KLM Reviews

I instructed KLM to mail the cheque - they claim that and there was a “problem with issuance of the cheque” and 5 months later have the absolute cheek to request that I provide them with details of an alternative bank account!!! I don’t believe they have even attempted to transfer my compensation. How could there be a problem with a bank transfer, or mailing, when all my details are on that void cheque? They are Incompetent beyond belief! It seems from all of the reviews I have seen that this disgraceful customer service is the norm for KLM/Air France. Shameful.

Original Review: It seems that there are very few reviews above one star and after my experience flying KLM I can understand why. As a world traveler I have never dealt with such dismissive “customer care” agents. Due to an incident at the airport my flight left without me causing me to miss an transatlantic connection. TWO suitcases were damaged during my journey and trying to get compensation from KLM is like getting blood out of stone! I would never recommend KLM.

Original Review: March 26, 2024

I bought KLM tickets for a flight from Amsterdam to Madrid operated by KLM. After few days I got an email notification that my flight will be operated by some airline called "Privilege Style" I never heard about instead of KLM. All my attempts to cancel the tickets and get a refund were either refused or ignored. I ended up buying new tickets from Iberia and trashing the KLM/Privilege Style tickets.

During this time things were also stolen out of my luggage. KLM would not reimburse for rentals or stolen items because a document they required I only had a partial copy of. Also cannot be reimbursed by my travel insurance, because KLM would not state they’re not paying me. They simply said they would pay me when I found the document which I no longer have. I will never travel with them again.

If you think the above was the worst part, well let me enlighten my ordeal at AMS. The KLM crew at Amsterdam are the rudest and the most incompetent people I've ever seen. I was traveling on an Indian passport and the whole world knows that for a short 1-2 week stay in Dubai, you get a visa on arrival in Dubai. Apparently, this was too hard for the AMS transfer service team at T9 to comprehend. They kept insisting that they need to get an "approval" from Dubai airport authority for my arrival (Excuse me?). A lot of friends and family have travelled to Dubai through various airlines and never experienced this before. So here is the complete sequence of events that transpired at transfer desk T9 at AMS starting at 9 AM CET on 11/16. Reminder that my flight to Dubai was at 2.35 PM on the same day -

1) The KLM reps at T9 insist they need an approval from Dubai airport authority for my visa. They draft an "email" requesting Dubai for approval. And ask me to come back after an hour.

2) I'm back after an hour, and they haven't received a response. So they call Dubai again and eventually end up sending another email. This goes on for another 2 hours. When I question KLM as to why Indian passport holders need an "approval", they say it's a KLM "system" issue and the boarding pass cannot be issued without an approval. (Ugh, what?)

4) A couple of hours before boarding (12ish PM CET), the team at T9 shirk all responsbility and ask me to take it up with the KLM reps at the boarding gate. The team at the gate would go through the same process - call Dubai and send an "email" waiting for an approval. And you guessed it, the email approval never arrives and eventually the boarding gate closes with me stranded at AMS.

5) Another rep at the boarding gate then takes me back to the T9 desk and dumps me there saying, "The T9 team will help you (Hahah!)." And so we're back to square one.

6) After multiple back and forth, a rep at T9 assures me at around 7 PM that they have received a verbal OK from Dubai, but my ticket is still blocked by the "system" and the "system" can only unblock it after 24 hours. She asks me to report back at 6 AM the next morning so she can issue me a boarding pass for the same flight next day (11/17). When I ask for food and hotel vouchers for all the delay and the hassle, the T9 rep says it's not in their policy (huh???). So I end up paying for food and an overnight airport stay on my own dime.

7) The next day, I get to the T9 desk at 6 AM sharp. Lo and behold, the team at T9 is not aware of any verbal approval from Dubai and that their system still shows my ticket as "blocked". And they start the process again i.e send an "email" to Dubai, and ask me to come back at 12 PM to check on the status. You know where this is going.

How can a professional airline be so incompetent, ignorant and negligent at the same time? Surely, this is not the first time someone with an Indian passport is traveling to Dubai through AMS? Second, how can the transfer desk team at T9 be so ignorant and unaware of what's going on from one agent to another? One of them assured me in no uncertain terms that I'll be good to go the next morning. But of course not.

I eventually gave up on KLM, booked an Emirates flight and boarded and reached Dubai without the slightest of problems. When I mentioned to the Emirates team at the gate that I'm eligible for a visa on arrival, they checked my documentation and gave me a boarding pass. The process took in less than 2 min. KLM and their transfer desk team can learn a things or two (or 50) from Emirates. I'll never fly with KLM again after such a horrifying experience.

I then tried the Delta help desk who was ironically the most helpful in this entire process. KLM and Air France have disregarded me as a consumer with completely inappropriate communication. They jerked me around, caused me hours of stress, possibly missing a day of vacation which I had eagerly saved for, and all without apology. I will make sure me and my family never fly these two airlines again. This is beyond unethical business practice and I cannot believe that people with a conscience can work for a company that pulls stuff like this.

This is the response I received from KLM - However, your full itinerary started and ended in countries that are outside the European Union. The European Court of Justice has ruled that the legal compensation set by the EC Regulation 261/2004 does not apply to such an itinerary. Therefore, I cannot respond favorably to your request. - So they did not do as the manager promised and they decided rather than make things right they will just treat the customer like garbage.

They could be so much better, in the meantime, avoid travelling with them until they get their act together. Watch the KLM team wave goodbye to your luggage and then YOU WILL discover so much more... a total lack of customer service, please remember the (paying) passengers keep you going, you will need to re-learn the definition of "customer service".

Sadly, upon landing, we were informed by KLM that the 6 children on the reservation did not have Delta One seats on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit in the morning. After another hour on the phone with Delta/KLM, we were told that the previous supervisor never should have promised us those seats because they are not actually available. Other people will get upgraded for free, and the six children will not get the Delta One seats that their Grandparents bought them as a once in a lifetime gift! Isn't it strange that the 4 adults on the reservation have assigned seats in Delta One, but the 6 children do not?? Why would Delta/KLM assign the seats to the adults, but not the children?? The most recent Delta agent told us that the 6 kids seats were given away as free upgrades.

Why would Delta/KLM choose to give away Delta One seats for free, instead of to 6 children who had seats that were paid for them by their Grandparents many months ago? You tell me, because I certainly can't figure it out. All I know is that Delta and KLM don't keep their word, and it seems as if they don't want paid tickets for 10 people who are 3 generations of a family all together in Delta One, and would rather fill the seats with free upgrades. This is not the first time Delta has done this and they refund us 10% of the actual ticket price. Shame on Delta and KLM. As a diamond member, I suggest you fly American or another airline with more integrity.

Next the bad: My traveling companion uses a wheelchair. KLM said they would assist us from the Lounge to the airplane and, when we arrived at IAD, from the airplane through customs to the baggage area. Sadly, the assistance did not come. I had to somehow make my way with carry-on luggage while pushing the wheelchair. I am over 80 years old and getting wheelchair assistance was exactly why we purchased business-class tickets. When we got to the gate at Schipol, the attendants did assist us getting onto the plane. On arrival at IAD, however, we - and the other wheelchair passengers, were told to wait in the aircraft until our wheelchairs came to the door of the plane. This took close to an hour!

The wheelchair for one passenger, a fellow from Germany with two knee replacements and a bad back, never came. There were not enough assistants to push all the wheelchairs. So, we were all left sitting at the gate for the plane with the passengers who were getting ready to board the plane staring at us. Finally, as a group, we told the few attendants who were assigned to us that we should proceed. The fellow without the wheelchair moved with us but in pain with each step he took. We asked the assistants to help the weakest and those of us who were stronger, slowly proceeded to customs.

When we got to customs, there was a separate line for wheelchairs. This line was shorter and moved more quickly than the line for able-bodied passengers. Unfortunately, our wheelchair assistants left us saying they had to go to assist other handicapped people. We all helped each other to the customs inspectors. I realize KLM is not responsible for the wheelchair assistance at IAD but they did leave us standing unattended having deposited us off the plane in plain view of the next group of passengers who were waiting to board the plane for the flight back to Amsterdam. The crew members said they were off to their hotel (Omni Shoreham in DC).

The food was so disappointing. For the main meal (in business), we got stuffed shells as an appetizer. The main course selection that I made was braised beef. What came looked (pardon me) like a cow dropping on a bed of mashed potatoes. I couldn't believe they would serve something like that. I was so turned off, I don't remember the dessert.

The ugly: My wife got sick on the plane. The steward who was responsible for our section, ignored her as she vomited into an almost empty glass. He avoided us for a while and then passed by throwing abut 5 air sickness bags and many paper towels at us. He seemed to want to stay as far away from us as possible. When he passed us, he looked away and assiduously ignored us. I tried to get his attention and when he came he was very curt and abrupt. It was clear he wanted to get away from us. We felt abandoned and felt we were being treated like lepers. I thought that no passenger should be treated this way - especially if we had paid premium dollars to fly business class. This treatment lasted for over three hours.

Upon landing, I get again an email and a text message letting me know that our baggage was not transferred and it will arrive in Ibiza after 24 hours and we each can spend up to 100 euros to buy the necessities and the extra costs will be refunded by KLM. I've submitted this claim on the 8th of September and since then called 10 times different numbers, followed up on my request via the KLM website and never heard back. Everyone I'm talking to on the phone does not know how to help me and nobody replies via email. I've contacted KLM via phone, email, WhatsApp number, Facebook. I even called the number in France for AirFrance's main customer service and nobody can help. This is very frustrating and it's really the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE in my life!

However, against my consent, the agent on the phone submitted the refund request during the call, and by the time I submitted my details via email (within 4 hours), they sent the money to an old bank where I no longer had an account. The bank rejected the incoming money since the account doesn't exist but KLM refused to re-issue either the voucher or the payment. As such, they stole 350 EUR from me since it was returned to their accounts but they won't give it to me, and I will never fly KLM again.

I'm going to ask you why keep this totally unprofessional people in your company? I was without sleep for 20 hours, 8 hours in Airport, no boarding, I paid for taxi 2200 rubles and PCR test 2850 rubles, also accommodation 10 000 rubles. I need refund or flight reschedule. In all this situation, responsibility totally on KLM. This is weird situation created by your staff. Sorry but you must pay my expenses. As I was reading on internet, KLM never pay for their mistakes and never apologises. In the future I'm not going to fly KLM. Miserable people and fraudulent, corrupted company. If you want to stay away of trouble do not fly KLM. Sincerely, Iouri **

Literally 20 hours on the phone later and uncountable hours on the internet, I came to the very sad conclusion that KLM does not talk to Delta! Yikes! I was cut off, had calls dropped after waiting 3.5 hours etc. Unbelievable! No one from KLM seemed to know how to upgrade my seats across board. After spending the best part of $200 USD for economy, main seat upgrades, I find myself less than excited about these flights. Please understand, this was a big deal where a dear friend and I were creating the trip of our dreams. Now we won’t even sit together much less fly together! It’s been an awful nightmare. Please understand that I am a seasoned tour guide who has flown to Europe yearly for well over 20 years. My suggestion: get rid of your Flying Blue and your KLM credit card and fly through alternate carriers unless you’re in the EU.

Schipohl's bag drop makes no sense because it mixes people who are in a hurry with people who happen to be there early for their flight. The staff valiantly try to mitigate the chaos imposed by their incompetent superiors by pulling out people who look like they are going to a particular destination. So a group of men who were obviously going to Tel Aviv were taken to the front of the queue. Since I don't look African I did not benefit from their ethnic categorisation efforts even though my flight to South Africa was earlier. I strongly recommend that Schiphol revert to the tried and tested approach that all other airlines seem to use with great success. I fly a lot, and something as simple as dropping off a bag should not take longer than 15 minutes.

Once at the KLM check-in desk, at the Dubai Airport, I handed all the documentation I had and the KLM representative started the process of printing the boarding passes. I interrupted him and mentioned that I did not have the approval from the IRCC which was stated as a requirement on their "travel doc" site. He assured me that I would not need it, I told him to please check for me to make sure, because I did not want to be stranded anywhere, he got up off his seat and proceeded to a team leader or a manager on duty and then assured me again that I would be able to fly and would not have any issues transiting through Amsterdam or entering Canada.

With this information, I was very relieved and informed him that I was not prepared to fly today as I thought that that would be a requirement, but just for the sake of trying I decided to get the information first hand at the airport. He then mentioned to me that there is not problem because I have all the other documentation which are important except for the approval which is fine. Long story short, once I arrived at my point of transit Amsterdam, they did not let me board the flight to Calgary, and informed me that I needed the IRCC approval to get on the plane. Completely distraught and disappointed, I took the next flight back to Dubai, leaving an hour later. That was how I spent my entire day, was lied to my a KLM representative who I put my trust in, and stuck on a plane for over 13 hours with over 5 hours of layover.

