Review: KLM Business Class (787-10)

Coming back from Europe, I had the great pleasure of flying on KLM’s World Business class on the 787-10 Dreamliner courtesy of Flying Blue miles I’d been saving for a while.

While my trip to Europe had started with a relatively disappointing British Airways Premium Economy experience, my time on KLM was much better, and the almost 10-hour flight time… flew by. I will not be pursuing a career in comedy.

Let’s take a look at my review of KLM business class on the 787-10 Dreamliner.

Booking KLM Business Class

Business Class	Aircraft	Route	Flight Duration
KLM 165	Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner	AMS to PDX (Amsterdam to Portland)	9 hours 45 minutes

I wanted to visit friends in the Czech Republic, and so I would actually be flying back from Prague by way of Amsterdam. I really wanted to fly on KLM’s Business product because I had been holding the Brim Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard (say that 4 times fast) for over a year without much to use it on.

The thing that made booking this hard was that all business class flights on KLM from Amsterdam to Edmonton cost around 200,000 Flying Blue miles. However, flying from AMS to Portland, I was able to find availability for only 60,000 miles, courtesy of our friends at AwardTool. I’m not a points pincher, but this was a no-brainer… though of course, then I got hit by the dread Flying Blue fuel surcharges. 

I was on the hook for $490.50 in total taxes and fees (which wasn’t added up on the receipt for some reason).

The best way to earn Flying Blue miles in Canada is via American Express Membership Rewards points, as they are a Membership Rewards transfer partner that transfers at a ratio of 1:1. The American Express Platinum Card is an excellent choice if you are in the market for a premium travel credit card, as it offers a high welcome bonus, travel benefits, and several valuable statement credits.

Ground Experience

As part of my KLM business class ticket, I was given access to the flagship KLM Crown Lounge at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Since I was arriving from a super early morning flight from Prague, you better believe I wanted to visit the lounge.

There were two downsides to this arrangement: first, it was about a 15-minute walk from my plane, which was at the end of the E gates. The KLM lounge is a 5-minute walk into the D gates. Second, the lounge was packed like a tin of sardines.

While these two disadvantages were present, I still got to be in the place for about 90 minutes and found it to be worth the detour.

The food was really good, the boulangerie actually tasted freshly-baked and was a step up from most lounge food. The breakfast foods themselves? On the high end of mediocre, but I was hungry and had been up since 4 AM, so it tasted great to me.

Little-known secret of this lounge: it’s packed, but it’s massive. As part of that, it has an upper level that most people entirely miss out on.

This area was MUCH less packed.

The only disadvantage of the upper level is that it’s a restaurant concept called Blue, where ordering many of the available items has a cost associated with them.

Dishes were extremely expensive and had to be paid either in euros or Flying Blue miles, with the latter being valued by the airline at 0.5 eurocents per mile – a valuation which the entire Frugal Flyer team gives a hearty LMAO when it comes to how we value Flying Blue miles.

Pro tip to lounge-goers: the bathrooms on this level are open to everyone and basically empty if you want to do your business in relative peace.

There’s also some really cool aviation-themed decorations throughout the lounge.

Once I was done stuffing my face with baked goods and trying to find a comfy chair in an area quiet enough to nap in, I had to hustle to the other end of the airport and get to the end of the E-gates.

Once I got there, we had to take buses to get to the aircraft and board via stairs.

This wasn’t a great start, but hey, I kept an open mind and wound up being rewarded for it with a really great experience.

Cabin Arrangement

The KLM business class cabin on their Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner offers 38 business class seats in a 1-2-1 style, with direct aisle access for all passengers.

I opted for seat 1A because I like being close to both the service staff and the bathrooms. And I’ll say right now: the service staff on this flight absolutely knocked it out of the park. The ladies (as they were all ladies on this flight) who worked were some of the loveliest, most personable, most entertaining folks I’ve ever had on a flight anywhere.

Seat

1A is my traditional Business class seat, and it didn’t disappoint this time. For one thing, I am super anti-checked luggage, and this came with a dedicated overhead bin space.

The World Business Class seats themselves are very spacious and come with an integrated in-flight entertainment system. These are the new business class seats, and not the older 2-2-2 layout that flies to and from many Canadian cities.

