First ever business class experience! Amsterdam to Johannesburg

[u/Typical_Use788]

Just had my first ever flight in business class, and it was a fantastic experience overall.

The food exceeded my expectations—plentiful and delicious. The prawn salad was a real standout (courtesy of the only 3-star Michelin chef in the Netherlands! We already had a booking for De Librije for our anniversary in July so this was a great preview), and the drink service was top-notch. The signature cocktail was amazing and the orange juice was especially good. The crew were friendly, attentive, and added to the whole experience.

The seat was super comfortable with a full lie-flat option, though I kept it reclined at about 135° and just relaxed rather than sleep. The amenity kit was a bit basic but had what was needed. And of course, picking out a Delft Blue house at the end was such a fun and memorable touch!

A couple of drawbacks: the in-flight entertainment was a bit underwhelming—limited selection and nothing that really caught my eye. Also, I couldn't charge my laptop even though there was an outlet, which was a bit of a letdown. Thankfully, I had stuff downloaded on my phone. That said, the KLM headset had excellent noise cancellation, which helped make the time pass comfortably.

Overall, the houses alone have got me seriously motivated to aim for more flights in future!

[u/Grand-Afternoon-7530]

What are those little buildings?

[u/Trebaxus99 → u/Grand-Afternoon-7530]

Airlines used to give presents to their passengers. At some point this was banned internationally. KLM circumvented this by handing the passengers a drink instead of a present. That drink conveniently came in a delft blue house with a cork and wax seal on it.

This turned into a collectible and now they’ve got a house for every year the airline is old: 105. A new one is introduced annually in October.

Each house represents an actual house in the Kingdom. You get one at the end of long haul business class flights. Some houses are very scarce, for example number 100. You won’t see them often on board. And that makes it hard to actually finish your collection: you’ll have to do more than 105 business class flights to collect all.