[Tiffanylu]

`I had great experience with KLM before, but this time, I couldn’t be more disappointed.
I had a flight 2017.07.06 from Barcelona-Amsterdam-Taipei with my mom.
We have bought two tickets online directly from KLM long ago in January.2017.01.

I checked in a day before 2017.07.05 with my cell phone, and had a seat and QR code for boarding pass already.

The flight is 17:15 in the afternoon,
We checked in with the KLM counter at Barcelona Airport for my luggages, and printed out the paper boarding pass with the help from the counter.
Everything was going great, we successfully checked in around 13:30 (keep this in mind, that we checked in so early)

When we got to the gate for boarding time, the flight was delayed(first strike—delayed flight)
When I approached to the counter of the gate, the guy from KLM told me there was a problem, my flight is canceled and KLM has transfer me to another airline, without even bother noticing us(second strike—cancelation on flight in last minute and without forwarding customer)
My mom was super worried and told him it’s not fair telling us the last second, and without telling us what specifically we should do right now.
The guy shouted at my mom”Miss, unfortunately, this is the situation, so now do you want to get onboard or not?”
I said “I have the right to get on this plane because I have the seat, and I got the seat yesterday when i was checking online” The guy was like”No, you have no rights, you have been canceled, like I said, and if your mom doesn’t want to get onboard, go buy another ticket, now, your luggage is at belt 6, go get your things.”
He kept phoning with his colleague speaking in Spanish when he should’ve have spoken in English letting us know the situation.
His attitude is the worst one can get of a fine airline like KLM(third strike—worst attitude of service, emotional damage), first of all, he was not clear of what we should do for the situation, and second of all,not only did he shouted at my mom so mean and so disrespectful, he also assault me for being an irresponsible person because I got canceled(how does this make sense?).

When I tried to take videos of him to record what attitude and what situation we were having as a proof, he went over and grabbed me with both of my arms(note that I’m a 5 “3 girl and he’s a 5”11 guy with a huge a size). A receptionist getting physical with customers?(fourth strike—getting physical with customer? Physical damage)…….

When we tried to leave and taking our original boarding pass, he tried to take it away from us and torn our boarding passes. He told us he’s going to call the police because we are taking evidence. We told him go ahead and we are going to call for legal advice as well, he looked shocked.

He started to behave like a total different person when the security and his manager came, he started to act super polite and his hands kept on shaking the entire time, I guess he’s super nervous what he had done and was so afraid we have evidence and tell on his boss. I really don’t get why these kind of people are like that, and how a fine Airline would tolerate that kind of service to customer.

We got home eventually, 3 hours later of the changed flight, to put things worse, KLM lost our suitcases at the time (fifth strike—losing customer’s luggages)and got it delivered 2 days later than our arrival, causing huge inconvenience for us.

The thing is, we checked in so early the day, and then they told us the very last minute that we were kicked out and plus losing our luggages, meaning that they have the entire process with tons and tons of errors, from the whole protocol, employee training to face to face service, they have so much to improve.

What have happened to us, is not by coincident, it is the evidence of how this Airline has lacked profession altogether. Causing not only the extremely unpleasant experience but also the actual damage they had done to us. [sixth strike—unprofessional system and process of service]

I’m putting out this complaint so that people would be more careful knowing this might happen to them and for KLM to work something on this to avoid future mistakes.

[syclik5]

First of all, the 17:15 KLM flight from BCN to AMS on July 6 was not cancelled, and it even landed early although it departed 24 minutes late:
https://www.flightradar24.com/flight/kl1674

Having had an actual cancellation on KLM last month, I know that they inform you by email and text message (assuming that they have these details) as soon as a cancellation occurs, and forward the new booking details to you by the same means.

I am puzzled as to why you insist to the gate agent that you must board the flight when you have been told that the flight is cancelled – why insist on a seat on a service that you “know” is not operating?

I get the feeling that there is more to this story than you have told us…

[ViajeroUK]

First time poster with a dubious story, first off the flight is said to have been cancelled, but later on the poster reports that they arrived home three hours late.

The whole thing just doesn’t make sense, I can endorse comments from syclik5 about the proactive approach by KLM to cancellations or delays, one of the best!

[FrDougal]

Definitely more to this very bizarre story.
And why suddenly take a camera out to film? Of course this was going to create a reaction. Firstly it’s rude, secondly clearly there was no permission requested to film someone.
The author of this thread sounds like a nightmare!

[SimonS1]

I’ll give the OP the benefit of the doubt as there may be a language issue here and it sounds as if we might be talking about a denied boarding case not a real cancellation.

Unfortunately in such circumstances things tend to snowball, the change of airline means bags go missing etc.

If the delay was more than 3 hours there could be an EC261 situation.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=819828]I’ll give the OP the benefit of the doubt as there may be a language issue here and it sounds as if we might be talking about a denied boarding case not a real cancellation.

Unfortunately in such circumstances things tend to snowball, the change of airline means bags go missing etc.

If the delay was more than 3 hours there could be an EC261 situation.

[/quote]

Perhaps not just a language barrier, but also a cultural one Tiffanylu sounds as if she may have been visiting Europe, from Taiwan.

I agree, Simon, cut her some slack.

[capetonianm]

Tiffanylu sounds like the passenger from hell. When I ran an airline ticketing counter, the Chinese were in the top five of the worst passengers, in fact I’d say they were number three.

It’s clear from her account of events, which sounds most unlike any of my experiences with KLM, that she was abrasive, provocative, and confrontational. Even if she was denied boarding due to overbooking, or more likely, presenting herself late at the gate, that’s no way to behave.

From the way she writes English, I don’t see that ‘language barrier’ is a valid defence, since her English is almost perfect. I know a lot of native English speakers who would like to write such coherent and grammatically correct English.

[FDOS_UK]

Tiffanylu sounds like the passenger from hell. When I ran an airline ticketing counter, the Chinese were in the top five of the worst passengers, in fact I’d say they were number three.

Sounds like availability bias is alive and well.

[capetonianm]

If you say so, but based on plenty of experiences over many years in several countries.

[stevescoots]

I have to admit taking my phone out to film “disagrements” in China before, its a sure fire way to get things done when you are given the run around, its a social norm now there.

[SimonS1]

Unless the OP returns we won’t know but there are a number of gramattical and spelling errors and it’s pretty clear English isn’t the mother tongue.

I hope this forum doesn’t become like FT where some members of the clique are always on duty to rubbish anyone who makes a negative observation.

[LuganoPirate]

The only thing I will say in her defense, and it’s something that annoys me, is the notification is so often sent out by email. Many people don’t have a data package, and data is so expensive when roaming you may not want to risk downloading your emails, so she may not have seen the notice. That’s the downside to all this online check in , great for the airlines, but sometimes not so great for the paying passenger.

I always check when I arrive at the airport and before security if all is on time and check the announcement monitors every 20 minutes or so.

[Author]

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