KLM shenanigans!
Discussion
We booked our annual South Africa flights back in May.
Last week, we received an email saying our outbound flight had been cancelled so they’d put us on a flight the previous day. That meant an airport hotel for the night.
To be honest, it was a bit of a relief as our early morning flight from Newcastle only gave us around an hour and a half to change flights at Schiphol.
On the back of that we went ahead and booked our hotel which was non refundable.
Today, we get another email saying our revised outbound flights have been cancelled due to “operational reasons” and they now have booked us onto Air France via Paris CDG which renders the Schiphol hotel booking redundant!
Going through the revised flight booking we see that our prebooked seats on the original KLM Amsterdam to Cape Town flight haven’t transferred across to the Air France Paris CDG to Cape Town flight - understandable as they are different plane layouts.
However they try to charge you twice for the seats.
Well that wasn’t going to happen so contacted KLM Customer Services by phone (not straightforward) and eventually they agree to waive the charges.
Now we need to chase up our refund for the hotel booking - wish me luck!
Last week, we received an email saying our outbound flight had been cancelled so they’d put us on a flight the previous day. That meant an airport hotel for the night.
To be honest, it was a bit of a relief as our early morning flight from Newcastle only gave us around an hour and a half to change flights at Schiphol.
On the back of that we went ahead and booked our hotel which was non refundable.
Today, we get another email saying our revised outbound flights have been cancelled due to “operational reasons” and they now have booked us onto Air France via Paris CDG which renders the Schiphol hotel booking redundant!
Going through the revised flight booking we see that our prebooked seats on the original KLM Amsterdam to Cape Town flight haven’t transferred across to the Air France Paris CDG to Cape Town flight - understandable as they are different plane layouts.
However they try to charge you twice for the seats.
Well that wasn’t going to happen so contacted KLM Customer Services by phone (not straightforward) and eventually they agree to waive the charges.
Now we need to chase up our refund for the hotel booking - wish me luck!
I can tell from experience a 90 lay over in Schipol is pushing it, so you are probably lucky in that respect.
Personally I've had a bad experience of KLM and how woeful their customer service is many years ago, so I've never given them a penny since and never will.
Good luck with recovering the costs.
Personally I've had a bad experience of KLM and how woeful their customer service is many years ago, so I've never given them a penny since and never will.
Good luck with recovering the costs.
Absolutely, by far the worst airline I have EVER had the misfortune to fly on.
Ancient, grubby aircraft, miserable staff, awful food and drink selection and the narrowest seats I have ever seen on an airline! And I have very slim hips!
Plus they lost my luggage, and as has been said above, the worst customer service you will ever have to deal with.
I would never fly with them again!
Ancient, grubby aircraft, miserable staff, awful food and drink selection and the narrowest seats I have ever seen on an airline! And I have very slim hips!
Plus they lost my luggage, and as has been said above, the worst customer service you will ever have to deal with.
I would never fly with them again!
I’ve not flown KLM since I came back from Bangkok to NCL (via AMS) with them - I’d booked business for myself, wife and daughter (she was c.3 at the time)
They tried repeatedly and more aggressively to “upgrade” me from 3 business seats to the whole final row in economy. For the BKK -AMS leg.
I refused each time but at the gate we were denied boarding as the agent had changed the ticketed seating anyways. I hit the roof about it.
After a very public argument they finally reinstated the seats but it was only just as the doors were about to close.
I’d never willing use them again.
They tried repeatedly and more aggressively to “upgrade” me from 3 business seats to the whole final row in economy. For the BKK -AMS leg.
I refused each time but at the gate we were denied boarding as the agent had changed the ticketed seating anyways. I hit the roof about it.
After a very public argument they finally reinstated the seats but it was only just as the doors were about to close.
I’d never willing use them again.
Im going to stick the boot in against Emirates.
Woke up ready to go the airport to fly back from New Zealand to Dubai for stop over, then back to UK.
Flight cancelled. No explanation. Left it to us to contact them to get seats 24 hours later. Extra night in the hotel, extra day car hire, fees for changing hotel booking in Dubai. Lots of stress and expense.
On returning to UK, used Emirates complaint portal. That was a mess because it did not recognise the flight numbers saying they did not exist. Each problem has to be reported as separate issue so had to raise 6 complaints. After 89 days, they answered complaint #1 saying 'sorry', ignored the other 5 complaints.
Emirates enjoy a reputation that they really should not. IMHO....awful, disorganised, zero customer care.
Woke up ready to go the airport to fly back from New Zealand to Dubai for stop over, then back to UK.
Flight cancelled. No explanation. Left it to us to contact them to get seats 24 hours later. Extra night in the hotel, extra day car hire, fees for changing hotel booking in Dubai. Lots of stress and expense.
On returning to UK, used Emirates complaint portal. That was a mess because it did not recognise the flight numbers saying they did not exist. Each problem has to be reported as separate issue so had to raise 6 complaints. After 89 days, they answered complaint #1 saying 'sorry', ignored the other 5 complaints.
Emirates enjoy a reputation that they really should not. IMHO....awful, disorganised, zero customer care.
Well Expedia came back and despite trying on their behalf, nothing doing on the hotel refund front.
In addition KLM never came back regarding the waived charges on seats so booked them ourselves with Air France so now have that to claim back.
Travelled with KLM before but it was just after Covid so gave them the benefit of the doubt - agreed miserable staff, rubbish food and they cancelled our connecting flight to Newcastle so a 5 hour layover at Schiphol.
To be honest all airlines customer service is generally s
t - the worst of the worst was Vueling.
In addition KLM never came back regarding the waived charges on seats so booked them ourselves with Air France so now have that to claim back.
Travelled with KLM before but it was just after Covid so gave them the benefit of the doubt - agreed miserable staff, rubbish food and they cancelled our connecting flight to Newcastle so a 5 hour layover at Schiphol.
To be honest all airlines customer service is generally s
t - the worst of the worst was Vueling.Edited by Boxster5 on Sunday 30th November 12:20
Edited by Boxster5 on Sunday 30th November 15:47
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