For the next portionmy trip to Zimbabwe, it was time to fly from Amsterdam to Johannesburg in KLM’s Boeing 777 business class. Prior to my flight, I had the chance to check out the KLM Crown Lounge 52, which is KLM’s flagship, non-Schengen lounge at its Amsterdam Schiphol hub.
Continue reading: Review: KLM Crown Lounge Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
@ RetiredATLATC -- The lounge is generally busiest in the mid-morning, when most transatlantic flights arrive and then depart. The lounge shouldn't be nearly as busy in the afternoons or evenings, when there are fewer banks of long haul flights.
The last time I visited this lounge, the barista pointed me to the self service coffee machine. This was around 11am.
So an airline hub lounge infested with mice and in which proper food and drinks are charged for (and not exactly cheap) gets 4.5 stars?
I am sorry but had this happened anywhere outside northern europe I am convinced your assessment would have been radically different. Had this been Iberia, for example, it would have been roasted.
@ 747400 -- Mice are an issue throughout the airport, and for that matter, are an issue at many airports in the region. As far as the rating goes, I'm comparing this lounge to other lounges in the region. I'm curious, which hub business class lounge in Europe do you think is better than this, other than the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse?
@ Jacob -- Maybe barista coffee is only available over certain hours? If so, that's a bit disappointing, though puzzlingly common.
Thanks Ben, we're on a 5pm back to ATL.
Is there no longer a smoking room in the lounge?
@ RetiredATLATC -- I could be mistaken, but I don't think there's a smoking lounge anymore. At least I couldn't find it, if so.
It surprises me that KLM hasn't found a way to differentiate the "paid" Restaurant based on traveler type. Delta Diamond on a paid business fare = paid restaurant. Delta Gold on a cheap economy fare = same treatment. I compare this to the Finnair Platinum Wing in Helsinki, where the sit down table service is offered to OW Emeralds. I don't see why this concept couldn't be implemented by KLM.
"All KLM passengers who don’t receive lounge privileges with their ticket can purchase access"
You mean some business class passengers? Kind of like with Qatar Airways where certain business class fares don't receive lounge access in Doha? Or do all KLM business class passengers have access regardless of the fare?
Schiphol went smoke free for the entire terminal a few years ago.
https://www.schiphol.nl/en/blog/where-can-you-smoke-at-schiphol/
I also find the rating shocking given how poor the lounge is. But since when is Netherlands in northern Europe? 🙂
Iberia's non-Schengen lounge at Barajas is great for light, space, decor, showers, and dining. The only thing that's missing is a Barista, but that's outweighed by food and drink being free. That is a single business class lounge covering elites etc, and where there is no first class product.
The challenge here is that Ben is comparing hubs, where other big airlines differentiate between elites and regular business class, and have first class. The charging for food and drink makes this really hard to compare, but you can directly compare with BA because they spread their premium customers over 3 lounges (but would offer decent drinks for free in all of them).
The sleep pods should be out of the review rating because they are charged.
Air France 2E-Gate L is much nicer than KLM Lounge
I mean food and drinks are much nicer and you can even get in the sauna
It might be an issue with airports in the region, but a business class lounge infested with mice is not an excuse. Coakroaches are everywhere in Southeast Asia but surely a coakroach infestation in, for example, SIA’s business lounge would not go unnoticed.
Iberia’s Madrid non-schengen lounge is manifestly superior to this one. So is AF’s and Swiss’s for example. I simply feel a bit of a bias when it comes to airlines/airports/lounges from certain parts of the world. And I’m a fan, have read you for many many years.
It might be an issue with airports in the region, but a business class lounge infested with mice is not an excuse. Coakroaches are everywhere in Southeast Asia but surely a coakroach infestation in, for example, SIA’s business lounge would not go unnoticed.
Iberia’s Madrid non-schengen lounge is manifestly superior to this one. So is AF’s and Swiss’s for example. I simply feel a bit of a bias when it comes to airlines/airports/lounges from certain parts of the world. And I’m a fan, have read you for many many years.
KLM and Air France have light business class fares which don’t include lounge access. Although that’s not a problem if you’re a flying blue elite plus member
Do you realise there are mice at all airports. They are like cities. I’ve seen them at almost every airport including Singapore . It’s almost impossible to eradicate them entirely. This is in addition to birds flying around terminals.
