Review Kenya Airways Business Class Amsterdam to Nairobi
Flight Time: 7 hours 55 minutes
Business Class
General Impression: 
Before the Flight :
Check-in Process: 
Security Control :
Lounge:
Information:
Boarding @ Gate:
Staff @ these points:
Boarding in Cabin:
Welcome Drinks:
Punctuality: , on time
, on time
During the Flight :
Food presentation:
Food quality:
Drinks:
Service Procedure:
Amenity Kit:
Entertainment System:
Seat Quality:
Legroom:
Lavatories:
Cleanliness:
General Atmosphere:
Announcement Pilots:
Announcement Cabin:
Cabin Crew:
After the Flight :
De-Boarding:
Baggage Delivery: In Transit
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= bad, a lot of work needs to be done
= poor, you will be busy with corrections
= good & normal, nothing special
= high level, but the icing on the cake is missing
= topnotch, leave me here!
= Half a Point/sheep
—-
On the Ground:
We arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport well in advance of our flight.
As Kenya Airways is part of the Skyteam Alliance, we were able to use the Sky Priority Check-in area which is huge as the homecarrier KLM is also in Skyteam. There was a no queue at all at
the business check-in area and many counters were open.
The agent was friendly and super efficient. Check in was done in a breeze and no time.
There was only a very short queue at the Security Checkpoint with almost no waiting time.
Amsterdam has the newest scanners where you do not have to remove your liquids and electronics anymore and for the passenger itself you have one of the modern body scanners as well.
But...
It seems that the agents have no idea on how to use these new baggage scanners. Around 90% of the baggage is sent to secondary screening. Dear Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, maybe you should put the scanners a little less sensitive or train your security
staff accordingly. Secondary screening takes forever and we had to wait around 15 minutes until it was our turn with the second check. The queue behind us got longer and longer and as it
looked like, all bags with electronics were sent for second screening to do a whipe test.
The newest machines make no sense if they aren't used correctly. We would have been triple as fast if we would have removed the electronic and liquids from the bags.
Agents at security check were rather grumpy and unfriendly.
Lounge:
Once through security and emigration we made our way to the Crown Club Lounge.
KLM as the Skyteam home carrier is the lounge host for all other sky team members.
The lounge is massive in size and there was plenty of seating space.
The lounge is modern and is divided in many different areas.
The lounge offers many soft drink and coffee stations. Alcoholic beverages and drinks are available at a served bar. Depending on where you sit it is quite a walk.
They offered a nice variety of hot and cold dishes, salads and sweets. The hot food was actually cold and no sandwiches were available this time.
All in all a good business class lounge product.
Gate:
Boarding started 45 minutes prior departure.
Priority boarding speech was made and conducted according procedures.
Staff at the gate was just doing their job but otherwise nothing special.
Getting on Board:
At the aircraft door we were greeted by the a very friendly cabin crew member.
The crew was very friendly at the door and was very present in the cabin whilst boarding.
Very soon after boarding they served the welcome drink, consisting of 4 different choices of drinks including champagne.
Prior to take of the crew came to take the orders for dinner.
Unfortunately we found out that compared to our last flight out of Amsterdam with Kenya Airways, (exactly 1 year ago) they have not changed the menu with a single item. It was exactly the same menu as one year ago.
The seats were already equipped with headphones, the amenity kits as well as a bottle of water. Soon the crew then passed with the menu cards.
On every seat there was also a fluffy pillow, a mattress, a day blanket and a nice duvet style blanket.
Inflight:
The Kenya Airways business class is a very nice and solid business class product. The 787-8 has a total of 30 business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration in two small cabin sections.
The seats are very comfortable and offer enough privacy and space. Unfortunately they do not have sufficient storage space at all at the seat itself.
You have to stow everything either in the overhead bins or on the middle armrest between the seats.
All business class seats are fully lie flat and you have enough shoulder space as well as legroom space.
The seat worked perfectly fine on this flight.
After take off the cabin crew first came around and distributed some hot towels.
The aperitif service does not exist anymore. Last time we were still served one out of Amsterdam but the crew on this flight said they are going to directly serve dinner.
To bad KQ has eliminated this service part.
Now you simply sit there and wait until the service starts.
Around 40 minutes after take off they started with the main service. On this flight the main service was dinner and a small continental breakfast prior landing.
The main service itself was absolutely top and the crew delivered an outstanding customer service.
First the crew set up the tables with a linen, cutlery, a bread plate, butter as well as salt and pepper.
Then the crew served the appetizer with bread rolls and offered drinks. They cleared the empty plates and served the main meal. The plating from the galley flight attendant was amazing.
Beautifully done and spotless plates.
During the hot meal service they offered once a refill of drinks.
I general we have to say that the food quality was much better than last time out of Amsterdam and it also looked much better.
Once you finished the main course, they cleared everything and a classic service trolley was set up where they served cheese, fruits and/or a dessert. Unfortunately only after everything was cleared, all tables stowed they passed with tea and coffee as well as some digestives.
The main meal service KQ is offering is on a very high level and can easily compete with other renowned airlines.
Around 1 hour prior to landing in Nairobi the crew started with the breakfast service.
Also here the crew has to set up everything by hand.
For this breakfast Kenya Airways could easily serve everything already on a full size tray.
It would make the life of passengers and crew much easier and it does not affect the service at all.
Continental breakfast consisted of fresh fruits, yoghurt, bread and croissants with butter and preserve and they passed twice with drinks, coffee and tea as well.
Continental breakfast was super sufficient as per our inner clock, the service started 2:30AM. So there is no big hunger. Quality of the food was good.
And I had a premier after all our many flights.
As it was my Birthday during this flight, for the first time ever, there was a cake loaded on board and the crew came to sing happy birthday and the cockpit came over the PA.
Wowww, what a special feeling. This is customer service at its best!
The cabin crew on this flight was excellent.
They were super present in the cabin and interacted with the guests. They had a smile on their face and did their job with care, passion and class.
Top customer service from the entire team.
Bathrooms were checked throughout the flight and always refilled. They were always clean.
The amenity kit is good and offers the regular content. (socks, toothbrush, eye mask, ear plugs, a cromb as well as a pencil) .
As a nice touch and a perfect match for Kenya Airways "the pride of Africa" are the socks with the paw prints of a lion.
The inflight entertainment is good and the screens worked fine. They have a good size and resolution for business class. The screens are touch screens but you can also choose the handheld
devices to navigate.
Kenya Airways has a good selection of movies, films and series. Unfortunately they only offer the Films etc in 4 languages.
The aircraft is not equipped with wifi.
Announcements from the flight deck were good, slow and understandable.
Also the cabin crew announcements were clear.
After the Flight:
No baggage delivery review as we are in transit.
Our summary:
A very solid and good business class product.
It isn't the newest hard product anymore in the skies but the crew was outstanding and the inflight service was top.
Again they proofed that Kenya Airways is a great option to fly to South Africa and we enjoyed any second of this flight experience.
Notes:
- Paul the Sheep does not get any benefits from the Hotels/Airlines etc.
- Paul will always pay for the services in order to be able to rate freely and truly about the experiences.
- If you are interested in more details, please send me a private message and I will be happy to share