[Anonymous]

[business traveller]

I was one of the first "lucky" ones to fly KLM's new 3-4-3 B777 economy configuration. I won't fly it again, if I have any reasonable alternative. The B777 was simply not designed to be configured 3-4-3 for long haul flights.

The aisles are so narrow that passengers in aisle seats get bumped every time anybody walks by, and the seat width is too narrow for two people sitting side by side to comfortably have shoulder room (at 163cm tall and 68kg, I'm hardly a big passenger, so if this bothers me, imagine how it would be for even "average" size people!)

The new seats' ergonomics – other than being much too narrow – are quite good, as is the new in-flight entertainment system (though it does have teething problems; someone forgot to disable the underlying screen saver, so the screen blacked out every five minutes during movies…), and the light control being integrated into the entertainment system touchscreen means that while cabin announcements are being made, you cannot control certain things.

To repeat: airlines which hyper-configure their aircraft with too many too-narrow seats across each row will lose my business. B777 3-4-3, B747 3-5-3, B787 2-5-2, etc.
(Oh, and KLM "economy comfort" is NOT a Premium economy product – it's the normal economy product with more legroom; in contrast, AF's Premium Economy product which I flew a couple of years ago CDG-SFO was an amazingly better experience and exceptionally good value).

Review courtesy of Seatplans.com. Original review by user 187363 can be found here

[GenerationY]

Sorry to hear about your experience. However, I am 180cm and 72kg and I have never had any problem with sittting on the aisle seat of 10 across economy in AF/KLM. I personally think the leg space upgrade on the seat is a welcome improvement.

Having said that whenever I flew long haul economy with KLM I always opted the pair seat or comfort, but as you may know, the comfort seats only give more leg room while retaining the same seat widths. So I am wondering what would make the aisle smaller? Could they also improve the width of the seat slightly?

How was the service to fukuoka? And did you get to peek the new WBC? Are they differ to their sibling on board 747? 🙂

[AMcWhirter]

There’s more information on this thread.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/discussion/topic/Alex-On-…-KLM-s-evolving-Economy-class

This is the first time that KLM has fitted slimline seats to its long-haul fleet. KLM is also the launch customer for this particular Recaro seat.

The extra legroom (roughly one inch) is to be welcomed but this extra space comes at a expense of a thinner seat.

Until now KLM has only installed 10-across economy seating on its fleet of B777-300ERs. I believe the cabin width of the B777-200ER varies slighlty.

KLM has not stated whether or not the slimline seats will be fitted to its B747 fleet.

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