Review of KLM flight Amsterdam → Munich in Economy

Hi Folks,

At first I did not intend to write a new report about this flight given that I did the same leg the previous week, however given that a Boeing 737-8800 with KLM's new cabin was in use for today's flight, I opted to do so, so let's go on with the report.

The day prior of my flight I received a call from our operation department whether I was available with another colleague of mine to bring back one of the aircraft to their maintenance department. They wanted me to do it as soon as possible as the maintenance is located at a visual airport with a not so good weather forecast for that week. They also informed me that they will send me home as soon as the flight was done and would compensate my parking fees given that I was not able to reach the airport by public transport in time, so I agreed. 

The booking confirmation followed up within five minutes after my approval and I was booked on KLM's earliest flight to Munich at 7.45 am.

Before departing to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, I checked in online, received my boarding card and took all my stuff with me for an hour ride to the airport. I arrived around 6 am, which gave me about 1 hour and 45 minutes to clear security as I did not need to go to the check-in counter to verify my documents. 

Our flight would depart from the D-Pier, which was a first for me for a schengen departure, but security was quite busy and took about 25 minutes to clear for me. Partly due to the fact that they needed to verify some contents of my bags as there was some electronics in.  

With about an hour to spare prior to our departure, I grabbed a coffee and a toast with the large starbucks, which was apparently the place to be in Schiphol and it was very crowded, though sitting down gives you a great view of the apron.

With about 20 minutes to departure, I proceeded to the D-pier for Schengen flights, which require you to go up by one level and would connect you to that pier to be seated in a specially sealed waiting room to separate you from non-schengen arrivals.

Though walking distance was limited as D59 would be our gate and it was the first in line.

Today's flight would be performed by PH-HSE, which is a 10,6 year old Boeing 737-800 that was newly delivered to Transavia Holland in 2011 before making a move to KLM's fleet in 2017 to fulfill KLM's need to expand. This aircraft is currently equipped with the new cabin configuration KLM is slowly implementing into their 737 fleet.

Boarding was done by groups which to my surprise was kindly followed by all passengers only to discover that I was bumped off of my seat and was relocated to an emergency seat as those were not occupied at the moment. No complains as it would mean tons of legroom for me. Upon boarding, we were kindly greeted by two flight attendants who gave us some alcoholic wipes to clean our hands and other dirty surfaces may we find them. A card was added to the table to not place luggage below the seat.

View from my seat when one of the flight attendants made an announcement to not wear our seatbelt yet as the aircraft was still fueling for it's flight.

The new cabin looks clean and nice, however the seats were also quite narrow. I must say that they were not as uncomfortable as the iron boards being used by Lufthansa, but were still a lot to be desired. Business class and Economy comfort seats are included with an adjustable headrest.

Cabin is also fitted with USB ports to charge your portable devices. No power sockets are available, so it may be tricky to charge a notebook/laptop.

The captain thanked us for our quick boarding and we were being pushed back from our gate about five minutes ahead of schedule. 

The Boeing Sky Interior does look nice and the load on this flight was much better in comparison to last week. I'd say the load was about 90% in Economy and 100% in Business. The load was understandable as most of them were returning from holidays and there was a peek of longhaul flights arriving about 2 hours prior to our departure mostly from Asia.

Seats were equipped with an individual air vent and a reading light.

An old colleague of the -HSE.

An A350-900 of China Airlines which would be departing to Taipei in the afternoon. Though I've tried them on their A340 and B747 in the past on their Amsterdam-Bangkok leg, I'd still like to try them on their A350. Shame they canceled their Amsterdam-Bangkok-Taipei route years ago in favour of a direct route Amsterdam-Taipei. Might just need to take a detour in better times :).

Taxi time took not more than five times for our departure as Runway 24 was in use and we were airborne exactly on time.

Sunrise was happening about 30 minutes into flight and would give me finally an option to create some nice photographs.

By this time food service also reached my seat and was handed a sandwich with a spread of beemster cheese and eggs and asked for a coffee to be served alongside it. The friendly flight attendant asked whether I wanted something more, which I respectfully declined.

Despite being a 10 year old, the aircraft did almost have no signs of wear and was properly maintained. The seat is equipped with a rather small table that has a bar to hold your phone, a separate cupholder and a literature pocket.

Instructions on how to open the emergency door could be find on the seat in front of you and above the emergency door. Instructions were also given to us on how to open the door prior to departure and if we were willing to be responsible to open these doors in case it was necessary to do so.

The wet wipe that was given to us upon boarding.

The literature in the seat pocket contained a safety card, sickbag and KLM's magazine which was still the same as the previous reports about Africa. This edition covers the months December & January, so there should be a new one by February.

The battle between the dark and light was finally over with the light being victorious this time. The wing is definitely looking neat in that sunshine.

Close up.

While we've had the blueish light for departure and would return upon landing, the flight was performed with somewhat of a pinkish atmosphere lightning.

Wi-fi was also availabe with acceptable rates. You will receive 30 minutes of free internet for the needs of messaging. 8 euro for the entirety of it's flight to use the internet for browsing and/or 12 euros for the entirety of the flight to be able to stream videos.

About an hour into the flight, the pilots checked in with us to thank us for flying with KLM and to announce that we are currently descending into Munich Airport and that we should be on ground in roughly 10 minutes from now meaning that we would be 15 minutes ahead of time in Munich.

Close to touchdown.

Touchdown with an absolute smacker!

A row of holiday charters with AlbaStar being the oddball here while preparing for a flight to Hannover. Not really a destination I would consider for holidays :).

Disembarking went orderly, though with negligence to the explained disembarking procedure with a distant walk for some border control by the German border police to verify our vaccination status and whether we filled in the Einreise form (German PLF), which I was exempted off being flight crew and being less than 24 hours in the country.

The row for our checks took quite a while and luggage for our flight was already fully on belt despite not having any luggage myself. Bavaria is quite strict by letting foreigners enter their country, while those passengers could easily enter Germany via a different province where no checks are performed by their fellow border police guards.

Thanks for joining.