Review of KLM flight Denpasar → Singapore in Economy

After 3 relaxing nights in Bali,with lots of suntanning and spa sessions, it was time to return to Singapore. Transport was provided from our hotel, Holiday Inn Resort Baruna, to the airport, which took less than 10min. However, cars could not stop at the terminal building now due to some expansion/construction works going on and we had to walk a distance from the alighting point. Tickets were checked before we were allowed into the terminal building.

Checking in for the flight. Coincidently, it was a national holiday of Netherlands on the day of our flight, Queen's Day!


All passengers were handed a little treat in the form of a chocolate lolly! Nice gesture by KLM!


However no upgrade to Economy Comfort this time round. I would experience the comfort of normal economy on this leg. The boarding pass issued in Bali was also much more colourful than the ones issued in Singapore.


Paid the 150,000rupuah departure tax and proceeded through immigration. Met with lots of shops in the departure lounge. Seemed like the airport did some refurbishment as certain shops seemed quite new.


Interesting that they would showcase a SQ plane instead of a Garuda plane.


SQ947 operated by the Star-Alliance plane 9V-SRI with no AVOD, departing from the gate just beside and 25min before my flight. I really pitied the pax who paid through their noses to fly on this prehistoric plane.


As gates 7-9 shared the same security counters, it resulted in a very long queue of passengers queuing to clear security. Finally cleared security after quite a wait and proceeded to the boarding gate. Boarding has already commenced. Wow was I happy that the plane in Skyteam livery, PH-BVD, would be operating my flight! Skyteam vs Star Alliance!



30 April 2012
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
KL 836
Denpasar Bali(DPS) - Singapore(SIN)
B777-300ER
PH-BVD Skyteam Livery
Economy Class

Boarded through Door 2 this time round and no newspaper trolley was seen at the door. However was still welcomed by a friendly set of crew. Had a loooong walk down the B773ER cabin to my seat right at the aft economy cabin. Boarding was efficient and orderly, guess typical of european airlines?


Legroom in normal economy, even though advertised only as 31, was not too bad actually as the design of the seats allowed me to stretch my legs under the seat in front. Rather comfortable in fact! However, width was still a tad tight.


The contents in seat-pocket again. The disposal bag looked nice!


Qatar Airways B772LR, operating a flight to Singapore too!


As with European efficiency, doors were closed barely minutes after I sat down and we pushed back with safety demo played on PTVs. Flight time was announced as 2hrs10min.


Taxied and took off from Rwy09 into the Balinese night sky.



Lights of Bali.


Flight map on PTV shortly after takeoff.


Seat belts signs were turned off, service video played and the KLM crew sprang into action. First was the distribution of earsets, followed by piping hot towels. Serving my aisle was a young and cheerful female attendant, seen here distributing hot towels.


Hot towel on armrest. Noticed how tiny is the width of the armrest?


Firing up the inflight entertainment system.



After we have leveled at 36000ft, the pilot came on with some information of our flight. He really talked a lot! Haha.



Half hour after takeoff, meal service started with the distribution of special meals followed by the rest of the cabin. Again a full dinner was served but similar to the outbound, no choices were offered. The meal seemed to be catered in Singapore, judging by the breadroll and butter on the tray. On each tray were again a starter and a dessert.


Starter: Carrots and raisin salad. Simple but fine.


Main: Breaded chicken in lemon sauce, egg fried rice and vegetables. The portion of the chicken is rather big and the rice is tasty.


Dessert: Peach tart. Nice sweet pastry.


For drinks, I had a Chilean white wine and orange juice to go with the meal. Wines were served in mini-bottles.


Crew distributing meal and drinks. Meal service took some time as the flight was again almost full!


I watched an episode of Glee while enjoying the meal!


Polished off almost everything!


By the time meal trays were being collected, we were only about slightly more than 30min away from Singapore.


However coffee/tea and post-meal liquors were still offered during tray collection. I had a tea with milk and an Amarula. It was interesting to note that the plastic cups used by KLM had a marking (line around the cup) for the crew to fill up the liquors to. So everyone had the same amount of liquor when being served.


Coffee/tea/liquor service. Note that milk from cartons and mineral water were also available on the carts.


A run of duty-free service was also quickly conducted after trays were cleared. By this time, we had descended halfway and nearing Singapore!



Seatbelt signs were switched on when we were overflying Batam, barely less than 10min to landing. Arrival announcements were also made. Note how low we were now! Crew then make a quick sweep through the cabin to clear remaining trash and secure the cabin. They really did worked hard for the entire flight!



Made a right turn towards Rwy02L. Gears were then lowered and crew requested to go to their landing positions, barely a couple of minutes before touchdown!!


Night view of Eastern Singapore.



Landing on Rwy02L at 2253hrs, 7 minutes before the scheduled arrival time.



Taxied and parked at Terminal One.


Cabin views during disembarkation. 4 seaters in the middle.


3 seaters at the window. Crew were at the doors bading farewell.


Seat pitch is rather decent.


Goodbye, Nationaal Park Amboseli.