When I decided to take up the matter with KLM customer care, they admitted to their mistake but still refused to give me a full refund for my full ticket flight that was completely wasted. They are offering to give a refund on the 2 flight legs that were unused, that is from Amsterdam to Calgary and back to Amsterdam. However, not for the flight from Dubai to Calgary, which is a little absurd. They should provide the full refund given I ONLY flew to finally land in Calgary. I spent a total of AED 4,955 for the full flight which was not returned. I then had to spend a lot more money trying to book a last minute flight to Calgary with another airline once the approval came out. I have never been more annoyed and insulted with KLM's deceitful actions. I definitely would not recommend KLM to anyone, solely because of their customer care.

If they overbooked, they could at least try to help but no they didn’t. When we called the customer service, we were told that was our fault as we didn’t called to get the itineraries. The customer was rude, yelled at us, didn’t attempt to accommodated us at all. I rated KLM 0/10 for their bad service and the poor treatment we received. We had to book another to fly to Paris and to Boston the next day.

In the meantime, KLM is hanging on to my cash and I don't even have a ticket anymore. I don't have flight nor do I have my cash. Basically they screwed me. Had I known it takes WEEKS to get your money back, I wouldn't have chosen KLM. I tried calling customer support and as other reviewers have said -- the experience is terrible. It's impossible to get anybody on the phone. They say to you with an automated message: "We're sorry due to heavy call volume the wait time is more than 30 minutes. Disconnecting the call now." And they hang up on you.

It's absolutely impossible to get anybody on the phone or to reach customer support. This is terrible. I am an American and American companies NEVER behave this way. This is classic for a EU company, perhaps? But they are doing business in the USA with a USA-facing sales site -- so they should raise their standards. It's a disgrace to be treated this way. They are doing a classic bait-and-switch. Had I known cancelation would be this problematic, I would have chosen another airline.

Called the following day, bright and early, after trying to transfer me 3 times for 10-20 min hold each and every time I was getting disconnected. When I asked to speak with a manager I was told that instead they could give me the Bulgarian # so I can try on my own and pay international phone fees. About 30 min later, still on the line trying to speak with a manager. Next I will just call my cc company and cancel, but oh boy the nerves and times spent on cancelling a fully refundable ticket...

I will never fly with them again as I was assured that strict social distancing protocol would be enforced on the flight. People were running around, changing seats and generally polluting the whole plane if they were infected with Covid. It was ridiculous and inexcusable. The return flight cancellation was abominable and I will submit a complaint to SKYTRAX as soon as I've finished this one. The customer service agents have no idea what they are doing and I would kindly suggest that the lot of them get intensive retraining.

Gillian

24 hours later I receive a message from them telling me I need to pay 179 euro extra if I wanted a new ticket the correct information. Again, I filled up the information correctly, they are the ones that messed up the name! I called again and waited another 30 min for someone to help me with this issue.. I still don’t have a new ticket yet and I honestly doubt I will receive one before my mom’s flight which is in 24 hours. Do yourself a favor and fly with a different airline, KLM is the absolute worst.

In addition, my bags were overweight by a combined total of 3.5kg - they charged me €400 for it! They left me with no option - I either pay an extortionate amounts of money or I leave my bags in the airport. And now, they are still refusing to acknowledge that it is their mistake. They keep saying ‘our system says four bags', even though EVERYTHING they issued states five bags! Their customer services are appalling - from the person who checked me in to every person who has since tried to 'resolve' my issue.

I tried emailing and messaging via what's app. No actual response besides their automated replies. My original flight times kept changing on multiple occasions on their end with disregard if that time would work for me, especially when my tickets were round trip and involving connections. One of the round trip got canceled and was offered to canceled. I submitted the form. Days later I received a new round trip ticket with different flight time. Unbelievable. This was my first time booking with klm and would be my last. Do not fly with klm. When an issue arises, you will have no help from from the airline. They hold on to your money like a leech.

Original Review: March 29, 2020

I booked two tickets to Italy last December for this coming September. With the coronavirus, I've moved my trip back a year, wanted to move my tickets back and I'm unable to get into my account, it refuses to recognize me. I asked for a reset and noting, just form letters telling me to rebook myself. I really want to cancel, I don't want to fly with them now. If I'd have known they weren't giving refunds, I'd never have booked in the first place.

Second Incident KLM AIRLINE Service. Second day I flew New Castle to Heathrow with KLM AIRLINE Service & I flew Heathrow to Malaysia with Malaysia Airlines, KLM AIRLINE is bad service, Well they have done it again!!!! They LOST MY LUGGAGE AGAIN!!!! How is that possible that an airline could lose the bags. I went my holidays without my Luggage. It's totally KLM AIRLINE SERVICE mistake.

Kindly inform to all the passengers who going to book this service don’t book, before book this service please read the REVIEW without reviewing this service. Don’t waste your holiday mood. And I paid to Taxi go to Airport Malaysia and I paid 150 Pounds to collect my luggage. After 12hours almost this KLM AIRLINE SERVICE wastes my time and spoiled my holiday also. Third Incident. My return flight also same airlines. It's mean KLM AIRLINE SERVICE and they LOST MY LUGGAGE AGAIN!!!! For My incident I'm going to made a report to my lawyer because I waste my money and I waste my valuable time. Please don’t use KLM AIRLINE SERVICE. Please.

The "recent release" was a 2004 movie. The TV series showed the first episode of "Friends." And that's all. I could go on. Now I realize airplane food is usually not first rate, and so I don't expect first rate food, but this food was even worse than most. There were no attempts to make one comfortable. No blanket or pillow. Nothing like that. But the real reason I'm writing this rather than choosing not to fly with KLM again in silence is this: In all my years of flying (anywhere), our luggage was never lost. I know. Some kind of miracle, right?

Well, KLM lost both my husband and my luggage and then stated this, "Well, it's your fault for not putting all your things in your carry on." Why in the world would we put two weeks of clothing etc. in our carry ons? They did not apologize or act contrite in any way. Just... it's your own fault. Yes, it was. For picking KLM. We know better next time. We eventually got our luggage back, several days later, but we had to buy new clothing because we didn't know when or even IF we'd get our luggage back. So, before you book...think twice!

KL1838 no provisioning. Asked for water and was told there was none, meanwhile flight attendants drank bottled water and made hot tea for pilots in plain view of Business pax. KL 661 no seat assigned, had to sit in last row behind coach galleys. Terrible experience! Will never fly on KLM again! Customer service non-existent! Request change fee refund got no avail. Now requesting a 50% Refund of round trip fare...

Got a new flight with more connections, got to Frankfurt this morning and he my boyfriend wasn’t in the system. Couldn’t get on the flight. Had to call again.. Your manager I spoke to was very rude and not helpful. My boyfriend is sick and stuck at the airport because of your airport mistake. NO HELP. It’s not the customer fault, they can’t find him in the system.

KLM can get a 777 from Bali to Amsterdam via Singapore to arrive 10 minutes ahead of schedule at gate in Amsterdam but can't get bags from an F gate to a D gate in an hour. We do Sing - UK 4 x times year. This is the first and last on KLM. It's incredible that a bag on flight with no passenger results in flight being held while bags offloaded yet in 2019 passengers on flight no bags goes on time. If your ground agent can't make a 1 hour connection then don't sell tickets that say you can.

KLM refused to help me. IT WAS MIDNIGHT! I HAD A BABY AND KNEW NO ONE IN HOLLAND. I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE NAPPIES FOR MY BABY GIRL SINCE THEY WERE IN THE LUGGAGE! AND ABOVE ALL IT WAS THEIR FAULT BUT REFUSED TO ACCEPT IT. I had to book a hotel by myself and took a plane to Bristol the next day. Then got a call from my travel agent saying KLM had cancelled my return to Athens when they saw I had not arrived in Bristol the previous night!!

First, they don't let me on the plane to Bristol leaving me alone with a baby in the middle of the night and then, if it wasn't disturbing enough, they don't let me use my return either!! We got the return restored and got back to Athens. Wrote a complaint letter and was acknowledged by the staff in Athens who paid the hotel in Amsterdam and, oh no!, gave me a free ticket to travel again with them. Needless to say that I threw it to the rubbish bin. The KLM staff in Athens made a mistake and gave compensation. The KLM staff in Amsterdam were unkind and unhelpful. If something had happened to me and my baby that night, it would have been THEIR FAULT!! !

The rep said there was nothing she could do and we would have to purchase new tickets. The people next to me had encountered the same problem with the same connection and they were given another ticket. Needless to say we were very distressed but called Delta and they put us on another flight. As we got to the gate D7 they were completing the boarding process and refused to acknowledge that we were now listed on the flight. The rep said she had no way of reading Delta's changes; therefore we missed the flight again. The desk attendant was demeaning and abrupt.

Delta again put us on another flight now connecting to Minneapolis (DL0163) and this time we had time to go back to T6 rep and again endure difficulties until we met Charlotte **. She was gracious enough to research and found our boarding passes and assigned seats together. She was empathic and went above and beyond. I will avoid flights with KLM in the future.

They refused to refund any money at all. A flight worth over R24000 (roughly 1400 euros), they just kept the money. I log this into the same category as stealing from poor people. After this, not me nor my family will ever fly with KLM again. They only care about money and will not help their customers who cannot control the situations they are in.

I work in Support as well, and this is unacceptable. Even worse, another colleague just confirmed that she got on the United flight as well, so it seems that it was possible for two people who were in my exact situation, but not for me. So thank you KLM support, you just helped your employer lose a customer. GG WP. Flight in question: **

All they have to say is they were within their rights to do so. Ignoring the lack of morals involved and stress it caused me. I wasn't interested in their measly offer of compensation, I just wanted my original flight. To do this to people - which I believe they do regularly - at such short notice is immoral and wrong. Sent a complaint afterwards and today - 8 days later - no response. When I rang for an update, I got another of their human robots who just repeated they were within their rights to do it. The stress this cause me at the time, as well as forcing me to take a different flight which left me with virtually no sleep, is not patched up by some lowball monetary offer. Their lack of understanding compounds that this airline truly does not care.

Instead of offering her to help and change the tickets to another day (and paying changing fees) they just cancelled her tickets (forward and return ticket!) and refused to give any refund. Why did they cancel the return ticket as well while my mom told them that she is planning to fly once she has the visa? Why they didn’t refund the return ticket? Because they will resell it and receive double price (one time my mom paid and then resell for one more for full price). Very bad business behavior KLM and CheapOair! You could take fees for changing the flight and be nice to your customer, but your preferred to receive more money you reselling! Disgusting! No help and there is nobody you can talk, just took money! Finally we paid 3.5 times more than original price! The tickets were bought from KLM through CheapOair.

An air stewardess later brought two Dutch passengers to our row, after some exchange of information (I was speaking in English, while the Dutch passengers (2 female who seemed to be friends) and Dutch air stewardess exchanged in Dutch), they decided that I should be the one who moved to another seat, as "my size was smaller" - the couple was also Asian but I'd understand that they'd want to sit together with an infant in their hand. Then, more conversations in Dutch, and one of the fatter Dutch passengers insisted that I should be the one who moved (because I was the Asian among them) and also because she absolutely must sit there. The stewardess agreed.

I did not understand this as all the economy seats had the same size, and I did in fact pre-select my seat prior to boarding. If there was a problem, they should have informed me before I took my seat. The conversations in Dutch became louder, I insisted I did nothing wrong and deserved my seat, but the Dutch stewardess then FORCED me (yes, forced) to move the last row of the plane. I have issue with shaky plane due to some nerve problems (a kind of vertigo) and the back of the plane usually has the worse shaking/turbulence - a logic that many know. I swore it was an incident of RACISM by the stewardess and the passengers alike. It was my first time flying KLM, and definitely my last!!!

It therefore looks as though my luggage will not arrive today either. I have tried calling and online chatting with both KLM and Widerøe (which seems to take care of deliveries on behalf of KLM in such cases) to ask for an update but it has been impossible. Rude handling, appalling delivery service, absolute lack of information, impossibility to reach anybody, all in all outrageous. What KLM did, however, was take full advantage of some legal loophole to start sending me info via Whatsapp, even though I denied them access when buying the tickets. Awful experience.

The saddest part is that for both ‘cancelled’ flights, I was able to confirm that there were still seats available on the flights KLM said were cancelled, when I went on WestJet website. So much for being a loyal, Flying Blue customer all these years. KLM is not what it used to be. Previous years there were problems when I booked using Delta website - KLM always blamed Delta, which is why I started doing all my reservations using KLM website. Who does KLM blame for lack of communication and blatant untruth when they claim a flight has been cancelled, but I can confirm the flight still exists?

