Review: KLM Business Class A330 Abu Dhabi To Amsterdam

Wait, you landed in snow in amsterdam. How long have we waited for this 😉

I flew this exact flight last week. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would fly KLM in business again. Great review.

@Ben: Great review, closely matches my brother’s and my experience on the upper deck a few months back. Though, your food looked much better than the ex-AMS catering we had.

@Tiffany: Is RSS broken? The last new post in my Feedly is the Kenya Airways fare post. This post and the Edition AUH review are missing. (Other posts today seem to be updates to existing posts, which I know don’t push to Feedly.)

@ Ben -- The Queen and I love KLM.

@ GoAmtrak -- Ugh, let me look. Thanks for the heads up!

surprised they bother with a meal service at 2AM.

Wish you had told us the brand of Champagne they served.

Now they have - finally! - got lay-flat seats in all long-haul J class, maybe it's time they started to upgrade to direct aisle access...?

I actually fly KLM a fair bit. They're my airline of choice within Europe - unfussy, as operationally slick as I could expect, and serving a lot of secondary UK airports (far more than BA), including my tiny local airport.

Long-haul? Nah, they're not my first choice. Or in fact very high up the list. But if I end up having to fly them because the schedule works, I am not unhappy. And I also love the Delft crockery.

The entire menu looked ghastly. I would have been very disappointed, and hungry.
But I do love the way their celebrate their Dutch origin and culture. I wish more airlines went as far as KLM does in this regard.

@Bob Foster: It’s on the menu image: Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Reserve. Not the fanciest, but solid IMHO for the price point. FWIW, United used to pour this in Int’l. F.

Great review!

Slight correction - The Delft Blue houses are filled with Genever not Gin - doesn't taste anything like Gin unfortunately

Smalltown boy in a big arcade 😛

Wow. They had two opera-themed movies in their entertainment system! One is a documentary on Maria Callas and another is the Bel Canto movie. While the movie itself is not that great, it is worth seeing it for Renee Fleming's exquisite voice.

That gate pic in Abu Dhabi—you are getting some serious stink eye from the locals.

@The nice Paul

Some of their planes have reverse herringbone seats...

I am not a fan of the B/E Diamond seat (dislike the tiny cubbies, lack of privacy and lack of guaranteed aisle access). That said, wow, KLM's done a great job on the design elements all around. The plating and glassware are beautiful and the little design touches everywhere are great. Of course, the delfft houses are brilliant.

(I'll add that I think the B/E Diamond's are perfectly fine for a mid-haul flight (6-8 hours). But I had it on a full long-haul on LH from SIN-FRA and it definitely did not feel great compared to reverse herringbone or staggered.

the wines and champagne list is a joke, just low level quality, disgrace for a business class.

Nicolas feuillate is 25 euro for a two bottle pack in France supermarket, that's a Dutch premium ?

Sounds fine over all.

But I just don't understand the necessity of waking everyone up for breakfast a mere five hours after dinner. There's a reason I would go out of my way to book a fully flat business seat, and it's not to eat granola with plain yogurt in the early morning. 😉

Love the idea of the 'houses' though. And unlike Lukas, I'm quite happy to get Genever instead of ordinary gin.

It took you FOUR months to publish this review? Just check the date on the sealed plastic bags! Are you fooling us, Lucky? What’s going on?

Ben your bottom line summary says it all and sums up my thoughts.
Haven't flown KLM but the whole experience you had would makes me want to fly them.
I would enjoy having the two meals, and the food looked very appetising.
Plus a Delft House filled with Genever would be a fitting finale.
Good report.

"where you could choose betweenwhere you could choose between fish masala with biryani rice, and coriander beef kibbeh and a vegetable fatayer"

I think it should read "where you could choose between fish masala with biryani rice and coriander, or beef kibbeh and a vegetable fatayer"

@raksiam
All flights departing from that part of the world to Europe at that time (ME3 or European) offer a snack after departure.

That's an orange juice? It looks like a koolaid to me.

Its always a surprise to me why non-Dutch like KLM so much..Being Dutch and a Flying Blue Platinum cardholder, I avoid KLM as the plague in C-class. Air France stands out in Seat configuration, food and cabin crew professional service. KLM is to be considered the B-brand in the Air France-KLM Group. Sad but a reality.

No dinner ? Lanson "Champagne" ? Ever had a worst wine list ? Perfect ! Fly tem whenever (but don't complain, afterwards...)

"Nicolas feuillate is 25 euro for a two bottle pack in France supermarket, that’s a Dutch premium ?"
No way for in France you can't find a bottle of low -range unknown brand Champagne for less than 16 Euros a bottle at a Discount store let alone a normal supermarket.

Nicolas Feuillate is not a Dom Perignon but it is a very decent Champagne.

I few KLM in business class from Amsterdam to JFK in September of 1986. I'll bet it has changed a bit since then!

KLM has a wonderful iPhone AP for those cute houses. It keeps track of the houses you already have, or need. It also has the history of the house. They come out with a new house annually on october 7th, their anniversary.