Review Kenya Airways, Business Class, Nairobi to Amsterdam

Paul's Flight Report for
Kenya Airways
Alliance: SkyTeam
Flight: KQ116
Route: NBO - AMS
Aircraft Type: Boeing 787-8
Flight Time: 8 hours 21 minutes
Business Class

General Impression: 🐑🐑🐑🐑

Before the Flight :
Check-in Process: N/A in transit
Security Control : 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Lounge: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🌿
Information: 🐑🐑🐑
Boarding @ Gate: 🐑🐑🐑
Staff @ these points: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Boarding in Cabin: 🐑🐑🐑
Welcome Drinks: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Punctuality: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑, 5 min early
During the Flight :
Food presentation: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🏆
Food quality: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🥇
Drinks: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Service Procedure: 🐑🐑🐑🌿
Amenity Kit: 🐑🐑🐑
Entertainment System: 🐑🐑🐑
Seat Quality: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🌿
Legroom: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🌿
Lavatories: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🌿
Cleanliness: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🌿
General Atmosphere: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🌿
Announcement Pilots: 🐑🐑🐑
Announcement Cabin: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Cabin Crew: 🐑🐑🐑
After the Flight :
De-Boarding: 🐑🐑🐑
Baggage Delivery: in Transit
—-
🐑 = bad, a lot of work needs to be done
🐑🐑 = poor, you will be busy with corrections
🐑🐑🐑 = good & normal, nothing special
🐑🐑🐑🐑 = high level, but the icing on the cake is missing
🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑 = topnotch, leave me here!
🌿= Half a Point/sheep
—-

Wohoo, this was our 16th international business class flight with Kenya Airways.

On the Ground:
As we were in transit in Nairobi and checked through to our final destination, we only had to go through security control again.
Nairobi has a Sky Priority lane, which we would have been able to use. Sky Priority had only 1 lane open with a long queue and no one checking access.
Economy had around 5 lanes open with much shorter queues, so we used one of these.
It would be great if they could increase the priority lanes, especially in the morning with lots of inbound flights and connecting passengers, or if the airport would have someone to manage the lines.

All in all, transiting in Nairobi was easy, and once through security we made our way to the Prime Class Lounge, which is just above Gate 17.

The KQ Prime Class Lounge is simply wow!
It is super modern and divided into many different areas.
The lounge now offers a huge hot buffet, a live cooking station, a self-service area, and a bread, sweets, and dessert buffet.
They have a live cooking station where you can order your egg dish to your liking.
Drink-wise, there is a soft drink station as well as a full alcoholic bar, and newly they have a huge coffee bar with a barista where you can order your coffee to your liking.
The staff in the lounge, especially at reception, are always super friendly and helpful.
All in all, a very great business class lounge experience.
As per the boarding pass, boarding should start 45 minutes prior to the indicated departure time.
We went to the gate right at the indicated boarding time and were boarded into a waiting area. Boarding into the aircraft started only a few minutes later.
Staff at the gate were okay. Nothing special or to write home about.
Nairobi Airport had no microphone system at the gates for announcements, and agents had to yell into the crowd for boarding.
Priority boarding was done according to procedure and boarding passes were also checked to ensure the correct group was boarding.
At the aircraft door we were greeted by a friendly senior crew member and another cabin crew member. No crew members were in the cabin during boarding.
When the majority of the passengers were on board, the crew appeared from the galleys and started serving the welcome drink, consisting of 4 different choices including champagne.
After the welcome drink, they distributed the menu cards and took the breakfast main dish orders.
The seats were already equipped with a fluffy pillow and a mattress. We had to ask for a blanket after the service.
The headphones and amenity kits were prepared on the ottoman/footrest.
The cabin crew also distributed small water bottles prior to take-off.
The amenity kit is good and offers the standard contents (socks, toothbrush, eye mask, earplugs, a comb, as well as a pencil).
Inflight:
Kenya Airways business class is a very nice and solid business class product. The 787-8 has a total of 30 business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration in two small cabin sections.
The seats are very comfortable and offer enough privacy and space. Unfortunately, they do not have sufficient storage space at the seat itself.
You have to stow everything either in the overhead bins or on the middle armrest between the seats.
All business class seats are fully lie-flat and offer enough shoulder and legroom. I really love these seats as you have enough shoulder space to sleep on your back.
The seat worked perfectly fine and I had a very good snooze on this flight.
After take-off, the cabin crew first came around and distributed hot towels. Then they started the breakfast service.
On today’s KQ116, the crew set the table with a tablecloth and distributed the full-size tray which contained fresh fruit, and offered juices and a yoghurt.
Then you had to wait a loooong time until they came around with bread, croissants, butter and jam.
Once you finished these, they collected the empty plates and bowls and brought the hot breakfast on a plate. We had the choice of 3 different hot meals. We opted for the omelette and the vegetarian option with beans.
The presentation of the food was very good and the quality was great.
Around 3 hours prior to arrival in Amsterdam, the cabin crew came to take the lunch orders and then started the lunch service.
First, hot towels were distributed, and the table was set again.
The crew served the full-size tray, which contained a delicious first course of quinoa, avocado and carrot salad, as well as bread and butter.
Once we finished the first course, the crew came around with the hot meals. Again, there was a choice of 3, and we selected the chicken and lamb. Both meals were absolutely delicious, beautifully presented, and the lamb shank was one of the best I have ever had!
Then they served cheese and fresh fruit, followed by dessert. The dessert, cheese and fruit were served from a service trolley, and you could choose from 3 different desserts. The trolley presentation was absolutely top-notch!

