KLM completes premium economy retrofits on Boeing 777s and 787s

Two and a half years after it first announced plans to add premium economy, KLM has finished installing the new cabins on a large portion of its long-haul fleet, the Dutch carrier said this week.

Specifically, KLM has completed retrofits on all of its Boeing 777s and 787 Dreamliners, the airline said Thursday. The milestone marks the end of what the airline has dubbed its biggest product change in years.

Read more: Is KLM premium economy worth it on the 787 Dreamliner?

It was back in May 2022 that the carrier first announced plans to add the intermediate offering between its economy- and World Business-class cabins, following the lead of many other major airlines around the globe.

KLM started its premium economy retrofits on its younger Dreamliner fleet, and had each of those aircraft fitted with the new cabin a year and a half ago.

Then the airline moved on to its Boeing 777 fleet, installing the Premium Comfort seats and upgrading its World Business pods with sliding privacy panels and universal direct aisle access — its own effort to bring its highest-end cabin more closely in line with other global competitors that have added “suite” concepts.

In all, KLM’s maintenance teams completed retrofits on 54 wide-body aircraft, ensuring passengers will have the new mid-tier cabin as an option on all long-haul 777 and 787 flights to and from its Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) home base.

“Over the past two years, colleagues have worked very hard to make the addition of this new class possible. Passengers now have an extra option when booking a ticket, in addition to World Business Class and Economy Class,” KLM chief experience officer Barry ter Voert said in a statement this week.

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A330s still don’t have premium economy

We should point out that KLM did not retrofit its entire long-haul fleet. The carrier’s Airbus A330s still sport a two-cabin (business and economy) configuration, including an older 2x2x2 layout that does not include direct-aisle access for window seats. That elder wide-body aircraft still flies to a broad range of destinations all over the world, including several cities in North America.

Here’s where the A330 is flying as of this month, as shown by the below map from Cirium:

Is premium economy worth it?

Generally speaking, major global carriers’ premium economy cabins tend to be a fairly similar experience to domestic first class, with spacious recliners that are far more comfortable than economy — and an improved “soft product” over coach, often with amenity kits and meals.

But the service and seats fall short of a full-scale international business-class experience, which typically includes a lie-flat bed.

As you might expect, the cash price and award pricing tends to fall somewhere in the middle, too — more than coach, but less than business class.

TPG’s Matt Moffitt recently flew KLM’s Premium Comfort cabin between Amsterdam and Cape Town International Airport (CPT) in South Africa aboard the 777-300ER.

He reported the seats to be “very comfortable,” with 60% more recline than economy, comfortable seat cushions and larger seatback screens ­­— not to mention an impressive salmon poke bowl for dinner.

KLM is a key airline to keep in mind as you consider your next flight redemption. Its Flying Blue loyalty program — a joint program with KLM’s sister airline, Air France — is a popular option for redeeming points.

Most of the major credit card reward programs in the U.S. offer 1:1 transfers to Flying Blue, including:

Plus, with some programs, you can occasionally score transfer bonuses to Flying Blue, allowing you to increase your total sum of miles.

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