to NW metal where possible.

Wow, didn't realise KL was that bad. Sounds worse than TG C class which I just stepped off...

Excellent trip report. Wow, that does sound like a bad flight.

Now let me say this. I am an Elite member with NW and fly a lot of NW/CO/KL. To this day I have never been unhappy with KLM. Sure they don't have the best product out there, but as I have to fly to Kuwait a lot from the US, I choose KLM over my other option, Lufthansa. KLM in my opinion is far superior to Lufthansa in every way. But of course you flew to Dubai, where you have a wide range of excellent airlines to choose from.

Maybe I speak too highly of KLM due to the fact that I do not expect too much from them. Living in the US means I rarely get to experience something called service these days and I only wish I could fly KLM all the time. I used to live in Asia and have flown all the world class airlines. While KLM is no Cathay Pacific or Emirates, they offer a product that in my opinion is worth my time and money. KLM has some of the best crew around, far better than their US partners. KLM’s crew really seems to care about their passengers and always add a personal touch when serving their passengers, a lesson a lot of European airlines could learn from them.

These are just my opinions and I know that everyone has a right to theirs. I am not disputing your opinions. I thought I’d just be the voice of reason and say some positive things about KLM.

SR 103

Nice report. I would love to hear more about the Burj as I will be staying there in December.

Wasn't there a time in travel history when KLM was superb?

I almost flew them once on a code share, but ended up taking Canadian Airlines (years ago) to Paris...

I wonder if anyone has had great J class service on KLM from long ago?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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Patrick A. Inouye, LMT
volunteer trip reports moderator

Well, the expectation by the optimists when KL took its stake in NW and formed the KL-NW alliance was that KL would bring NW up to its standards. The cynics & sceptics said KL would be dragged down to NW's. No prizees for correctly guessing who won.

Hi Uli,

I also experienced some flights on KLM with bad service and not to clean Lounges. However I also had some of my best flights on KLM. I ussually found the cabin crew very attentive and friendly. Sometimes I got a level of service superior to some airlines First class, sometimes I was told "If you like coffe you can have the old one from Amsterdam or you have to wait three hours to breakfast ..)
Whereas LH is very consistent on KLM there seems to be more variation, but don´t give up, sometimes they can be really nice ...

Thomas

hi uli,

thanks for the trip report, i think, a report about a "not so good" experience is at least as interesting as the ones about the superb flights...

one question: how do you judge the seats in klm c class? is it a difference to any standard c seat (e.g. LH) or is it superior because of the lacking f class?

for a daytime trip they are very nice, if you have something to read, to work or want to see a movie. for night flights i would prefer any type of bed-seat i can get, but this is clear. the recline is said to be a little bit better than i.e. lufthansa. legroom is plenty, i am 1.86m tall and i could not make use of any more legroom.
footrest could go up higher IMO.


[This message has been edited by Uli (edited 08-11-2003).]

Very good trip report Uli, I laughed quite a bit.

Would love to hear about the Burj el Arab...any chance you could write something on that?

Thanks

Has KL stopped giving out those Delft Houses filled with Gin to their J/C customers? Or is it just the flight being to/from an Islamic country that you didn't receive any of these? It's been almost two decades since I've flown KL, so this may have stopped ages ago. [Though from the size of ozstamp's collection, this practice could have stopped before he discovered UA 1K a few years ago. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif ]

The houses are still coming!
Arabs take them, and children take them as well http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Well, I can remember great F class service, back in the days when KLM still had Royal Class, even on intra-European flights. 747s had a bar/lounge on the upper deck, and DC8-63s had a small dining lounge with 2 + 2 seats facing each other across a table.

johan