It is obvious KLM spends more time trying to get customers to become FLY Blue account holders than they actually care about getting you to your destination on time. And if you are unlucky to be delayed by no fault of yours, with KLM to be wholly blamed, expect to be treated like a person who has forfeited all basic passenger rights.
Do they (KLM) understand what is meant by customer service? Even if they don’t, are they not aware they fly human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity and not robots?
Certain Airlines have no regard for customers after they have taken your money (paid for your ticket) and it seems KLM is leading this group of Airlines.
My experience with KLM today which I believe is not an isolated incident due to what I’ve heard from several passengers has ended my ‘not so good but manageable’ relationship with the Airline.
Sometimes, such incidences make you wonder if KLM has an idea about the number of customers they push away.
From today, I can confidently say they’ve lost a loyal customer and if you are lucky enough to be reading this before you become a victim of KLM’s absurd treatment of customers, count yourself lucky and never book them—again.
If you ever decide to fly and the only Airline in operation is KLM, I think you should at that stage consider using a Canoe, you will probably get to your destination more relaxed, stress free and on time—more importantly, no neatly dressed in Blue staff will talk to you as if you a piece of firewood.
What has killed that lop-sided relationship I had with KLM?
It all started at London Heathrow today where I was due to fly off to Amsterdam via KLM at 11:45am and thereafter to Ghana at 13:05—by connecting to another KLM flight.
As usual, I checked in before 9:30am and waited around for boarding. When the boarding gate of my flight KL1010 was finally opened at 11:15am, we were told we could not board until 11:45—-I later learnt the plane had been delayed.
At 12:00, we were asked to board the flight which should have been in the air by that time as the departure time was 11:45. As usual, they started their gimmick priority boarding…What is the point of this if you cannot even have us board on time and get us to our destinations safe and on time?
At this stage, I began to wonder if KLM was going to be able to deliver on its ticket by successfully connecting us to the KLM flight KL0589 which was departing to Ghana from Amsterdam at 15:05 (UK time 14:05).
This is where they got most of the passengers worried…
Minutes after the plane rolled onto the runway, the pilot announced that he had to pull the plane back to the boarding gate area as a fuel red light is flashing. He quickly added that it will not take long and we will be on our way—yeah right!
After over an hour of being chained to our seats, the pilot once again announced that there is a fuel leakage, the reason for the flashing light. He also stated that, his other tank needs to be filled with fuel to enable us take off as that is empty —and with the other leaking, that is the only way we can fly off.
So KLM was trying to tell us we were not even safe and we were supposed to be calm–the frustration the huge delay brought was ‘killing’ us.
Here, if sitting in a plane with red lights flashing on some dashboard somewhere and leaking fuel tank is not enough to cause you panic, the fact that you were about to miss your connecting flight will probably make you start sweating.
For another hour, we sat in the plane without any information coming to us. Eventually, we were told the refuelling has been done and we were ready to fly off in a slowly leaking plane.
We were leaving London at 15:10 (Amsterdam time), 5 minutes pass the departure time of our connecting flight to Accra.
So we left London to connect to a flight which had already taken off….
When we arrived at Amsterdam Airport—This is when things got REAL messy for us all
Knowing that you’ve missed your flight with limited information as to what to do next coupled with the fact that some of us were flying to Ghana purposely for business meetings the very next day pulled a stress wrinkle on our faces.
Personally, I felt a little better when I got off the plane. More better when I saw a KLM staff who stated they were aware of the delayed and missed flights so we should head to T4 for further information.
Little did I know we were in to be treated like some ‘prisoners’ on their way to Guantanamo Bay—even I think they wouldn’t be treated like we were…Talking to passengers in such situation is the least you can do.
At T4, no KLM staff was ready to say a word to us; they kept asking us to use their machines to reprint new boarding passes for the next day’s flight.
Who cares about boarding pass at this stage when through no fault of his a flight is missed and the next one is 24 hours away?
We had other important needs such as; knowing where we were going to stay, what our entitlements were as passengers, how those without Schengen visas were going to get out of the airport even if a hotel is provided, what is the business excuse for the substantial delay among others…
