Review of KLM flight from Manchester to Amsterdam in Business

This is the first leg of business trip from Manchester to Nanjing, China flying out with KLM and Sichuan Airlines and returning with China Southern and Air France. The flights are as follows:
outbound:
MAN-AMS KL1094
AMS-CTU KL891
CTU-NKG 3U8993
return:
NKG-CAN CZ3844
CAN-CDG AF107
CDG-MAN AF1668
For this flight I was picked up by taxi and driven to MAN from my home through the the beautiful Peak District. After being dropped at the rather chaotic drop off point directly outside Terminal 3 I proceeded to the Skypriority check-in desk. I was greeted warmly by the check-in staff and asked about the my connection in China. I would need to pass immigration at Chengdu, collect my baggage and re-check-in for my internal flight (rather like entry to the US but with a lot less queuing at the border!)

I proceeded down the fast-track security lane. The x-ray machine seemed to be sending so many trays to be checked that it was slowing the whole system down. One tray cam through and the other took a little while longer.
I then proceeded to the Escape lounge. It was rather full of people, but cleared a bit as I was leaving.

The food selection consisted of a greek salad,cous cous salad, some warm savoury pasties (sausage rolls etc), cheese and crackers and a couple of desserts.
I chose the salads and some cheese and crackers as well as a glass of wine from the bar.

I decided to try the desserts as well. A flapjack and a small slice of bakewell tart. The food was ok, but nothing to write home about, and I'm certain the homemade bakewell tart I made a couple of weeks early tasted better than this one!

It was soon time to head down to the gate.

Business class passengers were called first and skypriority passengers were to be called next, I went to queue where the skypriorty passengers seemed to have decided to board anyway.
Down the airbridge

I took my seat 1A. Plenty of legroom here

The usual magazines and safety card in the pocket

Being in seat 1A, I could see right back up the airbidge and watch everybody come down.

As well as a view of my neighbour - Flybe

After everybody boarded I was offered a newspaper but declined. The doors were shut and we were ready to go.

The captain told us we would have to wait a little longer for a slot into AMS but we were then soon on our way.

We got a nice view of the peak district from above.

The meal service began. I was offered a salad. It looked nice with pumpkin and I started to tuck in, then I noticed something else inside. I consulted the meal to discover it was beef - not so good for a vegetarian like me! This is one thing about the business class meal. There was no online choice for a vegetarian meal on this flight. Usually in economy the meal e.g. sandwich would be suitable for vegetairans (often a cheese sandwich with KLM if they are offering food.) I picked around the beef, the pumpkin bit was quite nice.

We were coming to land in AMS. Unfortunately, we had flown slowly for our slot and were running at least 30 mins late. We parked up and I was straight off to my connection.