I could go on and on. But the most important and really annoying part is the awful and worst customer experience I had in my whole life in the aftermaths. No goodwill at all on the part of KLM. I have never had to complain before in this manner (I am not one of those annoying customers.). We were really looking forward to this trip and treated ourselves to business class tickets for our anniversary to have a memorable experience. Well, we have got that now. positive points: nice food on flight from Amsterdam (much better catering than from Havana), very friendly and honest flight attendants. I will never fly again with KLM and will tell others about our story.

I called the customer service number and the Lady was nice but on getting to the lady supervisor on the phone with a three way call, she was rude, insensitive, inhumane to my plight for help after I and my wife explained the situation to her. All she kept saying was my flight was not confirmed and she can not help me even after the gate KLM agent told me it was due to overbooked flight. She went on to say the flight the KLM airport agent gave me would not work because she can not see it on the computer and she refused to talk to the airport agent at any time to resolve the issue after explaining to her the need to...so they could discuss their findings on their individual KLM computers.

My question to KLM corporate is why do some KLM clients have to go through so much stress and why did they choose me to be downgraded, inconvenienced and embarrassed? I would have appreciated if someone explained to me honestly what was going on instead of some KLM staff especially the supervisor being so so so non-chalant about the situation. However, I would like to commend the last KLM customer service rep an ** man my wife spoke to tonight on the phone. He was empathetic and understanding.

I am really disappointed with the lady supervisor who did not make any attempt to understand the issue, not to talk about even resolving the issue. I am really disappointed with KLM as a whole and some agents do need to be retrained in dealing with issues at hand. I am praying for that supervisor for God to touch her heart to perform her job duties well to all the clients she comes in contact with both physically and on the phone. And I sincerely hope corporate will look into this matter and find ways to resolve issues like this and more. Overall, my experience today has been my teacher. I will seriously give it a deep thought before booking another flight on KLM for my future travels.

Of course before NO ONE informed us that they would accept it just if it fits to a given sizes! Very upset and angry, we decided to buy an extra seat for the dress (which, because the flight was so already so close, turned out to be more expensive than the tickets for both of us together!!!) And then... our request was denied once more. The reason: the dress is TOO FRAGILE. They suggested we put it into the luggage. You see, it was TOO FRAGILE for onboard but apparently not too fragile to be sent with the luggage even though everyone knows how the airlines treat your luggage! Then we told them it's ridiculous and sent the request for buying the extra seat again... and again we were denied. This time they said that the dress is "too big" (even though it was smaller and much lighter than e.g. musical instruments, which KLM allows to transport!!!)

We have requested again and again have been denied that it's too big... and then we requested again, promising that we gonna bend it three times, so it will be smaller (which of course we were not going to do, because then the dress would be completely destroyed!) - and then finally we were allowed to buy our overpriced seat. Of course, when we were actually flying, the crew was surprised that we had been forced to buy an extra seat - because they were immediately offering us space in the storage closet, which we had requested at the very beginning! And of course no one was trying to force us to bend the dress and of course the dress fit the seat perfectly and wasn't disturbing anyone.

What I do not understand, is: what do the people who make such decisions at KLM have against weddings? Why did they force us to go through all that TOTALLY UNNECESSARY stress just before our wedding? When we had already enough to sorry about? The crews and the people from the customer service were really nice - why some stinking decision making clerk, hiding behind the firewall of the customer service, was trying to make our life so unnecessarily miserable? Really, KLM, you should rethink the attitude of some of your managers - who have no direct contact with the customers, yet are doing their best to make the experience as unpleasant as possible!!!

Since then I have reported the theft and contents stolen to the South African police service and received a case number **. Delivered my damaged bag to the KLM preferred bag repair company The Coachman and received an invoice **. I have logged the complaint to the KLM online service twice. I have messaged KLM Messenger Facebook service over 10 times with all the required documents. It has now been 4 weeks and I have still not heard back from KLM.

Upon flying out of JFK back to Moscow with connection in Amsterdam again, we had long connection - 11 hours and we wanted to get our luggage in Amsterdam and then check it in for next flight. That was not possible. Since our request was very complicated (to get our suitcases in Amsterdam) people at the counter called supervisor of KLM. Woman arrived, totally not there with her mind. She was typing something in computer (we thought she was trying to help us but she was doing other things), she could not understand what our request was and was telling us different amounts that we need to pay - from 400 USD to 2000 USD. Then she left.

When she came back in half an hour she informed us that we have only five minutes, we need to pay 2000 USD (400 was not there anymore after 30 minutes of her absence) otherwise we miss the flight and then we need to buy new tickets. This kind of treatment you don't get with any airline anywhere in the world. It felt like we were somewhere in shady place at some market, where people bargain. Eventually we were informed that we missed the flight because we could not make up our minds (totally not true!!!) and we had to pay to get to next flight which departed in 6 hours. This was awful experience. KLM supervisor at JFK is definitely in wrong place.

There were not compensation because this is not in the regulation law for complaint and compensation. Air Help didn't help in this case. Very dissatisfied and disappointed. They slept in a hotel, lost one day and take other flight, completely tired. They never gave them facilities for to call or for to write a e-mail. They paid for their water and fruit in the hotel, receptionist throw the bills. Bad service, bad coordinations, they lie about the time connection. They must never sell tickets with only 50 minutes connection, this must be minimum 2 hours between flight flights.

On getting to Nigeria my husband has to wait a lot longer because one of his bag was missing. It turns out they left the other bag in Amsterdam, they told him to fill a form and they will call him when his bag arrive the next day but after waiting a few days nobody from KLM called him, the phone number they gave him nobody is picking up his calls so he wait back to the airport to find out about his bag and they told him to go back they will call him when they find the bag and is 3 weeks now the bag has not been found. My husband decided to send them message on WhatsApp then they replied him, find below my husband message and KLM reply.

(Thank you for the details. Our colleagues will double-check the status of your baggage and will update your PIR. You will be contacted if your baggage has been found). (We're back as promised. We have checked your file and see that there's still no new updates regarding your bag. We have updated your bag unique contents. Can you please confirm your length of stay on the aforementioned address? Furthermore, we advise you to fill in the Baggage Inventory and Claim Form via this link: http://klmf.ly/1vXvntX. Thank you for your patience so far).

(I am going back to Lagos on Saturday and will be leaving for the UK on Tuesday. It will be very sad if I return to the UK and the bag is nowhere to be found). (We regret to read about the inconvenience. We'll send a notification to our baggage team regarding the latest status of your delayed bag. We'll let you know right away as soon as we receive an update. Thanks for your patience and understanding for the meantime). My husband has not get his bag as at today's date 18th of August 2018.

The plane boarded and I was allowed on just as the door closed. Very stressful. When we got to Moscow, my luggage was still in Amsterdam. We had to fill out Russian baggage claim and received luggage 24 hours later damaged so badly we trashed the suitcase. ***THIS WAS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE RETURN FLIGHT. Arrive Airport 3:30AM and were told by KLM check in we were not on flight. Attempts to check in showed flight online but denied check in which Viking said was usual. KLM ticket agent rude and said, "Wait for lady in charge." She appeared 35 min later with AIR FRANCE uniform. As she approached us, she said, "This is Delta booking, they are all bad, it happens all the time, I don't know what I can do for you, you are not on the flight." She looked at her computer screen and said, “Too bad, we were Delta.”

We asked her to contact Delta and she waved her cell phone in the air and said she could not contact Delta, the wait time was one hour and she wasn't going to do that, for us to contact Delta. We were now at boarding time. We asked her if she had an internal number to contact Delta since they are partnered airlines and she said, “No. Only regular customer number” (hard to believe). She kept looking at our booking and saying it wasn't in her system. We asked her to look at the Delta booking number and she was rude saying she didn't care what Delta said and that she had no access to Delta (partnered airlines?). In the middle of this, a Russian man walked up with a problem and she took his boarding pass and worked things out for him while we waited.

In the beginning, we asked if we could buy a ticket for just the St. Petersburg to Amsterdam segment which was missing to make connections with the two remaining Delta flights. She said she didn't know and she was still looking but could do nothing. Finally, fifteen minutes before flight time, she told us to just go buy a ticket. Of course, our chance for connection was gone. We were told from the beginning there was no Delta agent, ticket window or contact in the airport. She would not give us credit for the missed connection toward any purchase. She finally told us she was done, could not do anything for us, had other customers with problems, and walked away.

We could not reach Delta because of wait time and flight was now leaving. We were told the Viking customer service would not open for three more hours and Delta still had long wait time on international phone. We went online to try to book and tried four flights only to have them show no seats available after we put in information. All the flights were filling quickly. Our visas were expiring at midnight and we were seeing the chance to get booked narrowing as the flights filled.

We had told KLM agent about visa problem and she gave us four pages of forms to fill out, all in RUSSIAN. She said give to "Visa people". We asked where that was and she said she did not know. We were stranded, alarmed about our visa status and received no help. No offer to email Delta or ask their home office to do something. Because the remaining flights for the day were filling so rapidly and we were alarmed about the potential of being in Russia on an expired visa, we had to purchase $4700 tickets to get home. BEWARE OF KLM OR ANY DELTA/KLM TICKETING.

She gave us an option to pay $4,000 for another flight, or to get lost. When we told her we didn't have that kind of money, she grabbed her manager, who told us "we're a business, not a charity. Good luck finding a way home." They went on to tell us that nobody in the building could help us at all. No refund for our wasted tickets, no getting us on another flight, and no sympathy especially. This cold response to our helpless situation was overwhelmingly harsh. It tainted our experience with Delta, and we will be avoiding them in the future. We're a reasonable pair of people, but the 100% lack of desire or even a spark of empathy to help us with our situation-- coming from people supposedly in customer service-- was very upsetting. This airline will turn on you with the slightest mishap, whether it's your fault or out of your control entirely.

After presenting a complaint through their website (We both wrote complaints to KLM and TAROM), they replied to me stating that, as per their records, we were late and therefore, we missed our own flight. I replied DEMANDING to see those records, because I am a billion percent sure we were not late and it was just that ONE KLM worker who decided not to let us in because... God knows what her reason could have been.

Their second response is ridiculously contradictory, as they state that: 1. They cannot really check anything. I quote them "we are unable to locate or find any specific information in our system concerning the exact check-in time". 2. They do not control those KLM workers handling the check-in of other airlines as they work for those other airlines (Remark: Their literal words to me were "we are KLM, not TAROM") 3. They repeated again "Based on the information we have, you were late and the crew was not able to check you in."

Of course I have demanded, ONCE AGAIN, what is THAT information they possess, that entitles them to state we were late. It was OUTRAGEOUS how we were treated, how we were taken out of our very right to go and drop our baggage and pass security control. Even there, in the middle of such bitter situation, up to 4 KLM staff had enough guts to tell us that the rules state we must be at the airport 3 hours prior departure to ensure "these things do not happen".

Sorry, crappy KLM, but NOPE. If an airline states check-in closes 45 minutes prior departure, then it is 45 minutes. Anything else is absolutely irrelevant (by the way, your airline states 40 minutes... just so you know). KLM is now "passing the hot potato" to TAROM, trying to convince us that this has nothing to do with them. Meanwhile TAROM told us (in person, at their office in Romania) that they are very surprised of such thing happening and they have no control over what KLM does while handling their flight's check-in. Meanwhile... I am still waiting to see ANY PIECE OF RECORD that sustains that my husband and I were late to our flight. It does not appear because GUESS WHAT, IT DOES NOT EXIST.

My one complaint would be that they allow young children (under 5 years) into business class... On one occasion a child screamed (not just cried, SCREAMED) for the better part of the 10 hour flight. When she wasn’t crying, she was colouring and playing with dozens of toys in the aisle, making it impossible to walk to the bathroom. Finally the attendant had to deal with it (parents refused to deal with it). Flight staff went above & beyond to try and calm the child so the other passengers in the class could try to sleep. Even with ear plugs in under noise canceling headphones, the screaming was audible. I realize this is not an issue with the airline itself. My point is that they tried their best, and that young children should not be allowed in business class.

I warned them that if they did not resolve my claim I would issue proceedings against them in the U.K. in the County Court which I will do this week. KLM "Customer Experience" is absolutely non-existent. They need to check out Emirates or Singapore Airlines to learn about looking after passengers. I will never ever fly with KLM again.

It was even worse at Amsterdam. Their KLM desk is filled with untrained, rude and very unprofessional employees. They gave me a seat other than the comfort aisle seat that I had paid extra for and made me wait an hour for a wheelchair so I was about to miss my flight to Seattle. I walked about 12 gates to get to my gate on a broken ankle. When arrived at Seattle, I had a pain in my calf which turned out to be a clot as a result of my being unable to move while seated. This is because they took my crutches and my boot so I could not move once seated and I could not raise my leg that was broken. When I asked them to the price of an upgrade to business, the horrible employee (the older Filipino female at the KLM counter in Amsterdam) told me the upgrade for one way would cost me $6000.00! Unbelievable and a lie and the business class was nearly empty!

