KLM Premium Economy Review – worth the wait? - The Frequent Business Traveler

Recently I visited the Bay Area and Las Vegas. In this review I’ll discuss my experience with KLM’s Premium Economy cabin. In this review, I’ll introduce the ‘Frequent Business Traveler Score‘. At the end of the review, I’ll score the KLM Premium Economy product against 7 separate categories:

1. Value

2. Seat – comfort, privacy

3. Meals

4. Entertainment – screen, library

5. Priority Benefits

6. Service

7. Amenity Kit

FBT Score Categories

Each category is scored on a scale of 1 through 10. So the maximum FBT Score is 70. Using this unique score will help us to rank KLM against its competitors. And, it will help you to decide whether it’s worth flying KLM Premium Economy!

I flew the 787-10 from Amsterdam to San Francisco and the 787-9 from Las Vegas to Amsterdam, both in Premium Economy. Premium Economy in both the 787-9 as well as the 787-10 is exactly the same except for the number of rows. The 787-9 has 3 rows of Premium Economy and the 787-10 has 4 rows. The layout is 2-3-2 which is substantially better than the 3-3-3 layout in regular economy.

At the moment KLM is retrofitting their 777 planes with premium economy. This should be completed by end of 2024. The layout in the 777, is 2-4-2.

One note; KLM is also offering Economy Comfort. Economy Comfort is a completely different product and is merely a regular economy class seat with a bit more recline and legroom. To add to the confusion, KLM calls their premium economy product, ‘Premium Comfort’. In this review, I’ll just call it Premium Economy…

KLM’s long journey to Premium Economy

KLM was very late offering Premium Economy. During the last 10 years, I started to regularly fly Air France, Delta, Lufthansa, and United instead, simply because all these airlines already offered Premium Economy. This used to be especially attractive with Air France up to a few years ago where you could easily upgrade from Premium Economy to Business Class in exchange for a relatively small number of miles. When Air France was still flying with the A380, I often upgraded myself to Business Class from San Francisco to Paris using 25K Flying Blue miles. This was a great deal since that was the same number of miles I collected for the whole trip. Unfortunately, these days are long gone; the number of miles you now require for an upgrade increased dramatically, while the number of miles you receive for your trip decreased – also dramatically!

This very affordable upgrade option from Premium Economy to Business Class was the only reason for flying premium economy with Air France since their Premium Economy Class seats aren’t that good. These seats are known as fixed shell seats and are not comfortable at all. By now it’s a very outdated product (it was launched back in 2009), but you still see them in most Air France cabins.

The KLM Premium Economy Product

I guess being so late to the Premium Economy game, KLM did have the chance to compare the various products and pick the best product on the market. So, did they? KLM did finally pick the MiQ seats from Collins Aerospace, the same kind of seats you’ll find with Cathay Pacific and Air China, and they are certainly one of the best out there. They are very comfortable, are a big step up from the regular economy class seats and can compete with any hard product on the market today.

Premium Economy with KLM comes with some other valuable perks; Sky Priority check-in as well as Sky Priority Boarding which translates to group 2, group 1 being Business Class.

The inflight entertainment HD screens have a decent size (13.3 inch) and there is a good selection of movies. If there is one downside, it’s the amenity kit: it’s not worth taking it, not the content nor the little recycled bag itself. Besides the amenity kit you can ignore, there is also a very comfortable, thick blanket provided which seems to be the same one as the one in Business Class.

Service is in my opinion the area where KLM distinguishes itself from the competition. Also, on both of my flights the service was outstanding. A very friendly crew who welcomes you on board and provides good and friendly service during the flight.

Meals

KLM does provide a main meal after take-off and a light meal before landing. In between, there is a light snack and for flights leaving Amsterdam, there is the option of the ‘broodje kroket’ which is a Dutch croquette sandwich. This snack made it over from Business Class and I’m very happy to see it’s now being served in Premium Economy. There is one change though: it’s now a Vega croquette! Maybe to attract a bigger audience? Tastes the same than the good old meat croquette but it has less ‘bite’!

Normally the meals with KLM are above average but on my way to SFO I didn’t pick the right one. There is a choice of 3 main courses, one being the vegetarian option. I choose the Pepper Stew with Stroganoff sauce, but this wasn’t the best choice. The dish didn’t look very attractive and didn’t taste that good (a 5 out of 10). A miss. Luckily, on the way back, the main course I picked was a lot better. I picked the lobster salad and that one was excellent (8 out of 10).

Conclusion

KLM took its time to introduce the Premium Economy cabin, but they now have a product which can compete with the best Premium Cabins out there. The hard product is excellent, the Sky Priority perks are a good addition, and the service is outstanding. There is room for improvement though with regards to the meals and the amenity kit.