Review of KLM flight from Amsterdam to Lisbon in Economy

With the fall season, Europe was slowly struck by the covid second wave and travel began to be restricted again.

I had a few days of vacation left for October and badly needed to get away.
Only a few destinations were accessible without PCR test or quarantines: Portugal, Sweden and Poland.
Austria and Italia reinstated a test requirement a few weeks before.

We'd never been to Sweden or Portugal and although I usually prefer Nordic countries, some sun and warmth was tempting.
So off to Lisbon!

We booked only 2 weeks in advance, something unthinkable a year ago. But i did not want risking booking a trip just to see it cancelled afterwards. Already happened too often in 2020.

As we departed during school holidays and with Portugal being popular from France, direct flights from ORY on TP or CDG on AF were high priced, around 350€ one way.
KLM offered a 140€ one way ticket with only 1 hour connection in AMS, so that's what we chose.

After a nice short flight from CDG with a 70% load factor and a friendly crew, we landed in AMS where one of the last KL 744 was parked.
 
In fact this plane PH-BFV would make the final (cargo) KLM 747 flight from Shanghai only 2 days later

AMS was really empty, especially for a saturday.
There were only the passengers from our flight in the D pier.
I went to the Schiphol Plaza to see a shop, this is how quiet it was

Back to our gate with some seriously empty hallways

Some spotting, a DL A330 to Atlanta

KL 787-10 to Nairobi with the Fokker on the (closed due to covid) Panorama Terrace

KL A330 to Kigali

And finally our plane, a 737-800 PH-BCB, a new reg for me

Boarding started on time, and with my Flying Blue status we bypassed the long line.
Boarding agent was really friendly and managed to say a few words in French when seeing our IDs

Fuselage view

Usual KL cabin, flight was 60% full I guess, we had the middle seat free

Our neighbor a 737-900 PH-BXP, which I flew on twice already

We pushed back on time, flight time would be 2.5 hours.

This Garuda 77W in retro livery was being used as a governmental aircraft as per the titles

We took off from a nearby runway and the beautiful Dutch landscapes with canals were visible until we recahd the clouds

A snack was served. There was an announcement which said it would be a lunch, and that we should wait for the entire row to be served before removing our masks and starting to eat. Strange.

Anyhow, there was a tasty cheese sandwich, a muffin and a stroopwaffel. Water and a sanitizing gel were included. Hot and cold drinks were available and no second round for coffee/tea was done.

All in all it's a decent offering, especially compared to what other airlines are offering allegedly due to Covid.
KL kept the same service in Economy on European flights. It's also the only airline that still has an onboard magazine.
The should be praised for that.

Crew was very average by KLM standards, they just did the snack service and disappeared in the galley with the curtains closed.

The AMS-LIS usually flies right above Paris, but unfortunately no views, the skies remained cloudy all the way to Lisbon.

I took a nap for about an hour.

When I wope up, crew were handing out Health Forms to fill out for entry into Portugal.

I asked for a coffee, we were 45 minutes before landing, but the F/A replied "Sorry we just threw it away"…

We started our descent, the Tagus river

The Vasco de Gama bridge

As we approached Lisbon from the north, now view of Lisbon downtown before landing :-(

We landed to a very quiet Lisbon airport, we were the only plane moving. We were almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

TP A330neo

Within 5 min we stopped at the gate, as we were at the front of the plane, we almost didn't wait to get off thr plane.

The airport was quiet as well, only a few passengers, we were outside in no time and 30 minutes after landing our cab dropped us off at ou hotel near the Praça de Comércio.

Overall this flight felt really average due to the crew, which was really average by KLM's standards and compared to the one we had on the CDG-AMS leg.
Catering was decent and we landed ahead of schedule and we did get away for a few days.