These vultures should not be sitting at the desk and pretend they are helping customers. They belong to a penitentiary not an airline. I complained, but the disgusting airline never apologized or responded. I am now taking blood thinners because of KLM's negligence and my leg fracture became a displaced fracture because of all the walking they made me do. These people took medically necessary devices from me. Lawsuit material. Please write your experiences and send complaints to FAA and Delta so they are aware who they are partnering with.

Several weeks later, after several calls, emails and Facebook messages I finally got a reply stating that they had closed my case (without notifying me) which is why my emails were apparently not being received by them. They said they would now transfer a further $446 (still very short of the total amount I'm entitled to), as they "do not compensate online orders", even though I submitted receipts for these orders which showed the item, the price and the day they were purchased.

This email promising $446 was on the 17th of August 2017 and told me I had to wait up to 4 weeks for the money to appear in my bank account. It is now the 1st of December 2017 and they have not transferred the money. Even worse, they havent replied to a single email, and have blocked my polite Facebook messages asking for an explanation.

I then called customer service again, and they told me I had to wait 10 days for a follow up email with a new case number because they had (AGAIN) closed my case without notifying or consulting me. I waited 16 days, and lo and behold no email. Today I called again to report that there had been no email after the 10 days (10 days is a ridiculous amount of time to be expected to wait for an email anyway, especially when you've been waiting 106 days since they promised you the money). I told them that this was unacceptable and now I've been told they will call me back on Monday with an update, though I highly doubt they will with their track record. As this is completely illegal and unethical I am getting fair trading involved.

This is the first flight I have taken for ages that was cancelled. It throw travel plans awry. You then realise that airlines are good when things are normal but not so good when things go wrong. The only good thing was that our luggage arrived OK, I do know that KLM have an appalling record with lost baggage dating back to when my wife worked for them in the 1990's.

Once in Belgium I tried to lodge a complaint online by logging in with my FF number and completing the form. The website refused the document after several attempts. So we were not given a 'dossiernummer'. I tried to call the service desk, again several times, but was put on hold indefinitely. On the return trip on July 16, I went to three different Transfer desks in Schiphol Airport to file a hardcopy of my complaints. Nobody was willing to accept this, arguing that it was not their job and Customer Service is independent from KLM (???. Therefore, we herewith file our complaints via email. We expect an answer and compensation.

I have plenty of documentation for the boarding pass mishap and the bill for the hotel. I forwarded all of this to them and I have not gotten even an acknowledgment of receipt of this claim. To be fair, on flight service was quite nice. It was the ground crew in Amsterdam and the IT component of this airline which is worth complaining about. My advice and a course of action I will pursue in the future, I will avoid KLM at all costs and pay a bit more for another airline. Delta, take note.

The worst part was that somebody stole my bag pack with every important thing I had (laptop, Money and some piece of gold). It happened right before our next flight, I was so desperate and didn't know what to do. I asked KLM people who checked my ticket to help me to report to the police, but they not only did not help but also misinformed me. I had to leave it without reporting to the police. The food was disgusting and they had only one option. Every time we try to reach the customer service we have to stay online for a long time and they are not responsive at all.

After a 33 day tour of Patagonia in which we had limited and poor Internet access and a full program of sightseeing, and an Ecuador jungle trip where we had no Internet access, I submitted a claim for the clothes purchased, only to be told that I put the claim in too late. In talking about our problems with fellow travelers, I have come across other people who have had lost luggage with KLM (one couple in both flight directions) and not had a successful outcome with a claim. Their management of luggage is bad and their attitude to people affected by loss of luggage is bad. I will never fly with them again.

My scheduled return date was February 22nd. Suddenly, I received an SMS four hours prior to my first flight informing me that my flight from Amsterdam to Oslo was canceled, due to a storm in Amsterdam. According to that SMS, they were working on finding a solution. Soon after this, received an email informing me that I could book another flight for free.

I clicked on the link, but couldn't get a ticket for free, the system was charging me for the ticket change as usual. Then, I tried many times to call them, but got no response. I sent them a msg about that on Facebook, but after 50 mins. I hadn't got any response and couldn't reach them on the phone either. This is the first part of my complaint.

Then, I rushed to Cancun Airport in the hope of changing my ticket there. I contacted Aeromexico, since my first flight was with them. They looked indifferent and impolite from the very beginning: they told me they didn't have access to the database of KLM and couldn't do anything for that. I ask if there was any representative of KLM in that airport, they said 'no'.The only thing the did for me was to call Delta, another sister company of KLM.

When the Delta employee who tried to help me asked for the flight number of my Aeromexico flight, I asked the employee of that company about it. She said in a rude way that she doesn't have access to my passenger information and that she couldn't help me. I told her many times in Spanish and English that I only need the flight number of the next Aeromexico flight to Mexico City. She kept on repeating that, although I was trying to make clear that she didn't need my passenger info to find that. At the same time, she wasn't working with anything else, she was playing games on her smartphone and listening to music.

In the end, I was threatened by another Aeromexico employee that he would call the police. I had to walk 30m and see the flight number myself. then, the Delta employee had hang up and I had to start over again rebooking my flight. The whole rebook took me over 45 mins in the end. This is the second part of my complaint: if KLM sells me a ticket with another air carrier, they needed to guarantee me that the other company would give the same service as KLM would give to me. This means full access to my passenger information, helpfulness and politeness.

My negative surprises don't stop there. When I would finally fly back to Oslo, on Feb 27th, got the same msg, that my passenger info wasn't available. After 10 mins, the employee finally found me. However, she gave me a new boarding pass with another seat than the one I had got the day before when I checked-in online. The new seat was much more uncomfortable for a big-sized man like me. Again: if KLM sells me a ticket with another air carrier, they needed to guarantee me that the other company would give the same service as KLM would give to me. This means full access to my passenger information, helpfulness and politeness.

All I was asking in the most professional way to be was to be rebooked on another flight to the United States. She then went on a rant telling me the ticket shows that the boarding time was 12:00 and why did I not show up at 12:00 (3 times). Then she moved on to whether I went through Delta security, which I assured her I did. This didn't prevent her from asking the same question again. I refocused the discussion on my request for rebooking to the US. "Yes", she said, but since "You decided to be late, you will have to pay a whole new ticket". I expressed surprise because my ticket was unrestricted and asked if I could speak to a supervisor. "We have no supervisors" she said adding that I could reach KLM via the airline website. When I asked her for her name, she told me "At KLM, we don't give names. It's company policy".

With her continuously belligerent tone, I asked another agent sitting next to her if she could help me. Her answer was no because allegedly the first agent was the only one among the five who handled credit card transactions and asked me to move to another KLM help desk because "We can't help you here". I went to the other KLM help desk and it was a totally different attitude. Very friendly and helpful. When I requested the name of the agent on this unit to compliment her on her superb service, she was very reluctant to give it but did reluctantly so (initials R.B).

In a nutshell, KLM policy of not allowing employees to give their names - so I could file a complaint about someone's terrible customer service while complimenting the most professional Mrs. RB raises serious question about management's commitment to serving their customers. They may as well delete "customer service" from their ads and website. KUDOS Mrs. RB. Thumbs down KLM.

From all indications, it appears that although KLM maintains a policy that promotes fairness and cordiality to all customers, irrespective of age, social status and race, there are however some unfortunate instances where things do not go as planned. My case was one of such cases.

From the way my case was handled and appropraitely resolved, it is fair to say that although KLM is not perfect, they genuinely have the interest of customers at heart, and are always ready to commit the necessary resources, effort and time needed to get a customer's complaint resolve. Although the process leading to the desired resolution may take time, the end results are worth the patience.

On this basis, I am happy to take back my previous comments and to encourage others like me who genuinely have a case, to keep up the faith that KLM genuinely cares, and would properly investigate their complain and get them a suitable resolution in due course.

See you in July, KLM.

Many thanks.

Dr. Wisdom Enang

Original Review: Jan. 28, 2017

Prior to now, I have flown KLM more than 10 times, but am sure that today will be the very last due to what I understand to be a racially motivate ill treatment from one of your staff named: Valerie in Terminal 4 of Heathrow Airport. In the early hours of 28/01/2017 (4:00 am), I arrived at Heathrow airport to do my check in for a 6:30am flight bound for Amsterdam. At the check in counter I met a lady named Valerie who appeared very visually upset at the time she called me over.

As soon as I arrived, she asked me to show her my carry on, and I did, and she complained it was over weight, and advised I go and redistribute the weight. I left to do as advised and returned 15 minutes later, only for her to come up with the complain that my check-in luggages were bigger than the size limit for bags for the aircraft (Even though the bags did clearly fit tightly in to the reference benchmark for acceptable baggage size). At that point, I became confused about her juggled between weight and size constraints, which she had not mentioned before.

When I asked her for some clarifications she simply said: "You either pay for excess size and excess weight or get out of here!!!" At which point I lamented about such harsh words and called a member of her management team to lay the complain. Rather than the manager listening to the case and investigating properly, the both joined hands to continuously threaten me with the following words:

3. Just pay the money and go.

At some point during the whole fiasco, I got very infuriated because my bag is clearly a zipper bag which is here-in attached to this message for clarifications. Being a zipper bag means the bag can be reduced in size as per needed. I offered Miss Valerie the option of reducing the bag size so I can pay only for the over weight charge and she was adamant about her claim and started being very insulting, asking me to pay 610c Euros or leave her desk. She then went on to order the immediate removal of my items from her scale. At which point, I asked her what I did wrong to necessitate such treatment, and she turned round to say: "I don't care what happens to you, if you don't want to pay the money, then leave."

The manager further added insults to injury by telling me the following: "The airport is a place for travelling, not where we cater for your baggage needs. It is either you pay or forfeit the flight." When it became clear that no one was going to listen to me, I paid 610 Euros cash for which according to her was the cost of one extra bag and an over sized baggage. My major grievances with the way I was treated this morning are:-

5. If she was willing to stop threatening me with uploading my bags and was willing to listen to me and seek to understand that it was possible to reduce the size of that bag, my total cost would not have exceeded (300 Euros).

They were at least 4 passengers (3 ** and a Chinese girl - who literally screamed and cried for the same treatment this morning). On a summary basis, this would suggest a negative racial bias in the way your staff approaches customers. I have sincerely lost faith in the willingness of KLM management of handle my complains, and if I don't get a reasonable level of closure in this case, I will take my case to the press including the audio exchange which was recorded unknown to your ranting staff who were very abusive. This is not the right way to treat even the least of your customers. No matter way, we the customers matter.

I couldn't collect and couldn't get my mum to travel to the airport so I called KLM and this was the kicker, they told me I was mistaken my bag was in Belfast and would be delivered that evening, I said "I just got a call from Liverpool airport and they could see my bag." The woman told me "be patient sir. Your bag will be delivered this evening." As expected no delivery took place.

On the 26th I got a call from Liverpool airport saying my bag was there and ready for me to collect. I asked if they would deliver and charge KLM. They asked and their carrier refused as they said there was no agreement between KLM and Liverpool airport. I called KLM on the 26th and they advised that I'm mistaken as my bag is in Amsterdam. Despite what I said about Liverpool airport I was ignored and told they are looking into it. After that I called multiple times and was told to fill out forms online, forms that didn't actually work and they had to send me a working link. I filled out a form with details of my bag contents so they could locate the bag (at this stage I had to just play along as they stop listening when I say it is in Liverpool). Seems like they have system and process limitations preventing them from getting the bag back from Liverpool or onward delivering from there.

Then I decided to write a complaint. The missing baggage helpline said to contact the customer services dept online so I did and was referred back to missing baggage forum. So after 3-4 weeks without my bag I decided to just email every email address I could find of KLM employees. A day later I got a response from the customer services team saying "thanks for contacting our CEO and please fill out a claim form and provide receipts so we can process a claim." I then sent a mail to Liverpool airport how sent me a photo of my bag and confirmed it was there. So I mailed KLM asking for them to arrange a delivery to my home from Liverpool. Hopefully now it is in writing they can't ignore the fact anymore.

Then about an hour later my mum got a call from an unfriendly employee. I she thinks was from EDI airport and didn't get her number but the employee was basically implying we have left our bag in Liverpool and should pick it up ASAP. I have flown KLM for years for my work and this is the 1st time this has happened to me. So it seems things work well in KLM as long as process is correctly flowing. But as soon as there is an problem in the process no one at KLM can get things moving quickly and it seems to even include their CEO.

The customer service has been appalling, nobody seems to care about your possessions' whereabouts, and keep relocating the responsibility to other departments. Upon 2 days later, they still have not been able to tell me if my suitcase is still in NYC or Zurich, perhaps both by the sound of their confusion. Excuses have ranged from Schiphol Airport being very busy, to Zurich being busy, to "perhaps it's the fault of JFK Airport." But then others say all the luggage from the airport has been cleared, and Zurich is so organized they would have send it over already.

