Review: KLM Boeing 777-300ER Economy Comfort Accra to Amsterdam

South America/Africa/Europe Review Series:

• United Polaris 767-300 New Polaris Washington to Sao Paulo
• South African Airways A330-200 Business Class Sao Paulo to Johannesburg
• Kulula Boeing 737-800 Economy Class Johannesburg to Cape Town
• Air Namibia Airbus A319 Economy Class Cape Town to Windhoek via Walvis Bay
• South African Airways Airbus A320 Economy Class Windhoek to Johannesburg
• South African Airways Airbus A330-300 Business Class Johannesburg to Accra
• KLM Boeing 777-300ER Economy Comfort Accra to Amsterdam
• Aer Lingus Airbus A330-200 Business Class Dublin to Washington

The Flight At A Glance:

Aircraft:	Boeing 737-800
Origin:	Accra Kotoka International Airport
Destination:	Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
Flight Time:	6h 15m
Date:	July 5, 2019
Class of Service:	Economy Comfort
Airline:	KLM
Flight Score:	73/100
Flight Number:	KL590
Seat Number:	11K
Time of Departure:	10:00 PM GMT
Time of Arrival:	6:25 AM CEST
Departure Terminal:	Terminal 3

Pre-Flight:

Before I get into this review, I’m going to say that I will keep this review relatively short since I didn’t actually eat any meals on-board because I wanted to maximize the amount of sleep I got. However, I still thought that this review would be worth publishing because of Accra’s new airport terminal and because I still got to experience KLM’s Economy Comfort cabin. In case you were wondering, my parents and I booked this flight for 23,500 KLM miles per person which we transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards points and then bought Economy Comfort for a bit over $100 for the three of us.

We arrived at the airport at around 6:30 PM – about 3.5 hours before our scheduled departure time. Unlike most other flights, I actually wasn’t looking forward to this flight. I hate short red-eyes, especially in economy class. The first thing I noticed was how modern the airport was. The new Terminal 3, which is home to all international flights, was built about a year ago and still felt fresh and modern – much more so than some older US airports. Terminal 2, the old main terminal, is home to the very few domestic flights that there are at the airport.

However, it felt poorly designed, such as that the only way to get up from the parking lot and lower level to the departures terminal was via two tiny elevators on the sides of the terminal. The KLM counter was already open, and we checked our one bag there. We inquired about upgrades, but were told that the only way to upgrade our ticket was to go to the ticket counter. As the flight was one 6 hours long and upgrades were for over $500 per person when we checked online, we decided against it.

Later, we headed towards security and immigration, which was seamless, besides the fact that the computer of the immigration officer that handled us temporarily broke. I next took the opportunity to walk around the airport terminal. The terminal was very pleasant to be in and quite modern. However, it was lacking amenities such as restaurants and didn’t seem to have more than one, tiny lounge. The new Kotoka Airport has six jetway gates, which are used for most flights. However, there are a few remote gates which are used mainly by local airlines along with a couple of international airlines. Most of the long-haul traffic at Kotoka Airport is to Europe – along with KLM, British Airways, TAP Portugal, Air Italy, Air France, and Brussels Airlines all fly to Accra. Besides the flights to Europe, Delta flies to Accra from New York JFK a few days a week and South African Airways has a daily flight from Accra to Washington Dulles, originating in Johannesburg. After that, we found a quiet place to sit near our gate, C4 and wait for the next couple hours.

Unfortunately, as we had booked an award ticket and none of us holds any Skyteam status, we were stuck in group five, which unfortunately meant that I wouldn’t be getting any good pictures of the cabin as I usually try to be one of the first on the plane. Boarding started a bit late at about 9:30pm due to the late inbound flight, and I was on the plane by 9:50pm. Unlike some of the other flights that I have taken, my primary goal on this flight was sleep, so my (relatively successful) plan was to sleep from takeoff to landing, so I wasn’t able to test out the meal service.

The Flight:

I was greeted at the door by the friendly (Dutch) flight attendants, which was probably my only interaction with the crew on this flight. I then made my way past the one row of business class (which used Rockwell Collins Diamond seats) behind door L2 and into the four–row section of Economy Comfort. I have to say, KLM really packs a ton of economy class seats into their 777-300ERS – to be specific 334 of them along with 40 Economy Comfort seats and only 34 business class seats. For reference, United puts nearly double the amount of business class seats on their 777-300ERs along with premium economy. I then made my way to my seat 11K.

