Review of KLM Cityhopper flight from Amsterdam to Lyon in Economy

a single flight but two planes and two cabins!

Hello all and welcome on this last episode.

Flying blue miles claimed: 224
XP earned: 8 (AF/KL was offering 50% more XP in 2022)

The whole return journey with Turkish Airlines was just €20 more expensive, but half of the trip was to be operated in a Boeing 737Max9 , and no offence but I am not sure how much we could trust the Boeing validation team.. 

KLM City hopper has about 30 units of the E190 type of 100 seats, together with further 17 E175, and the new E2-195, I guess Hop would be jealous!

at the klm - lounge 52

The other main interest of this flight was to enjoy about 1h30 at the non schengen lounge, which, as I was about to discover, is far better than the KLM European lounge.

The entrance decorated with the famous KLM Gin house. 

In theory we shouldn't be in the lounge as our next flight is within the Schengen area but the lady at the counter let us in and just warns us that we need to leave enough time to go through passport control. 

This lounge is really vast compares to the other one, and has a lot more dedicated spaces.

Really like these paintings next to the bar, a really good idea.

Even if we are late in the afternoon, the FIDS displays a lot of evening flights.

A really nice feature of this lounge are the resting room, shame they aren't free though.

Waiters at the bar are really friendly and I will indulge myself with a well deserved GinT!

A lot of people at the food buffets.

KLM lounges aren't known for the quality of the food they provide, it is not bad just really average.

Let's continue the visit of the lounge.
A lot more sofas around here. 

And the famous KLM mountain - an area of the lounge that is really well decorated. Have you seen the disco ball?

The movie theatre..

The rooftop bar was unfortunately closed.

The second escalator leading to the rooftop bar, with even more of these Amsterdam houses.

There is coworking space, but don't you worry I didn't use it :p

We go through passport control in the blink of an eye 

so… with a good 40 min left before boarding what else can we do??



Let's go and visit the Schengen area KLM lounge! 

It is already "late" and the lounge will no longer serve food passed 9pm. You'd better not fancy eating at Spanish time!

onboard the E190 take 1

We arrive at our gate on the B concourse where a paxbus will take us to PH-EZE

Which reminds me how much I'd love to go back to Buenos Aires again!

Sorry for the blurry pictures.

Aircraft: Embraer ERJ190STD
Tail number: PH-EZE
Engines: 2x GE CF34
Age: 12 years old
Layout: Y100

The cabin crew is super friendly.

First time I am seeing the new cabin on KLM City Hopper.

Pros:
-It looks more modern
-Same new cabin across the entire KLM fleet

Cons:
-Seat does not recline (unlike the previous generation of seats)
-Seat is really thin, and less confortable, a different league than the previous seats
-Seat are also narrower

I can't believe how much narrower the seats are, and now there is all this empty space between two seats.    

The seats are equipped power sockets, a real plus compares to the older cabin.

The safety card, also found on the E175

We are taxiing under heavy showers to our runway.

And take off!

The cabin crew start going through the cabin really quickly after the seat belt sign is turned off, to quickyl deem the cabin lights and let the passenger go to sleep. A nice gesture.

A trolley is never really sexy and it is nice that KLM at least put a picture on it.

Standard egg and mayo sandwich from KLM - not the best but at least is part of the flight ticket.

I go for a little nap and when I wake up I realise the landing lights are ON… a bit odd as we are nowhere near Lyon..?

Shortly after the captain makes an announcement:

"dear passengers and folks, you have probably realised by now that we have made a U-turn. We have identified a problem with the aircraft but not related to safety so don't worry but we rather go back to Amsterdam. 
KLM team has already identified a plane replacement, and they are organising as we speak the transfer"

So Ok it wasn't the best of news at this point in the evening but at least the situation was well managed.

We land back in Amsterdam on the furthest runway - Polderban.

Nous nous parquons au niveau du futur Pier A, ou beaucoup de KLM Shittyhoper sont garés.

back to amsterdam

The minute we arrived at our parking stand the bus arrived to take us to the next plane.

As we disembark you can realise how thin the new seats are.

KLM keeps us informed.

the world shortest bus ride..

We all get on the paxbus that slightly moves and stops for 10 min.

Our first plane is the one on the right… and the next one the one on the left!! Surely we could have walked this distance :p

onboard the e190 take 2

Aircrat: Embraer ERJ190STD
Tail number: PH-EXB
Engines: 2x GE CF34
Age: 8 years old
Layout: Y100

And I am lucky to find these older seats, at least they recline, are thick and comfy and I could see myself dozing off very quickly.

We have the view on the aircraft that let us down.

We are pushing back a second time.

Taxiing along the same route…

And as planned I fell asleep quite quickly. 
KLM maintained the legacy carrier tradition of onboard magazine, I can't think of any other European airline that does so. 

KLM and Skyteam friend global network.

Still blurry pictures I am sorry

at lyon - saint-exupéry airport

We arrived at terminal 2 (now closed for works) gate B91/P01.

The luggages are very quickly made available, which is a really good thing at this time of the night.

I wrote to KLM but since the european legislation changed the delayed status for compensation from 2 to 3 hours, the airline just replied to me with a nice "bye betch. XoXo".