ajamieson
Jun 6, 02, 4:29 pm
A heartwarming tale which proves that a little patience and thoughtfulness with airline staff can go a long way. It also confirmed my soft spot for bmi british midland, as well as my decision never to choose flying with KLM again.
I had booked an itinerary to the Chicago 'do', EDI-AMS-ORD-AMS-EDI in economy. It was never going to be pleasant, but I figured the trip would allow me to keep my useless RoyalWing status for another year and give my priority waitlisting for burning all my KLM miles. This was (thankfully) to be my last revenue trip with KLM.
All was going well until the middle of the night before departure, when I got a call from the newsroom to say a large chunk of our printing press was up in flames and there would be no edition of The Scotsman (http://www.thescotsman.co.uk) the next day unless we worked through the night to re-paginate the newspaper to run at a commerical press in Glasgow. It was a heroic team effort, but we finally got the newspaper out onto the streets an into the delivery vans at 5.15am. Unfortunately this left me 25 minutes to make the 1 hour journey to EDI.
Obviously I was not going to make KL2072 EDI-AMS, which departs 0610, but I went along to GLA at 0450 to ask if I could go over to AMS on KL2092 which departs at exactly the same time. There were 28 seats free, according to the guy on the ticket desk, but they could not endorse my ticket because it was non-upgradeable. I pointed out that I wasn't asking for an upgrade, merely an endorsement to fly a different feeder flight to AMS and that there was not other flight to ORD from AMS and that the subsequent re-routing costs on NW would be considerable on a public holiday weekend and that it would make absolutely no difference whatsoever (it is a one-class cabin flight) if I flew from EDI or GLA. They wouldn't budge. I pointed out there were 28 spare seats. I asked them to ask reservations in Holland for a final answer, and they said no. I pleaded, they said no. And so I mounted my horse, swung my cape over my shoulder and got a taxi to EDI and the BD ticket desk. "No problem,sir. We can get you to Chicago today."
And blow me if Caroline on the ticket desk did not spend almost three-quarters of an hour trying to release me an affordable itinerary. She phone yield management at UA. She phoned yield management at BD. She phoned her supervisor, and then her supervisor's supervisor. Eventually, when I went back, she produced a EDI-MAN-IAD-ORD-MAN-EDI itinterary with BD and UA for 480 euros (about USD$550) which for a transatlantic routing on a public holiday weekend is pretty amazing. I thanked her, checked in, and went upstairs to departures where I bought a big box of chocolates from Jenners (http://www.jenners.com) and asked the lounge staff to send the box down to the ticket desk staff who had been so good.
The flight to MAN (on an Embraer 145) was uneventful but when I arrived in MAN, the guy on the transfer desk issued me with a new boarding card. Not upgraded to premium economy, but a double upgrade to business, seated in 1A. Result! I had a perfect flight to IAD, with excellent food and superb service. The CSD was called Alistair; although we spelt our name differently it transpired we had a few things in common http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif and it was a fabulous flight. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif The afternoon tea round was called the Mad Hatter's Tea Service (mad_atta you would have loved it).
I also got to experience my first ever domestic sector on UA. Our flight to ORD was delayed by ATC for four hours. When we eventually boarded, I noticed the problem straight away; the grey and red flecked carpets, the enormous sprayed hair, the tatty cabin, the uniforms with shoulderpads...that's it, the aircraft had clearly been waiting at the stand since 1986. I was even more stunned when the woman behind me (in coach, I was in F) was charged three dollars for a beer. The flight was four hours late; UA's fault or otherwise, I would have thrown a hissy fit if I had been asked for money for a drink. Still, we got to ORD in the end.
On the way back, checking in at ORD (supervised by RichLond) I was put on the BD gold card upgrade waitlist again. When I left the excellent SAS lounge and went to the gate I was given another new boarding card, this time in 1H. Another double upgrade, another great flight. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
I'm not going to bore people with the menus, etc., but suffice to say I can recommend BD for transatlantic sectors, even if the upgrade is only to premium economy. This crew is incredibly well-trained and very attentive; many competitors would do well to learn a few things from their service.
