KLM Muscat-Amsterdam-Billund in Business Class

There's always something exotic about airports in the Middle East. 

The luggage...

The fluffy luggage...

The flight departures to...well..I couldn't say for sure...

The sultan waving goodbye. "Please come again"...

Check-in is in a separate hall, your baggage is scanned before you get to the check-in area and there is quite a queue. -Though, of course, if you're travelling Business Class, you just walk to the head of the queue. And hope the other passengers can see that you so obviously belong in Business Class, because there aren't any signs so you might just be a queue-jumper and you have heard of air-rage (on the ground).  It went off without a hitch, check-in was fairly smooth and if there isn't a group of 10 travel agents ahead of you, you don't have to queue much. If you're in Business Class that is (oh, I said that before? Well, it does suit me fantastically)

The airport in Muscat is fairly tame. Get there 2 hours before your flight, but expect to be a little bit bored once you're through check-in and security.

KLM have a good Business Class service. I liked it much better than Economy, but who doesn't?  Except for one (ze cabin general?) the flight attendants were very friendly, friendlier than Lufthansa but not as friendly as SAS (the Swedish ones) but that is probably just a coincidence :-)

The Airbus 330-200 has lie-flat seats in Business Class, but in the fully reclined position they're actually sort of at an angle even though the seat itself probably is 180 degrees. The seat is extremely comfortable when it is in its "almost-flat" position (for reading or relaxing) but when you recline it fully to go to sleep, it feels a bit awkward, you have the feeling that any minute you will start sliding down and end up in a crumpled heap on the floor. (KLM is not the only airline with that kind of seat).

Welcome on board! The pillow was great by the way.

With a seat like this, you will never be bored...

I love these. I can't help it!

I snuck behind the curtain to take a picture of the Economy Comfort seats. That is a couple of rows in the front of the Economy cabin (free of charge in B+S class, or if you have a Flying Blue Gold card). You get a bit more legroom than in the normal Economy Class seats...

But not as much as in Business Class! :-)

The flight from Muscat to Amsterdam takes about 8½ hours, but a lot of that time is spent on the short hop to Abu Dhabi (passengers getting on and the aircraft taking on fuel again (they also did that on the outbound flight so I'm guessing fuel is cheaper in Abu Dhabi than in Muscat?) so "please do not leave your seats but please leave seat belt unfastened") and then there's dinner and we don't want to miss that, so even though it's a night flight do not expect a full, good night's sleep, lie-flat seat or not.

They were very good and served dinner very soon after take-off from Abu Dhabi.

Noodle-egg thing. Tasty dessert (again! the Dutch do good desserts)

And then it was time for a lie-down. But even though I did sleep, I wouldn't have minded a couple of extra hours.

Much too soon I was woken up by a flight attendant happily chatting away in Dutch. Breakfast was served and all the passengers in Business Class got a little present, a Delft House - I think some frequent travellers are avid collectors; one guy took ages agonising over which house to choose and even had a little booklet so he could check which ones he already had.

 

 

 "You are here" - or, you will be in a few minutes. The monitors also show the gates of the flights passengers are connecting to within 30-60 minutes of landing, so they can Be Prepared. For transit in Amsterdam, see separate post)

The full moon reflected in one of the canals around Schiphol

Arrival at Schiphol was on time, we mostly spent our waiting time for the Billund flihgt hanging round the lounge (which is nice, and huge, but has lousy breakfast, sorry KLM. You should get the dessert guys to run it) and then got on the flight to Billund. Within Europe KLM doesn't call it Business Class, you travel Europe Select (clever naming so you're not fooled into expecting too much?).  You do get more legroom and a nicer meal than the poor sods in the back. I would say it is on the same level as SAS and Lufthansa (who do call it Business Class)

Those are my knees. And aaaall the way over there is the seat in front

Yummy. Like I said, KLM do great desserts!

Thank you KLM. We like the retro paint job!