Experiences with KLM Switzerland
10/06/06 21:39 Filed in: Consumer
It seemed at every corner KLM has found a way to tag
on extra charges to their flyers. Already you have to
pay .50 a minute just to talk with a reservation
agent and after walking through their callcenter
electronic guide for a few minutes, 2 out of 4 times
I got through to an agent who simply hung up on me.
Fortunately I had looked on their website first to get an idea of what was available. I really liked their presentation showing what days would offer you what price. However, after finding the flight that I wanted, the English speaker who answered said that I could only take the higher priced flights. I explained that I could also clearly see the higher priced route he was offering but that I wanted the cheaper connection. He insisted that anything cheaper was an "Internet Special" and that I should buy it over the Internet if it looked cheaper there.
Calling back again, but this time choosing the French speaker I arrived at a nice lady who offered at first the same price as the German/ English speaker fellow. However when I told her I wanted another connection she asked which flights I wanted and proceeded to make the reservation without a problem, for a nice 60CHF reservation fee. There was no "Internet Special", apparently the fellow was new on the job or somesuch.
So, if you find a great price online but still feel more comfortable speaking to a person, simply print out what you want and ask specifically for the flights numbers as you saw on the Internet. Even better, if you go right to the Zurich or Geneva airport and pay directly, you can save the 60CHF phone reservation fee (and the 15+CHF for the numerous calls).
That seemed to be the end of it but on returning to Geneva I unhappily found that my suitcase had a wheel ripped off and so I had to drag it to the train and up the hills of Neuchatel. The airport claims office said that I should take the luggage to a repair specialist and get a repair quote from them, then I could contact KLM about paying for it. Ugh, I am sure that I will again have to pay 50cents a minute to talk about my claim as well.
So, as an end to the story, although KLM might have the cheapest online tickets for many connections, add a good 10% to the ticket price to get the real cost.
Fortunately I had looked on their website first to get an idea of what was available. I really liked their presentation showing what days would offer you what price. However, after finding the flight that I wanted, the English speaker who answered said that I could only take the higher priced flights. I explained that I could also clearly see the higher priced route he was offering but that I wanted the cheaper connection. He insisted that anything cheaper was an "Internet Special" and that I should buy it over the Internet if it looked cheaper there.
Calling back again, but this time choosing the French speaker I arrived at a nice lady who offered at first the same price as the German/ English speaker fellow. However when I told her I wanted another connection she asked which flights I wanted and proceeded to make the reservation without a problem, for a nice 60CHF reservation fee. There was no "Internet Special", apparently the fellow was new on the job or somesuch.
So, if you find a great price online but still feel more comfortable speaking to a person, simply print out what you want and ask specifically for the flights numbers as you saw on the Internet. Even better, if you go right to the Zurich or Geneva airport and pay directly, you can save the 60CHF phone reservation fee (and the 15+CHF for the numerous calls).
That seemed to be the end of it but on returning to Geneva I unhappily found that my suitcase had a wheel ripped off and so I had to drag it to the train and up the hills of Neuchatel. The airport claims office said that I should take the luggage to a repair specialist and get a repair quote from them, then I could contact KLM about paying for it. Ugh, I am sure that I will again have to pay 50cents a minute to talk about my claim as well.
So, as an end to the story, although KLM might have the cheapest online tickets for many connections, add a good 10% to the ticket price to get the real cost.