Just recently I travelled from Switzerland to South Africa on KLM flying via Schiphol Airport.
I had not heard too many things about KLM and I went with the thought that hearing little about them also means they can not be too bad. On the flight over this was confirmed to me.
The airline was neither great nor bad. There was a minimal amount of leg room but it was not cramped. There was an entertainment system with lots of new films but the system was old and the screens small. Likewise, there was food and drink but it was nothing to write home about. The big upside for KLM was definitely that it always seems to be one of the cheaper companies to fly with and so I am likely to fly with them again.
However, there was one annoying part of the journey because I was flying with KLM and that was Schiphol Airport. While I had normally heard good things about this airport, about the size, the range of shops and ease of movement I found it to be a complete let-down. I arrived off my European internal flight and was confronted with a huge queue, not enough staff on the passport booths and inadequate signage on how to move to the international side of the airport. This whole process meant that once I got to the other side it was very rushed to get to my connecting flight.
Also, it seemed that once in the international side there was not as much choice in the shops. The airport again proved troublesome when on the way back to Europe I was told I would not be able to bring through the duty free items purchased outside of Europe as they make you go through a new passport control and security check while in the airport coming from an international flight to a European internal flight. And of course this meant that the duty free items were more expensive.
In all though, the flight was relatively pleasant and although the airport was annoying it did not cause any real problems and so I would both fly with KLM and through Schiphol airport again in the future.
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