The Best Inflight Service: KLM 787-10 World Business Class ORD-AMS

We finally flew KLM 787-10 World Business Class and had a wonderful time inflight. The service in particular was the best we’ve had in a long time.

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Booking KLM business class

As a benefit for earning Delta Diamond status, I was able to select three extra benefits as a thank you for reaching that threshold. Arguably the most valuable benefit is selecting the four Delta Global Upgrade Certificates (GUCs). For more information on using these GUCs, see our dedicated post on the true value of the benefit when using them on KLM.

Thanks to these GUCs, we booked the cheapest economy fare out of Chicago directly on KLM’s website and then I immediately called up Delta to use my GUCs to upgrade us to business class. It took some time for the agent to process the request, but after about half an hour on the call, it worked. We paid a total of $3,072 for the family of four ($768/person) to fly in business. Cash fares can’t get much better than that unless you happen upon a mistake fare.

On top of that, since we booked directly with KLM, we earned miles and MQD consistent with booking business class. That means 8,240 Delta miles before elite bonuses (a Diamond member would earn 13,184 miles all-in) and $1,236 MQDs. It’s a great way to earn some extra MQDs without actually laying out the cash.

Shortly after calling up Delta, I was able to select my seat on KLM’s website. With the business class cabin in a 1-2-1 layout, we chose a cluster of four seats in the middle.

Earning Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles

If you’re looking for credit cards, here are a few options to consider. The following links include a referral that may earn me a commission.

The revamped Chase Sapphire Reserve card offers a large 125,000-point bonus for spending $6,000 in the first three months. This one has a large annual fee ($795) but comes with credits that may help you offset the cost.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers 75,000 points for spending $5,000 in the first three months. Why get this one instead of the Reserve? The significantly lower annual fee for the Preferred ($95).

First impressions of KLM business class

We arrived at Chicago O’Hare airport (ORD) roughly with a bit over two hours to go before our flight departed. While the checked bag line was a bit lengthy, there wasn’t much of a wait in the Sky Priority lane. Note that both Air France and KLM share the same check-in counter at ORD.

After checking in, the agent invited us to visit the Air France Lounge ORD, where we spent our time until it was time to board. Of course, since that lounge didn’t make announcements, we missed the true start of the boarding process and found a lot of people already ahead of us in line.

Onboard the KLM 787-10 Dreamliner

We boarded KLM Flight 612 to find a business class cabin that had already mostly boarded. So much for trying to take a picture of a fairly empty cabin! While it sounds great to ask for special permission to board before everyone else, when I fly with the family, I try not to force them to accommodate me for blogging purposes.

The cabin is set up in a reverse herringbone arrangement, which is pretty typical for business class these days.

As we were getting settled in, a flight attendant asked if we wanted a pre-departure beverage. Choices included a blue-colored mocktail, orange juice, water, and champagne.

Jenn and I both chose the champagne while the kids opted for orange juice.

The kids have gotten more comfortable sitting together, which meant Jenn and I got some time hanging out during this flight. A rarity that I hope becomes more common.

The KLM 787-10 World Business Class seat

The KLM 787-10 World Business Class seat is a fully lie-flat seat that had our bedding already on it when we arrived. Let’s go through the features of the seat.

First up is the bedding, which consists of both a pillow and a blanket. There is no mattress topper, but that didn’t cause a problem for us. The pillow could have been thicker, but I just folded it in half and that mostly worked for what I needed it to do. I thought the blanket was plenty thick, especially since the cabin was kept decently warm.

Next to the seat are the controls and a storage compartment that stores your headphones and bottled water.

In front of the seat is the entertainment unit (more on that later). Jenn’s seat wasn’t functioning properly. We told the flight attendant, but there wasn’t a solution. Hers ended up being quiet the whole time. The same problem hit Char’s unit one seat in front of hers. I just let Jenn use my monitor and headset while I blogged.

The seat controls are also available on the arm rest right next to the seat. Convenient, but also easy to accidentally press them.

The power outlet is underneath the armrest, but it’s not powerful enough to charge a laptop.

Also, one nice thing is the air vents right above you in case it gets too hot. Just having it available as an option is a help.

The headphones KLM provides are branded and generally work well, but obviously it doesn’t help when the system doesn’t work.

While we tried to use our own headphones, the single plug option didn’t work and it needs to connect with these KLM headphones. Oh well.

Amenities in KLM business class

Also at everyone’s seat in the business class cabin is an amenity kit. In a way, I kind of like that it’s not a hard-shell case. We’ve collected quite a few of them over the years and it’s easier to store things that don’t take up much volume.