I just wanted to make everyone aware that this airline, for which you have to pay premium price, does not provide any value. It provides you with a massive headache, and the feeling of not being valued as a customer whatsoever. I always held KLM/Delta in high regard, but I have never experienced anything like this. A 100% strike rate of losing my brother's suitcase for instance, how is that even possible? I have flown around the world, including cheap/budget airlines, and I have never lost luggage until this day. If you can help it, make sure never to fly with KLM/Delta. I have contacted them regarding remuneration, but to no avail.

I explained the trip route and my worries and mentioned all the relevant information that could affect her advice like my passport etc... She replied and said that "You can transit through EU, it won't be a problem as you are staying less than 24 hours in each transit." She said that I won't need visa and it's totally fine to book the flight. On the trip day I went to Leeds Bradford airport and at their counter, their agents refused my ticket saying that "You need visa for this trip. You can't transit through 2 EU countries," so I left the airport and now I lost the money and the reservation.

I tried to put in a complaint and inform them that my booking was based on their advice. They said "Sorry, we cannot assist you as it's a visa problem and you're responsible on it." They kept repeating the same sentence, whatever I say they just repeat it until I gave up. I'm wondering that how can you advise a customer with something and whenever I book the flight you give me a whole different rules and conditions. Where is the accuracy and professionalism in that?? In conclusion, KLM is horrible option to travel with especially within EU. It's all about surprises!!!

Original Review: Oct. 24, 2016

My wife and I booked a return flight from Toronto to Amsterdam in January 2016 scheduled for October 1st 2016. We had to cancel so on August 31st, 2016 I immediately used their online cancellation form to get as refund minus their outrageous cancellation fee of $350 each. Two months later NO REFUND despite numerous calls to their North America call center for answers. The excuse is always the refund comes from Europe which of course I cannot access because we booked from Toronto. In the digital age of electronic payments it is inconceivable that KLM cannot provide refunds as quickly as they take your money. Do not book with KLM, they will rip you off if you cancel and expect a refund.

Anyway, after a tremendous sprint through the airport, we managed to arrive at the boarding gate at 11:57, needless to say – late. The plane was there, the jet bridge too. And Mr. Punnavit ** too… He said that we were not getting on that plane because we were late. He asked for our tickets with a smile, and we still thought that we would fly. He scratched off the tickets and refused to give them back to us, although we demanded them. His explanation about why we were not flying was that he was the SUPERVISOR and he decided so, i.e. that the impossibility to fly did not come from other circumstances, but him. After this several-minute conversation, he ordered our luggage to be removed from the plane.

We charge KLM represented by Mr. ** of an absurd behavior towards their clients. Even as we were crying, which would be understandable for those who want to put themselves in our place, he was manifestly enjoying, and believe us, his smile was not provoked by his kindness, but the celebration of His Mastery. The humiliation and the impotence were crushing.

We charge KLM represented by Mr. ** of personal attitude towards us, because we were not the only ones who did not meet the deadline for boarding (as we previously mentioned, there was a group of Dutch tourists immediately in front of us who definitely did not meet the deadline either). If Mr. **’s decision was not subjective, but principle, he would have taken off our luggage before he saw us (because baggage cannot travel without a passenger).

We charge KLM represented by Mr. ** of inactivity and inflexibility in work organization in emergency situations, and disinterest about passengers. It is natural that employees know the distance between the passport control and the gate, and opportunely inform their passengers with a last call, so that they can ask for a quicker passing.

Now we are going to count the days until someone appears and humanly explains what led to this situation. The answer that we were late we have already heard it by KLM representatives in their office in Bangkok and on phone calls. Please, do not suit us with PR and jurist replies. All they can say, we had already read it in provisions. Please, give us at least one reason in order to convince us that we did not depend on the favor of one and only person: for instance, that the retention of the jet bridge for a minute costs the company a lot of money, while luggage removal is free. Or that your company policy is to discipline your much too relaxed passengers after their holidays, (by the way, aside from having travelled around Thailand, we also took part in the project “UVolunteer”).

So, we start counting the humans in KLM and their reactions. Or all of you will pretend that you have not read this and you will secretly think what your supervisor said aloud: “You are welcome!” Yet, it does not matter how much it cost us (not only financially), the formal cause – our delay, will comfort your consciousness.

Now all of my baggage were according to the standard measurements as explained on your site. I had no problem in check in from Toronto to India. Problem started when I was returning back to Canada on June 27, 2016 from Delhi. We took the same flight KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIR LINES KL872 and I had the same luggage with me as I had when I took off from Canada to India.

When I went to check in at Indira Gandhi airport, I found that the staff was very rude and non-cooperative with the passengers. They said that I could not carry these hand baggage in cabin as these were oversized. I told them that these bags were under measurement (25 pounds and 43 inches) and they could measure it with the measurement tape. She said they had no time to measure it. This is weird for the same flight taking off at different airports and following different policies.

The staff member also said, "Policies are different at different stations for the same flight." We were shocked to hear that. She said not to argue with her and if I have to travel then l have to pay $180 for two bags to be checked in. I told her that I was not carrying that much money at the moment. And she replied back and said, "Either pay or miss the flight." I felt being harassed by the staff. I was traveling alone with my kids and had no contact with the family at that time as I did not have any cellphones on me. I was scared and was feeling helpless. I did not want to miss the flight and did not want to spend $180 which I didn't have anyways at that time.

After a while, one passenger who was also traveling in the same flight with us guided me and said that I should wrap two handbags into one baggage and pay for one bag instead for two. He said that I have to pay anyways so why not pay less? I asked the staff person and she said yes. Thus, I end up paying Rs.350 to wrap my luggage and another 4760 rupees ($90) with receipt no **, dated June 27.2016 to get my baggage checked in. I also checked online and found that the fees for extra baggage is $75 CAD not $90. That means she could have checked in my handbags but she forced me to pay or miss the flight.

Also, I want to draw your attention on another incident. At the same time when the same staff member was harassing me, she was doing the same thing with one other family. She forced them to pay extra money for hand baggage. She was telling them that their handbag and laptop bags all in together should weigh 12 kg. As I know laptop bags are never counted in as baggage to pay. She also instructed other staff member to not give boarding passes to that family until they pay that extra money. I witnessed that the other family was even ready to take their tickets back and miss the flight because of the behaviour of that particular staff member. They were even ready to have hand to hand fight with that staff member. Their kids were so afraid to see all that. In the end, that family also ended up paying extra money.

Unfortunately, I forgot to get the name of that staff member. Time was passing by and we had to get in the plane on time by passing through immigration and security line in one hour. However, your record can tell you the name of the staff person that was working that day. This incident has led me to never choose KLM airlines for future destinations and would recommend my friends and family to not take it because of their rude behaviour and non-cooperativeness. This is one complete issue of harassment. I would appreciate if you can look into this matter and take strict actions against that particular staff member.

After waiting for 30 minutes my parents walked through the airport. Later on I raised the issue with the KLM and in a response to which they provided me 2 vouchers each one worth 200 Euros. I called KLM office several times and each time I got a response stating "Sorry we are unable to pull up the voucher". I even put the issue on their Facebook portal but there is no response solving the issue. It is almost 24 hours since I put the concern on the Facebook. I WILL NEVER BOOK ANY TICKETS WHEREIN KLM IS INVOLVED. ALSO I WILL NOT RECOMMEND ANYBODY TO TRAVEL USING KLM AIRLINES.

It didn't end with that. When I was arrive Amsterdam I ask to KLM responsible people more comfortable place for waiting because I had to wait 11 hours! Because that was fair! BUT they never help me. IN FACT a KLM responsible lady (I don't remember her name) said to me: "here is a very big airport, you can find a place for waiting." This is not acceptable!! This is a impudent behaviour. As you know KLM has a lounge in that airport and I give 45 euro for using that. You are profitable! Congratulations!!! #neveragaindelta #neveragainKLM

I tried five times, starting over each time, and got the same response. When I then phoned their so-called complaints line, and pressed various numbers to get through to someone I could speak to about the Frequent Flyers programme, I was put on hold for a few minutes, then told that if I wanted information I could go to the website... and the phone went dead. No mention of a complaints person or department anywhere in the process. They really do have the most bizarrely uncooperative website and the rudest customer service of any organization I have ever dealt with.

So I called back, thinking, this airline must have a bad apple working for them. I tried to explain the situation and the bad service to the next "service" agent, and he was not at all apologetic, rather super rude. Made me retell him the reservation code five times, and then proceeded to tell me that there was no stopovers, and that the 18 hour flight was direct from Bogota to Amsterdam with a two hour layover in Amsterdam then to Madrid, our final destination. Well mathematics lets me figure out quickly there is something not right in that, 18 hours of travel, direct flight Bogota to Amsterdam, two hour stopover in Amsterdam, then two and half to Madrid, so I said "where are all the extra travel hours, if that totals to 15 hours of travel and it tells me online that I have 18 hours of travel?" His answer? "I don't know." And puts me on hold. Comes back with no information, and I asked for his name, and he hang up.

WORST customer service I have ever experienced. No one recognizes the errors on our tickets, nor apologizes, nor says anything understanding or comprehensive of our situation, now we have a surprise stopover, maybe? I am not sure because no one will tell me anything. 18 hours of travel multiple stopovers, not sure where, false advertising, bad customer service. Anyone reading this I advise you to AVOID this airline at all cost. Not excited to get on an airplane with absolutely no philosophy, no service, wow. Lesson learned.

The actual problem started when we were boarding KLM flight number KL0872. The ground crew of KLM gave us the boarding pass, where we gave one of our cabin baggages to the crew so that we can receive it in Mexico directly. There we were told that our bassinet request has been accepted and were allotted seats accordingly. Considering a smooth and safe journey, we were about to aboard the flight. Before entering the gates, we were told by the KLM officials that we need to deposit all our cabin baggages and moreover they said that the flight has less space, it is mandatory that we have to submit the baggage. "Anyways you will get them directly in Mexico and this service is free of cost" as if we are beggars asking for free services.

We simply told them that we are carrying infant with us and the baggage has all the stuff required during the long journey of 10 hours in the flight. The second problem started inside the flight when we found that we have been given different seats rather than the family seat where bassinet facility is available. We then had a talk with officials, especially the purser of the crew, asking for the bassinet seats. She replied in plain words that "we cannot give you the bassinet. Moreover your child is looking overweight". We told them that my daughter's weight is 10kgs, and asked them what is the maximum allowed weight of the infant? They said "10kgs is maximum but we do not consider that she is 10Kgs". We thought as if we were standing in front of the court of law. There was a huge argument just to tell that my daughter is 10kgs.

Then the purser checked whether I had really given a request or not and found that I was availed with the bassinet facility, but the seats are wrongly placed. They simply gave us the answer that "we are sorry, this is a mistake of the ground staff. We are not at all responsible for that". We were given too much of mental torture for next 30 minutes after boarding the flight. Finally, they allotted us 3 seats and told us that "you can place your child in between." Helplessly, we had to accept the offer, but during the 10 hour journey, we were always stressed that at any moment of time my daughter may fall since the seat belt was not completely fitting her.

The next problem is that flight crew took our stroller which was a brand new one. But when we received in Amsterdam, it was damaged, such as the handle was bruised and there are many scratches on it. The whole stroller was in damaged condition and we complained about it we were simply told that "you can make an online complaint". In the final journey from Amsterdam to Mexico in KL0685, we again confirmed with the ground staff whether the seats allotted are having bassinet facility and then they replied us positively. Inside the flight, when we asked for the bassinet, then we were told another important news, that the maximum weight bassinets can carry is only 9Kgs and not 10Kgs.

We again told that according to standard weights of infant between 0 to 2 years, my child exactly falls in the range and she is just 11 months old. Again the purser of the flight said that we are only considering the safety of the child. But then we asked them that it is a 10 hour journey and how is it possible for us to carry the child on our lap. If this would have been one or two hours, we would have simply done that, but this is really a painful journey of 10 hours. Moreover we have already travelled for almost 23 hours, it will be difficult for us to travel like this.

There is also no rulebook which specifies the dimensions of the child like a luggage. Then the purser simply said that we can give you the bassinet but you must keep that on the floor. We asked her if you keep it on the floor in front of our seat, how can we sit. She simply said "that's not my problem". If on one side she is talking about the safety, how can she make us to stand in the flight, which is totally ridiculous and unsafe. Kusum started crying on such an abusive answer and this mental torture again continued for next 20 minutes.

I still continued to the Comfort Zone, yet when I sat down in my aisle seat, a very large lady sat next to me, and she literally occupied half of my seat plus hers, pushing me so far that carts, people, bags, coming and going were hitting me. I got up and kindly told the flight attendant about my problem--a flight attendant passing by agreed and said she saw my dilemma. I told them I'd sit back there while they found me a different seat as to not offend the fellow passenger. Later I was moved to a new seat. When the lights all went out, I attempted to sleep but there was a light above me shining in my face, which I tolerated for 4 hours before I got up and notified someone. They came to turn it off and as soon as they left, it kept flickering on and off. I called someone twice to fix it, same issue. It had already been 4 hours and I hadn't had sleep in over a day because of many issues with Delta leading up to this.

