Update: 5 May 2019

I flew with KLM again to Bali.

KLM offers a flight between Amsterdam and Bali, with a stopover in Singapore. This flight is popular with European revellers who are headed to Bali for their beach vacation. Since I had not taken a KLM flight before, I booked the Singapore-Bali return journey segment with KLM. They have quite good deals starting from $188 for a round-trip ticket, with daily flights.

KLM 835 leaves Singapore at 16:50 and arrives in Bali at 19:25 while KLM 836 leaves Bali at 20:40 and arrives in Singapore at 23:15.

From the check in at the terminal to the boarding gate, everything went smoothly. The check-in staff were friendly and there was a short queue of about 10 minutes. Since there was baggage allowance for the flight, we checked our bags and got out boarding pass. I guess most of the travellers are making their way from Amsterdam, so about 10% of the passengers are coming on board on the SIN-DPS segment.

KLM brings a new crew onboard that flies SIN-DPS-SIN. The crew was friendly but they had to work harder for this short haul flight, including serving meals and selling duty free. I had no issues with their service and enjoyed my red wine during the flight. Being seated near the front also meant that we had our food served first.

The flight was delayed on that day. The boarding gate had a long queue. We only started boarding 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. It was a packed flight and we had the first row of economy seats which means added legroom. There was also in-flight entertainment to accompany me for the short 2h 30min flight, just enough to watch one movie.

Announcements were made in English and Dutch. After the safety video, we were ready for take off, about half an hour later than the scheduled time. I watched Moana during the flight, but could only get the earphones from them after takeoff, so that wasted some precious time. Luckily I managed to complete watching the movie. It’s such an inspirational movie to encourage us to explore the unknown and not be put down by what negative comments that others may say. Sounds like what I am doing – venturing into the unknown and traveling to exotic places around the world.

About half an hour after takeoff, the smell of food permeated through the cabin. The food presentation was nice. There was a choice of black pepper beef with butter rice or fish with noodles. I chose the rice because I was hungry and it was delicious. Dessert was apple cake which was moist and not too sweet. I had a small bottle of South African shiraz wine to accompany my meal. It went well with the beef and made me miss South Africa more. Well, at least I could enjoy a taste of South Africa.

We landed half an hour behind the scheduled time, then proceeded to clear immigration. There was no queue except for our flight that arrived, so it was all done within 10 minutes. The immigration officer just asked how many days I am staying in Indonesia, then stamped my passport. Welcome to Indonesia! Looking forward to exploring Bali.

There were some changes made to the inflight service when I boarded KL835 from Singapore to Bali in May 2019.

The timing for the return flight was good too, leaving Bali at 20:40. So that leaves us with sufficient time to explore Bali for at least one whole day or to do our last minute souvenir shopping. This time round, the flight took off on time and we landed in Singapore before midnight, just in time to report to work the next day. By the time we arrived back in Singapore, the metro had stopped running so we took a cab home. My perceptions of Bali being so touristy had vanished on this trip and I would definitely be back again!

I hope to be able to save up enough miles for Flying Blue next time, so that I can try their J class hard product.

On the second time flying this route, the IFE on the plane was newer. There was a wide range of movies to choose from. I watched Aquaman as I missed this movie in the theatres.

Overall, the flight was KLM was smooth. For a regional flight, the service was sufficient. I enjoyed the food and IFE for the short two and a half hours journey. The crew was experienced. If you see their promotional fares from Singapore to Bali, do fly with them. Also, KLM has a wide network, so you can fly with them to US or to South America via Amsterdam, their hub at Schipol airport.