Review of KLM flight from Amsterdam to Barcelona in Economy

Introduction

Goodevening,

On the saturday prior to this flight I received a notification from our operational department that I was required to position to Zaragoza the following day. A direct flight to Zaragoza was out of the question as it only has one daily flight to Malaga with Ryanair, so they offered me a ticket to Barcelona with a 90 minute train ride to Zaragoza from Barcelona Sants. Given that I position between Amsterdam and Barcelona at least once a month for work, I expected them to return with a Vueling ticket as usual, but given that Vueling's flight to Barcelona were mostly sold out, they came back with the first flight of Vueling at 6 AM to Barcelona, which I profoundly refused as I didn't fancy waking up at 3 AM nor being stuck in a hotel for the entire day. I kindly suggested them to book me on the flight of KLM at 16.50 for a total of 50 EUR more than Vueling was asking. 

Moments later I received my itinerary in my mail box followed by a train ticket for the last train bound for Zaragoza.

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

As Amsterdam Airport is well-connected by public transport, my wife kindly offered herself to bring me to the airport, which I thankfully accepted as the comfort is much higher.

About two hours prior to my original departure, we were lining up to enter the drop off area of Amsterdam, which tends to be quite busy and chaotic due several construction works at the airport. The fact that several people are also trying to pick up arriving passengers is not really helping the flow of cars, despite the airport warning you with a fine of 110 EUR if caught for that reason.

About ten minutes after lining up, I was dropped off in front of terminal 1, which is generally used by the majority of airliners with destinations within the schengen area including KLM (if schengen). 

Terminal 1 at the moment wasn't overly crowded with quite a deserted check-in area for KLM. I decided to print my boarding pass and receive my luggage tag via one of their self check-in counters, which is self-explanatory and responsive to use. 

Luggage tag added to my bag, it is now time to go to one of the many drop-off stations to drop off my luggage. Just be sure to place your luggage in the correct spot with the luggage tag not sticking out, otherwise the system will detect that your luggage isn't placed correctly and will deny your drop until corrected.

Dropped my luggage, I made my way through security which was a breeze to clear as I could skip the majority of the line as I do have access to Schiphol's Privium access, which allows you to enter their fast track like you have a J ticket.

Privium ExpressLounge

After clearing security, follow signs to D-Pier & Lounges and you will find the Privium Lounge behind a tiny souvernir / gift shop hidden away.

The lounge itself does offer a limited selection of food and drinks, however the quality of products is profoundly better than you can find in Schiphol's Aspire lounge, though the only option for hot food is a soup.

The atmosphere of the lounge however is pleasant with good internet and tends to be not overly busy as most passengers here travel alone and often for work purpose given that the Privium' lounges have quite a strict regulation by not allowing guests, unless your partner also requested access to Privium through their scheme for a discounted fare.

Back to Amsterdam Airport

As I was staying in the lounge, I received a notification from KLM that my flight was delayed by thirty minutes, which I assumed was due to another late arriving aircraft with plenty of passengers for our flight (as a large group was showing up at once at the gate later). Not a massive issue as I would still have about eighty minutes by the time I arrived to pick up my luggage and to get to my train. 

Given that I was already in the vicinity of the D-Pier, I decided to leave about five minutes for the new scheduled boarding time and made my way to gate D-53, which is still quite a walk from the beginning of D-Pier.

Upon arriving to my gate, I noticed that PH-BCK was going to be the bird to bring me over to Barcelona. This specific Boeing 737-800 also did the honours on my last flight with KLM prior to this one by bringing me to Bucharest. The aircraft is about 5.5 years old and is named after the Amsterdam Albatross and it is one of the last Boeing 737-800s to join KLM's fleet.

The gate section wasn't overly crowded, however became more crowded in the next 5 to 10 minutes when two large groups arrived at our gate. Seating was already limited, however became more limited when you notice that two people were laying down on a bench that was intended to sit more than eight people….. 

Flight to Barcelona

Boarding was eventually called right on time according to the new scheduled boarding time and went smoothly via boarding zone. Ground attendant did verify whether you were in the correct zone.