I was a bit worried my welcome drink would be a bottle of water.

But no, that was silly paranoia. I got this amazing blue-coloured mocktail instead. Well, there was a choice of this blue mocktail, champagne, water, or orange juice. That would be no fun. Look how blue this is! It tasted like blue, too.

There were plenty of power outlets, which included those with universal power adapters. Like a dummy, I had left my universal adapter back in Edmonton. Whoops.

I also had my own window. They could tint them. I have no idea if the tinting was controllable, nor did I find out, but it looks like the cabin crew could do it.

The only thing that I really didn’t like was that some of the controls for the IFE and seat were to my immediate left, so when bending over, my left shoulder would sometimes run into them.

There was also a separate seat control panel on my left-hand side.

The tray table had a bit of a funky design – one which I strongly preferred because it was way more intuitive to slide in/slide out. No stupid opening a thing and levering out the table, nope, this was simple.

Bed

While there was plenty of bedding on this flight, I wound up using none of it other than the pillow.

This was because of a unique occurrence. Because the flight was going from east to west from Europe to the United States, it was continuously daylight for the duration of the flight. The interior of the cabin was warm without being uncomfortable.

Therefore, I was able to pass out al fresco without any issue whatsoever and feel comfy in doing so. One thing should be noted: I’m 6’2” and the foot well wasn’t great. It was slightly too short for me.

I’m not certain if the photo fully does it justice, but this was probably about 4-6” too short for me. I still slept like a baby because I was tired, but I couldn’t really recline the seat 100%.

Amenity Kit

The amenity kit is frankly kind of sad for a Business class product. I don’t get what it is with European airlines and making these kits made from once-recycled orphans’ rags or whatever, but these little bags are ugly and useless.

I don’t care about this heart-touching story. I care about a bag with a zipper I can easily withdraw my stuff from, and that won’t spill it all over the place.

The contents inside the amenity kit were actually pretty nice, though.

Once again, I’d like to show how annoying/impractical the closure mechanism is.

Again, I just don’t get it. Do zippers destroy Mother Earth? Are buttons or buckles just a bridge too far? This weird slip-on mechanism is fragile and easy to break, it’s inconvenient to use, and it looks ugly.

I am imploring airlines to stop doing this.

You know what I hope KLM does not stop doing? Their little porcelain Dutch houses that are filled with Genever, which all business class passengers receive on long-haul flights.

Bathroom

The bathrooms on this 787 were as quirky as they were charming.

These aren’t the biggest toilets ever, but they do have enough space even for a dude of my size, and they just ooze personality.

Look at the wall beside the toilet: KLM has these adorable little paintings of Dutch houses. I love it.

The sink is fine too, it has some nice expensive posh soap.

How much nicer is this than the stuff in Economy or Premium Economy? Who knows, but it smelled great and felt soft on my hands.

There was also a baby changing table in this particular latrine.

Pretty efficient use of space if I do say so myself.

Dining

I’d say the dining was the strong suit of this flight, with a few notable caveats we’ll get to. The menu was pretty great:

There was also a wine list. I am not much of a wine person, but it looked pretty good:

However, what I got almost immediately after take-off was an unlisted choice between a salmon amuse-bouche or a tray of cheese. I asked my stewardess if she had crackers, and she told me in the funniest tone ever that the true Dutch way to eat cheese is without crackers.

So I did so with the Bols genever cocktail on the menu, just like she instructed.

She was so right, it’s not even funny. That cheese tasted incredible on its own, and the cocktail was a perfect pairing.

It was at this moment that I realized that while KLM’s hard product might not be perfect, the service was going to be something else entirely. Special, even.

Lunch

After chowing down on the snack, Kim (as I’d learned her name was) came by to take orders for lunch. I went for the red curry soup appetizer and Thai sampler tray.

The food had a super cool presentation, and everything down to the cutlery was just gorgeous. I learned the crockery was custom-made specifically for KLM.

How did this appetizer taste? Pretty good, the curry soup was well-balanced. Kim served it with a laugh. I was having a great time washing it down with Heineken.