Inside the amenity kit is the standard assortment of goods: eyeshades, toothbrush and toothpaste, moisturizer, socks, earplugs, and a pen. The one thing I’ll point out that’s unique is the toothpaste–it’s a tablet you chew that foams up in your mouth. It’s our first time using it and while Jenn didn’t care for it, I thought it was fine. I kind of like knowing exactly how many uses I have left before I need to restock on toothpaste. But I’m weird like that.

When the kids boarded, they also received an amenity kit. This is the same kit all kids receive regardless of cabin. Inside you’ll find coloring pages and crayons, a luggage tag, eyeshades, and a tic-tac-toe game.

The food in KLM 787-10 World Business Class

One disclosure before I proceed: while I originally booked the flight on the KLM website as two adults and two kids, when Delta upgraded us to business class, they changed it to be four adults. I tried to book children’s meals for the journey, but the KLM system wouldn’t let me do it online. That led me to calling, and while KLM agents could see that the passengers are children, I couldn’t book a kids meal. Whoops!

The menu

At our seats when we arrived are the menus. We placed our order as soon as we were airborne. There are actually two menus: one for the food and some alcoholic beverages, and another listing the wines.

Drink service

Once in the air, we received our first drink service for the flight. Our flight departed on time at 4:35PM, but the hot towel didn’t arrive until 40 minutes after departure.

Within 10 minutes of the hot towel, we got our first drinks via beverage cart. The narrow beverage cart they use in business looks rather cute.

I started with The Very High Fashioned, a play on an old fashioned. Not as strong as I’m used to but still tasty. The flight attendants also handed out a bag of nuts at the same time. It just doesn’t seem as fancy when it’s wrapped in plastic.

Dinner

Our first course was served at 5:45PM, a full 70 minutes after departure. I had the choice between the stacked lobster salad or the creamy cauliflower soup. Naturally, we chose a few of each in our party. The lobster is pretty yummy. While I’ve had some digestion issues eating avocado, it’s overall a pretty good starter. The salad that comes on the side is refreshing and tastes like a pear and walnut salad.

The creamy cauliflower curry soup is the more approachable option for kids. There is a curry flavor to it, which Alex approved of given his fondness for curry. This is also the better dish if you’re looking to dip your bread in something other than butter.

Meat lovers will dig the “tasting of delicacies”, which includes some short rib, baked potatoes, cinnamon apples, and carrots. I mean, how can you go wrong with

Both Alex and Char loved the grilled chicken dish. One of their favorite staples is chicken and rice, which makes this dish right up their alley. The sauce that covers the chicken tastes like a mushroom-based sauce, but they honestly didn’t even realize it. Perhaps I need to learn their secrets to replicate at home. Naturally, the kids couldn’t wait to eat the bread and had to do it before I took a picture.

Desserts

At 6:35PM, two hours after departure, we received our dessert course. There are two dessert options on our flight: a cheese plate and some raspberry cheesecake. I opted for the cheese, which was on the smaller side. There were only two types of cheese–one that tasted like parmesan and a bleu cheese. It came with an apricot relish that added some sweetness. Overall not bad, but it could have used a third cheese.

Since the dish lacked sweetness aside from the apricot, I ordered a port to go with it, which was a nice pairing.

The raspberry cheesecake came in a green tea sauce. This was on the sweeter side, but not overwhelmingly so. The fruit adds some natural sweetness and the white chocolate in the cheesecake supplements it. Soft and delicious, it’s a good amount of sweetness to end the service.

The flight attendants cleaned up dinner service by 7PM, nearly 2.5 hours after departure. It’s at this time that the flight attendants dimmed the lights in the cabin. We’ll talk more about the timing in a bit.

The flight attendants also handed out a piece of chocolate. If for some reason you miss it, like I did, you can always grab one mid-flight.

The box is labeled “105” in commemoration of KLM’s 105-year existence. Options include a white chocolate, a milk chocolate, and a dark chocolate house.

Second meal service (breakfast)

With about 105 minutes to go, the lights came back on in the cabin and we received the breakfast service. Everything is served on one tray, making it a quicker service. The breakfast includes:

Oatmeal with fresh berries
Smoked salmon, cheese, turkey, and a hard-boiled egg
Crepes with a pineapple compote in a raspberry coulis

In total, this was a refreshing breakfast that wasn’t overly filling and hit the spot. This service ended about an hour before landing.

Wi-Fi and Entertainment

There are two types of Wi-Fi connections onboard this flight. Everyone can access the free messaging, which is a nice feature to have on flights. Sometimes you just want to stay connected and it makes for an easier time coordinating your ride pickups.

