I just arrived in Amsterdam on a flight from Budapest. I’m on my way home. It’s Thursday evening and the airport is full of activity.

Airside (KLM Crown Lounge)

As was to be expected, the KLM Crown Lounge is very crowded. This time, I do enter because I need to go to the washroom. I even find a place to sit behind a group of rowdy Norwegians. They boisterous and red faced, which has me assuming that they may have had more than just a tipple on the inbound to Amsterdam. They remind me a lot of the Danish cook from the Muppet Show.

Boarding

Boarding for the flight starts at 20h30 for our 20h55 departure from gate B 03, which is just about the worst place to have to board an aircraft from in Amsterdam. It’s overcrowded and there are people standing around everywhere for lack of adequate seating. Still, at least being a bus gate means another opportunity to shamelessly ogle my ride to Basel this evening.

The Cabin & Seat

There are two rows of Business Class this evening, for a total of eight seats. However, there are only three passengers booked in the forward cabin. As my luck would have it, I have all of the first row to myself. This is nice. The warm cabin is cozy, to the point that I’m starting to feel a bit drowsy.

The Service & Crew

There are three young ladies working in the cabin this evening, and they’re obviously in good spirits. From where I’m seated on 1F I can actually hear them huming along to Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas. Once boarding is finished, the purser passes through the cabin offering the omnipresent juice shots.

Our flight time is only 55 minutes, so the service starts shortly after take-off. The cabin crew offer me a Wandels box, but I tell them that I’ve already eaten on the previous flight, and that I’ll just be having a Coke Zero. I spend the rest of the flight fighting a loosing battle against sleep, as I try to read in my Kindle to stay awake. To no avail, I should say, because at some point, I startle awake when the pilot announces the top of descent. I hadn’t even noticed I’d nodded off…

Arrival in Basel

We touch down in Basel roughly ten minutes behind schedule. We taxi to our stand, which happens to be the same one from where I boarded my flight to Amsterdam a week ago.

Conclusion

This was another solid performance with KLM. The cabins and seats installed on the A 321 NEO and Embraer E2 fleets are attractive and comfortable. I especially like the adjustable headrest and the decent pitch on the first few rows of the forward cabin.

The renovations and upgrades at Amsterdam Schiphol have improved the whole passenger experience considerably in the main waiting area. Nonetheless, the fact remains that the piers, especially B, are too crowded, making it slow progress for passengers as they try to navigate through the airport.