Review of KLM flight Washington → Amsterdam in Business

Airline KLM
Flight KL652
Class Business
Seat 5A
Aircraft Airbus A330-300
Flight time 07:45
Take-off 16 Aug 15, 17:45
Arrival at 17 Aug 15, 07:30
KL   #41 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 1054 reviews
CounterSurprise
By 4920
Published on 9th November 2015
Hello everybody,

After having read so many flight reports here, I thought the only decent thing to do is to leave a report myself. Unfortunately, I only have one flight with enough pictures to satisfy for a short report, and at the time, I did not know I'd make these pictures to be used in a flight report later. So the pictures are not great, hope you will still enjoy this FR.
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Flight started of course on Dulles airport, which I consider to be a great airport, comfortable, roomy and very nice looking. Only minus are the stupid busses when you arrive, but overall, I think I love Dulles a lot. I don't have any pictures of Dulles nor the AF lounge near the gate. What I like about the AF lounge is that you can board to gate A15 straight from the lounge, no need to exit and go the general line. Newspapers and everything are provided while boarding.

I flew the KLM WBC IAD-AMS on the A330-300, which is the not-too-bad angle lie flat seat, not as good as the new WBC, but definitely better than the slippery slope seat on the -200. Mine was 5A with nobody next to me so quite private - really nice.
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As said, the seat is not the newest but it beats Y/Y+ and I can sleep pretty well on it. Also, it is quite wide (I think wider than the new WBC) so I do find it quite comfortable
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Service started with a nice sparkly wine
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After that I chose some nuts and a rosé wine. Both were really nice.
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The KLM IFE is quite nice on the A333. However you can see that on this particular layout, there is velcro all around the screen. Although not clearly visible on this picture, this was clearly not the first layer of velcro because the glue from pervious layers was visible too. It gave the entire seat a rather shabby look. I gather that they use the velcro to seal off a crew compartment if required but still, it looks a bit shabby
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A not-so-great picture of the IFE control box.
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The KLM Purser came around and made some small talk, he was very pleasant and showed genuine interest. Very nice. After that, dinner service started. I had the chicken sesame & ginger as a starter. It looks fantastic but the taste was not great - the chicken tasted overcooked and over processed to be honest.
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I don't remember what the main course was exactly but it tasted horrible. I barely ate it.
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In order to get some sleep, I skipped desert and closed my eyes. Got a good 5 hrs sleep on the flight, when I was awoken by the FA who asked if I wanted breakfast. She was very gentle waking me and I remembered that I had actually asked her to do that! Good she remembered. Breakfast was good (sorry for the half-eaten pie picture), with a hot pie, fresh fruit, salmon and a yoghurt/muesli mix. Really nice.
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Verdict

KLM

7.6/10
Cabin8.0
Cabin crew9.0
Entertainment/wifi7.5
Meal/catering6.0

Air France Lounge

7.8/10
Comfort7.0
Meal/catering7.0
Entertainment/wifi8.5
Services8.5

Washington - IAD

8.9/10
Efficiency8.5
Access9.0
Services9.0
Cleanliness9.0

Amsterdam - AMS

9.6/10
Efficiency8.5
Access10.0
Services10.0
Cleanliness10.0

Conclusion

The food on board was not my cup of tea. However, I do think that KLM makes the entire experience quite nice. The lounge in Washington is great, the experience on board is good and to top it off, my luggage was first to arrive. Yes the seats are older but KLM will eventually replace those as well. Their service is always fantastic, so two thumbs up for this great experience which made me arrive well-rested and suited to work the rest of the day.

Hope you liked my first FR. Any comments, spears, fan- or hatemail, please let me know!

Information on the route Washington (IAD) → Amsterdam (AMS)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 7 avis concernant 1 compagnies sur la ligne Washington (IAD) → Amsterdam (AMS).

Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est KLM avec 7.4/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 7 heures et 21 minutes.

  More information

10 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 150282 by
    Esteban GOLD 19947 Comments
    Thank you for sharing your first FR. Even if incomplete its a great start ;
    Welcome aboard.
  • Comment 150290 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6731 Comments
    Thanks for sharing your first report! And it's from my city (DC) so that's always good! Yes, Dulles is a great airport, except that the security checkpoint can be a mess and you are right that it is a pain taking those buses to immigration on arrival. Having to pack into those buses essentially negate any benefit of being in a premium class at the front of the plane and getting off the plane earlier. Usually I try to be sneaky and stay near the door of the bus instead of moving to the back so I can get off and down to immigration faster, but more often then not the driver forces people to move back. I agree that the AF lounge in IAD is great. It's one of AF's best outstation lounges IMO. I think some of the 332s also have this seat. Although, like you say, this WBC seat is not the best it is definitely better than the old seats, like I had on a 772 AMS-JNB in 2013. Those seats are awful!

    Thanks again for sharing and welcome to Flight-Report!
  • Comment 150293 by
    757Fan 632 Comments
    Thanks for sharing your report!

    I'm sorry to hear your experience with KLM wasn't that great on the food front ... Glad to hear that the service was good though!

    My wife and I flew out of Dulles a few years ago on our way to Copenhagen and found the airport to be also very nice to transit through.

    Looking forward to your next trip!

    Best,

    Matthew
  • Comment 150297 by
    KL651 TEAM 4534 Comments
    Welcome and thanks for this FR.

    I agree that boarding directly from the lounge is really nice and premium.

    Too bad the food was good looking but bad tasting, usually it's the other way around on KL!

    I wonder what the velcro is for on newer seats.
    • Comment 328364 by
      CounterSurprise AUTHOR 80 Comments
      Thanks! Nice handle by the way, looks you fly this route often as well :)

      I'd say the food was not to my liking, meaning that it was probably good but not something I personally appreciated. KLM staff was great as usual.

      -Daan

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