Full drink service was offered with all courses, followed by a separate coffee/tea service with digestives at the end.

The entire F&B product in Kenya Airways business class is fantastic.
All meals were beautifully presented and tasted really good.
The catering Kenya Airways offers ex Nairobi is much better than the catering ex Europe, even better than what Lufthansa offers from its home bases. Kenya Airways does not need to hide.
During the flight, the crew was present in the cabin and you could order drinks anytime.
In addition, you could also help yourself.
In the galley, a self-service bar with alcoholic drinks, beverages and snacks was set up for passengers.
The crew on this flight was good and friendly, but we found them quite passionless. No real heartfelt hospitality, more like robots doing their job.
It was a long-haul flight and there was hardly any interaction with passengers at all.
They did their job well, but that was about it.
This was our 16th flight with KQ and I can only say: consistency, consistency, consistency — the cabin crew makes the difference!
We’ve had everything from first-class-level service to very underwhelming service. Today was somewhere in the middle.
We would have wished for more passion, more interaction, and a smile.

The bathrooms were checked throughout the flight, always restocked and kept clean. The crew did a good job here.

The inflight entertainment is good and the screens worked fine. They are a good size and resolution for business class. The screens are touch-enabled but you can also use the handheld controller.
Kenya Airways has a good selection of movies and series, though unfortunately only in 4 languages.

The aircraft is not equipped with Wi-Fi.

Flight deck announcements were clear and easy to understand, but there was only one before take-off — no inflight or pre-arrival announcement.
Cabin announcements were excellent — clear, well-paced and easy to understand.

After the Flight:
Security in transit was okay, with a waiting time of around 5–10 minutes.

Immigration in Amsterdam was smooth — no queue and no waiting time. Self-scan gates were open and available.

As we were in transit in Amsterdam, we made our way to the KLM business class lounge for our last flight home. More on that in the next review.

Summary:
A solid and very good ground experience in Nairobi (security, lounge, gate).
A very good business class cabin with a great seat on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner — excellent shoulder space for sleeping.
An outstanding inflight F&B product in quality, quantity and presentation.
However, the cabin crew lowered the overall rating due to their service — friendly but passionless, minimal interaction, no warmth. Even when trying to engage in conversation, replies were minimal.
This was our 16th KQ business class flight and consistency remains the biggest issue — the crew makes the difference between a good, great or underwhelming flight.
Thanks to the strong hardware (seat, F&B, lounge, value), the software (crew) hiccups can be overlooked.
Would we choose Kenya Airways again?
Absolutely — the positives outweigh the negatives.
Notes:
- Paul the Sheep does not get any benefits from the Hotels/Airlines etc.
- Paul will always pay for the services in order to be able to rate freely and truly about the experiences.
-If you are interested in more details, please send me a private message and I will be happy to share.