Excuse me, TF? Rats? I can't believe you just glossed over that. That is a serious health issue, especially in a place where food is stored out in the open in buffets, and I cannot imagine any airline ANYWHERE, let alone in Europe having an infestation problem in their flagship lounge. If it is really a problem in northern European airports, the airline cannot just shrug their shoulders at it, they need to work with the airport authority to fix the problem. I flew through AMS last Saturday and used the PP Aspire lounge (which was small but actually quite nice) since I was not on a biz ticket but wondered what it would be like in KLM's flagship lounge. After reading that review, I think I can forgo the bells & whistles like barista coffee, (paid) nap rooms and premium drinks and just stick with the Aspire lounge. I didn't see any rats there, let alone 5.
We need to get over this "barista coffee" obsession. Barista coffee isn't better than machine coffee because a dedicated human operates the machine. In fact, barista coffee is also machine made. The only thing that matters is the quality of ingredients and machine used to make the coffee, which can be done independently w/o a barista.
I’ve been to this lounge at least a dozen times. The ladies that work upstairs are great.
If they would only revert back to freepour open bars like they have in Schengen it would be perfect. Their standard pour is like 20 or 30 ml and they won’t do doubles.
“Dutch Mountain.” LOL.
Rodents = serious health code violation. No way I would eat there.
Never seen a mouse at an airport, let alone a premium space in which food is stored in the open. And I’ve flown quite a bit.
The Turkish Airlines lounge? Or do you not consider Turkey part of Europe? TK has massive and high quality food selection, beautiful decor, nap rooms, and more.
Agree that this is a great space, but I can’t rate it amongst my favorite lounges in Europe. The food has been the same boring and cheap stuff for the last 15 years at least. Bad wine and it’s annoying that you have to go to the bartender for drinks (which isn’t required in the Schengen lounge thankfully).
Overall I’d rate the CDG lounges much better due to the food and wines available there. I also prefer the LH lounges for the same reason.
AMS has pretty poor and basic lounges overall… reflecting the Dutch mentality of thriftiness and rejection of indulgence.
It's ok though his reviews are self-funded and unbiased. We can trust this rating even though there are constant factual errors and typos too!
Mice?!?! Oh no, that alone would get rid of one star. There is pest control and I have never seen mice at any lounge around the world in almost two decades of flying.
Great lounge ? That is the conclusion. They must have changed the definition of great while I was not paying attention.
A lounge that has rats cannot be great.
A lounge that nickel and dimes its highest paying passengers cannot be great. The having to pay for a decent meal and drinks part is a big turn off. The buffett food is super mediocre.
Like others, I really think the rodent problem needs to warrant a bigger deduction. What is crazy is how long this has gone on. I remember them from early 2020. And if you asked me which lounges have I seen mice in, this would be it (and multiple times over several years!).
Even disregarding the mice issue, which I agree warrants deduction, I don't think this lounge is that amazing, personally. A lot of the seating does not look particularly comfortable, the food concept is odd, and the bathrooms/shower rooms don't look particuarly nice to me either. It looks fine enough, but nothing amazing.
I don't understand the 4.5 star review. The food and drinks here are very average. Handing over half the lounge to those willing to pay for the privilege tells you everything you need to know about this lounge.
One of the best hub lounges in Europe?!? Iberias T4S lounge is much better than this.
I admit that I frequent AA and AS lounges in the US so my 'average' bar is low. I've had some good experiences at international business/first lounges in LAX, HKG, NRT, TPE, HND, etc.
I have not typically had good lounge experiences in Europe (mostly LHR with massive overcrowding) and so my initial reaction to this lounge was much like Ben's: I thought it was massive, had lots of room for enjoyment, above-average food, etc. I personally rated it well and would like to return...
...but I wasn't aware of a rodent problem. That definitely changes the scoring in my mind.
If they have mice and they can't get rid of them, they should be extra careful to not leave food exposed - a la carte, containers with lids and packaged stuff can all work. The fact that they don't do that says everything that one needs to know about how much they care about the health of their best customers.
“There are two KLM Crown Lounges in Amsterdam, with one being in the Schengen area, and one being in the non-Schengen area, and in this post I’ll be reviewing the former.”
No, you won’t. You’ll be reviewing the latter.
Luckily KLM never turns you on in the first place! It's not as bad as Lufthansa and that's about it.
