KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

YOU ARE NOT FLYING WITH KLM, YOU ARE FLYING WITH DELTA!!!
Air France, KLM, and Delta have combined into one big cluster — - and the paying customer suffers.
I cancelled a flight within 2 minutes of booking it, (you can’t change a flight with KLM, so it had to be cancelled and then a new flight ordered). I never got my refund despite confirmation from their system I would. A few weeks later I had to pick up the phone since their system is garbage. What followed was a series of calls to Delta, who couldn’t do much about my KLM problem — KLM website is borderline unusable and getting to a human being was literally impossible — you must go through Delta to do anything.
I hated the whole experience and would never go through it again.

Ok, after all the trouble I went through with KLM I have to give them some credit for doing the right thing and reimbursing the total amount of the ticket, only because it was a staff error. If you buy a ticket and cancel it you will not be refund the total amount just the tax part. So always make sure to know their policy before requesting a refund.

This is a great airlines. I’ve flown with them twice (roundtrip) and have never had any issues. No delays, great service, fast check-​in, no hidden fees, and a nice overall flying experience. I understand that flying in/​out of O’Hare in the winter can cause bad experiences for some, but that’s not KLM’s fault.

I booked a flight from SFO to Madrid at 8:50am and they changed my time without notice and permission. I got to the airport at 5:45am and I couldn’t do the checking because it was too late. I missed the flight. I got reschedule for another flight to Atlanta and then Madrid at 7:45am. At 6:50 they delay the flight 13 hours. This flight was operated by Delta, one of their partners. I called the help line and after a whole hour trying to get them get me another flight, they got me one that apparently didn’t exist. Requested a manager and they told me I could get a flight that would arrive to Madrid late in the next day (connections at LAX, Amsterdam and finally Madrid). I accepted but my flight was leaving from Oakland airport! The lady said it is only 11min away… really?! By helicopter?!? Anyways, got to Oakland, got in the flight to LAX, had to go through security again because they didn’t issue a boarding pass and the lady from KLM tells me that my seat is Standby !! And they couldn’t assure me I could get in the plane! Are you kidding me?!? Ridiculous! Thank god I got in the plane, left ONE hour late (delayed) and once I’m on my seat the stewardess comes and asks me for my boarding pass saying that another person is supposed to be seated here… What?! So I guess they overbooked the flight. They had to send the other guy to the back of the plane. And I’m here, in Amsterdam waiting for my next flight when I should have been hours ago at home. The most frustrating part is that no one wanted to take responsibilities, from the Delta desk they send you to the KLM one and viceversa. Ridiculous, bad customer service and awful coordination. Such a waste of money and time with these two airlines.

How do they get 200 people to behave in a sausage tube for 20 hours?

Flight fr Nice to Amsterdam was cancelled due to weather. We were re routed viaBritsh Airways to London then Vancouver. It took the Customer Service 40 mins to process us & we were 2 nd in line. 150 other passengers were behind us. I was om with anything but we lost a day of vacation in Amsterdam & a$ 162 paid hotel room. We ll try to get it back but we re not hopeful as the did get us home in good time.

This review is based on my international flight from San Francisco to Amsterdam. There were some negatives to my experience, but overall I wouldn’t say that they’re too bad.
~ NEGATIVES:
— This is a huge negative, but when I got seated on my flight I was seated in the infant section so was sat right next to 2 babies, one of which was on the ground next to my feet who kept hitting me in the legs during her flailing tantrums. I didn’t kick up a fuss (although I got 0 sleep on the flight) but what would’ve been really helpful is that I picked my seat on the website and there was ZERO indication to me that I was sat in the infant section. I really hope that they would have some mention of it anywhere to prevent anyone from making that huge mistake. Unfortunately, since it was a full flight there was nowhere I could move to.
— During my flight, there were several toilets that were unfit for use which made the queues for the toilet even longer than usual on flights.
— The headphones they give you were very uncomfortable to wear, more than any other headset I’ve used on a flight. They had this plastic bit that looped over your ear but what it really did was made the back of my ear very itchy and I had to constantly take them off to help calm the irritation down. For some reason as well, using your own headphones wasn’t practical either because sound only came out of one jack depending on which hole you plug it into; I’ve never had this problem before when it came to using my own earbuds on a flight!
— The ‘Call Attendant’ button on my handset was stuck through no fault of my own, so it constantly lit up even when I didn’t press it if I moved the handset even slightly.
Overall, besides the infant section situation, my main gripes with my flight were slight functional/​technical issues. Not many of them were a big deal, but most of which I’ve never had a problem with before on any flight so it definitely affects my rating.
—
~ POSITIVES:
— Since I was in the infant section, I got to see firsthand how the attendants handle small children and they were really nice to the mothers, constantly checking in to see if the mothers need any help with the children or if there’s anything they can get. So, if you’re travelling with KLM I would definitely trust them to help with keeping your children happy.
— Their selection of entertainment was pretty decent with plenty of the latest movies available going from huge titles to some smaller films. They even have a small selection of audiobooks to listen to! Needless to say I was entertained through my whole flight, necessary for me especially because I couldn’t sleep due to the babies.
—
Overall I can’t be mad at my flight too much. There were slight annoyances and there are plenty of airlines that I would much prefer over KLM but nothing horrendously horrible. I wouldn’t be opposed to flying with them again if they were the cheapest and/​or most convenient option. Plus I love the shade of blue they use for their colour scheme!

