KLM: the Royal Belgian Airline?
A couple of weeks ago, I bought a KLM ticket from Amsterdam to New York. I found this bypass via Ticketspy.nl. Ticketspy.nl is a website that advises how to get reductions on your tickets and bookings. That explains in detail how you can pay less for your traveling.
By making my booking via Antwerpen instead of Amsterdam I saved quite a lot of money. KLM apparently used different rates for foreign (Belgian) travellers than for her loyal Dutch clients. On the same flights!
Check this link for instance: http://ticketspy.nl/?s=new+york
It all surprised me a little, why would somebody traveling from Belgium pay less for the same flight? One day this had to come out? But Dutch as I am, I took the advantage and booked my ticket this way via Cheaptickets.nl.
I got my confirmation from both Cheaptickets and KLM (via app) giving me my journey and my flight times from Schiphol to New York. In none of the confirmations, anyone mentioned I had to use the train from Antwerp.
I reserved my seats in the plane (and got confirmed), I bought an Esta (which is needed and that was made clear to me), so I was ready for the flight to NYC.
Belangrijke Informatie Reizen naar of via de VS
Als je van of naar de VS reist of hier een overstap maakt, heb je een electronische reistoestemming (ESTA) nodig.
Schemawijzigingen
Vluchtnummers en -tijden kunnen (ook tijdens je reis) nog veranderen. Wij raden je aan om voor vertrek van iedere vlucht de actuele vluchtinformatie via de website van KLM te controleren.
Vliegticketgarantie
Je hebt de Vliegticketgarantie afgesloten. Bekijk de voorwaarden hier.
Last Saturday I went to Schiphol airport to check-in on my flight together with my daughter. But the self check-in didn’t work. I was told that I had to check in at desk 16, so I walked up there and again was redirected to another desk. And there the female KLM ground bitch explained me I had to pay the difference between my ticket price and tickets from Amsterdam to New York. I looked at my daughter and back to the KLM bitch and said I did not believe what she was trying to explain to me. For I did not use the train from Antwerp to Amsterdam, I had to pay more? Alice in Wonderland understood things faster than I did last Saturday morning at the KLM desk.
I tried to ask for a solution, but the robot answer was: “sorry mister, discussion is closed”. The KLM bitch became a KLM judge and fined me with an extra payment of €300.-. If I would not pay, she would take us off the flight. I paid but off course I felt bad. KLM blackmailed me. Either you pay, or you are not flying this flight. That is the rule sir.
I tried to get understanding from the @KLM webcare team, but that did not reduce my frustration either. I think Siri is more understanding than these student-workers on a Saturday morning trying to get rid of people like me and treating my complaints by unstoppably repeating answers I already knew.
Time for a recap, what went wrong in this case. KLM used to be a top brand!
Wrong is that KLM is using different prices in different channels, and that they are not transparant about it. It looks like they want to hide the fact that travellers that book from Antwerp pay hundreds of euros less for a ticket for the same flight, than travellers coming from for instance from Breda, a little 20 minutes up above the Dutch/Belgian border. That sounds weird to me. KLM should be transparant about selling cheaper tickets via other boarding hubs. KLM should not try to hide it and KLM should not use General Conditions, online clauses or gobbledigook to get away with it. Be honest, be transparant. Everybody knows you!
Second. If customers are honest about not knowing these stupid rules and conditions, KLM should not be too hard on them. If they simply did not know, did not read anything in their confirmations, they are not stupid. Maybe the KLM bitch could have explained how stupid it was that I did not read all of their general conditions and clauses, and than let me through instead of judging me and making me pay the difference. Maybe I would have talked about her now as an nice lady who does her job well instead of what I am thinking now loud of her. Definitely she should not have made a laugh of me with her fellow KLM desk colleagues. Maybe that was what insulted me and my daughter most. Laughing KLM staff about the fact they made a man pay an extra €300.- That is far from Royal, and brings you back to an ordinary Dutch Airline. I could have promoted KLM, and the advantages that traveling from Antwerp can bring. I could have explained people that they should be aware that they have to take the train if they don’t want to risk an extra payment. I could have endorsed the KLM staff, trying to work something out. But I won’t.
Given the mentioned service I’ll be direct and honest too about the rest of my personal KLM experience.
1st. The flight to New York was lousy. We had a 30 minute delay. There were 130 empty chairs in the plain, so I felt extra bad that the KLM bitch made pay extra. There was room enough to give away seats. What an occasion to make good PR. One exception was the young girl in our wing. She worked hard. I met an uninterested elderly and lazy crew that did their job on auto mode. Probably my mind was still a bit colored but I have had better crews before at KLM.
2nd. The food in both the AMS-JFK and back flights is really terrible. Please stop distributing these meals. I intentionally bought a Mac Donalds Cheeseburger at JFK before my trip back to Amsterdam, to avoid to be dependent on the KLM food. And I was right. The food on the return flight was even worse than the pasta I took on the way up.
3rd. Take people serious. By now, you should know, how much damage bad PR can do. One of your employees might have felt great last Saturday, her behavior made me feel really negative about KLM. You should defend your brand a lot better than you did. Stay Royal, Royal Dutch Airlines. Don’t become one of the rest.
Also read : http://travelersmagazine.nl/goedkope-klm-vliegtickets-vanuit-belgie/#1 (sorry, it is in Dutch)
On March 7th the Cheaptickets Customer Service called me and offered to refund the money I had to pay to KLM. March 11th I received the amount. That’s what I call a royal gesture! I’ll book my next flight through Cheaptickets if possible. Thanks !