I agree that the Iberia non-Schengen lounge is better, the food offering is more diverse and actually changes through the day. KLM has been serving the exact same things over the past 3 years (since I've been visiting it, so I can't exactly concur with another post that says a decade + of the same mediocre offering). The BA lounges, while not as stylish as the KLM or the new AF lounge, are also superior with their buffet and drinks. I think BA actually serve better croissants than AF, both in the lounge and onboard. AF lounges are also carb heavy, lots of pasta salad and rice, not much of vegetable or fruits. I think these are subtle ways they cut cost while presenting a "premium" experience by the interior design.
Ben, are you missing a page of the menu?
There’s no gin on the menu which seems like a bit of a miss given ever one of those houses is full of it.
As a frequent user of this lounge it is tired and sad. The overcrowding is insane. At this point Delta need to open their own lounge in AMS to alleviate the issue. The only time you will find this lounge reasonably quiet is after 7pm.
The furniture is not functional at all. It's all custom built crap that is difficult to repair and keep clean. Whomever designed the lounge veered heavily into fashion over function. Honestly, since day one I have found this lounge quite chintzy, but that seems to the style in Europe these days at these mid-level type airlines, and I say this as a European living in North Amercia. Give me a good quality Asian Plaza Premium lounge over this nonsense any day of the week.
I recently had the opportunity to experience the new AF Schengen lounge at CDG. Considering this is technically an EU "domestic" type lounge it is in a different class to the KL lounge altogether. Better food, rest areas and full service shower facilities without overcrowding.
KLM lounge is stylish, but I rate BA, AF and IB ahead of it in terms. If I had to sum up KLM in one word it would be efficient. Always deliver enough so as you do not complain, but never a delight
$30 for a cheese plate and $100 for a sleep cabin is not "nickel and dimeing" lol.
Nice to see pics at 4:45 am . I've never seen what much of it looks like since like 99% of us who would use it at normal pre-flight times, i've never been able to turn around much less see the furniture or floor. That is the most-crowded lounge I've seen in EU. As for luxury and space, the new AF Termnal 2F lounge at CDG blows this away. So I choose flights to EU on AF Biz through CDG to use 2F's lounge and I use AMS for coach flights returning to US and use the great PP Aspire Lounge 45 not far from the KLM lounge.
Better hub business class lounges? Air France in CDG has better showers, bathrooms, seating, food and drinks. ITA Airways not only has baristi, but actually decent coffee, drinkable wine, and craft cocktails. The food isn't spectacular, but it's better than KLM. Tarom in OTP: okay, I'm not going to pretend Tarom's lounge is better, or whatever that thing in Prague is that's not even CSA.
And that's just SkyTeam.
Mice? Yes. My favorite recent addition to lounge 52 is the robot that harasses the same table every five minutes to take dirty dishes. I saw it once get into an argument with a chair ("I'm sorry, you're in my way"), until it finally said "help me" and shut down.
Delta will never open their own lounge in AMS. That's literally the whole point of their JV partnership, is so that they don't need to and KLM takes care of everything in AMS.
As a Flying Blue Platinum member I feel I can comment on the KLM and AF lounges as i have spent a lot of time in many of them. When this newer KLM Int'l Lounge first opened I had high expectations. It is certainly large and well designed, and I loved the escalator with the display of the mini KLM Dutch House Collection. However, within a year of opening I have since never seen both the two food service areas operating at the same time, there is always enough furniture stained, torn and worn to be very noticable and the food options in the off peak are few and limited. You also used to be able to pour your own "Heinie" but no more. Maybe it was cleaned up recently plus Lucky was there first thing in the AM before the masses arrived. The staff I talked with agree the standards have dropped. You compare this with the CDG Air France lounges and it is night and day. The architecture of the newly renovated AF Lounges and the food and amenities even in the couple of non updated lounges is far better but then again it's French. Mais Oui! They at least feed you very well and provide great quality drinks even if the lounge is crowded. KLM is not in the same league even though they are jointly owned.