I went to a Business class seating, where a supervisor came and told me to move immediately, and took me to the kitchen to speak. She was extremely rude and condescending from the beginning. I showed her my ticket and pointed to where my ticket said "Business" with my finger. She took a pen and SHOVED AND POCKED my finger aside, talking over me and telling me that Delta doesn't have anything to do with KLM and they did something wrong giving me a Business seat. I asked her if she just shoved my finger, and she said she did no such thing and stuck her finger in my face "imitating" me and yelling in my face. Then she told me to either move back to my seat--the flickering light one--or "sit here in the kitchen". I sat on the kitchen floor until she walked away, crying for a few minutes. She came back a few minutes later after talking with her coworkers and gave me an eye cover and ear plugs.

I put on the eye cover and while I was adjusting it, she SLAPPED my forehead and slapped it off and boldly said, "go back to your seat!" I was appalled and asked if she'd just slapped me. She said "I am going to call security on you." I asked what did I do wrong to call security on me, when I'm the one who has been poked and slapped and abused for 5 hours and all what I am asking for is to relax the couple hours I had left in the trip so that I'm able to function the 14 hours left to reach my destination, and she's the only one who can help. She said "not everyone has to be comfortable." I said "I haven't slept in 36 hours." She said "I don't care what you went through." I told her I want to file a complaint and asked for her name, she refused to give me it and said she doesn't have to give it if she doesn't want to. Furthermore, she said I can use the site to complain. I went back to my seat and put up with the light for the remainder of the flight.

To sum up, this was the WORST customer service I've ever seen or been through in my entire life! I cannot stress that enough. It was absolutely terrible from the minute of boarding @ KLM in Atlanta I booked until I landed in Amsterdam. Only very few people tried to help me. As a frequent flyer, all I asked for was comfortable seating. As a supervisor, she demonstrated the worst possible customer service, leadership, communication, and people skills. She was being completely racist and prejudice. If I was a European flyer, she would've just helped me and would've never acted so terribly even though I'm an American citizen.

Worst of all, she couldn't even be humane. I had to put up with all of this, terrified of security and the possible unjust outcomes that could come of this, especially on Christmas Eve. Unjust outcomes seem to be the style of this flight when supervised by this leader. Enough messed up family plans and disappointments happened because of this service, leading to having the first Christmas gone wrong in my life. What can I do about this?? Or what can you do for me about this inexcusable experience I've dealt with?! My family is in a world of hurt knowing I spent my Christmas Eve crying on the floor of KLM's flight service section.

From Bangkok to Amsterdam an arrogant and rude Asian girl staff forced me to move 2 kilos of overweight from my baggage to my hand luggage in front of the rest of passengers at the checking-in desk. No problems with the same baggage/weight flying the low-cost airline Thai Smile (Thai Airways), in a domestic flight and the ticket costs around 1500 baht (38 euros). My KLM ticket was almost 900 euros but it seems that actually, KLM became a Ryanair partner.

The flight Bangkok-Amsterdam took 12 hours while the usual is about 10.45-11.00 hours, to save fuel and reduce costs of this low-cost airline in disguise. It seems that some KLM passengers, especially the ones flying to Bangkok are not an example of politeness and discipline. Impossible sleep or relax, most passengers are noisy or rude. Seats are very uncomfortable, especially for long distance flights, and there is no legroom. Food, it's OK. Economy class.

I never had any problem in more than 11 years flying to Bangkok with other airlines twice per year. There are better airlines I've flown to Bangkok: Qantas, British Airways, Swiss, SAS and Finnair. More expensive than KLM, but definitely better and with friendliest passengers and crew. Not surprisingly the duo KLM-Air France are the worst airlines in Europe, for many.

On October 23rd, I reached at Cologne to board my return flight where I had to pay 278.89 Euro again for my return flight to Dammam and advise me to talk at Amsterdam for refund of this amount. I checked for refund at Amsterdam and come to know, I should put a customer complain for refund due to misguidance of airline's employee at every point.

I had to pay two times fare for Cologne to Dammam on October 23 plus additional penalty for same flight. Apart from refund, I want to understand following: I had misguided by KLM at Dammam, Amsterdam on October 19 for cancellation of next flight to Cologne and at Cologne and Amsterdam on October 23 for refund. Without my request or intimation by KLM, how could be my return flight cancelled? If the return flight cancelled by Airlines, why do I need to pay penalty 106 Euro. If I had to pay any penalty, then why do I need to purchase again one more ticket (172.89 Euro)?

As I continued to plead with her for the sake of our 30 year old daughter who is 7 months pregnant (of which she has doctor's consent to travel) and shouldn't for the health of the baby endure any delays in air travel. As I explained this is the reason we booked economy plus (more room) and the shortest flight duration to our final destination. To this plea the gate attendant who was only paying half attention to what I was explaining, finally out of her own frustration and in some way to try to appease us half heartedly called out (not over the intercom) "is anyone interested in volunteering to be taken off the flight, KLM can give 200 euros if you are interested". Maybe half the passengers in the boarding area heard her voice. She then turned to me with a bit of a smirk "see, nobody is interested".

She then shuttled us onto a bus that took us to lost and found to claim our bags and then started our very frustrating and painful 25 hour return journey which included a bus trip to Pisa for our eventual departure, missed connections and running (literally running) from gate to gate. KLM is very mismanaged in my opinion and showed ZERO compassion and the welfare of a pregnant woman and her unborn child. During this trip we had purchased 6 tickets for the family to travel. Of all the airlines we dealt with on this journey (KLM, British Airways, Delta and Canadian Airlines) KLM was by far the worst! British Airways was the best! I will never again fly KLM and will be sure to advise my friends and associates to do the same!

We tapped him on the shoulder to ask if he would raise his seat up a bit. We knew he had a right to recline but NOT into her lap. He ignored us. So later, when dinner was served, my sister could not lay her tray down for her food. A male attendant tapped his shoulder at the same time as I did. He then shouted "why is everyone ** with me?" We were shocked. We immediately thought he was a terrorist. So we motioned to the attendant that we will just eat on the tray beside her as she turned sideways to gain more space. He refused to raise his chair even as he sat forward to eat!!!

The chair remained in her lap even as I needed to get by to use the restroom. I almost tripped down trying to get to the bathroom. We were frightened to death. What I'm most unhappy with is the fact that the attendant didn't offer us any other options. We felt that we had just as much a right to fly comfortably as anyone else. Certainly on an airline that large they could have given us a seat change or something! We arrived in Amsterdam @ 7:00 am. Our ankles were swollen and we we exhausted. I am writing to find out what type of recourse can you offer.

Likewise the father at the other end took his children to do the same! We could not easily leave our center seats for the toilets! We were blocked in the middle of a 4 seat row being occupied by 6 persons, two in each end seat! I eventually got to the toilets where I was told I should be sitting as the 'seat belts sign was illuminated.' Informed the flight attendant that this was my 'first chance to get off my seat' and I informed her of my issues! She agreed as it was 'unsafe' and 'unfair' to me and my daughter! She said she would speak to the flight purser and he would later speak to me! I asked if I could be 'relocated.' The kids were not sitting in their allocated seats!

Now I have traveled with my two kids when they were young but they were very disciplined! These young kids just 'did as they wanted' despite the flight attendants efforts! The flight was a nightmare! The 4-year old boy was jumping around on his father and due to limited space was continually bumping and kicking me! The purser never showed, despite the mayhem of the flight, the anger of many passengers, it went annoyingly on. I asked the father to sit in his son's end seat in row 30 but he said the younger boy was sleeping on the floor in front so no leg room!

There may have almost been 'conflict with the father.' My flight space was non existent, it was a terrible flight for all nearby passengers especially me who had the kid to endure! This was poor management by KLM, poor passenger service! Lack of understanding and walking away from any corrective action! Needless to say -- Never again!

We still have the receipt. We don't want the money. I will write complaints about KLM company and reviews in internationals website for international airlines evaluations as much as I can to warn people from this company, and I will make more effort to move our negative experience to others. I am freelance and writer and I gave already many articles since yesterday in other languages to warn people from you guys. I know also Dutch but I wrote in English to give chance to more people to read this review. I think that you need to know that people's time, emotions, stress, plan and commitments worth more than the 70 euros and in general more than money. Never again with KLM.

Also neither the email confirmation nor the ticket mention this at all so it is impossible to go back and check this. After finding out about 'mini fares' I have no way to check if my next flights, which I have already booked, are also 'mini fares'. I have already taken 19 other flights with KLM/Air France this year alone. In addition to my most recent flights and the ones that I have already booked the total would be 31. With that amount of customer dedication I do not expect to suddenly has 8 flights taken away from me. The customer service assistant on the phone acknowledged the issue and agreed that this was a problem and that there had been many other complaints. However her only advice was to write an email. I have written several emails but have had no response. At the moment I feel very cheated.

I managed to rebook and I also managed to rebook for my two German Nationals who I just met at the airport. So we spend the rest of the day together and later on we were sent to a hotel. Our next flight was scheduled at about 10.25 pm. However on checking email it was again delayed till somewhere midnight. Finally we got the flight. Being exhausted we were all glad it was over. When I did the math I realized I will not make my connecting flight from Amsterdam to Basel which was a morning flight. I went to the transfer desk and I was on a waiting list. But whenever I checked my KLM app there were still some open seats which were not yet purchased. I failed to understand why they could not straight away put me on the next flight. To my shock I didn't make the next flight and I had to go back to the transfer desk and I was on the next waiting list. I think I was in 4 or 5 waiting lists.

Finally at night I managed to be on the last flight only because one of the KLM staff thought it's time to get me a seat in the last flight as I was really waiting for over 8 hours. My trip lasted close to 24 hours. I was happy to get to my destination. In the meantime KLM didn't want to know what I ate during my 8 hours waiting time. I remember an incident where I was waiting and on looking at the Klm app 3 seats were available. A family of 3 came and begged and they got the seats. I guess that's how it is in the KLM airport giving priority to European citizens first others can wait.

My two German friends wrote to KLM to ask for a statement as to why the flight was delayed and later cancelled and KLM gave them each 600 in compensation I guess because they are European. Myself I wrote them and I received 200. I wrote them again to ask why my friends got each 600 and myself 200 and their response was that they were very sorry I feel disappointed but no further compensation. Then I asked what is the difference between the duo who got 600 and myself 200, was it the color maybe now that I come from Africa?? I hope one day they will answer. The funny thing is that my two friends, one didn't miss her connecting flight and the other waited half the time I waited but they got the highest compensation. KLM should tell me why the double standards, where are the human rights on equality?

I wrote to their customer care section on the KLM website asking for answers and an explanation but got a standard template response with my name inserted into it which did not address a single question I asked. We get the feeling that their attitude is "Thanks for your cash, we don't care now". Stay away from fellow KLM travellers.

They provide a Special Assistance Number for requesting wheelchair assistance. Because I have booked from Guatemala, the Panama Office is assigned. It reads: "CALL KLM Cares: +800 55622737." That is ABSOLUTELY INGENIOUS. That is obviously a Panama 800-number that cannot be dialed from abroad. It just shows they don't care. In fact, they give a flying **. Calling the Panama Office at the common booking office, the Voice Prompts are inaudible. The number is +507 340 5800. In fact, selecting voice menu 2 (for English language) > 3 (for choice between KLM and Air France), they throw you back at a Spanish recording that can beat every 50-year old answering machine in lousy audio quality. That voice prompter is just good for nothing. Just try it yourself, ehh? So I called the Amsterdam Office (AGAIN) - and the keep telling me that I need to Call the Panama office. I can't see the joke here.

Your request is currently under consideration. However, due to exceptional circumstances, we may not be able to answer you within our usual 10 day period. We would like to apologise for this extended response time and assure you that we are doing our utmost to reduce it."

Tell me that is a lie! Anyone pinch me, please? Here I'm sitting in need for a wheelchair-to-the-gate confirmation, and the reply will (maybe) arrive 5 days after the plane has left? So about 24 hours before flight, they sent me that check-in link with German Language, where I'm supposedly can print my boarding pass. At the bottom I see a check box, basically saying that "I agree to the above mentioned conditions". I almost hit the CONTINUE button, but decided to read the TEXT which I agree to. Here it reads: "Ich erklare, dass keiner der o. g. Passagiere Hilfe aufgrund eingeschrnkter Mobilitt bentigt." Saying: "I declare that none of the above mentioned passengers require help due to limited mobility". Well, that left me speechless, on top of being bound to a wheelchair.