DO NOT EVER USE KLM! They are scammers and will cheat you out of your money! My friend and I had booked an August flight to Ibiza and last minute had to cancel due to work. We resecheduled one day apart for a September flight to London. I had to pay a difference of almost $ 200 for the flight change, meanwhile to make the same change my friend was not only NOT charged, but credited almost $ 200 towards another flight AND given some kind of mileage option that I wasn’t. When I called to ask if I could have my payment refunded, they declined and said that it just wasn’t doable. DO NOT USE THEM! I REPEAT DO NOT! Also, Osa Johnson was the supervisor whom I spoke to who refused my service. Do not expect even an ounce of help from Osa.

One of the worst airlines I have flown in a long time. If you are American and if you are any race other than Caucasian, please please avoid this airline and possibly the Netherlands if this is what the country’s people are like (latter I cannot attest to since I have not been in country other than airport). One of the Dutch KLM male attendants on the flight from Amsterdam to Washington Dulles was quite rude towards me and towards my son though we did nothing but answer him respectfully and kindly and thanked him for everything. He kept rolling his eyes, glaring at me, or shaking his head when I gave him a simple respectful response to one of his questions (usually on what food or beverage do you want). Then when he asked the same question to someone of his own race and they responded in the exact same manner as I, the same Dutch male steward was very pleasant and courteous. What kind of bigoted steward would do that? Does he understand that his racism was overt… why not at least try and hide it. He gave KLM a bad face this day.
Then there was the botching of my family’s seat assignments which was the first sign of incompetence with KLM. KLM managed to separate my entire family of four into 4 different isles and seats… even though I had pre-​booked these 4 seats to ALL be together. Yes I had done the formal online seat assignment PRIOR to the leg of Amsterdam to DC flight. My children are young. How can you even think of separating my two young kids away from their parents? Don’t you ask us on reservation of the flight about AGE OF EACH PASSENGER SO AS TO KEEP YOUNG KIDS WITH THEIR PARENTS??? And one has to provide this data to complete the reservation. One of the stewardesses was trying to fix the problem but made an unusually meek attempt to put us back in our original seats and could only put one parent with one child in different aisles… even though I pre-​booked us to be all together. She made a comment that some people paid extra money for the seat aisle in economy and may have pushed your family apart. What kind of an airline sells you 4 family tickets and then proceeds to pull your family apart if someone is willing to pay more an aisle seat you selected. What a ridiculous airline. Never seen an airline do this to its customer– no US carrier or international carrier has done this to us.
If you want the best in customer service (seating) and seek basic dignity and respect no matter what your race or creed may be (KLM bigoted steward), please avoid KLM. There are far better carriers out there.

This was the worst airline experience that I have ever had! Klm was our connecting flight to Istanbul. We received no notification that our flight was delayed until we arrived. Our flight was delayed 5 hours!!! Then we had to rebook our connecting flight which caused a whole day of vacation to go to waste! On top of that we asked numerous times for an upgrade since it was such an inconvenience for us and they did not service this request nor were they helpful to this regard. They also caused our next flight to fly into an airport that was 1 hour farther than our initial airport destination!!! This was a big inconvenience and they seemed to not care at all about accommodating our needs.

Non stop SFO to Amsterdam. (10 hr flight) Nice staff and nice clean plane with free TV. I had dental extraction 10 days before trip. Vomited on take off. Steward was nice and saved my dinner for me to eat later when i felt better. The plane seemed newer? or refurbished. Staff was friendly and smiling vs. grumpy staff on United/​American/​Delta/​Hawaiian.

Paid $ 75 for a seat with extra legroom which got me a seat facing some sort of crew access door through which people passed all night, bumping into my legs (i.e. I could use the extra legroom). Mediocre food. Our luggage got delayed. They couldn’t find my wife’s phone which she’d left on board. Their use of Twitter and Facebook as the sole customer service portal is horrific. The Delta reps were unable to answer any questions about how to contact lost and found, leaving us with Facebook (which got no reply) and Twitter (which got a reply after duplicate attempts).

They reimbursed us for the lost bag. While it does not replace the value of the content, it is still better than nothing.

