Review of KLM flight from Amsterdam to Bangkok in Economy

Intro

While work was low and I had only a few XP left with Flying Blue to achieve my status upgrade, I decided to inform my fiancee that I would travel to her in Thailand once again very soon as I booked my flights only a few days in advance. While AF offered me a cheaper ticket to travel via CDG to Bangkok, I decided to opt for a tad more expensive ticket and use KLM for a direct flight to Bangkok. Eventually it turned out to be a very good decision to do so as Air France was forced to cancel some of their flights to Amsterdam due to a strike down in France and many of those passenger who booked a flight from Amsterdam connecting in Paris to Bangkok were rebooked on KLM's flight and some did not manage to even board this flight as it was completely fully booked.

The flights I took this trip will be listed below. 

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

While I was departing on a friday, I was unable to find a person who was willing or able to bring me over to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, so I decided to use our public transport to reach Schiphol, which meant about an extra thirty minutes of travel time initially. Unfortunately with my luck with public transport, the local train station I used had almost all train rides canceled due to a broken bridge and I was lucky to enough to catch one of the last trains. A very quiet train ride followed.

About 90 minutes later, the train arrived at the airport and I quickly went up to Schihol Plaza, which was quite packed yet already decorated with some christmas lights for the upcoming public holidays.

Moved myself up another floor to the 2nd departure hall where KLM is located for check in. Obtained my boarding card on one of the self service kiosks within a minute and dropping off my luggage took no more than a few minutes as it was almost completely empty with little passengers dropping off their luggage. Security and border control were just as quiet as check in and was completed within five minutes too. Overall the process from checking in to clearing security and immigration took less than ten minutes, which was much appreciated.

While everything was passed, our flight would depart from the F pier, which is not a common pier for me and is luckily definitely not a bigger one.

Found this beautiful Boeing 747-400 of KLM who was prepping for a flight to New York JFK later this evening as KL643

And meet PH-BVC, a 10.6 year old Boeing 777-300ER who'se named after the Mexican national park ''Sian Ka'an'' and would perform our flight to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. Luckily enough this 77W is already equipped with Wifi.

With a hour to kill prior to boarding and with an airport that was very quiet, I bought myself an UK Cider and a salmon bagel and sat down with a splendid view of the beatiful 747 as background.

A pushed back Boeing 777-300ER of Qatar Airways who was firing up their engines for it's flight back to Doha, Qatar.

Flight

Boarding was called on-time and it took a solid thirty minutes to complete boarding as I was one of the last to board. While the cabin was completely packed and 100% full in all classes, the cockpit crew checked in with us informing us that we would need another hour to depart (which meant a delay of roughly 40 minutes) as ground staff was still busy loading cargo and had yet to load luggage on board…. For an aircraft that has been sitting still for hours as it arrived much earlier from it's previous flight, I find this delay for such reason quite unacceptable.

Took a photo of the legroom which is pretty decent for my flight and had an older neighbour sitting next to me which became quite a pain in the arse as he was directing anyone around him what to do by closing blinds, pushing chairs forward when someone was reclining in front of him and spilling a lot of food on me and the other neighbour… even turning lights and IFE screens off from our seat. 

The literature in my seat pocked which contained KLM's magazine Holland Herald, a shop magazine, sickbag and a safety card.

Eventually pushed back was engaged and our engines were fired up for our flight to Bangkok. Luckily enough we did not have the famous 'polderbaan' for departure today and had only a short taxi to Runway 18L for a southerly departure into the dark and meant a delay of approximately 30 minutes.

About thirty minutes into flight, the flight attendants came by serving us a bottle of water and a cold refreshing towel. 

About 90 minutes into flight, our dinner was served and we were either given a choice of a vegetable pasta or pork balls with ''boerenkoolstampot'', which is a Dutch dish for mashed potatoes with kale. I was very disappointed with KLM's catering on the first dinner as neither options were really inviting and I don't really understand KL's choice by serving those dishes on an Asian route…..

I eventually chose the pasta option (which ran out very quickly), which was Macaroni in a pepperoni sauce with olives and shredded cheese. A salad as starter, a cupcake as a dessert and a hot bun with a small box which contained some Beemster cheese, crackers, butter and a dressing for your salad. Opted for a Sauvignon Blanc / Chardonnay from The Elements by Julien Schaal (South Africa) and a sparkling water). The dish was disappointing in terms of quality, but the other dish looked even worse.

While catering was pretty poor, the flight attendants for today's flight were pretty impressive as they were very engaged with us as passengers, yet managed to work at a decent pace. Clean up was done about thirty minutes after our dish and when done, the flight attendants came back by serving us a coffee/tea with a liquor if wanted. I obted for a coffee with a baileys as I usually do with KLM.

Once tables were cleared, I quickly took a visit to one of the toilets in the aft which was still pretty clean, yet the only amenity you are served with KLM on longhaul is some soap to wash your hands, while their competitor EVA Air offers you a variety of sprays, soaps, toothbrushes, earplugs and some branded eye covers if I compare it to last year.

Light in the cabin were soon dimmed after service and most of the passengers tried to sleep in some way. Like I complained before, the guy next to me started to close lights from it's neighbour and kept pushing the guys seat to front when that person was trying to recline his seat…..

The moment I finished my movie I watched on my IFE screen, the person immediately went to my screen to turn it off without any permission given as he wanted to sleep and was disturbed by my screen….. While I was planning to sleep already after the movie, I wasn't really in the mood to argue with him either. 

Wifi was avaible on board this flight and KLM offers you free wifi up to a hour, which is only sufficient for messaging. If you'd like more, you'll have to pay for it obviously and I don't think the prices are too steep. Though you could use a trick by forgetting KLM's network about it's expired it's first hour and to reconnect your device again and it would give you this option once again…. Also if you are lucky, the free service of an hour could suddenly turn into a full flight option.

Woke up with about three hours to landing with a stunning sunrise.

Another beautiful shot about thirty minutes later.

About two hours to landing, the lights were turned on and cabin crew came out serving us our breakfast for today. Unless you ordered a meal in advance, there was no choice given to us for breakfast and everyone received the same. The meal contained a hot bun with butter, some peachy flavoured yoghurt, fruit, cup of water and as main we received ''scrambled eggs with a bell pepper, a quiche served in a tomato compote''. 

Even though we were given no choice, the breakfast was much better than our first meal and was pretty enjoyable for eggs. 

Cleanup appeared about thirty minutes later and another coffee service was provided. Thirty minutes to landing, the flight crew checked in with us informing us that we were currently descending into Bangkok with the actual arrival information, weather information and thanked us for flying with KLM.

Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

Landed a few minutes behind our arrival time and were parked at the G gates next to this Boeing 737 of Spicejet, who still wore it's original livery from Jet Airways and soon we were on our way to immigration, which apparently became a pain in the arse too at 10 am and with an introduction of fingerprints too, which only slows down the immigration process even further, which is definitely not appreciated by most travellers…..