Review Kenya Airways Business Class, Johannesburg to Nairobi
Flight Time: 3 hours 45 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:
During the Flight :
Food presentation:
Food quality: N/A
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: N/A in Transit
—-
= 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
—-
The departure time of our Johannesburg to Nairobi flight was scheduled at 1:15 AM. So almost in the middle of the night.
On the Ground:
Well, we have taken now flight KQ765 already 3 times over the last 12 month. There is no consistency at all for the Check-in opening time.
The first time, the check in was opened around 21:45 local time.
3 month ago, the check in was already open when we arrived at 20:15 local time.
So today we tried to check in at 20:15 as well to find out that they wouldn't open check-in until 21:00 local time.
The agents were there but preferred to play with their mobile phones.
On the ticketing office, there is a sign it opens at 20:30, well it also opened at 21:00
Check-in itself in Johannesburg was rather an unpleasant experience. The ground handling company contracted by KQ is useless.
The agent was unfriendly and couldn't care less what she was doing.
Only one security checkpoints were open in Terminal A at that time of the day.
There was only a short queue with a waiting time of around 10 minutes. That was still good. No priority lane at the international departure for security.
Staff at the security point was okay. Nothing special, nothing bad.
Right after security in Johannesburg were the emigration counters.
4 counters were open and as security was the bottleneck there was no queue at all.
Lounge:
Kenya Airways uses the South African Airways lounge in Johannesburg and so we went to the SAA Premium Lounge.
After our last lounge experience 3 month ago, we were looking forward to our lounge experience.
The lounge now is super modern, held in an industrial chic with wood, steel and dark greyish colours. It is simply beautiful and most probably one the most modern lounges in South Africa.
F&B offerings were good with a hot buffet, a very big cold buffet with different salads, cheese, sandwiches and other snacks.
No drinks are self-service and that is why the lounge offers a big served bar.
The lounge closes at 00:00 AM and everyone is waiting at the gate area for the flight.
As the aircraft arrived on time. In Johannesburg, boarding started 10 minutes before indicated boarding time or simply let's say someone simply opened the gate door and walked away.
No announcements were made at all.
Gate:
And then the gate bullshit started.
They didn't let get business class on board the aircraft because of the handluggage. At the gate they took away passports from business passengers and kept it. They wouldn't board the
passenger, a manager has to come and check the bags.
But they continued to board economy with the same size of bags as ours and some even with 3 bags and nothing happend. Apparently business class is the problem.
The manager was no manager but a lead or senior agent. Mr. S. Nab... (full name available) and he is definitely an agent from hell.
When about 10 business people were standing at the gate and waiting to board, he came to the gate and shouted at us why we stopped boarding. He shouted at us that we must check in our
handluggage or he will not let us board. Wowww, then the discussion began.
He did not let the passengers explain or anything. He was so frustrated, grumpy, unfriendly, just an agent from hell. Wowwww, that was the worst ever ground service and treatment I have seen
in my life.
I tried to show him our photobag that we will not be able to check the bags with our camera equipment and batteries and the personal item with laptops, power banks etc.
He couldn't have cared less. At the end he forced us to check our backpack personal item or he would have refused to board us. He did not even gave us the time to remove items from the bag,
which is a safety breach as our powerbank was now in the hold!
See here the picture of the little normal backpack which would have fitted under the seat in front.
At the end, there were empty overhead bins in the aircraft and not a single peace was stowed under a seat.
A massive customer discomfort for nothing and a huge reputation loss for Kenya Airways. A disgrace to treat your customers like this.
Getting on Board:
At the aircraft door we were greeted by the senior cabin crew member. Her colleague was in the cabin and greeting guests and helping customers. The crew was very friendly and attentive.
Once boarding was completed, they distributed the welcome drink, consisting of 4 different choices of drinks including champagne.
The seats were already equipped with a fluffy pillow and a blanket. In the seatpockets were headsets as well as the Amenity Kit. 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.
Even before take off the purser came to us and and apologized to all passengers in business class about the treatment of the ground staff.
She will try in Nairobi to get our bags before they continue.
The purser on this flight was the real star. In Nairobi she went herself down to the cargo hold and retrived all bags from the Business Class customers who were forced to check-in one of
their handluggage.
In our eyes, Kenya Airways MUST implement new regulations for stations if a flight is operated by the Embraer E190AR Aircraft. I do not understand why the Airline is not using delivery to
aircraft tags which are common everywhere on the planet and customers will get their bags back at the aircraft door upon arrival. This is common use for small aircraft.
The bullshit and reputiation damange which was done by Kenya Airways Johannesburg station should not be repeated.
Inflight:
The Kenya Airways business class on their Embraer 190 fleet is actually a real fix business class.
Our aircraft had a total of 12 business class seats in a 1-2 configuration.
The legrest and recline is okay but this aircraft is simply the wrong one for an almost 4hours night flight. You can not really rest and the comfort isn't much more than in economy.
After take off the cabin crew first distributed the hot towels.
The menu is also a year later exactly the same as on our last 2 flights. Basically the light snack was a little thing of nothing. I opted out and decided for a bottle of water.
The tray looked and was a disgrace for an almost 4 hours flight in business class and also a Kenya Airways should be embarrassed to offer such a product.
I fully fully understand that at 2:00AM in the morning, there is no need for a full service but there would be much much better options than some samosas and a chewing something of meet on a
full size tray.
In my opinion, for this flight I would only do a drink service with nuts after take off and then let the passengers sleep until 1 hour prior landing and then offer a small half size tray with
a mini breakfast (joghurt, fruit, croissant) for breakfast.
Or
If they really want to offer the service after take off, offer a nice and tasty sandwich or hot panini.
But do not offer an empty full size tray.
Full drink service was offered with the snack.
Before landing in Nairobi the crew passed once more with Hot Towels and a tray with some water and juice.
The cabin crew on this flight was very good and they did their job nice and professional. It is difficult during such a night flight to interact with passengers as everyone just wants to sleep. The crew found the exact amount of attention.
Bathrooms were checked throughout the flight and always refilled. They were always clean.
The aircraft was equipped with a mounted inflight entertainment system. On Kenya Airways Embraer you can or better said have to stream everything on your own devices.
As I wanted to rest, I didn't try out the system.
Announcements were very good and understandable from the cabin and flight crew. They spoke slowly and clearly.
After the Flight:
Security in transit worked well as always in NBO.
As we were in Transit in Nairobi and all bags were checked to the final destination we didn't have to collect our bags.
Our summary:
A disastrous airport experience in Johannesburg. These staff and Ground Handling need urgent training in customer service
The lounge was top.
A poor business class cabin experience for a 4 hour night flight on the Embraer E190
A terrible inflight product which should not be allowed to be called service for an almost 4 hours flight.
A great crew which did their job with pride and class.
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