Air France and KLM’s Flying Blue program regularly releases monthly Promo Awards (see here). I happened to be heading to Europe, so I took the opportunity to try a KLM flight using one of these Promo Awards.
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Booking
I transferred Citi ThankYou Points to Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio, then booked the flight on its website.
For reasons unknown, the Promo Award price for business class (World Business Class) from the United States or Canada to any destination in Europe was 46,875 Flying Blue miles. Since most transferable points partners only allow transfers in increments of 1,000, you usually end up with a small leftover balance. I booked a one-way ticket for 46,875 miles plus $272.62 in taxes and fuel surcharges. To get trip delay coverage, I paid the taxes and fees portion with my Citi Prestige credit card.
Check-in
Calgary YYC Airport is not especially large, and the international terminal areas are all clustered together. KLM only operates one flight a day here, so it shares the check-in counters with other airlines. Looking up, I saw a slightly stretched-looking KLM logo on an LCD screen, which felt a little odd.
KLM uses a contract lounge in Calgary: Aspire Lounge. Since Aspire Lounge is also accessible via Priority Pass, I won’t go into detail here.
Boarding
The aircraft operating flight KL678 was a Boeing 787-9. Perhaps because Calgary does not have that many airline passengers, there were not many people waiting at the gate.
Even so, the business class cabin on this flight was still fairly full, without many empty seats. The seats were in the classic reverse herringbone layout, arranged 1+2+1.
Seat
The seat looked quite comfortable, with KLM blue as the main color. On the right side of the seat was an adjustable fixture. I only realized near landing that if you held down the blue button, it would rise up.
Above the left side of the seat was a storage compartment. Opening it revealed a mirror and a pair of headphones. The headphones were nothing special, so I won’t spend much time on them.
The USB charging port and AC power outlet were also located there, and a motion-sickness bag made a strong appearance in the photo below.
The amenity kit looked like this. JANTAMINIAU is a Dutch designer brand, but I thought the bag was too flat and not very practical, since it could not hold much. The contents were all fairly standard.
Departure
After a very short taxi, the plane took off.
Calgary was blanketed in white in the winter.
Food
The most important part of the flight—meal service—soon arrived.
Naturally, warm nuts came first.
This salad-like dish had fish in it. I am not much of a salad person, so I did not finish all the greens.
What surprised me was that this meal service actually offered rice as an option. I chose the chicken and rice, and it tasted pretty good, though the rice was a little hard. After that came a triple dessert lineup.
The fruit did not look or taste especially fresh; it felt like it had been sitting overnight.
Finally, there was an adorable house-shaped chocolate.
Bed
After eating and drinking, it was time to make my own bed. The bed space in KLM business class is not exceptional, but I had no problem sleeping comfortably.
Breakfast
After some sleep, it was time for breakfast.
Breakfast even included smoked salmon, which was a nice touch from KLM.
This cheese dish was less to my taste, so I barely touched it.
There was also the usual cereal, which seems to appear in almost every airline breakfast.
The breakfast fruit was clearly much better than the fruit served at dinner, and visibly fresher as well.
One unique feature of KLM long-haul business class is that passengers receive a miniature Dutch-style house, which KLM calls a Blue Delft House. Each year KLM releases houses with different designs, and it even has a mobile app showing all the houses KLM has offered over the years. The little house contains 35% gin. It is a fun and distinctive KLM touch.
Arrival
Not long after breakfast, the plane landed on time at 6 a.m. at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS). Schiphol is rather notorious for the fact that, due to noise-control restrictions, aircraft landing at night often use runways that are very far from the terminal. We then taxied for another twenty minutes before finally reaching the gate. The immigration line was not long, and I entered the Schengen Area quickly.
Conclusion
Similar to my experience flying SAS Scandinavian Airlines, KLM offers a somewhat similar cabin style and service approach. The crew was not especially proactive in checking in constantly, but whenever I needed something, they were very helpful. As for the hard product, KLM’s 787-9 met my expectations: not especially flashy, but certainly comfortable enough for a good rest. My only hope is that Flying Blue will expand Promo Awards to include more origin cities.
Finally, here is the menu from this flight.
