KLM London City to Copenhagen
by JFC AdminDue to strike action from Danish SAS cabin crew there’s a higher than usual demand for KLM’s Amsterdam to Copenhagen services. The first leg of the journey was from London City to Amsterdam Schiphol on flight KL1564 which is, as usual, a KLM Cityhopper Fokker 50. The flight was almost full, 42 of the 50 seats were occupied and the flight was delayed slightly waiting for the final passenger to clear security.
I always enjoy the service on the Fokker 50, travelling on a small aircraft means there’s less people to serve and therefore the service is better. The staff on this service were definitely better than average, they were very quick with the meal service (a sandwich) and onto the most important part, the drinks. As the Fokker 50 is a single class aircraft they have a wider selection of drinks onboard than they have on their larger two class aircraft in economy. I’m not too adventurous and stuck with a Heineken, but other people were testing the crews cocktail making skills, making the most of the spirits that were on board.
The aircraft did not land at the gates, but at the remote Fokker stand, this is where most KLM Cityhopper flights land, but due to competition with VLM they now park most of their London City flights at the gate. It wasn’t a major problem as the bus arrived quickly but for those who hate bus travel it has to be noted that you’re not guaranteed gate parking all the time. The service on board the flight more than made up for the minor inconvenience of a bus journey.
After arriving at Schiphol I have to walk through to the Schengen area for the flight to Denmark, there’s a long queue at the passport control but as a Privium member I can walk straight through the priority lane and avoid the queues. I was in the KLM Schengen lounge within 10 minutes. The Schengen lounge is the largest KLM lounge at Schiphol and it’s the one that’s been recently been refurbished. The lounge was fairly empty at this time so it made it very easy to relax, pop online to check the news and have a few beers.
Flight KL1139 to Copenhagen departed on time, when boarding at the gate the boarding pass reader beeped and that indicated that I’d been upgraded to Europe Select. The reason this flight was full was because the SAS flight had been cancelled due to their strike so a lot of passengers had been rerouted on KLM. As the flight was full it meant a number of people were upgraded to Europe Select and both classes were full, not a seat to spare.
Europe Select is what you get on KLM if you book a business class fare within Europe. Although Europe Select is not really a business class, it’s more of a premium economy product. The seats in Europe Select are identical to those in Economy (there’s slightly more legroom in the front half of the aircraft so sitting in Europe Select guarantees you more legroom than you’d get at the back) so I’d never consider Europe Select to be worth the fares they charge for this cabin. However, it’s still nice as a free upgrade. The drinks trolley in economy on a 737 is limited so sitting in Europe Select gives you the benefit of the same wide range of drinks that you could get on the Fokker 50. Also due to the smaller size of the Europe Select cabin you’re served quicker, it means more time for beer on this relatively short flight.
Considering this flight was about an hour I was surprised to see that they attempted the tax free trolley service on this route. However, the person in row 1 decided to buy something so they had no time to serve anyone else.
Overall the service was very good, having excellent staff turns what is a very indifferent product that KLM offer into an enjoyable experience. Most airlines intra-Europe business class is nothing more than a premium economy these days. So far the only airline I’ve travelled in Europe that offered a decent business is Czech Airlines. If KLM could offer a service anywhere near that level I’d quite happily pay the extra for Europe Select.