Review of KLM Cityhopper flight from London to Amsterdam in Economy

Hello there,

Early afternoon on the same day of flying I received a notification from operations that my shift was canceled and  that they were allowed to book me a flight to home. Given that Birmingham only had two more flights I could have gotten with KLM for that day, they asked whether I could position the following day as KLM was asking horrendous prices from Birmingham with the cheapest fare being 631 EUR. 

After a bit of research on my own and given that I had plenty of time to position myself to London, I asked ops whether they were able to book me on KLM's flight departing out of London Heathrow. They agreed with that and received my itinerary about 15 minutes later.

In the meantime I was trying to book me on one of National Express coach service from Birmingham to London Heathrow, but unfortunately found out that the coach I needed was already sold out and there was no chance I would be in London on time with the next coach, so instead I headed over to Birmingham International's train station where I took a direct train to London Euston for a total of 33 GBP.

 This train service wasn't the cheapest option available, though it was definitely the most convenient one and luckily it was departing on time.

After a comfortable ride, we were pulling into London Euston with a delay of approximately 15 minutes, which wasn't really an issue to me as I had plenty of time to position. As there is no direct connection from Euston to London Heathrow, I had to find my way from London Euston to Tottenham Court by underground as that station grants me access to the Elizabeth line, which will bring me over to London Heathrow.

Connecting in Tottenham Court to the Elizabeth Line was a breeze and it took another 30 minutes or so to reach London Heathrow with a few stops inbetween.

As KLM is departing out of Terminal 4, one can enjoy the Elizabeth line to the fullest as Terminal 4 will be the final stop of the line.

Eventually I managed to get to London Heathrow about three hours prior to my departure, which was quite chaotic and crowded at the moment with a lot of flights departing to the middle east with airlines such as Etihad, Saudi & Gulf.

While KLM normally uses the ''H'' zone for their check-in, they have a massive notification in their app saying that they temporarily moved their location to the ''C'' zone as maintenance was being performed on their usual spot. Luckily enough, check in wasn't overly crowded for my flight as it just opened.

Waiting times to drop my luggage was very limited as it took less than two minutes for it to be my turn and I must say that the ground attendant (the one attending the Sky Priority Counter), who handled my case, was a very engaging and friendly lady and definitely made the check-in process one to remember.

While check-in was a breeze, security itself was a huge disaster with a very slow moving line and tons of passengers who did not know what to do or did not listen to the instructions of security and took a total of 45 minutes or so to clear. While I had plenty of time and it may not be in the end of the world for me, it took them more than two minutes to clear a single person in the line as there were only 20 people or so in front of me when I lined up behind one of the security stations….. Yeah, that's disastrous.

With about 2 hours to my flight's departure, I decided to head to Plaza Premium's lounge in Terminal 4, which I could access through via my Priority Pass. Though upon entering the lounge, one of the attendants informed me that the lounge was full and told me to queu for it via their QR. About an hour later, I was still number 3 in line (while I started as number 6), so I decided to opt out as I didn't want to use the lounge only for 20 minutes or so. Instead I decided to walk back and grab a cup of coffee with Costa.

About 40 minutes to our flight's departure time, our gate was finally announced and it turned out to be gate 1C. This part of the terminal was definitely a bit more quiet with tons of seating available.

Given the early arrival of our aircraft, the ground attendants announced that the aircraft was ready for boarding. Despite the aircraft being fully booked, the boarding went very smoothly and with a quick pace. Unfortunately this gate gave me no proper look of the aircraft that was going to bring us over to Amsterdam.

Given that my location was in the back of the aircraft, It gave me quite a good overview of the cabin, which was layered in a 2-2 configuration and was definitely very shiny and new.

It turns out that PH-NXT is the bird that is bringing us to Amsterdam today, which is one of the newest E195-E2 in KLM Cityhopper's fleet with an age of 0.2 years and was newly delivered to them in November 2024.

Legroom was decent for a regional jet and the duration of the flight with about two fingers between me knees and the seat.

The literature in the seat pocket contained of a safety card, a sickbag and KLM's Holland Herald magazine.

