Review of KLM flight from Amsterdam to Paris in Economy

Introduction

In this trip I travel to Lima, the capital city of Peru. I am traveling to visit my extended family and celebrate the holidays with them. This report, however, concerns a rather usual flight between the capitals of the Netherlands and France. Or not so usual, as I have the privilege of flying on the first commercial flight of the aircraft! Then, in Paris we connect to the longer flight. Fortunately, my return trip is a direct flight.

It is a chilly morning at the Hoek area of Hoofddorp, where I stayed the night due to the early departure of my flight. I chose the Ninetynine hotel due to its proximity to the bus stop and an acceptable price of 100 €. The rooms were not very spacious, but good enough for a short overnight.

Departure: AMS

After a short bus ride, I am at the airport bus station, right outside of Schiphol Plaza. This is the starting point of the airport, featuring a train station and multiple shops and restaurants. I buy some breakfast from an Albert Heijn, where most prices are airport-inflated but with the loyalty card some goods can be bought at regular prices.

From the central location of Schiphol Plaza it doesn't take long to walk to any of the departure areas. Since I travel with a cabin bag only, I skip check in and head straight to security, for which I booked a timeslot through the Schiphol website. This allows me to join a more exclusive queue, so I only wait two minutes to be checked. After seven minutes more, I leave security and head towards my gate.

The flight today is scheduled on one of the brand new A321neo that KLM has recently received, which is quire exciting. In particular, the aircraft is PH-AXD, Porseleinvlinder, whose only registered flight is the delivery from Hamburg XFW; which means that this flight is the first commercial service of the plane.

Flight: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines A321neo

Boarding starts at 6:20, around the scheduled time. My seat is 28F, a window seat right in front of the starboard side emergency exit. The seats look clean and shiny, being brand new with a smart color scheme. They are quite comfortable for a short haul flight, with comfortable width and rather good legroom (at least for a rather small person).

However, regular Economy seats do not feature any headrest and do not recline at all. On one hand, while this is not usually needed on such short flights, it is an expected feature of full-cost airlines, many of which are shedding many of those features in pursuit of higher profits. On the other hand, I find it quite annoying when people recline for no apparent reason those few degrees available on smaller planes with shorter legroom.

Other than that, the seat in front has a singular pocket for literature and a sickness bag, which is also disappointing. It is preferable to have the literature on top of the seat or at least secondary pockets so the passengers can use them for temporary storage and convenience.

Higher up there is a USB-C charger that allows for quick charging, but no USB-A or other types of charging ports. Again, while charging is not usually an emergency in shorter flights, this may impact passengers with older phone models. There is also a device and cup holder as well as a tray table.

Overhead, there are individual reading lights and air vents. The white and blue ambient lights are pretty cool, though the camera does not capture this well.

During boarding, the cabin crew repeatedly requested passengers to leave their seatbelts unbuckled due to ongoing refueling. I had never experienced this before, but it makes sense as a safety measure.

Even after boarding was complete, we were delayed for around an hour on the ground. Around half of that was caused by an issue with the flight computer, which according to the crew was not able to connect with the traffic control computer; probably due to missing configuration since the plane was brand new. The rest was spent waiting for a takeoff slot in a busy AMS morning. Eventually, we depart from 24, the Kaagbaan.

Airline: Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij
Flight: KL1401
Model: Airbus A321neo
Registration: PH-AXD (Netherlands)
Age: Brand new

The entertainment on board consists of the Holland Herald magazine. Airplane magazines are sadly going out of fashion, but KLM seems to disagree with their continued production of high quality magazines on their flights. The issue for December-January focuses the Fleet section on the beautiful A321neo.

There is also well functioning WiFi on board, with free messaging, web surfing for 10 € and streaming for 20 €. All WiFi passes are for the whole flight, as it is short. The WiFi connectivity page shows very basic flight information, like time of departure and arrival, and no maps, altitude or other interesting information. While it doesn't seem to be a goal at the moment, it would be nice to see airlines like KLM implementing stream-to-your-device entertainment options on short-haul flights.

Shortly after takeoff, the cabin crew begins the breakfast service. They announce that no hot drinks will be served due to forecasted turbulence and the short flight duration. Therefore, I choose a cola as a drink to get some caffeine in my system. It is accompanied by an oatmeal cookie, which is chewy, sweet and tasty. It is somewhat dense and has some raisins in it, making it a small but filling and satisfying snack.

While the breakfast service could be a bit more generous, I will not complain now that we're under the threat of KLM succumbing to the buy-on-board wave. The KLM cookie also seems preferable to the sad madeleine offered by AF.

Class: Economy (L)
Includes: 1x breakfast, 1x cabin bag.
Seat: 28F
Price: ~1690 € (Round trip)
Ancillaries (this segment only): None.

In the end, the announced turbulence didn't materialize. The flight was calm except for some shakes during initial climb. We arrived at CDG with some delay, though nothing worrisome thanks to a 5 hour layover.

Route: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) – (CDG) Paris Charles de Gaulle/Roissy Airport
Great Circle distance: 399 km
Flight length: ~450 km
Flight time: 54m
Delay on arrival: +1 hour (late)

We touch down at 27R over 30 minutes late, then embark on a long taxi to terminal 2F.

Arrival: CDG 2F

When we approach our gate, we can see the B737 that was supposed to be the second flight of the day to fly AMS-CDG, but beat us due to the delay.

From the aircraft parking to passport control, it takes me 20 minutes. Fortunately, today the electronic gates are open so the queue is only 3 minutes and my control takes less than 60 seconds.

A couple of minutes away are the shuttle buses to terminals 2E-K and 2E-M. From the time I join the queue, it takes 10 minutes until I board a bus, which takes around 7 minutes to arrive to the M pier, where I will join my mother and siblings to Lima, who come from another flight.

Thanks and Image Credits

Thank you for reading this report! I hope my excitement of being on a first flight wasn't too much. In my defense, the cabin crew also seemed excited until the computer problems started…
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Photography: Own work
Maps: Google
Flight route: Flightradar24