And the moral of the story? Be nice... And why did I ever want to fly KL in the first place?
Alastair
I had booked an itinerary to the Chicago 'do', EDI-AMS-ORD-AMS-EDI in economy. It was never going to be pleasant, but I figured the trip would allow me to keep my useless RoyalWing status for another year and give my priority waitlisting for burning all my KLM miles. This was (thankfully) to be my last revenue trip with KLM.
All was going well until the middle of the night before departure, when I got a call from the newsroom to say a large chunk of our printing press was up in flames and there would be no edition of The Scotsman (http://www.thescotsman.co.uk) the next day unless we worked through the night to re-paginate the newspaper to run at a commerical press in Glasgow. It was a heroic team effort, but we finally got the newspaper out onto the streets an into the delivery vans at 5.15am. Unfortunately this left me 25 minutes to make the 1 hour journey to EDI.
Obviously I was not going to make KL2072 EDI-AMS, which departs 0610, but I went along to GLA at 0450 to ask if I could go over to AMS on KL2092 which departs at exactly the same time. There were 28 seats free, according to the guy on the ticket desk, but they could not endorse my ticket because it was non-upgradeable. I pointed out that I wasn't asking for an upgrade, merely an endorsement to fly a different feeder flight to AMS and that there was not other flight to ORD from AMS and that the subsequent re-routing costs on NW would be considerable on a public holiday weekend and that it would make absolutely no difference whatsoever (it is a one-class cabin flight) if I flew from EDI or GLA. They wouldn't budge. I pointed out there were 28 spare seats. I asked them to ask reservations in Holland for a final answer, and they said no. I pleaded, they said no. And so I mounted my horse, swung my cape over my shoulder and got a taxi to EDI and the BD ticket desk. "No problem,sir. We can get you to Chicago today."
And blow me if Caroline on the ticket desk did not spend almost three-quarters of an hour trying to release me an affordable itinerary. She phone yield management at UA. She phoned yield management at BD. She phoned her supervisor, and then her supervisor's supervisor. Eventually, when I went back, she produced a EDI-MAN-IAD-ORD-MAN-EDI itinterary with BD and UA for 480 euros (about USD$550) which for a transatlantic routing on a public holiday weekend is pretty amazing. I thanked her, checked in, and went upstairs to departures where I bought a big box of chocolates from Jenners (http://www.jenners.com) and asked the lounge staff to send the box down to the ticket desk staff who had been so good.
The flight to MAN (on an Embraer 145) was uneventful but when I arrived in MAN, the guy on the transfer desk issued me with a new boarding card. Not upgraded to premium economy, but a double upgrade to business, seated in 1A. Result! I had a perfect flight to IAD, with excellent food and superb service. The CSD was called Alistair; although we spelt our name differently it transpired we had a few things in common http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif and it was a fabulous flight. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif The afternoon tea round was called the Mad Hatter's Tea Service (mad_atta you would have loved it).
I also got to experience my first ever domestic sector on UA. Our flight to ORD was delayed by ATC for four hours. When we eventually boarded, I noticed the problem straight away; the grey and red flecked carpets, the enormous sprayed hair, the tatty cabin, the uniforms with shoulderpads...that's it, the aircraft had clearly been waiting at the stand since 1986. I was even more stunned when the woman behind me (in coach, I was in F) was charged three dollars for a beer. The flight was four hours late; UA's fault or otherwise, I would have thrown a hissy fit if I had been asked for money for a drink. Still, we got to ORD in the end.
On the way back, checking in at ORD (supervised by RichLond) I was put on the BD gold card upgrade waitlist again. When I left the excellent SAS lounge and went to the gate I was given another new boarding card, this time in 1H. Another double upgrade, another great flight. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
I'm not going to bore people with the menus, etc., but suffice to say I can recommend BD for transatlantic sectors, even if the upgrade is only to premium economy. This crew is incredibly well-trained and very attentive; many competitors would do well to learn a few things from their service.
And the moral of the story? Be nice... And why did I ever want to fly KL in the first place?
Alastair