Upon embarking the plane, we were greeted by two very cheerful flight attendants who seemed to laugh a lot, have some small chitchats and made everyone feel welcome. Eventually found my way with a short walk to seat 08F, which was going to be my seat for today's right. PH-BCK is in KLM's latest cabin for their Boeing 737-800s and does offer a few perks. Legroom was no issue at all for this short flight.

The seat also comes with an USB plug, a table, a device holder that contains a cup holder too. The device holder is a handy tool to put your phone down and watch a series/film on it without lifting your arm to hold your phone up.

By this time the captain announced himself by informing us about the actual flight time and the plan of action for today's flight. While this happened, I enjoyed the view out of my window with the sun starting to set.

The cabin is also equiped with individual air vents and a reading light, though I rather prefer the older style of air vents as they were able to blow more air out of them and those blowers tend to be very weak in summer days.

A view of the cabin and as I didn't take a photo of my actual seat, you can clearly see in front of me that the seat was equiped with an adjustable headrest, which you were able to adjust upwards and downwards and fold the sides to make it more comfortable for yourself.

About 35 minutes past our scheduled original departure, we were pushing back for our flight to Barcelona.

After a quick safety demonstration done by the flight attendants and about nine minutes past our pushback time, we were rolling for departure in a south-westerly direction to make our way to Barcelona el Prat.

The sun was now at an angle that made it almost impossible to spot anything outside.

Upon reaching 10.000 ft, the flight crew turned off the fasten seatbelt and this gave me an indication to check whether the table was cleaned properly or not as this tends to be often forgotten by a lot of airlines. It did pass the test.

The literature you can find in the seat in front of you contained of a safety card for the correct aircraft, KLM's magazine Holland Herald with the correct October edition and a sick/trash bag in case you needed to use it.

Another slight left turn made the visibility do wonders again and I was now able to spot anything clearly.

Approximately ten minutes past the 10.000 ft mark, the flight attendants showed up in the cabin in a  very cheery mood by serving us our complimentary beverage and sandwich. The sandwich itself was some kind of cheese spread and isn't really notable, however I decided to treat myself on a red wine with a glass of water.

KLM recently announced that they most likely will change their service on board into a buy on board with some complimentary drinks / snacks, though plans are still being drawn as KL received a lot of complains about their actual meal service on regional routes. I already doubted their choice back then when they wanted to make their catering more sustainable as the purpose felt more like they were cutting costs rather than becoming more sustainable……

The red wine served on KLM's flight though is a South-African Cape Shiraz by Julien Schaal (unknown year). The wine is pleasant to drink, though will not win any awards and contains some hints of plum and red fruit.

Sipping my wine, while enjoying the beautiful view over the French skies.

This specific Boeing 737-800 was also equiped with WiFi with free messaging being free for the entire flight, 10 EUR for a surf pass and a 20 EUR for a stream pass, though out of experience I would say not to opt for the paying options and simply use the messaging option only as it works just fine with some access to websites too. The prices, though not overly priced, are simply not worth it in my opinion. (sorry for the last photo, but I had to include it to make a gallery).

As I previously said the flight attendants were very pro-active, engaging and efficient. A bit too efficient as clean up did start quite early with a lot of people not finishing their drinks yet. The second round of cleaning eventually happened when the pilot reported that we were already descending into Barcelona with the sun finally starting to set.

Lining up for Runway 08L

Touchdown at 19.17 with the pilots deciding to go on full brake modus to not get too far from the terminal. This was definitely not the most pleasant experience for us and caught many off-guard.

After landing, the flight attendants thanked us for flying with KLM and thought to promote KLM even more by turning the cabin into one full blue house.

Docking next to an Airbus A320 of Vueling at 19:25 resulting in a total flight time of 2.05 hours (as planned) and also meant that we arrived 35 minutes late into Barcelona.

Barcelona el Prat

Disembarkation of the aircraft took a while to start as it took quite a while for the jetbridge to be attached to our aircraft. About 15 minutes after our docking, I finally made it to the terminal with a select few shops already deciding to close already.

Luggage also took much longer than expected to be on our belt. It took about fourty-five minutes for it to appear making me worried about the train connection to Zaragoza too.

In the end I made it to Sants by taxi with about five minutes to spare for my train.

So thanks for stopping by and we'll see you in the next!