For the second leg of our trip to Dubai, we flew KLM World Business Class from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) To Dubai International Airport (DXB) on the Boeing 777-200. While I’d flown KLM Business Class many times prior, this would be my first flight on one of the carrier’s Boeing 777s.
Booking Our KLM Boeing 777-200 Business Class Flight
We were departing the United States with Kazakhstan as our final destination. We wanted a stopover somewhere along the way and the two airports that offered the best onward options were Dubai and Istanbul. Therefore, I focused my search on those two destinations.
I ended up finding award availability through Flying Blue between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Dubai International Airport (DXB) via Amsterdam. I used 86,500 Flying Blue miles per person, transferred from American Express Membership Rewards, plus $355 in taxes and fees. After booking our award tickets online, I called KLM to add ATX Jr. as a lap infant. I paid roughly $100 to add him to our reservation.
KLM operates a single daily flight between Amsterdam and Dubai. When we booked our flights, this leg was scheduled to be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, but it was swapped to a 777-200 prior to departure.
Lounge
After arriving in Amsterdam on our KLM Boeing 787-10 Business Class flight from New York, we had a roughly four hour layover in Amsterdam before our onward flight to Dubai. KLM Business Class passengers have access to two lounges in Amsterdam. Schengen zone passengers have access to the Crown Lounge 25 while non-Schengen passengers have access Crown Lounge 52.
Since we were arriving from a non-Schengen country and departing to a non-Schengen country, there was no need for passport control so we headed directly to the Crown Lounge 52. That lounge is KLM’s flagship long-haul Business Class lounge.
The lounge is located near the entrance to the pier for the F Gates, there are plenty of signs throughout the airport to help you locate the lounge. The lounge spans two floors above the concourse and has two bars, a large buffet space, outdoor terrace, showers, and a sit down restaurant. My full review from the lounge can be found here.
Boarding Our KLM Boeing 777-200 Business Class Flight
After a relaxing few hours in the lounge, we made the ten minute walk over to our departure gate. Our flight to Dubai was departing from Gate F8, we arrived a few minutes before boarding and I got a great shot of PH-BQG, a roughly 21 year old Boeing 777-200 nicknamed Galapagos Islands, which was waiting to take us over to DXB.
Our flight was scheduled to depart at 2:20p but we didn’t begin boarding until 2:00p. Since we were traveling with an infant, we were invited to board first, followed by the rest of Business Class.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
KL 427
AMS-DXB (Amsterdam Schiphol – Dubai International)
Seat: 8G (Business)
B777-200 (PH-BQG)
Scheduled: 2:20p-12:01a (+1)
Actual: 2:58p-12:15a (+1)
Dual jet-bridge boarding was in effect with the first for Business Class and the second for Premium Economy and Economy passengers.
We boarded through door 1L before turning left into the forward Business Class cabin. The crew greeted us and stored ATX Jr’s stroller in one of the onboard lockers.
KLM Boeing 777-200 Business Class Seat
KLM’s Boeing 777s are outfitted with 35 Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 layout. The forward Business Class cabin features 27 seats spread across 7 rows, occupying the space between doors 1L and 2L. A smaller, eight seat mini-cabin is situated between door 2L and the Premium Economy cabin.
It’s worth noting that this is a relatively new Business Class seat and layout for the airline’s 777 fleet. Prior to the retrofits, KLM’s 777s featured a 2-2-2 configuration in Business Class.
I initially assigned us Seats 1D and 1G, the center pair in the first row of the main Business Class cabin. We had some issues checking in for this leg of our trip in New York and, after checking in at the KLM Lounge, we were informed that we had been relocated to 8D and 8G, the center pair in the bulkhead row of the mini-cabin. We were told that this was due to an inoperable recline in Seat 1G.
While the mini-cabin is a much more intimate experience in-flight, you do have a steady stream of Economy passengers walking by during boarding.
A blanket, pillow, amenity kit, and a bottle of water were waiting at the seat upon boarding.
In the seat, there was plenty of legroom and the footwell had plenty of space for my feet.
The IFE screen is mounted above the footwall with a storage cubby underneath. USB-A, USB-C, and 110V power outlets are located to the left of the cubby.
The seat controls are located to the left of the seat, along the side of the center console. The controls are easy to use though they are more like touch screens rather than buttons so they were easy to bump during the flight which would move the seat.
Also in the center console is a storage cabinet, reading light, and a handheld IFE controller. The best part is the wireless device charger which I used throughout the duration of the flight. This is an extremely convenient way to keep phones charges without having to deal with a mess of cords.
Inside the storage cabinet is a mirror and the headphones for the flight were also hanging here (baby bottle not included). A reading light is mounted on the outside of the storage space just above the IFE controller and the headphone outlets.
Just like our 787-10 flight from New York, the tray table is located underneath the center console and pulls out at a 90 degree angle.
The tray table can be folded over in half, though it isn’t level and isn’t very user friendly.
Fully extended, the tray table has plenty of space for a laptop and a snack/beverage. It can slide forward and back in order to adjust it to your needs.
Between the seat and the center console are two literature pockets. One was empty and large enough to hold my Surface Pro tablet while the other held the safety card and in-flight magazine. It seems that the cleaning crew didn’t get down between the seat and wall as there was some sort of dried liquid all over the side.
Finally, the biggest change to the Business Class seat on the 777-200 is the addition of a door. It doesn’t form a full suite like you’ll find on British Airways Club Suites and Qatar Airways QSuites but it still provides more privacy than the carrier’s 787 Business Class.
Overall, this is the same seat you’ll find across most of the KLM long-haul Business Class fleet (the A330 still has 2-2-2 seating in Business Class) but, the door and wireless charging make this a much more well-rounded product.
