KLM has joined the increasing number of airlines offering a premium economy class, but is the KLM Premium Comfort cabin worth the extra cost over an economy ticket?
I tried Premium Comfort out on two 13 hour flights – here’s my full review of the KLM premium economy experience, covering the seat, service, food and more.
KLM introduced their premium economy class experience in 2022, and they’ve just finished rolling it out across all their Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777 planes.
Why I chose premium economy
I flew from Amsterdam to Tokyo and back in Premium Comfort class in November 2024. Both flights were around 13 hours each, so I was delighted to find premium economy tickets for just over £1000 per person, which was only a little more expensive compared to economy tickets on other airlines. I booked direct with KLM.
I’ve done plenty of long flights in economy on airlines like Emirates and Qatar, but with only a week in Tokyo I was hoping that choosing premium economy would help me get to Japan ready and raring to go.
Premium Comfort vs Economy Comfort on KLM
If you want a travel experience that’s better than a standard economy seat but cheaper than business class, KLM has two options – make sure you know which one you’re booking!
Economy Comfort
- Same economy seats with more legroom
- In the main economy cabin
- Food and service same as economy
Economy comfort seats are standard economy seats in the main economy cabin but have an extra 10cm of legroom (89cm vs the standard 79cm) and a little more recline (15-18cm vs the standard 12.5cm).
The Economy Comfort zone is 10 seats across (3-4-3) on the 777 and 9 seats across on the 787 (3-3-3). There’s no extra width.
Economy Comfort seats are available to choose on the seat map when you book your ticket or when you check in. Depending on the type of ticket you book, or your frequent flyer status with KLM, you might have to pay extra to be seated in Economy Comfort or you might be able to choose a seat for free.
While it’s not the same as the long haul experience, I upgraded our seats to Economy Comfort for the short hop from Amsterdam back to Manchester and the legroom was really nice for economy.
Premium Comfort
- Separate premium economy class cabin
- Significantly wider seats with more space
- Better food, drink and service
- Airport perks like priority check in and early boarding
Premium Comfort is KLM’s name for their premium economy class and is a separate cabin on the plane. The seats in Premium Comfort are wider, more padded and have far more legroom – up to 18cm more than a standard economy seat and up to 8cm more than Economy Comfort.
Other benefits include a bigger entertainment screen, better food and drink and airport perks including the ability to check in at the business class desk and early boarding.
My KLM premium economy flight
My flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo Narita was on a Boeing 777. KLM have just finished refitting their 777s to add the Premium Comfort class to all their planes. You’ll be able to see the plane model when you book your flight or in your KLM account, but the Premium Comfort seats are exactly the same, regardless of which aircraft you’re on. The only difference is the seat configuration – 2-3-2 on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 2-4-2 on the wider Boeing 777.
I’d taken a connecting flight from Manchester to Amsterdam then had a short wait before I could board my flight to Tokyo. Premium Comfort tickets don’t include lounge access as standard but if you’ve got a long wait in Amsterdam you can pay to go into the lounge.
Baggage
The amount of baggage you can take with you depends on the ticket you’ve booked, but in general you can take a little more with you in Premium Comfort compared to economy class.
I’d booked a Premium Comfort Light ticket which gave me a hand baggage allowance of 2 items and 1 accessory (max. 12 kg). It didn’t include any checked baggage, which was fine as I was travelling light. On my way back from Japan I paid to check in a bag with all my Japan shopping.
If you do have bags to check in, Premium Comfort ticket holders can use the Sky Priority lanes to check in with business class passengers. To be honest I completely forgot about this benefit and just did the self-service bag drop at Tokyo Narita on the way home.
Boarding
When boarding opened I could board in zone 2 with business class passengers. On long haul flights I prefer to maximise my legroom by putting as much as possible in the overhead luggage storage, and as there are fewer seats in the Premium Comfort cabin, there was plenty of space for my backpack and carry on case above my seat.
The seat
I’d chosen an aisle seat right at the back of the Premium Comfort cabin. I get claustrophobic when I’m stuck in a window or middle seat so easy access to the aisle is always a must!
I’d picked a seat in the last row of Premium Comfort so I’d be able to recline without bothering anyone else. Sometimes seats in the last row don’t recline as far as normal seats, but my seat had the same recline as every other premium economy seat.
The seat was very comfortable, with plenty of padding everywhere – a relief when you’ve got a 13 hour flight in front of you!
As boarding continued, I checked out all the features of the seat. The fixed centre arm rest between me and my partner in the window seat had a little cubby hole for a bottle of water, and behind that there were two buttons, one to recline and one to raise the leg rest to support my lower legs.
Next to the recline controls there were two USB power outlets, one USB-A and the other USB-C. I used the USB-C port during the flight to charge all my devices and it worked perfectly, with enough power to rapid charge my phone. The connector did stick out a little bit into my leg but it really wasn’t a problem. There are also traditional power plugs at foot level for charging devices that don’t have a USB connector.