@Ben Schlappig Thanks for the detailed review as always. Can I please highlight a minor glitch with the site though that I've never seen anyone mention before; when sorting comments 'Oldest First' on any of your posts, it then only displays the 1st reply to each post and there's no way to see any of the following comments. So on this thread, for example, when listed 'Most Recent' I see there is a post from 747400 with 12 replies, but then when I switch to 'Oldest First' there's only 1 displayed and no way to access the other 11. No button appears to see any more replies. It's always been that way since your last site refresh and, while a minor issue in the grand scheme of things (I just have to scroll down to the bottom and read upwards), would be nice to not have to do that with every post when catching up on a few days' worth of your excellent content!
Thanks very much and, as always, love your work!
I remember the old lounge 52, and British passengers hitting the shot dispenser three times. I'm a beer fan, so I try not to drink Heineken. The best part of it used to be pulling a biertje: performing the precise ritual needed not to end up with a cup of foam. You can't do that anymore.
Mice? Schiphol has a ton of them. I used to work on the eighteenth floor in a Dutch building, and mice were running down the halls.
In lounge 52, the weirdest part is that theater in the back of the mountain. I was there on a deserted afternoon, trying to figure out who would watch a silent video feed of airport tv.
Have you never been to any of the lounges in LHR T5, there are mice everywhere.
Glad to see majority of people disagrees (often strongly) with Ben. Everybody can have its own priorities, They also depend how you travel e.g. showers are important at transition airport or if your flight is in the evening and you spent a day in the city. If I live close to departure airport or flight is in the morning I couldn’t careless.
Definitely highest priority is comfortable seating than food and drink. KLM lounge offers poor food and drink. And asks for payment for something that is reasonable, but not great.
From my perspective CDG lounges are better, many Spanish lounges are great,
It's a shame they closed the restaurant/stopped serving food. It was expensive but by far the best meal available in Schiphol, really really good food. I enjoyed it several times.
Was through AMS two years ago at the back of Corona and had the same mice experience but at the non-Schengen KLM lounge: The upper floor was not open but we sat so we could see over the floor of the upper level and it was alive with mice ... Took pictures and videos and told the personal but apparently to no avail!
I have. Never seen mice in LHR T5. However, I just googled it and found this article from last year: "Passenger horrified after spotting mice in British Airways business lounge at Heathrow". Still not good.
I love the coffees they make for you in 52 and the second floor space is often much, much quieter and less busy. Therein lies the big issue with this lounge if one *isn't* there at 4h45 in the morning: 52 is usually packed with no place to sit; the food is being produced for 1,000 people; and there are usually long waits for showers. If I were flying economy as a Sky Elite Plus, I'd be fine dealing with this, but as I fly J almost exclusively if I am flying KLM, the lounge doesn't feel at all like a "business class" lounge but more so like a massive Priority Pass lounge with a chic interior design. I think this is why they charge for the "specialty" foods upstairs: someone has to make something to order which, in a place that is serving at such large scale, needs to come with a cost. If they could halve capacity at 52, it would be so much nicer, but that's never going to happen...Meanwhile, AF's lounges at CDG feel nicer because there are so many of them spread out across many different terminals - but if CDG was set up like Schiphol, I'm not sure their business lounges would feel any different than 52.
I like the Schengen area lounge better, to be honest. Almost the same service in any respect, but feels a lot more cozy and more accessible.
Honestly? Mice in what is, basically, a restaurant and food served with utensils where the handles are in the food (see the cold cut plate) is wild.
Just give me one of those cool KLM gin-filled houses and I'll eat somewhere else.
AWFUL - had 4 hours before AMS departure. Had to join a queue and 33 people in front of me. Only business class people could go first. What's the use of Priority Pass if both AMS Priority Pass lounges are not allowing visitors. Simply awful
Hardly an outlet in site. As much as people like to bash US Airlines, they are much better at developing/installing technology travelers desire (wifi, usb, wireless charging, etc.). Being able to charge devices should be a no brainer in 2024, yet European airlines seem to always be behind.
If AMS encouraged certain bird species (e.g., hawks), to fly around their terminal, this could positively impact the mouse problem.
Greeters at the entrance were totally rude and bossy. Floors, carpets and furniture with stains and old food crumbs on everything on all 3 floors. Finding the cleanest dirty seat was a challenge. At $75 per person you would expect better food choices, no deserts. Just 2 types of barbie sized biscuits. The beautiful terrace was empty, because they don't allow smoking outside, what a waste of space. Especially since the terrace is next to the bar. Overall not a comfortable place to wait hours before your flight. I giving them a 2 star rating.