Review: Kenya Airways Business Class 787 New York To Nairobi

Nice!
Looks like the same exact seats that are on the LOT 787. I think it's the same headphones too, and same font in the menu

Nice to see that a usually pretty mediocre airline tried to impress for once. At least they had put some drinks and snacks at the galley bar, on their other long hauls, like the 9 hour Nairobi - Bangkok flight, they don't bother to put anything.
Sorry for being met by the Deputy President on arrival. He's a particular nasty fellow.

Lucky, any chance you can start adding the table of contents at the end of the post as well so you wouldn't have to scroll up each time to get to the next part of the trip report 🙂

Ethiopian also has the same....

Too funny about the Delta SkyClub Dragon Lady. Ben took a photo of the entrance leading into the lounge. On the right, it had a board that listed all of the SkyTeam members. If she did not know, she should look at that every time she starts her shift or even better yet, take a photo of it so she can self-check herself when there is doubt on her mind.

Wow—more people celebrating the inaugural flight in Nairobi than the TPG awards in NYC.

Very friendly but extremely slow is Kenya to a T, so I'd say they captured the essence of the country pretty well.

Interested what you think about Nonstop Dan’s poll on YouTube about being offered a media upgrade by Qatar. He wants to know if he should take it or stay in economy to stay true to the unbiased nature of his channel. What are your thoughts? Would you take a media upgrade on airline you’ve already flown before?

@ glamouros press conference venues: Newark‘s international departure hall maybe?

Any word on the load factor on the flights nowadays? I agree this may be a hard one to make it work.

Great trip report - thanks Lucky. Excited now for this flight, which I'm taking in Jan. Although I might bring along my "cooling gel" pillow bummed from United Fauxlaris given the sub-par bedding...

Seen as this was the inaugural flight, how do you think the crew got to New York?

Am I the only one wondering how you got from EWR to JFK in an uber in less an hour in the morning rush?

For some reason I was tickled by the listing of "reduced ethic sauce drizzle" on the hen.

"and that we’d be cruising at 39,00 feet."
I think it's a dangerous altitude to cruise

@Jake They flew the plane there. This was the inaugural return. The true inaugural flight was the outbound leg from NBO to JFK.

@Jake Stupid typos. I meant that they flew "on" the plane there. They obviously didn't fly the longhaul then turn around and fly back, but I would bet that they just took the flight there in business class since, as Lucky reports, it seems like it was pretty open anyway.

@Jake I know the prep for KQ flew EK to NYC a few days prior. Not sure if it included the FAs but it would be my best guess.

That's a pretty rough flight departure time- hard to sleep until the last few hours of the flight. Even a 5 PM departure would be better.

Lucky, I thought you said you liked taking trains? Why not take NJ Transit and LIRR/Airtrain between the airports? Would have saved you around $45, and probably slower than driving outside of rush hour, but faster during rush hour. Didn't want to navigate Penn Station after an 18 hour flight?

@ DCJoe -- In this case the ride took less than an hour, while it seemed like the train journey would take at least 90 minutes. I was able to work productively the entire drive thanks to tethering. So it seemed worth it to me, especially given that it was a Monday and I had a limited time to work with wifi before my flight.

@Lucky
Do You know that Kenya Airways CEO, who you liked writting about him: "He was extremely approachable, kind with both employees and passengers, and generally a great guy" is a citizen of my country, Poland? Yes guys, he is Polish and he used to be the CEO of Polish Airlines LOT in its past. After he was fired some years ago, he was hired to Kenya Airways. And I am glad he is still nice guy.

@lucky - you know how silly it is when you say “X was worth it because I was working” and what sort of backward logic that is? Are you saying your time is worth $100 an hour? $200? $500? And if it is, wouldn’t it simply be better to reduce work rather than spend all the money “to work” and pocket the same? You say it like you are some Fortune500 CEO... this is total “blogger justification”.

@Lucky- That's fair- although in my case I can't really use a computer in a car for more than a few minutes without getting motion sickness, whereas working on the train is easy for me.

Personally I am not a big fan of Uber/taxi over trains unless the time/hassle savings is pretty big. I find the setup to be uncomfortable to be in a space with just one other person but not talking- while I also find it uncomfortable to be chit-chatting for an hour with someone I don't know!

@lucky
how do you compare KQ with ET business class experiences..?

I took this flight last week, and I think they have addressed many of the points you raise. The quality of the food was noticeably better than in your review. The dessert was potentially the best thing I've ever been served on a plane. Service was also quite a bit speedier. The bedding was still lacking.

You mention the "small bar setup" only had soft drinks but I can clearly see "Tusker" in the picture and I don't think Tusker is a soft drink.......it's lager.

Trust me, you got a great experience for KQ’s standard. I flew on them twice - AMS-NBO and NBO-CDG. Here’s to hoping I never repeat that experience. The KQ flight attendants were the rudest people I met in my entire 2-week trip to Kenya - just seemed to not care and were very happy when we got off the plane. The economy seats are really hard compared to most airlines on the 787. Food was inedible for some meals, and not enjoyable for the others. No snacks or anything. On AMS-NBO we didn’t even get blankets. And I feel like you’re over counting the entertainment. I feel like there were closer to 50 movies and 50 shows. Plus most of them are outdated and just outright bad things I would never watch. The FAs also looked at me like I was crazy when I took some photos, which is something I normally do on flights. No wonder KQ doesn’t make money and Ethiopian is so profitable.

Very poor journalism.

Your article is not well-written. It contains a lot of negativity about logistical minutiae. You fail to paint a coherent picture of the experience by your constant pinpointing of things like thin pillows and not being let into the Skyclub smoothly. Your website implies you fly a lot so you should be accustomed to things like that. Any frequent air traveler would know that some of the things you are complaining about are pretty much industry standard. For example, most airlines have poor quality headphones and not all B787's are customized to have a lot of storage space, air nozzles or arm rests.

You are unfairly bashing KQ for things pretty much every airline in the industry does and your article has a very condescending tone toward the airline. Your article lacks the professionalism of a review and borders on being an informal description of all of your experience. You need to work on your writing.