While the aircraft is not equipped with sockets, one could find a USB-A charger for both passengers between the seat in front of you.

KLM also decided to install those birds with individual air vents, which is always a positive to me. I must admit that the design of those are different to what I'm used to with most aircraft.

The captain announced himself via the intercom to thank us for our speedy boarding and informed us that we would be pushing back ahead of schedule by about 10 minutes. 

Also what I do love about the E2 jets is that their windows feel large and do give you a wide view over the airport and air, however this was mostly obstructed today by London's rainy weather. If one looks careful, one can see a 777 of QR & EY, An A359 of MH and a B789 of GF.

While we did push back ahead of time, we were about number 7 or so in line for departure resulting in a departure about 8 minutes past our scheduled departure time from Runway 09R giving us a view over Terminal 4 from above.

Once at a safe altitude, the flight attendants jumped into action to start their complimentary snack and drink service. It also gave me some time to check the tray table, which wasn't really the cleanest to be fair and was most definitely not cleaned in London while preparing for the flight back to Amsterdam….

It took the flight attendants about 20 minutes to complete their service containing of some ''Mini Bocaditos, a bottle of water and a choice between coffee and tea. 

While the flight attendants on today's flight were very friendly and cheerful, I find it odd that KLM is providing us with different services to different regional routes as flights to Paris for example (which are actually shorter than to London), one can expect a wide choice of drinks and to destinations like London, one can choose between coffee and tea….. Not sure why and how KLM is drawing the line here?

Also KLM is currently testing a Buy-on-Board product as of February to destinations like Oslo, Porto & Lisbon until April 2025 before deciding whether they will implement that or will try a different service, so in case you do not fancy that, don't book KLM to those destinations, but reports are stating prices like these for certain products
- Club Sandwich = 7 EUR,
- Cheese Sandwich = 6 EUR
- Can of Soft drinks = 3.25 EUR
- Tapas Box = 7 EUR
- Kitkat = 2.50 EUR
- Crisps = 3 EUR
- Chocolate ''Delft's Blauw'' (190 GR) = 6.50 EUR
- Heineken = 5 EUR, Texel Skuumkoppe (Another dutch beer brand) = 6 EUR and Wine and Liquor ranging from 7 EUR or more.

They do have some deals available to lower the prices, though I must admit that prices are steep and I do admit that I personally think BoB is not the way to go.

Also KLM did decide to install their newer -E2's with WiFi, which did work throughout the entire flight, though the paid versions are quite expensive for the duration of this flight, so to me the only obvious choice would be to use the free option, which is slow, yet decent to write others.

By the time I finished my cup of coffee, we were already descending into Amsterdam with a view of Leiden & Noordwijk, so cabin crew was already actively cleaning the cabin and prepare it for landing.

On short approach to Runway 06.

With a very smooth touch down and a short ride to our parking stand meant that we were 15 minutes early in Amsterdam, though this parking stand also meant that we would require a busride to the terminal.

Disembarkation went a bit slower than boarding, however it gave me plenty of time to capture the seat I was in for my ride. 

Eventually said my goodbyes to the friendly flight attendants and captain who decided to wave us goodbye too, I left the aircraft to enter the bus that was waiting for us to bring us back in the terminal making me able to finally spot the bird that brought us over to Amsterdam and I must admit that the E2 may be my new favourite regional bird.

As I was one of the last passengers to exit the aircraft, the last bus luckily wasn't overcrowded.

The other benefit of a busride is that one could see many birds upclose, though the night combined with the ride itself made it hard to properly focus on planes.

Unlike schengen destinations, the bus for non-schengen drops you off at an odd place forcing you to walk some stairs up again (elevators are available if you are disabled) with a five to ten minute walk to immigration, which is a floor down again. Could have made the drop off point a tad more convenient in my opinion.

Immigration itself wasn't overly busy as I could bypass any of the immigration lines due to my Privium Membership, which definitely helped and by the time I reached my belt, luggage was already there for me to be picked up. This was definitely a good thing as I could grab a train earlier than expected resulting me to be home before midnight!.

Thanks for stopping by and see you on the next flight!