Behind the USB ports there were two audio connectors for using with the in-flight entertainment. One was a triangular magnetic one for using with the KLM noise cancelling over ear headphones which were tucked in just behind. There’s also a standard 3.5mm jack which I used with my Avantree Relay Bluetooth adapter to get audio on my own Bluetooth earbuds.
I really liked the arm rest overall; it was nice and wide meaning two people could use it at the same time – no more arm rest wars!
The arm rest in the other side contained the tray table. I’m not really a fan of tables popping out from the side as they make me feel a bit trapped in my seat, but it was ok. I’ve seen online that the aisle arm rest can be lowered all the way down but I couldn’t work out how to get that to happen.
As well as the leg rest there was also an adjustable foot rest. I’ve got short legs and the seat was quite high so I appreciated having somewhere to rest my feet.
The head rest slid up and down and had wings to support your head. I’m 5′ 5” and these never go down far enough for me to use them properly, but I’d brought my favourite travel pillow anyway so it didn’t matter.
On the back of the seat in front there was a large screen, with a small mesh pocket right underneath, then the main seat pocket below.
It would have been good to have some kind of ledge or table on the back of the seat in front to rest my phone and watch the videos I’d downloaded for the flight.
Food and service
Just after takeoff the cabin crew came round with a refreshing towel, a bottle of water each to go in the seat cubby hole, a menu and the amenity kit.
The amenity kit contained an eye mask, some earplugs, a bamboo toothbrush, some chewable toothpaste and a mini pen, all packaged in a reusable mesh bag – the kind you can use for putting delicate items in the washing machine. The attempt to make it eco-friendly was a nice touch.
The menu had details of the two meals and snack that would be served on board the 13 hour flight to Tokyo, along with the bar menu.
The first food service was a little snack of some nuts, which I had with an apple juice. My partner and I are both vegetarian so we’d ordered the special meal rather than ordering off the menu, and our meals arrived not long after the snack, with another drink – this time I went for a mini bottle of Shiraz.
Our special vegetarian meal on this flight was a nasi goreng rice dish with tempeh and green beans, a bean salad and a sponge pudding. It was flavourful and filling – so much so that I had trouble finishing the KLM signature stroopwafel ice cream that they offered us a little later!
On the way home from Tokyo to Amsterdam, our main meal was rice again, but this time with two different curries – one mild, one pretty spicy – with pakoras and cardamom rice pudding.
We slept through the snack service on the first flight, but on the second our snack was a cheese and roasted vegetable sandwich. During the long overnight section, there was a help yourself snack station at the very back of the plane, and on a couple of occasions a member of the cabin crew noticed that I was awake and came round to offer me a drink.
Two hours before landing we were served another light meal – breakfast on the way to Tokyo and a pineapple salad on the way back to Amsterdam.
Entertainment
The KLM Premium Comfort seats have a huge, 13.3 inch screen, much bigger than the 9-11 inch screens in economy class. The screen tilts, so when the person in front of you reclines, you can move the screen to continue watching comfortably.
There was a good choice of films and TV shows, maybe not quite as good as I’ve experienced on long haul flights with Emirates and Qatar but plenty to keep me busy. I was travelling in late November so I particularly appreciated the Christmas films to help me get into the festive spirit!
There’s a small selection of music to listen to, and some games to play.
I tried out the KLM noise cancelling headphones but they were a little heavy and tight for my head, so I used my own bluetooth earbuds instead. My partner put them on over his own earbuds for double noise cancelling. They’re decent enough though, and a huge upgrade over the ones you get in economy class, ideal if you don’t have your own or if you’re travelling light.
The wifi wasn’t working on our flight to Tokyo but on the way back we had free wifi for checking messages.
Sleep
This was a really long flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo, with a big time difference. It’s not quite the longest flight I’ve ever been on (hello Dubai to Melbourne!) but it was definitely up there.
I was hoping that the bigger seat and extra recline in KLM’s premium economy class would help me to get more sleep on the way than I would have managed in economy.
I did get some sleep, but it’s important to be aware that while Premium Comfort is a lot more spacious and comfortable than economy, it still can’t compare to the lie-flat seats in business class. I’m a side sleeper which makes sleeping on planes difficult though, and my fellow passengers seemed to be able to fall asleep.
A big plus for KLM Premium Comfort is that you’re in a small cabin between business class and economy. The aisle is much wider than in economy, and the only people using it are cabin crew and passengers from the Premium Comfort cabin, so you’re much less likely to get knocked awake by someone going to the toilet or to the snack station at the back of the plane.
I noticed this a lot when I went to the toilet myself (Premium Comfort passengers use the economy toilets) and it was difficult to navigate the aisles without bumping into someone. My legs and elbows do tend to spill out into the aisle when I’m asleep on a plane so I’m pretty sure this helped me get more sleep!
Summary: is KLM Premium Comfort worth it?
There’s no doubt that KLM Premium Comfort is a significant upgrade over standard economy seats. I particularly appreciated the extra space, more comfortable seats and better food and service. If you can get it for a small premium over economy, and you have a long flight, it’s definitely worth it.
Have you flown in premium economy? How did you find it?
