Review of KLM flight from Amsterdam to Mexico City in Business

A short reminder of the routing:

crown lounge non schengen

Arrived at the B gate, you need to walk quite a lot to reach the passport control and then the Non Schengen gates:

I had a bit more than a two hours layover so no rush even if the passport control was overcrowded. I needed no less than 30' to clear it.

As I arrived at the lounge I was asked to use the check in kiosk. Not a problem for me, but I usually prefer to deal with humans.

I didn't stay downstairs and went straight up to the upper floor. The terrace I saw unfinished in February is now fully open and operational: 

A nice outside area. Mind, this terrace is fully non smoking.
Three 787 at the foreground: 

PH-BFY would be my today's plane:

Fact about this plane: in theory it is a 74M, Mixed cargo / passenger (also called 74E -Combi) as it has a rear cargo hold door after door pair 4 but in practice, here the aircraft is operated as full pax (C35, W36, Y337) when operated as a combi there are only 187 Y seats, W and J stays the same).

Back to the lounge with my favorite seat: 

I only stayed upstairs, as I kind of don't like the ground level.

I don't know why KL keeps in offering that low cost low quality cheese, given how good dutch cheese can be…

Salad bar:

Sweets and fruits:

As I was taking the pictures, one of the waiter approached me and asked if I would like him to rearrange the fruits and the vegetables assortment to make it look better. Wow, what a service :)

Looking down:

The a la carte restaurant had just opened:

But this isn't free, everything has to be paid, as in a regular restaurant. And the prices are quite steep. No, but no, thank you.

Time to work a bit by publishing a Flight-Report:

And it is already time to leave:

A quick visit to the towels, I liked the flowers:

the flight

Making my way to the Queen of the Skies, I spot this 777:

I found it ofd to have the 9W code share flight still mentioned as Jet Airways went bankrupt a while ago already.

What a nice bird!

As there are a lot of people, the priorities are a bit hard to be respected, but I managed to board among the first passengers.

Jet bridge control and door:

Something that never happened to me on a KLM 744 was the boarding via door 1. Usually boarding is done via door 2 and you have to cross the comfort section of the plane to reach business. Not today. 

Business Class:

Front view:

My seat, one of the best of the house :) 1A:

Another cabin view:

Side view:

Hello you:

As boarding continued I had a quick lav visit:

The galley complex is huge:

Door 1R:

The first row has no overhead bins, thus a very handy space in front:

The IFE size is ok but the definition is very, very poor.

View of the first window of the plane, you see the curvature of the plane:

Feet box:

Air vents, this is something I miss on newer planes :(

Seat controls:

Handset, super old:

The IFE has only around 50 seats, 10 new, 10 not so new, 10 collection and around 20 totally unknown. Very dated.
Safety card: 

Another cabin view:

Welcome drink:

One big problem of that seat, is the lack of storage space. There is basically … nothing.

Comfort kit:

Nothing new inside:

As we push back, I spot this QR 773:

Emirates A380-800:

UA 787-9:

The menu, sorry for some blurry pictures, we were taxiing and it wasn't a good time to take pictures :( Won't do that again … lol 

And the food:

Let's have a look:

I know the "Light meal" page is almost unreadable, the choices were pulled beef burger or 4 cheese pizza (absolutely not something I'd like to see in Business class, IMO) 

9 480 km to go:

 Polderbaan today:

Off we go:

Still climbing:

The service started 30' after take off and once again, it would be very, very slow. I had a nice chat about it with the purser, that agreed that their service takes too much time. They already cut off the second round of aperitive drinks and are still looking for better options. Work in progress here.

Service starts with a hot towel: 

I took a glass of the sweet wine (and will stick to it for the whole lunch) together with dutch cheese:

This is the starter:

Can you spot the difference between both pictures?

The sauce. I had a first bite of the starter and it was dry like hell. Almost uneatable. I called the stewardess to ask if she didn't missed the sauce to go with the dish, and she was so sorry as she, in fact, forgot it. With the sauce  it was a bit better, but still, stuffed cold pasta shells is not a premium starter. The starters have been the highlight of the KLM flights but this has gone downhill the last two years.

For the entreeI took the goat cheese and chicken raviolis. I was surprised to see chicken pieces next to the raviolis. As always on KLM the main was just ok. Nothing to write a home about.

Small dessert bites that were good, though, not memorable:

Together with a coffee and a chocolate piece.

After that I take a tour of this beautiful aircraft. View from door 2: 

Middle galley:

View from door 3:

Door 4:

And from the left side:

And from door 5:

The rear cabin:

The galley shows its age:

Upstairs to business class:

Comfort class:

Let's try to have a nap:

In the middle of the flight ice creams and snacks are handed out: 

Then hot chicken skewers are handed out: 

Not that much to see outside:

Some sweets are offered later. As much as I didn't like the main meal, I appreciated the three different services with ice, hot snack and sweet item. This was by far the highlights of the meals.

Still not that much to see out:

90 minutes before arrival the second service starts. It is a bit better than the usually 2H they need.
Hot towel to start with: 

I took the pulled beef burger by default.

Ermmm

It tasted as bad as it looked. What an awful idea to serve that. At least the chocolate dessert was good. But ways too rich.

The landing is getting closer:

After being offered the Delft houses, we pass by Mexico:

I wasn't aware that the airport was so close to downtown:

Almost landed:

MEX is super busy:

This is T1, the old building:

ATR72:

IB 346:

AF 388:

Interjet stored most of its SSJ, lots of spare part problems led to that.

An ex- TAM A330 is also parked here:

Another view:

We need to cross the second runway to get back to the terminal:

Boneyard:

LH 748 behind and happy to have it behind :)

Volaris 32N:

Viva A320:

Interjet A320 :

I left the plane pretty quickly, then had a long walk to immigration.

Lots of people at the immigration, it took me 30 minutes which was ok, but after us, the 748 LH passengers had to wait much more as other planes arrived in the meantime.

My bag was already on the caroussel, I just had to bring it back to the transit belt and then make my way outside. There is no airside connections available between T1/T2. Not that great.   

I had a hard time to find how to connect the T2 as the signage is super poor. In fact, you need to go upstairs to take the tram but first you need to find … where to go upstairs. 

Stay tuned for the next part that will explore this mystery :)