I wanted to travel from Milan to London and when I looked online, there were not a lot of direct options so looked for connecting options. Each time I travel, I am also looking for the best options and looking at points redemption versus payment, and in this search I found I could redeem Delta Skymiles points to get an intra-European business class ticket on KLM from Milan Malpensa to London Heathrow via Amsterdam. I booked the ticket through Delta using my Skymiles points and then contacted KLM to confirm the booking and obtain the KLM booking reference number. Once I had the KLM booking number, it was somewhat easy to manage my booking through the KLM app as well as through customer service.
My flight was from Milan to London Heathrow via Amsterdam. The first flight was approximately 1h55min while the second flight was 1hr20min and with an originally layover of 1hr30min. Both sectors were flown by Boeing 737 and both were in 'intra-European business class' which means that the seats are the same as the rest of the plane with extra legroom and the middle seat blocked off. As part of business class, both sectors included complimentary meals. The experience on both sectors were similar so I will combine all experiences into one review. Our flight was scheduled to depart Milan at 4:55pm. We had both Business Class access as well as Sky Priority status so we were able to use that check-in as well as fast track security; although there were not many people in check-in line so either line would have been fine. The business class lounge in Milan was through a third party and the lounge was small but decent and had complimentary soft drinks, water, alcoholic beverages, as well as a wide variety of snacks and small foods. The drinks were plentiful and the snacks were decent enough to fill you up but not to overstuff. There was also complimentary wifi. During the layover in Amsterdam I was able to try out the renovated KLM Crown Club. The club was massive with lots of seating but also lots of people. The food was disappointing as it was minimal snacks and I expected better quality and quantity of food from a lounge in the airlines home airport (in face, the food on the plane was better than the food in the lounge). The drinks were weak and not good either; overall it was a disappointing experience in the Crown Club in Amsterdam.
KLM has a departure time and a scheduled boarding time and for both flights, the flights were delayed and boarding time came and went without any communication. Boarding is to be conducted by groups, with Business Class and Sky Priority in Group 3 but each time boarding was chaotic and many people were unsure which group was going when. There was a lack of communication and order during the boarding and regarding any delays. Once onboard, both planes were laid out in a similar fashion as they were both Boeing 737-800. Both were in a 3-3 configuration and as mentioned above we were in 'European Business Class' which meant that the seats were standard but there was extra legroom and the middle seat was blocked. The major difference was that the Milan to Amsterdam sector was operated by a newer plane with newer seats while the Amsterdam to Heathrow sector was operated by an older plane with the old style seats. The newer seats were more slimline and thus had less padding but were more efficiently designed. The older planes had a bit bigger seats but the wear and tear had made them uncomfortable towards the end.
Both seats were designed in a similar fashion with the updated ones having somewhat more modern features. Both featured a tray table as well as pocket underneath, and neither had a monitor. The older plane's tray table was a standard tray table while the newer plane had a bi-folded table. The newer plane had a USB port on the back of each seat as well as plugs underneath the seat; the older plane only had plugs underneath the seats. The newer plane had a literature pocket on top as well as while the older plane did not have this. Neither plane had wifi nor stream to your own device entertainment, which meant that you had to bring your own entertainment or occupy yourself. In Business Class, KLM offers a complimentary meal as well as complimentary drinks, including complimentary alcoholic drinks. The meals come in prepared boxes and cannot be modified - ie no special meals can be ordered nor requested and there is only one option for the meal choice. Prior to the meals, a warn nuts and a menu card was handed out explaining the meal box along with a berry burst drink, which apparently is very popular but after trying it, is an acquired taste. Due to the short flight time, once airborne the meal boxes were served immediately. The meal boxes contained a main meal which was vegetarian and included a veggie protein with a salad and another box containing dessert; warm bread and your choice of drink were served afterwards. The quantity of the meal box was sufficient for the short-duration of the flight, and as I said earlier the quality of the food was better than expected. I tend to not enjoy airplane food, as most of them are not good, but this food was actually good quality and taste and in fact the food in the plane was better than the food in the lounge.
