Flight Review: KLM Business Class Boeing 737-900
Flight #: KL1670
From: Barcelona (BCN)
To: Amsterdam (AMS)
Flight time: 2h 15min approx.
Aircraft: Boeing 737-900
KLM turned 100 on 7th October and I gladly accepted an invitation from the Dutch airline to attend the celebrations, that took place at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam (disclaimer: therefore this flight was done on a ticket courtesy of KLM).
I had already written a flight report about KLM long haul product (on economy class), that you can find here, but this was an unmissable chance to check out their business class product and do the corresponding flight review.
The Passenger Experience
The flight was on a Boeing 737-900, seat 1F.
On the picture that opens this post you can see how the seat looks like, same as in economy, but with a more generous seat pitch (see below how my knees don’t get even close to touching the wall) and the middle seat kept empty. In the first leg of the trip (on a Boeing 737-900) the middle seat was even covered with a plastic tray to prevent its use, on the return leg (on a boeing 737-800), there was not such a physical obstacle.
The service was really good throughout, with the crew always addressing you by your name and constantly asking whether I needed anything. I guess this is to be expected in business class, but anyway, is always a nice touch, particularly when most short-haul business class products are being simplified.
This was a relatively short flight, so the meal was pretty much its highlight and KLM did not disappoint on this front.
Since the flight was at 1.20pm, we served lunch. It consisted of a dish of tuna, with sushi rice, wakame seaweed and vegetables, with curried Ebly grain salad and pumpkin hummus alongside. Also, there was a selection of warm breads to choose from and, this being a Dutch airline, some butter as well.
Note the KLM 100th anniversary theme of the paper menu!
The dessert was a mousse of “crémant de Limoux” with raspberry cream.
And salt and pepper came in these cute pair of red Dutch shoes (right).
All this served alongside wine (a choice of either this above or Corette Cabernet Sauvignon, also from France), sparkling water and tea and coffee.
It is worth noting that the salt and pepper shoes are not the only touch of Dutchness in the service. Coffee (made by Dutch brand Douwe Egberts) comes in these cups with Delft porcelain white and blue themes. And is served together with a Dutch stroopwafel (another quintessential Dutch thing)
No IFE on this aircraft, in any case, there was not much time for anything else after enjoying this meal…well, yes, checking out Holland Herald’s KLM 100th anniversary special issue (later at KLM’s anniversary presentations I would learn that KLM was the first airline in the world to have its own inflight magazine)
As a bonus, here is a picture of breakfast on the return flight, also on business class.
Our take:
Much better than expected and the nice food played a big role in this.