Then the head stewardess appeared and suggested I move to a more comfortable seat. So I took her up on this suggestion. There I was happily working for. 2 hrs when the original junior stewardess came round and out if nowhere pointed towards me and said to the girl in front of me "you can move your seat back madam - I've told you about this before (now looking at me)!!! At this point the girl did move her seat back so I was back to square one again. I then intercepted the same stewardess as she came down the other isle and told her that I wanted to speak to the head stewardess. I spoke at length to the head stewardess who I must say did listen. I told her that I had regularly travelled this cross Atlantic route now for. 8 yrs, had never travelled with KLM and had been disappointed with the treatment I had received so far with and on this KLM flight.

She suggested I fill in a complaint form on her tablet which I did but I felt it only took into account the experiences I had on this flight and didn't cover the whole picture of my overall experience of travelling with KLM. She then suggested I move again to behind a little boys seat. This was perfect for me to work at but I was disappointed as it was my husbands birthday through out the flight (his birthday was on 18th Jan) and both his enjoyment of the flight and mine were ruined by the junior stewardesses who I feel could have handled the situation on a more professional and less disruptive manner. The head stewardess offered to fill up my small flask (although I do feel this could have been suggested to me as a ploy to see if there any alcohol in the flask.) It was a lovely birthday present bought for me by my husband in Banniff and no there was no alcohol in it. I don't drink when flying.

The head stewardess did when I left the plane wish me luck in my exams. (and I did pass them) But the fact remains that the ignorant passenger in front of me initially and the lack of professional conduct by both the straight blonde haired junior stewardess and the middle aged male stewardess left a lot to be desired. To be told to pay (for a third time) extra money to seat on a KLM plane is nothing I have ever experienced on Canada air or ba or monarch. All of which I have flown with on this route in the passed . It also ruined both our birthdays. Only a written apology and our money back would persuade me to fly KLM ever again. My no is ** if you want to clarify any of the above details. Kind regards.

This was going around the world the total opposite way to which we had planned. We were advised in November 2014 that this was not up to the standard of service associated with Delta Airlines. I made my complaint known in November 2014 and on 3/12/2014. I received an email from KLM stating that the complaint had been logged it would probably be a little longer than 10 days to respond. We are now in January 2015 and still no reply. I have tried to contact KLM on their website but because I have no flight number I am being blocked. This delay and the long haul totally ruined what was a holiday of a lifetime, jet lag made us both lose nearly a week of going out in the evenings.

Finally, we arrived to my place, I show him. He starts to move bags in the cabinet on top of my seat to make place for my bag. All of this, with bad attitude like if he was annoyed to do that. I ignore. I thought he would help me to put my bag but he didn't, he pointed at the free space with his arms like "there you go" and annoyed face. I was like ok, he won't help. Ok no problem, you assumed wrong. I will put it. He made place for me. I carried my bag up and realized I was too weak to put it in place. I could not hold it high enough. Why? Picture this: I am 1.65 approx. and weight 47 kilos. Plane is full already, people are already on their seats. Below there is a family with a little girl maybe 6 years old. Cabinet is too far, I cannot lift and stretch my arms enough to put the bag on place with people seating all around. I would probably hit someone. Next to me a rude 2 meter male flight attendant, pointing the place with annoyed face.

Anyways, I tried and couldn't. I put it down and tell him, "I cannot do it alone, could you help me?" His answer was something like: "It is not my job to put your bag in place. If you cannot carry it by yourself you should not have taken it in first place." I got so surprised he almost left me mute. I told him something like "how you mean, you cannot help me?" He said: "it is policy from the airline and I will hurt my back. I am not supposed to help you put your bag. If you cannot carry it by yourself, you shouldn't have taken it...ask a passenger." I was in complete disbelief. It was first time I heard something like that in my life.

I didn't know how to react but thought fast and tried to remain cool. I thought ok. First time I hear this but maybe is true. Maybe company protects them and their health. Sounds reasonable. After all, they do this all the time and could get injured helping? But, he can help me anyways right? So I told him, "but I cannot by myself, please help me." Finally, he helped me complaining ALL the time. I could not take it anymore. Seriously??? He was rude since the beginning and continued to be rude whole time!!!

I can understand everything, that it is a policy, that he can injure his back, that is not in his job description specifically (although I believe being a flight attendant is pretty obvious by the term, that you are supposed to assist/help passengers or I would like to believe that) but do you have to be rude all the time? Could he maybe had said something like: "Sorry Mrs. We are not supposed to carry your bag, it is policy from the company to protect us. This might sound weird to you but (explain). Maybe you could ask another passenger to help you or I will help you this time but exceptionally. Keep it in mind for your next flight." Or whatever he wanted to say, just POLITELY!

Is it that hard to be polite? Can two complete strangers be normally polite to each other? Specially if you work in a company that is offering a service, who wants to be treated bad and pay for it! How can someone on earth see a thin little person trying to put her bag up, arms shaking, asking for help and not help??? How??? Not your job? Ok. Maybe there is still kindness in this world. Courteousness, empathy, common sense??? Anything?? Seems like no. I could not take it anymore and asked him to talk with his supervisor, I asked him to call him/her to my place. He ignored and said she was on the back and that plane was about to leave. I asked him like 5 times to call her to my place and he kept pointing and telling me she was on the back.

I did not want to leave my things alone so I saw another flight attendant, an older woman. Explained her what just happened and asked her for the supervisor. Nightmare was not over. She told to me something like, "It is not his job to carry your bags, he can injure his back." I was surprised, I thought she would understand, I didn't ask for her judgement, I explained her the situation fast so she called the supervisor, which she didn't. I was shocked: I told her something like "Really? OMG. I will never travel in this airline again," and I meant it. I could not believe them and she answered, "Well, that is just fine." And kept going! I have no words. I could not believe my ears. I do not expect any special treatment, just a decent normal one. Flight attendants deal all the time with people, with all types of people, either they want it or not. That is how the job is. I would give the same advice to those flight attendants, if you cannot handle the job and don't like people, maybe you should reconsider your job.

After some time, another attendant comes to my place asking my name. She said she was the supervisor and that I called for her. She was very polite, listened to my story. Said she understood everything, that she would speak to him. Said they would try to make it up for me the rest of the flight. When she came I was speechless, I told her first I had nothing to say, that both her colleagues had been very clear, that I got it. What I got: I will never travel again in this airline.

I completely disagree with the way they choose to treat passengers. Don't like the policy at all, could understand it but don't like it. But if they hire people like this two attendants who are completely un-empathetic to other human beings and who care so little about their clients, why would I travel with them at all? What makes them different from other airlines? I'd rather pay more but be treated with some empathy. I told the supervisor I can understand that maybe dutch are very practical and direct but that does not mean being mean to no one. The way you speak, the tone of your voice, the face, the attitude make the difference. It does not matter which nationality you are or which policies there are.If you want to help someone, you will. As simple as that.

Thanks God not everyone in the world sticks to their job description if not what a wonderful place would it be. Everything was wrong here and I will not just let it go. Just because it was not ok and it was not fair. With the attitude the flight attendants showed to me I can almost guarantee KLM does not care at all about my experience, after all I'm just another passenger and they have plenty of them! BUT, I DO CARE. So, in case you did not know, you are entitled to a 12 kg baggage in cabins BUT (what they do not tell you) only if you are able to put it by yourself in the cabinet. Something you might like to consider next time you buy a ticket. Nothing ROYAL about them by the way.

I have just been told that because I bought some of the clothes from a stall in a market (eg socks at US$1 per pair!) and therefore had no receipts, that part of my claim has been disallowed. For the bits that KLM have allowed, they have ignored the exchange rate that I was charged by my credit card company and applied some other entirely fictional exchange rate. In total, they have saved themselves GB39 (US$62). To behave like this towards a customer that they have massively inconvenienced is really insulting. For that small amount of money, they have lost themselves a customer for life (including a family trip for seven to Tanzania next year) and earned themselves this publicity.

I called the customer service number again and was told I would have to email KLM directly to get answers. I decided to call KLM in Amsterdam directly. The answer I got was that no, their policy is that for non-refundable tickets, in the case of cancellations, you lose your money. I lost about $1400. So beware when booking with KLM. They have a partnership with Delta and you can buy the exact same ticket the exact same price for the exact same flight through Delta. Their policy for non-refundable ticket cancellations however is that you get a full credit for your money to be applied towards the purchase of a ticket for a future flight. Don't get ripped off like me!

Original Review: Aug. 15, 2014

I choose KLM to bring my whole family (6 person including 3 seniors and 2 children) from Brazil to Germany. After a 12 hours flight from Brazil to Amsterdam, KLM suddenly cancelled the next flight from to Hannover. They rebooked my family to a flight 7 hours later and offered a ridiculous €10 as compensation. With this money you cannot even order any garbage food in the airports. It has been asked to give us the possibility to access the KLM lounge where we could have some rest and some minimal condition to wait the 7 hours for the next flight but KLM simply denied and highlighted that we are not VIP and therefore no access to lounge. In contact with the customer service by phone, I was told they cannot do anything and I should contact the corner personal again what I did and heard again that we're not VIP enough for their lounge. It's just unacceptable that KLM cancels the flight in the last minute and there is no compensation! They simply do not care about their passengers ! It's a respectless behavior! I felt just powerless go thru the KLM bureaucracy to complain about this situation and the only thing I can do is to alert to not fly this company. They just did not care about us!

Even though I checked in on time and paid for one additional piece of checked luggage (**), one suitcase was left behind in Frankfurt on our flight to Amsterdam (Saturday June 21st on **) (Booking code : **). Consequently, we had to buy toothbrushes and my wife her basic makeup supplies, while she also had to attend the Opera that evening in her traveling clothes, rather than her evening gown brought on the trip especially for this occasion. Eventually, the suitcase was returned to our hotel 36 hours later, without any compensation or apologies whatsoever.

Today (June 25th 20014), after suffering similar in-flight experiences as we did on the outbound flight, we arrived in Singapore on KL 835, to be greeted by a Singapore airport service staff member who informed us that one of our bags was left behind in Amsterdam. (We had paid an additional SGD 102.50, for the extra bag) (booking code : **). We were told the bag would be sent separately the following day to Singapore, yet as we will continue our journey to our home in Indonesia tomorrow morning, it is not clear when and where we will receive our missing bag.

Again we had to go and buy our basic necessities, with no assistance or apologies from KLM, while our laptops and mobile phones crashed due to lack of power supply, which had been stored in the missing bag. The pleasure and joy we experienced during our one-month tour through Europe, has been tarnished by the arrogance, incompetence and carelessness of the airline of our choice for this journey. Needless to say, we are very unhappy with your dismissive attitude and lack of professionalism, and are amazed how, in today's competitive business environment, an airline can act so carelessly regarding their customers and not make the slightest effort to make good on its oversights and shortcomings.

We believe we are, at the very least, entitled to a refund for the payment for the extra luggage made by us online on both occasions, and will ensure that our traveling experience with KLM is publicized widely should we not receive the appropriate response.

We quit having points from other companies that were like that for the same reason and now KLM is doing the same! We complain in the site and the answer shows that we are not important for the company! What to do with the points that we bought? I tried also to book for the end of the year and it was the same, no flights that make sense! They are playing with us.

Ha ha, what is their customer service?? Since I am a client, I can't complain the things they did wrong?? How can I imagine how good for their customer service??? The customer service they have are not trying to solve the problem with the customer instead of just talking the client is always dissatisfied. I am actually disappointed with this airline, and will NEVER try it again! !

When we arrived at JFK, the nightmare began. At the Delta check-in, the agent said we only had the old seats in the back. I showed her not only the email confirmation with my upgraded seats, but the bank transaction print outs proving we paid for the seats. She refused to budge, and treated my wife and myself as an annoyance. I got angrier, and finally, she got a supervisor, which took about 20 minutes to get for me because the supervisors were in "a meeting". The supervisor was just as arrogant, as if we were giving them a hard time, just because we wanted the seats we paid for, as if WE were the problem. Finally, after so much stress and trouble, they gave us the seats we paid for. Consequently, on the plane, we actually happened upon the couple who paid for the same seats, but were displaced. They weren't as fortunate, and had to sit separately.

If this was the only problem, I would not be writing this letter. The next leg of the journey, Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro, had the exact same problem. The agent was friendlier, and more apologetic, and finally was able to get us two upgraded seats together, though not the 2 I paid for. We also had to stand in a long line at the Amsterdam airport in order to resolve this leg of the journey, and we had extreme stress and unease until the problem was resolved. While waiting for out flight, we, again, met two unhappy KLM travelers, who had paid for upgrades, and had to endure a huge hassle to get what they paid for.