We landed in Heathrow late as we departed late and even though we had business class tags and sky priority tags, our luggage did not come out first but rather came out in the middle. Overall, it was a mixed bag experience with KLM. I haven't flown with KLM for over 20+ years so I was unsure as to what to expect. Positives were the better-than-expected quality of food that was given and the average seat quality and pitch. Negatives was the lack of wifi and/or entertainment provided, a lack of customer service nor attention even paid to business class passengers, lack of communication regarding delays, and finally confusion and lack of order regarding boarding.
When traveling through Italy, we were stopping in Milan and there are many hotels to choose from but our criteria was the following: easy access to shops and restaurants, easy access to public transportation, and big rooms. In looking for these criteria, we found the Melia Milano which is on the outskirts of the city near the football stadium and near the Lotto metro stop. From this stop, it would take about 15 mins to get to the city center and about 20mins to get to the main train station. I also had points with Melia so utilized this during my stay. From the outside the hotel looks big, and I found out later that the hotel is in a converted bakery factory hence the large size. The hotel is oddly situated in that it is in the middle of the neighborhood and so you have to walk 2-3 blocks to the main road to access the metro stop and the shops and restaurants. As you enter the hotel, you enter into this massive lobby with high ceilings and a grand staircase in the middle. To the left is the check-in desk and a waiting area and to the right is the bar and restaurant. Up the stairs is the first floor which contains the meeting rooms, the Melia lounge, as well as guest rooms. Our train was late so we arrived almost at midnight at the hotel and check-in was curt, not very friendly, and barely provided any information on the hotel (more about this later on). I received my key and went to the room on the first floor.
The first thing I noticed when I entered the room is that despite the large size of the hotel and the massive lobby, the hotel rooms were somewhat smaller and more compact than I expected; the size would be fine if I was closer to the city but away from the city one expects a larger room size. As you entered the room, on the left was the entrance to the bathroom while on the right was a little wall that ended as you entered into the main part of the room. The bathroom was decent but also compact and contained a toilet, bidet, sink with minimal counter space, and a walk-in shower. The toiletries were refillable and had handwash and lotion next to the sink with body wash, shampoo and conditioner in the shower; the basic amenities were there but the space was more compact and restricted. 
As you entered into the room, on the right was a stand with shelves for storage and then continuing on the right was a nook with an open closet and open luggage rack. The luggage rack and open closet was a nice touch but there was minimal storage space as the open rack and the shelves were the only storage. In the main part of the room, the king-size bed was along with right side of the wall and on each side of the bed was a table with a lamp on it and plugs behind it along with USB ports. The bed was decent enough for the first night but was a bit uncomfortable towards the third night but overall provided a decent sleep. The tables next to the bed were somewhat small so again it did the job but space was limited. Across from the bed, along the left side of the wall, was the TV mounted on the wall and in the corner a table with chairs. The table and chairs was a nice touch to have but again it was a small table so could barely have two people eating or drinking at the same time. Overall it was a decent room with the necessary amenities but the space was more compact than I expected for a suburb hotel.
The hotel is a full-service hotel so has lots of amenities including a hotel bar, restaurant, meeting rooms, hotel lounge, a gym, and wifi. The wifi was decent and you could connect as many devices as you want but it did slow down sometimes and was not always the most reliable. I did not try the bar nor restaurant but did see lots of people going there so it seemed popular. I have tried the Melia lounge during my first experience with Melia in Punta Cana (check out the review here) and I was not overly impressed with the quality so we did not opt that here. Overall, it was not an impressive stay at Melia Milano. I have stayed at other Melia properties before and INNSIDE Melia New York NOMAD (review here) is one of my favorite places to stay in NYC because its convenient and the room sizes are decent for the central location; but this hotel was outside the city and is in a former factory so one would expect bigger rooms but the size of this room is what you would expect at a hotel closer to the city. The customer service was also lacking as we connected with the frontdesk staff many times and throughout my interactions only staff person was actually nice and helpful while the others barely did their job and barely provided any support. An example of that is we woke up one morning and the lobby entrance and access was restricted; apparently the football/soccer team was staying at the hotel before the gameday. While I understand they could not say why there would be distributions but altering the guests as to potential distributions to access would have been helpful and communicative.