Then came the main.

This Thai sampler platter was… underwhelming. Like a lot of airplane food, it just didn’t taste like much of anything. I think the lemongrass chicken had the most flavour, but both it and the chicken didn’t taste like much. Or rather, they tasted like day-old second-tier Thai food one inexplicably orders from a Vietnamese restaurant that had been reheated in a microwave, just served on really nice plates.

It was fine. I wouldn’t willingly order it on the ground. This was in contrast to the dessert.

I had to order the signature coconut mousse with what appears to be some kind of chocolate cracker.

This tasted light and fluffy, with a center that I think was some kind of gelatin derived from pineapple. I didn’t taste much pineapple. I thought it was good, though.

Apparently, KLM’s menu was provided by a 3 Michelin star restaurant, which leads me to believe that either Michelin stars are bunk or that it is just super hard to make anything taste amazing miles in the air.

The lunch wasn’t bad, I want to be clear. But it certainly isn’t a 200-euro tasting menu in quality, which is what any such restaurant would realistically charge on the ground. 

There were then these post-dessert sweets of chocolate Dutch houses.

These were incredible, probably one of the best things served on the flight.

Snack

For a snack, there were some packaged pastries, but what I got was a serving of in-flight fries. If you’ve been to Canadian KFC, they were the same size and consistency and sort of lukewarm. I give them a 6/10 on the crispiness factor.

But they came with this packet of mayonnaise that my flight attendant, Kim, told me was the special mega good mayo. I thought she was BSing me. She was not.

This mayo is the absolute lights-out best french fry mayo I’ve ever had. It was sick. Would order again.

Light Meal

About 90 minutes before landing, I received the light meal. This was much better – it absolutely blew the main lunch out of the water.

It consisted of a chicken Caesar salad and pumpkin-stuffed ravioli with cremeux.

They were very tasty. I wouldn’t call them super gourmet; for my money, they tasted more like premade meals you’d get at an expensive grocery store like Whole Foods. Not bad, but obviously not what you’d get fresh at a mid-tier restaurant.

The dessert was probably the best dish, as it was an ube/matcha cheesecake, not listed on the menu. I ate it so fast I didn’t even get a proper photo.

Entertainment

Entertainment Console

The in-flight entertainment system was modern and similar to most of the models you’re likely to see on 787 Dreamliners.

Frankly, I was exhausted. I browsed the catalogue quickly, found nothing of any interest, and crashed asleep.

I’d say this was one of the weaker entertainment slates I’ve seen having flown various airlines. The best things it had were select HBO shows, such as this year’s hit A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, but I’ve already seen that twice and read the novella and graphic novels, so it didn’t do much for me personally.

WiFi

There was Wi-Fi for this flight, and it was an astounding 29 euros, or ~$45 CAD at the time of writing, for a full-flight pass.

That cost hurt. To add insult to injury, though, the wifi was some of the worst I’ve had on an airline. It would routinely cut in and out, and it even deleted one of my Balatro saves after I beat a stake. I can forgive long buffering times. I can’t forgive bad cell phone video game save-state management.

For $45 CAD, I felt this was a bad deal, and unfortunately, I didn’t think the IFE was much better.

Conclusion

Overall, I’d recommend flying KLM to or from North America. The reason I say this is that the hard product, while not revolutionary and lacking some elements of ergonomic design, is still very good. It lives up to the “Dreamliner” hype.

The food, on balance, was quite good but I wouldn’t put it in the category of being superlative, which is what it’s aiming for. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it does mean it would need to be improved to get to the level of airlines like Turkish or ANA with whom it clearly wants to compete.

The amenity kit is bad, and the in-flight entertainment is mediocre.

And in the last analysis, I don’t care. You know why? Because the service was that good. I was treated like a friend by every single member of the staff, from Kim, my dedicated stewardess, up to the Service Director and the rest of the crew. People were always on hand, talking with me, joking with me, asking me if I needed something, and taking care of my needs.

It’s pretty rare you’re ever treated that well, even at the most expensive hotels or in premium flight cabins. But it’s what I got for over 10 hours, including while I was napping. So, for that, I will absolutely fly business class on KLM again.