I recently went cycling with my wife in Sri Lanka and booked a flight with KLM. We paid loads extra for the seats because there were no direct flights to Colombo and we wanted to take bikes with us. We called KLM and even visited Schiphol airport to ensure that there will be no problems with taking bikes. Ok, so the tickets cost twice the price of the alternatives but at least one company is handling our bikes and transfers?
Sadly, I missed the small print on the booking page that indicated (or so its claimed) that the flight to Sri Lanka was subcontracted to Delta Airlines (Amsterdam to Mumbai) and Jet Airways (Mumbai to Colombo). In itself not really a big problem except:
Sadly, I missed the small print on the booking page that indicated (or so its claimed) that the flight to Sri Lanka was subcontracted to Delta Airlines (Amsterdam to Mumbai) and Jet Airways (Mumbai to Colombo). In itself not really a big problem except:
- The terms and conditions for each carrier are different (so on arrival at the airport, we had to pay EU300 per leg extra take our bikes along). Exactly the reason why I booked with KLM in order to avoid having to deal with multiple companies.
- If for whatever reason you have concerns flying with an American carrier over Iran and Iraq, then you best know this before you get on the plane.
- Lastly, the booking systems are not integrated so if you try and fly with a family, be prepared to negotiated with other passengers to change seats so your 7 year old daughter doesn't fly alone.
The whole situation was unpleasant and I wrote KLM a letter after which they called me, apologised and refunded the costs of the bikes. KLM monitors twitter and normally responds quickly to complaints.
But, what I find missing is the failure of the company to grasp that their solution, that customers should read the fine print when booking flights, completed does not solve the problem of pushing the pain of dealing with their fragmented supply chain, onto the customers.
Why would I book with KLM if I can book for 50% of the cost via Expedia and face the same pain of dealing with different carriers on a single journey? This broken interface to customers is basically making it impossible to support KLM and unless they define and measure their customer experience, they cannot ask for loyalty.
Why would I book with KLM if I can book for 50% of the cost via Expedia and face the same pain of dealing with different carriers on a single journey? This broken interface to customers is basically making it impossible to support KLM and unless they define and measure their customer experience, they cannot ask for loyalty.
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