So I flew from Toronto to Munich two weeks ago (I’m still in Europe). There were mechanical problems with the plane, and after two aborted takeoffs, we went back to the airport so they could fix the plane. The plane finally left about 6-6.5 hours late. Because of this, the crew was nearing the end of its maximum legal shift length, and had to land in London Heathrow, 20 minutes short of Amsterdam Schipol (sp?) to change crews. In the end, we arrived in Amsterdam about 9 hours late. From there, I easily caught a different connection to Munich.
My question is this: Is there a reasonable chance that I could get compensation? If so, what compensation is likely? How would I get it?
Thank you in advance for helping me approach reasonable treatment from an airline. I hopefully return to Canada on the 18th.
9 hour delay? Not a chance of getting compensation. You may have eligble for a free meal voucher while you were stuck on the ground. Also, waiting two weeks before thinking about asking is not going to help your cause.
I was travelling economy, to an academic conference that I’m speaking at, and bought the ticket through Travel CUTS, a university student-oriented agent.
You should start by contacting who you bought it from. Or, failing that, write to KLM’s customer service center and ask what they propose to do. I would not expect much.
I don’t believe they owe you a thing, although they should have given you some coupons for free food and phone calls at the time.
However, I have found that a well written, polite letter to customer service explaining why you were disappointed in their handling of the situation can get you a few thousand frequent flyer miles or maybe a discount coupon.
I don’t believe they owe you a thing, although they should have given you some coupons for free food and phone calls at the time.
However, I have found that a well written, polite letter to customer service explaining why you were disappointed in their handling of the situation can get you a few thousand frequent flyer miles or maybe a discount coupon.
You will have to contact KLM directly, not the agent you bought the ticket from (unless you have some reason to believe that this agent has a direct relationship and some clout with the airline, which is most likely not the case on student/consolidator type fares).
A polite, reasonable request will be the best for your cause, and avoid sounding like you’re demanding anything or are entitled to anything – whatever they offer you will be on a “goodwill” basis. Waiting 2 weeks to contact the airline should not adversely affect you.
Well, if you’re talking about the principle of it, consider this: I purchased a service from them, i.e. transportation from Toronto on Monday afternoon to Munich on Tuesday morning. I paid for this service, and didn’t receive it, rather, I received the closest thing that they could offer me. Very kind of them, but don’t I really deserve what I paid for?
Anyway, thanks for the advice everyone. Does anyone have any experience in these matters? I think nerd’s right. I’ll mention that I hold a lot of business potential for them.
As a corporate travel consultant, I’ll let you know that they won’t believe you. 2 or 3 tickets per year means nothing to them. If you spent 1-2 million in air travel per year then they’d work with you. “Business potential” means nothing, it just says that you’re threatening to buy your next ticket from someone else. But they know that you’ll buy the cheapest anyway. Can you afford to spend and extra $1000.00 because you prefer KLM?
Also, read the fine print on the ticket agreement that came with the documents. Somewhere in that you’ll find the standard disclaimer that they make no guarantee of on-time departure/arrival and that all they promise is to try really really hard to get you to your destination as close to the time they told you as possible.
Not trying to sound offensive just being blunt to save you alot of time.
Look at it this way, what did you lose, 9 hours or so? Big deal. are you saying you wanted to fly on a plane with mechanical problems and an exhausted crew? I don’t think so.
Stick with a simple letter to customer service and move on.
I had a similar Northwest/KLM experience around Christmastime last year. We were only delayed about 6 hours due to mechanical problems. When I got back home I discovered a nice, apologetic letter from the airline giving me 10,000 free frequent flyer miles, I think it was. I never actually contacted them to ask for anything, nor was I a particularly vocal complainer at the airport. They seem to have just decided to head us all off at the pass.
Different airline and different situation, but a few weeks ago I got seriously delayed on a Delta flight because of a mechanical problem – a dent in one of the doors near the seals, yikes! – and they had to rebook virtually everybody on different flights. Impressively, my bag made it through one Delta flight and then over to an American flight.
I wrote them telling them that while it was all a pain, I very much appreciated how it was handled and how we cattle (um…passengers) were kept informed of what was going on. They wrote me back and said they were sending me a $50 credit voucher, which arrived yesterday.
It can’t hurt to write to the airline, though you may or may not get anything out of it. I wasn’t trying to get anything out of it, I was just so pleased to know WHAT the problem was and what was being done about it and how long it would all take. I’ve never been on a flight with a problem where they came out and said what it was.