The seats on KLM are too narrow and an average six foot person would have a tough time sitting. The food is downright bad. The food gets even worse on the Asian leg.
On the way back from Asia, KLM served fast food in a cardboard box that was not even heated right.
2 stars, since the pilot did a good job landing and piloting through turbulence.
In flight experience is not something to look forward to.

There is not much I can add to Helen D’s review, BUT I can back up everything she is saying. The seats are ridiculously narrow. The plane therefore is NOT disability compliant. And, will be highly uncomfortable for any person larger than a size 8. If you don’t have back problems, these plane seats will give them to you .
They have Delta handle their business in the US, and Delta has no authority to access KLM’s system to help customers at all. This is criminal. KLM will gladly take your money in the US, but they will not offer you any customer service here. I have wasted 4 hours talking to Delta, when in the end, it is KLM who can fix this and Delta has no ability to correct it. This is called a «code-​share». Any 2 airlines that have partnered are called «code-​share» If your ticket is code-​shared, neither airline will be able to access your record. You won’t be able to do anything online, like web check-​in, or upgrade. It would seem that airlines don’t want us to be able to reserve our seats anymore, pathetic seats that they are. Train trips are looking better every day!

This is the worst flight to fly international. I had a klm ticket from delhi — paris — ams — los angeles and when i checked in at delhi airport the klm staff was ruthless and bad mannered. They said i did not have a schengian visa (to fly from paris — ams) .
Now, this was really unexpected for me as i had valid us visa (my destination visa). I requested them to adjust into their del — ams — lax flight but they did not help me out, neither did they cancel it !! I lost like $ 800 same day and booked lufthansa to fly next day.
Pathetic experience, avoid this flight if you can.

Flew with KLM — SFO — AMS April 1^st & AMS — SFO April 9^th.
First time with KLM but I have crossed the Atlantic some 40 times in the past decade. Mainly with AA & United & British Airways. The outbound trip was basically the best crossing I’ve ever had. Comfortable clean aircraft, great seat (22 C on the 747 on both trips, I love that seat) The crew were SO good. Its so refreshing to see such smiles and personal service, they really represent the airline and the country very well, the personal touches (such as ice cream /​hot towels /​bottles of wine) that are lacking on the american carriers was much appreciated.
Minor criticism that the food on the return flight was not so good, Fish or Pasta is never a good selection, I think chicken and beef (as it was on the inbound flight) was much safer. Also the later meal again on todays flight was again pasta was not so varied and a little disappointing — but you know, this really is a minor complaint.
Both flights departed early, and both arrived early. This really is a top notch carrier. Wonderful.

Tall, pretty, blonde flight attendants who could pose as Bond Girls. That, in & of itself, makes me a fan.
Throw in decent airline food (see pic) & a pretty cozy seating arrangement & I’m a happy flyer all the way to Europe.

Ok, update. My ticket, that I paid extra for to have changeable all of a sudden is not. I changed it once to Air France (naturally against my will), and without telling me, the ticket is all of a sudden not changeable any more, not for any fee, not in any way. Snooty phone staff will not admit that they made an error in any way. OK, with all major airlines going bankrupt I will try to make a difference. From now on I take my $ 15K travels per year and put them with Virgin. It’s not much but if enough of us change, it will make a change. The KLM, AF and Delta trifecta is a mess, stay away.

I’ve been lucky enough to fly Business Class on KLM, and it’s one of the best (short of the stand-​up bar on Virgin Atlantic). And those cute little ceramic houses filled with alcohol that they give out is a nice extra touch.
Yesterday was a long travel day as I returned from Holland to SFO. The news on during the week focused on Wiki Leaks, the competition to Host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup Soccer Tournament, and the heavy snow in the UK and Scotland. As for Den Haag, it was damn cold, but with only a modest dusting of the white stuff. And as I looked out the window yesterday morning at Schiphol Airport (AMS), my immediate impression was that it was nothing like I’d seen in Calgary or Minneapolis, and that perhaps the Dutch didn’t really know how to handle snow.
Actually I was supposed to come home on SWISS (through Zurich), but that flight was canceled. Thank heavens for European passenger rights, as they immediately booked me on the nonstop KLM flight back to SFO instead and with no extra fee BS. And if the flight was on time, I’d be home 3 hours earlier!
But that was not to be, as our flight finally left 4 hours late, and just in time for an especially challenging commute through San Francisco and over the Bay Bridge. By that point, I had been mostly awake for the last 24 hours, and there was still a Company Christmas party to attend that night.
The wait at the Gate, the associated lack of accurate information, and the long deicing queue was probably a 2 Star experience in itself. On the other hand, it wasn’t really KLM’s fault and we fellow travelers managed to keep ourselves amused. I was also flying Coach, but got one of those unlimited leg room seats in the aisle. On top of that, service was friendly and fabulous, the movies were good, and that well behaved baby next me sure had a cute smile!
The moral of the story? Lemonade from Lemons. And a nap sounds good right now…