The other option is to pay for full Wi-Fi access. There are two options:

One hour for €12 or 2,400 miles
Full flight for €29 or 5,800 miles

Please don’t use your miles at such a low value redemption. There are far better uses for your Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles.

As I mentioned earlier, we had some audio issues at our seats. Had we used the entertainment system as intended, we would have found a decent assortment of movies. But it would have been nice if there were a live camera on the outside of the aircraft–that’s always fun to watch.

Where the entertainment system needed some more assistance was with the TV shows. There were only a couple of episodes per series, which made it hard to binge on the flight.

There is a decent assortment of programming for kids, thankfully. But on a redeye flight to Europe, they’re probably not watching much.

Service

Hands down, this was perhaps the best crew we’ve had flying a European airline in a decade. The flight attendants always had a huge smile on their faces and went out of their way to interact with our children. As I’ve stated in the past, the best way for us adults to enjoy the flight is to make sure the kids are taken care of, and the flight attendants did their best to make sure they had an enjoyable journey.

The flight attendants asked if we’re local to Amsterdam and we got into lengthy conversations about life in general. When the crew makes an effort to connect with you on a personal level and treat you more than just a person sitting in a seat, you know you’re communicating with an excellent crew.

And, yes, while it’s good standard of practice to ask on any flight, with KLM specifically, you’ll want to make sure they’re comfortable with you taking photographs during flight. I would have loved to have taken a photo with this crew, but the flight attendant working my aisle asked me not to take a photo of her but that anything else was fair game.

KLM Delft Houses

We’ve chatted separately about these houses, but it’s worth repeating here too. Towards the end of the flight, the flight attendants handed out their cute Delft Houses. With us taking up four seats in business, we got our choice of four houses to take home. These houses are filled with alcohol, so don’t let your kids break the wax seal. But it’s much more of a collectable to leave the seal in place.

On our flight, the flight attendants went down the port aisle first and then came back up on the starboard side. Thus, sitting towards the front on the port side meant you got first pick. It’s unclear if that’s the standard or if it varies.

Pro tip: use your amenity kit to package these better so they don’t break when you get off the plane. Wrap them in the socks you get from the kit and then place the house in your kit. That should help shield it from damage.

If you happen to use the restroom midflight, you’ll see the same house design on the wall above the toilet. This is perhaps the only time I’ll point out that anything in the vicinity of a toilet is cute.

Timing of flight

This flight is blocked at 7.5 hours of travel time and is considered a redeye. You leave in the mid-afternoon and arrive early in the morning in Amsterdam. While that’s great for connections, it leaves a little to be desired if you’re trying to get a full night’s sleep.

In particular, with the business class service taking up 2.5 hours at the start and the arrival meal starting almost 2 hours before arrival, that leaves you with only 3 hours of darkness on the plane to get sleep. Ouch.

It’s be great if they figured out a way to expedite the initial meal service on the flight and cut out an hour. Then, start the arrival service 15-30 minutes later as not that much time is needed. While it might not sound like much, expanding the darkness from 3 hours to 4.5 hours would materially improve the inflight experience. Meal service doesn’t need to be as slow as it is.

This is probably the worst aspect about the flight. Given the short time with a dark cabin, we all had issues getting enough sleep (or any sleep in the case of three of us). That made for a rather painful day the next day and it took us extra time getting used to the time change in Europe.

Arrival to AMS

We arrived into Amsterdam Schiphol airport slightly delayed, but not so much that we qualified for any sort of EU 261 credit. That’s fine by us since we had a driver waiting for us on arrival thanks to our Citi Strata Elite Blacklane credit.

The wonderful flight attendants wished us well on our journey and we quickly made it through passport control. It’s easy when you’re at the front of the cabin and don’t need to wait behind all the other passengers on the plane. It’s perhaps one of the underrated features of being in business class (or the front of the cabin for that matter). People talk about lie-flat seats and better service but sometimes what matters is not waiting for a long time on arrival.

Recommendation: Yes, but consider skipping the meal

We loved our flight in KLM 787-10 World Business Class. It was our first time on any KLM flight and frankly it exceeded our expectations. The food was great and the service was even better. The only criticism we had was that the slow service meant we couldn’t get enough sleep on the flight. Our only recommendation we can give to help resolve this issue is to eat in the lounge before your flight and then skip the meal on the plane.

That feels bad because the food is genuinely good, but you’re going to need to make a choice. Do you want enough sleep to survive at your destination or do you want to eat a good meal? There’s no single answer that will work for everyone, and hopefully they figure out a better timing for their service to make it so you don’t need to choose. But as it stands, you’re going to need to make a decision because you can’t do both.

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