Meanwhile the corporate greed of KLM gains a new seat to sell off a premium price. While KLM states some tickets are non-changeable, the Boycott KLM campaign aims to highlight the opportunistic advantage KLM happily takes in punishing people during a time of tragedy. Policies like this are quietly slipping into many corporation’s race to the bottom and it is time that we send a message that people demand better and that a such thing as corporate sympathy can exist. It can also exist profitably for companies when they see that their subhuman attitude costs more than it saves.
Please join this group and pass this message along to all of your friends and especially family members and groups. We can make a difference. Most importantly BOYCOTT KLM!

I’m lost in Stockholm (since 2006) too :) Last Xmas, we went back home to Spain and guess what? KLM also lost our luggage. I was wondering whether you got any money back, because we have already sent our complaints and tickets to customer.care.nordic@klm.com without having gotten any answer so far.

You got my email in there and I’d appreciate some answer!!!

Take care and a thick coat

Clau

Before flying:
Called Customer Service for a simple question. Nobody knew. Was told to call Reservations instead of being re-directed. Called Reservations. They answered, but the answer turned out to be completely wrong when I arrived at the airport. (Good I trusted my intuition and did not rely on the answer.)

At airport:
Arrived at gate 30 minutes before departure, they rushed me to board like a shepard gathering the cattle. I asked 1 minute to go to toilet. They said no. Flight departed before schedule.

On board:
Long line to toilet. Then turbulence and all had to be seated. Food served was poor, but ok.

Transfer:
5 minutes to get off, find gate, and start boarding. Ran through the terminal and arrived at gate on time, just to find the flight delayed and a long line of frustrated passengers. Just before boarding, KLM changed my seat with the excuse to put a family together. (On board, there was no family on my seat, but a fat woman.)

Airport AMS:
Poorly planned and no electric plug for laptops. Some gates are downstairs, while the main walking corridor is upstairs. Really stupid design.

On board:
Food even worse than previous flight. One flight attendent even spent majority of her time chatting with some KLM-colleagues who were travelling private in business class. That is very unprofessional.

Landing:
The flight arrived earlier than sceduled and lost a frequent flyer for good.

@Simmi – I know! What’s with this airline fail? I caused enough rukus for this incident but at some point you get so tired of it. I have to say though, Delta has for the most part, solved all my issues and given me compensation for problems.

I love however that KLM does NOT compensate for customer service programs? Plays right into the European sterotype that Europeans suck at service.

Oh! Also, I have included some important if you need information about baggage issues.

http://www.flyertalk.com/

There’s a great thread right here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travelbuzz/646769-ultimate-baggage-lost-delayed-stolen-damaged-thread.html

It’s interesting how the alliances Star, One World, Sky Team seem to fail when it comes to their most important passengers – I would raise all kinds of hell with Delta as they are surely paying quite a bit to have their Platinum members treated differently than this by the other carriers in Sky Team.

Oooh, I will NEVER forget.

We flew from Houston to Newark Airport (NY). (From there, we would catch a plane to Frankfurt, Germany.) Normally, this first flight takes about 4 hours. They overbooked the flight and paid people to take the second flight to Newark (I wish I had!!). Well, due to “bad weather conditions”, which do happen, we had to land somewhere else 3 times before flying back to Newark everytime to see if the bad weather had passed. It took 12 (yes, TWELVE) hours before we finally got there.
Of course, by then we had missed the connecting flight. Moreover, the people that took the second flight to Newark somehow got there and caught their connection…

We got to Newark right after 10 pm, I believe. (It’s been 2 years, excuse my blurry memory) We had our 5 week-old newborn with us to see his grandparents for the first time. We stood in line at the Continental service desk for about 45 minutes, then their crew closed the desk for the night. Yep, they did not even stay open for us after what we’d been through. They said we would need to wait to get rebooked until the next day. WHA…?!!!!

It’s true. We were all advised to retrieve our luggage (which was not easily found and distributed by them) and come back in the morning. At about 1 AM we finally found a person from Continental that had meal tickets (which only McDonald’s was still open that late) and he said their (free) hotel (which they use for these kinds of things) was booked out and we were out of luck getting in. We could drive into town and pay for our own hotel and try to get reimbursed later on, if we wanted to. (Just in case there is any question, we did not have that kind of extra money at that point.) DOUBEL WHA…?!!!!

So, we were stranded at the airport with our 5 week-old among billions of germs with no place to go or nowhere to sleep. I just wanted to cry!! My pants had been peed and pooped on, Liam had run out of diapers, and our luggage was not there yet either. A Continental employee told us they had booked a flight for us going to Amsterdam the next afternoon (which was the later flight, I suppose they did not care about our small baby being at the airport even longer) which would then go to Frankfurt after a 5 1/2 hour-layover. We finally got our luggage. The airport was far from everything, so we paid a taxi $60 to find us a drugstore selling some diapers. We went to Continental’s hotel (as adviced, to “camp out” and hope for someone to leave in the morning so we could get their room). It eventually happened. That afternoon, we finally made it onto our connection flight to Amsterdam. Luckily, we had arranged for my parents to come pick us all up in Amsterdam, as it was faster to drive there and pick us up than to wait for the layover and to then pick us up from Frankfurt. Before we left Newark, I had made sure to let Continental know of our plans and to make sure our luggage was not being sent all the way to Frankfurt.
When we got to Amsterdam, our luggage was not on the conveyor belt. We stood in line to make sure it was NOT being sent to Frankfurt. They said okay, checked the computer and said it was not on the list to be sent to Frankfurt, but that it was obviously lost. We had to file a report and go on our way.

No, it does not end here. We got home (well, to my parents’ house in Germany, I mean) and I called the airline the next day. The luggage was sure to be sent that day (so I was told in Amsterdam). Now, Continental said they were not responsible. Another airline that would transport it to our nearest airport (once it was FOUND) would handle it. I called them. No, it wasn’t them either. I called Amsterdam AND Frankfurt airport. Nope, none of them knew. After about 30 phone calls I finally found someone helpful (a US customer rep for Continental) who said the luggage was located in (you guessed it) Frankfurt and would be flown to Duesseldorf Aiport (closest by the house) where a truck driver would pick it up and deliver it within the next 24 hours. We were allowed a $50 spending limit for clothing (which buys you a pair of jeans in Germany) for the two adult tickets. Oh, great! Plus, it was the weekend, and all stores are pretty much closed then. So we went and got some cheap stuff at the local grocery store. Overall, it took 4 days to get our luggage.

When we returned back to Houston, I was sure to write a complaint letter. The results: Two $50 coupons to get off our next tickets with Continental (which I will obviously never use to fly again) and about $100 reimbursement for clothing.

This was the single, most terrible, outrageous customer service experience of my life. Not the bad weather, we understand that happens. But how the airline responded was incredibly unsatisfactory.