On KLM, Economy Comfort is pretty much the equivalent of Economy Plus on United. There are really only two differences between regular Economy Class and Economy Comfort: The amount of legroom – it had 34 inches of pitch instead of 31 – and the seat recline. I actually don’t think that I’ve ever seen a standard economy class seat with that much recline – it must have gone back 7 or 8 inches (I don’t really have a sense of how much – I’m just guessing). Unfortunately, economy class and Economy Comfort on KLM’s 777s is in a 3-4-3 configuration which is the norm now on 777s. I really wish that airlines would at least make their extra-legroom economy class sections be in a 3-3-3 configuration (like most airlines used to have in all economy class sections) and not in a 3-4-3 configuration as the seats were really tight – only 17.5 or less inches wide!

The seats also had a headrest, which could move up and down and greatly improved the quality of sleep. Additionally, each seat had a power outlet and USB port. The seat also had a tray table which flipped out of the seat in front of you and then could fold out to double in size. The legroom was great even for relatively tall people like me who are in the six-foot range. Unfortunately, there were no overhead nozzles, which is pretty rare in economy class, although the cabin was kept at a reasonable temperature throughout the flight. Each seat also had a pillow and a blanket, which were both pretty standard for economy class.

KLM has a pretty good in-flight entertainment selection, which included many different movies, TV shows, and games. I ended up re-watching Rango during boarding and just barely finished it before landing. The entertainment screen is fairly standard and can be found on many other airlines, including United and Delta – it was extremely responsive. The aircraft was also equipped with WiFi, although I didn’t purchase it on this short red-eye. The crew passed out earbuds shortly after takeoff, although I just used my own.

We pushed back at about 10:20 and started taxiing towards runway 21 and turned around at the runway. The captain then came on the PA and announced that we would have a flight time of a bit less than 6 hours. We took off at about 10:30 and started making our way over the Sahara and Mediterranean towards Amsterdam.

After that, I watched the movie for about 15 minutes and then decided to go to sleep. I usually don’t sleep very well in economy class on airplanes, so I wasn’t counting on more than a couple hours of sleep on this flight. However, I ended up sleeping 4 hours on the flight, which I thought was quite good for a six-hour red-eye in economy class, especially for someone who struggles sleeping. I guess my body must have decided that economy class is so uncomfortable that my body decided that it’s better to pass the time unconscious rather than being conscious 😀. I ended up waking up about 1 hour before landing at which point I waited for the breakfast service to occur. It turns out that they served breakfast 1.5 hours before landing and that I had slept through it, which I was a bit disappointed about. I then took a walk around the cabin and visited the lavatory, which was pretty clean but basic.

The captain then announced that we would be landing in about 20 minutes at 6:40 AM. I always love the approach into Schiphol where you fly in over the North Sea and the beautiful Dutch landscape. We ended up landing promptly at 6:40 as expected, although as luck would have it, we landed on the Polderbaan – A.K.A runway Runway 18R.

For those of you who don’t know, the Polderbaan is Amsterdam Schiphol’s far out and most used runway. It is located a couple miles away from the actual airport and requires a 15-20 minute taxi from the airport terminal. When you land at the Polderbaan, it basically feels that you are landing in a Dutch field as it is so far away from the actual airport terminal. It even has its own control tower and the taxi to it goes over a canal (only in the Netherlands does an airport taxi way cross a canal)! The taxi to the actual terminal took about 15 minutes, which was on the short side as we were able to taxi across Runway 18C instead of around it, like planes have to do a lot of the time.

Conclusion

Overall, the main purpose of this flight was to sleep, and I did sleep better than I had expected. The cabin was modern, the IFE was good, and the seats did recline more than I had expected, although the seats were extremely narrow. Accra Airport did exceed my expectations and was better than many airports in the developed world. Again, I’m sorry that I didn’t get to try any of the food, although getting an extra hour or two of sleep was more important than getting to try out mediocre economy class food. The flight was delayed 30 minutes, although that didn’t really bother me as I wasn’t in any rush to get anywhere in Amsterdam. I don’t really have any complaints about this flight and would say that KLM has a solid economy class product.