KLM Business Class Menu & Amenity Kit
The amenity kit for this flight was waiting at our seat upon boarding. The amenity kit is a partnership between KLM and Envisions and is actually a reusable bag that is held together with a small strap. Personally, I’m not a fan of this design as I have plenty of reusable bags at home and prefer the pouch style kits when traveling.
The amenity kit has a toothbrush, toothpaste tabs(?), socks, eye mask, earplugs, lip balm, face cream, and a pen. The toiletries are Marie-Stella-Maris branded, matching what you’ll find in the lavatories onboard.
During boarding, the menu and wine list for our flight was distributed.
Since this flight departs Amsterdam in the afternoon and arrives in Dubai early the next morning, the primary meal is served after take-off, with a smaller service before arrival.
The beverage offerings in KLM Business Class don’t change often, though the selection is good.
A separate wine list was also distributed with five bottles on offer, along with a rotating “KLM Wine Panel” option.
Departure
During boarding, the crew came through the Business Class cabin offering pre-departure beverages. Water, champagne, and Heineken beer were offered. Mrs. ATX and I both chose the champagne. ATX Jr. was already asleep on Mrs. ATX’s lap at this point at the crew quickly brought her the infant seat belt to get him buckled in for takeoff.
We pushed off of the gate roughly forty minutes after our scheduled departure time and, at this point, the safety demonstration was shown. While I don’t pay a ton of attention to the different styles of safety videos, I really like KLM’s Delft themed one.
Since we were seated in the middle seats with no windows, I can’t tell you exactly what runway or direction we departed from but we were airborne roughly 15 minutes after pushing back from the gate.
The jet lag hit me as we were climbing out of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and I nodded off shortly after departure.
KLM Business Class Meal
Forty minutes after departure, with roughly five and a half hours remaining in the flight, I awoke to a small bowl of cheese waiting for me as a snack. This is the first time I’ve seen cheese offered instead of nuts as a pre-meal snack on KLM and it was very good.
Noticing I was awake, a member of the crew came over and took my meal order. I opted for the fried redfish with langoustine sauce. I paired this with a second glass of champagne.
The appetizers were served 15 minutes later and unfortunately they weren’t very good. I only ate the pasta dish which was mediocre at best. A selection of bread was also offered from the breadbasket.
Twenty five minutes later, the main course was delivered. I’ve flown on a ton of flights over the years and this may be the worst looking dish I’ve ever seen from a presentation perspective. Instead of looking like a fish dish, it looked more like someone left the Thanksgiving sweet potato casserole out for too long.
Even with the horrible presentation, I was surprised to find that the dish was actually quite good.
For dessert, I had the cheese plate which consisted of three types of cheese; blue, Beemster Royal, and spicy goat, along with some grapes and crackers. I paired this with a cup of coffee.
An hour after the meal service began, dessert was cleared with four hours and thirty minutes remaining in the flight. At this point I was offered one of KLM’s chocolate houses with a choice between dark, milk, or white chocolate.
In-Flight
After the meal, I headed to check out the lavatory. KLM has two lavatories in Business Class, one at the front of the aircraft and a second between the main cabin and the mini-cabin near door 2L. The mid-cabin lavatory was on the small side for a wide body jet, and while I had plenty of room, it was tough in here with ATX Jr.
Marie-Stella-Maris branded hand lotion, face mist, and hand gel were available in the lavatory.
KLM branding is evident throughout with the wallpaper featuring the carrier’s signature Delft houses. The traditional tulip on this flight was replaced by another orange flower.
Back at my seat, I connected to KLM’s in-flight Wi-Fi, and worked for most of the flight while watching the airshow as we made our way to Dubai.
At one point during the flight I moved over to the open window seat 8K to not bother Mrs. ATX and ATX Jr. who were both sleeping. We were flying into darkness but I managed to catch a quick sunset out of the window.
Once ATX Jr. woke up, he joined me at the seat and the crew took turns playing with him. They were amazing with him throughout the entire flight and we even ran into some of them two days later in Dubai where they remembered him by name!
With just under two hours before arrival, the second meal service was served. Hot towels were distributed and orders taken, with a choice between a sandwich, pastry, and ice cream.
I ordered the club sandwich but they were out of that by the time they reached our row. Instead I went with my second choice, the vegetarian croquette with mustard. It was ok, but not great.
No beverages were offered with the snack service. Instead, we were served a choice of drinks from the cart 25 minutes after the snack arrived. I ordered a sparkling water.
The pre-arrival snack was cleared with roughly an hour remaining in flight. At this point, the crew came around with KLM’s signature Dutch houses filled with Bols Genever, a gift for Business Class passengers. Mrs. ATX and I have amassed quite a collection of these over the years and KLM even has an app that allows you to track the number of houses you have. Each one is numbered with a new house released every year. There are currently 105 different houses available.
Fifteen minutes later the Captain informed us that we would be starting our descent into Dubai and asked that the crew prepare the cabin for arrival.
Arrival
We touched down in Dubai around midnight local time and had a 15 minute taxi to our arrival gate. We made up some time in the air and pulled into the gate fifteen minutes behind schedule next to an Air China A350.
KLM uses Terminal 1 at Dubai International Airport which meant a long walk, and train ride to passport control.
Fortunately, passport control was quick and we were at baggage claim 20 minutes after arrival. After picking up our bags, we met our Blacklane driver and headed into the city.
Summary
This flight left me with mixed opinions. The seat was the best of the variants KLM offers on its long-haul aircraft, combining the best of the 787-9 and 787-10 seats along with a door for extra privacy. The food on this flight was a major miss and, while the service flow was somewhat choppy, the crew was extremely friendly and did a fantastic job with ATX Jr.
We have flown with KLM many times over the past few years and will continue to do so based on our experience during this trip.
