Review of KLM Cityhopper flight Amsterdam → Brussels in Premium Eco

Small intro

After arriving from Bangkok, it was now going to be a wait for about 2.5 hours to board my flight KL1733 to Brussels, which was going to be operated by KLM Cityhopper in one of their Embraer 190s. You could read all about my previous flight by clicking here. As I bought a KLM business on my return flight, I either could upgrade to Premium Economy for 1 EUR or Business for 39 eur. As the flight was literally not longer than twenty euro, I decided to buy a seat in Prem. Economy as it pretty much gives you the exact treatment as business on this flight with a little less legroom.

Continuation of my journey

After disembarkation of my plane from Bangkok, it was now quite a distant walk to head to a new security control as European aviation considers Bangkok as unsafe, so the free water I got on board of my flight unfortunately had to be thrown away. I literally hate it now that you are required to go twice through security control if you're coming from out of Europe. In my opinion it is completely unnecessary.

After clearing that at a fast pace, I had now a short walk to border control. Border control was once again very quiet and took no more than a minute to clear. I went up to KLM's Crown Lounge in the Schengen terminal to rest my time as KLM grants you access too if your incoming flight was business, but outgoing is not. It was absolutely crowded and I did not bother to walk around to capture some photos of this lounge. It does not offer much except some food, seating areas and some shower facilities.



At a certain point, I saw two females emptying out one of the racks where small bottles of wine were stored to put them in their back to bring home. I find this extremely rude as other passengers would like to use those amenities too and would give airliners only more reason to reduce the free amenities given to you.



After a hour and a half, it was time for me to stand up and head to gate B20 for boarding as this walk may take more than approx. 10 minutes at a normal walking pace. Today's flight would be operated by PH-EZZ, an 4.8 year old Embraer 190 who has been serving only KLM Cityhopper in it's lifespan.


Boarding did not happen on time due to the fact that the aircraft using gate B18 was still boarding their passengers. Those bridges in Amsterdam are serving two gates. One leads to the aircraft parked in front, while the other one leads to a bus to bring you to a remote stand. About ten minutes late, boarding was finally started and I could board as one of the first due to the fact that I had Sky Priority.



The Premium Economy seat offered me more legroom in comparison to economy, but the chance of having an empty seat next to you (which I had) is usually more likely!


My view for today's flight.


And KLM's safety card for their Embraer 190.


The cabin crew for today's flight to Brussels was definitely below standard as to what I am used to with KLM. They did not greet most of the passengers and if they did so, it was totally not sincere. I'm not entirely sure how both of them could have passed KLM's screening. (I found them quite rude at multiple occasions)


While pushback was engaged about 15 minutes late, we were off for a quick taxi to runway 24 for a southwesterly departure to Brussels.


About 10 minutes into flight, the seat belts signed were turned off and the flight attendants started to perform their complementary service. A water and snack was handed out to us with two very cold looking cabin crew. The complimentary snack was the exact same as my first flight, which was going to be a water with lightly salted plane crackers.

While it is a very short ride, I did need to use their toilet and I must admit that it was very clean for the last flight of today.


A quick shot of the cabin.


And when I was back to my seat, the descent was already initiated to land on Runway 01R, which would bring us to our gate within a minute after landing.


The landing itself was nothing to write home about and once at our gate, we had to wait for another five minutes as no ground staff was available to move the designated jetbridge to our plane. Really? I could understand this happening to a charter flight, but what was the handling doing here? We were parked next to an Iberia A320 and an Embraer 145 of Aero4M (who is performing flights for either Air France and Hop!)


It was rather a long walk again through Brussels terminal to pick up my baggage from Belt 8. It took a very longtime for my luggage to appear and even though my luggage was tagged with Sky Priority, it arrived on belt as one of the last ones….. What is the point of having sky priority tags on my bag if it is being completely ignored?