But, our problems did not end there. Kilimanjaro to Amsterdam, we paid for 12 A and B, window and aisle seat. What we got was center aisle and the seat next to that, with me in between 2 people for the 11 hour flight. The people next to us had paid for upgrades, too, but in order to get the seats next to us, the flight attendants had to rearrange the seats of and depend on the benevolence of some random passengers for the husband and wife to sit together. They told us when they got on the plane, their seats were way in the back (they hadn't checked the boarding passes), even though they paid for economy upgrade.

Obviously, this problem is pervasive, and endemic. KLM seriously put a damper on our vacation, each step of the way, causing worry and stress each time, until the seating was resolved. My wife's documented medical condition dictated this to be so. This wasn't just an inconvenience, it is unbelievably terrible business practice. I am not sure what, but, if ever it was called for, some sort of compensation is definitely in order. In any other business, this would constitute fraud. The attitude that we were the problem conveyed to us by your staff (with one exception), only added insult to injury in this whole sordid mess.

In the end by a stroke of luck 2 people were no shows so at the last minute we got on, not sat anywhere near each other but at least we were going home. My husband was sat next to lady that had booked only a few days before and was moved from a later flight to our fight only an hour before.... at the time we are stood in the airport being told we have no seat!! AGGHHHHHHH.

If KLM insist on being so greedy as to oversell tickets maybe they should consider a fairer way of kicking people off. Surely those that booked/check in first should get on? Whilst I did get on the flight in the end I suppose no harm done (except a very stressful 2 hrs to end what had been a relaxing weekend) but I got on that plane due to luck not good management & whilst all staff were polite at no point was there an apology. In fact it was almost as if we should be grateful they got us on the flight we booked, paid for and checked in in more than good time! Never ever will I fly KLM again.

It just didn’t stop there. They harassed me up to the day I returned back to California. On the day I was to return back to California, it was the same bag and the same situation. Again, I was not allowed to enter the airplane, and the police was called in. I had to purchase another ticket to return to California the following day, and also pay for my carry-on in order to be let on the airplane. I went to London finally, so happy I've saved enough money to celebrate my big 5-0. However, it was the worst time ever. I've lost so much money to this airline. They refused to allow me to fly. However, they refused to return my money. How fair is that? When I left California, I had no problem with my computer bag with my medications, until I reached the UK and all hell broke loose... HELP!

Supposedly, if you're a Platinum member for 10 years, you can be a lifetime Platinum, nice idea, but I was at the 9-year level, clearly stated on the website and I bragged how good the program was. Later, they changed it to 8 years! **. All attempts to talk to them about it required hard work and persistence to get beyond template answers, mostly, "We're right; you're wrong." Finally, they called and told me they were right and, "Please prove we made a mistake," basically calling me a liar. Is this the company you want to deal with?

KLM staff person said that we had to pay check in bag fee for the second bag. I showed them baggage policy on Delta.com for Elite member but she seemed to have no clue. She called for her supervisor who came after a wait of 20 minutes and was taking no interest in this matter. He was on call and just said, "That is Delta, this is KLM," and left. After wasting 30 minutes or so, we agreed to pay fees. In flight experience was good. After coming back to US, I called Delta Airlines support and logged a complaint. Delta replied back saying they cannot help with KLM baggage policy and cannot refund me baggage fees as KLM charged it.

I reminded him that I booked tickets with Delta and nowhere does it say that KLM will charge for extra baggage for Elite members. He tried to make me sound like it was my mistake and pointed me to KLM's website for baggage policy. After I was done talking politely, I told him if that is the position Delta is going to take, I have no option but to file a fraud complaint with BBB and take legal action. As soon as I said that, customer service person went to talk to his supervisor and came back with a changed tone. He instantly said that Delta will send me a check for $75 for extra baggage fees. I said it was $75+ taxes; he agreed to pay the total sum charged to me. It clearly shows that extra baggage fee from KLM was fraud or else big corporate like Delta wouldn't take a BBB complaint that seriously. At Delhi airport, we saw many people harassed by KLM staff and charged fees for oversized bags, extra bags, most for no valid reasons.

Also, my wife was abused by an airline staff and someone also said "A lady with excess baggage." I made too many complaints to the airline, but nothing happened. The airline always says that they do special arrangement for the passengers with babies, but not in my case. These airline people are all liars and do not follow the CAA guidelines. At the end of all this, I realized that I should not be flying with any European airline and I'll do so every year. I do not fly with any of the European airlines because most of them do discriminate on the ground of race and color. Shame on KLM.

At that point, my wife and Ms. ** started an argument and the latter continued to be rude. Eventually, we sat down and the stewardess brought my wife a written warning note that my wife was violent, the furthest from the truth. At that point, my wife asked to see the captain Mr. Andrew **, who initially refused and told the stewardess to tell us he did not want us on his flight. He then accepted to see us, only to side single-mindedly with the stewardess and completely disregard our point of view (he said he heard us, but only listened to his stewardess). He asked us to leave the plane in an unacceptable way for our stature, which we did so as not to make a bigger fuss and avoid any delay in the flight and inconvenience to the rest of the passengers.

We both travel extensively 1-2 times a month over the last 15 years and have never been treated in such a demeaning and rude manner. I have lived in a number of countries like the USA. I am dual citizen US/Egyptian and as result of asking us to leave, we have lost our bags, I have missed a business meeting, we lost track of our two girls who were traveling at the same time and could not establish contact with them. We tried to get the ground staff in Schiphol to listen to us and assist us, but were only able to talk to two customer service officers who were shocked with what happened and were sorry for us. But still, nothing was done and we were told all we can do is send an email to complain.

It has come to my attention that a number of other passengers today on the flight from Cairo to Amsterdam complained about the service and the attitude of the flight attendants. Plus, I heard from others also about the poor service and would like to bring this also to their attention.

I will mention that the staff did not want to tell his name. Indeed, he always hid the body where it was caught with his name badge. It was a really bad attitude and only serves to discredit the reputation KLM. Such actions lead to loss of customers, especially those who have traveled for many years with KLM. Therefore, please remedy this as soon as possible. The facts are very unpleasant. Return the bottles of wine or the equivalent (15 euros). I'll take the best decision according to the response of KLM.

When I tried to check in the day before the flight in April 2012, although "Manage My Booking" still showed that I had the same confirmed economy seats, the website tried to give me seats in the back of the plane, Row 38; and I had no online option for keeping the seats that were "confirmed." I contacted Delta customer service (since it was after hours), and they suggested that I cancel the check-in and get it straightened out at the airport.

This made me a little nervous, so instead I contacted KLM customer service the next day several hours before the flight time. I was told very rudely that the seats I had "confirmed" were in "economy comfort" and that if I wanted to sit in these seats, I would need to pay US $137 per person to keep them. I explained that I was never asked to pay for the seats, and that my booking showed the seats as "confirmed." The customer service agent said that didn't matter, and if I wanted those seats, I would need to pay extra.

I asked what "confirmed" means, and he did not have a reasonable answer for that. He kept insisting that I must pay. I asked to speak with a manager, and he said it would do no good and that no one could give me those seats unless I pay. Rather than take the chance of not being able to get seats together once we arrived at the airport, I got back online and continued my check-in, giving up my "confirmed" seats and instead selecting something available in the back of the airplane.

At the airport, I sought assistance from a KLM customer service representative at the gate. She started out being sympathetic, especially after seeing the printout I had showing that my seats 11H and 11J were confirmed. She called a manager, and the manager told her that I had already been instructed that I needed to pay for those seats if I wanted them. I said, "Yes, I was told that about three hours ago." But I asked if she thought this was a fair way to treat a customer. She said there was nothing she could do.

Interestingly enough, standing next to me with the exact same problem was another customer having the same conversation with the other gate agent (to no avail). If KLM has done this on purpose to try to get passengers to pay for premium seats at the very last minute, when little else is available, then this is a scam. If KLM did not do this on purpose, then at the very least they should be interested in finding out how this happened, so that they could correct the problem.

I fly a lot, and, in my opinion, most other airlines would have offered me something in exchange for my frustration and inconvenience. I am absolutely positive that nothing on their website or in the booking process ever indicated that I needed to pay extra to "confirm" the seats I selected. All I ever saw was that my seats were confirmed. Very, very, very frustrating.

Worst of all, my complaints and pleas for assistance fell on deaf ears. I also submitted a complaint via the KLM website with no response whatsoever. I was certainly "flying blue"--and I hope to never deal with this airline again. It has absolutely the worst customer service I have ever experienced from an airline. The consequences? Nothing serious, I have to admit. The seats in the back of the airplane (Airbus) and the service were great. The biggest problem is that I started off on my wonderful vacation angry and frustrated. The airline, that took my hard-earned money (and lots of it) for this trip promised me two nice seats near the front of the airplane, snatched them away at the last minute and then sent me to the back of the bus without so much as an apology or any show of concern whatsoever.

I was fortunate enough to be able to take a picture of KLM transferring onto Kenya Airlines. I was on the same plane as the other people I was traveling with, even though they had different flight numbers, etc. I was extremely inconvenienced, and had to spend almost 2 hours retrieving my bags, checking them in, as well as myself, for my flight to Nairobi. My boarding pass will confirm that she only gave me a pass to Amsterdam, and not all the way to Nairobi. I would like to know how you would like to compensate me for the inconvenience.

Before I could explain my self to her, she got the boarding pass, tore it, and the other pass from me; and she said you can travel on this line because of time. I was not late for checking. I said, "You were on the phone checking all the time, and you came out, I cannot travel." So I should go to reservation for re-booking. (shocking behavior)

I reluctantly went to the reservation desk, only to be told that I have to buy a new ticket for my journey. I said I was not late for check in. I went to see the supervisor to give me the staff concerned's name. He also refused and called the staff, when he saw I was angry about the behavior meted to me. She complained that the baggage paid was from Accra, Amsterdam, London, and not from London. I queried that it was just typing error and must know the ticket from London to Accra first and not Accra to London.

Why did she not see that the TV had been paid for as baggage, because there was no column in your list of items for TV. (It was only sports equipment.) She took over 20 minutes to complain and asked many questions, only to tell me that I cannot travel on this flight. This has really caused me a lot of money, phone calls to your (0870) numbers on mobiles, and other expenses to travel back home, let alone my family waiting anxiously to receive me home for over many years.

Again, I should have travel with the excess luggage paid for, even if she refused the TV, because we have paid for 23 excess. She refused any suggestion to travel, saying the time is up. The staff was just unreasonable to deal with customers.

Your response is very urgently needed, as I needed to travel to meet my sick mother at the hospital now. My colleague will also affirm what went wrong at the airport yesterday and later today. My holiday period at work cannot be amended, since someone is covering for the whole month that I will be away. You have no idea how this reunion with my family means to me at this time, especially to my mother.

On the other hand, the people on the service support are unprepared to answer my queries and some don't even speak English. They asked me to call again the same number but dial another option. By the way, it takes about 20 minutes on average to get through to an agent. I used the KLM Facebook site and I received an apology and a promise that they would contact me privately to help me--along with some unsolicited comments trying to shut me up, I believe. I am still waiting. This is absurd.

Rick ** who handles our case on KLM /Facebook wanted to know why we want our flight costs returned. I sent him immediately a tip from Exbir (on Facebook): "As your flight starts each in the European Union, you can claim €600 each and then all additional costs like the cost for the luggage back from KLM. This is clearly marked in the regulation 261/2004." This is impudence! The continuation follows!

Update: All right, KLM handles our case. Apparently, we had not given the correct flight number (we did!). Let's see what comes next. I'll write an update.

There was no flight, so they sent us to a hotel. On 2.1.2102, at Saint Maarten airport they delivered us new tickets; this time we flew with Insel Airlines first to Santo Domingo and from there to Panama City 5 minutes ago I heard that the flight to Santo Domingo is delayed so it looks like we cannot catch our Copa Air flight to Panama today We paid $80 for overweight luggage; we had to pay $100 again in Saint Maarten to Insel Air and $70 departure fee. The flight to Santo Domingo is to catch a flight from there to Panama. The flight was delayed; we had to run in the airport to catch the plane at the last minute and arrived totally exhausted in Panama. KLM? Never again!

After waiting in a line for about 7 to 6 hours, the airline attempted to rebook my flight plan for the next day. The lack of information forthcoming from the company and inappropriate lack of sufficient personnel to assist passengers’ needs (one employee) were appalling. This and the total lack of accountability by a responsible authority to answer questions, lack of a company contact phone number to reach any individual who could be spoken to, are pitiful. I guess people actually have to die or become seriously injured before they are forced to take responsibility or provide any explanations. This does not help those who may have been traumatized by the incident and all the others who waited many hours missing many connecting flights, losing time, and money.

So here it is. My old Flying Blue account is cancelled and the new mails continuing to drop in and no one at this fantastic company (KLM/Air France) seems to be able to help me with this problem! What can I do? But let me give you an advice on the way. Never deal with them whatsoever. You are hooked for life!! I really used any other airline I can, or travel by train, bus, car or rather stay at home if the only choice would be KLM! !