KLM Flying Dutchman - kl602 nov1

sitting here in LAX, by now 6 hours delayed because some cargodoor didn't open. "They stuck a stick in it, and then someone from the inside pushed a button, and so the stick broke off, and now there is a hole in teh cargo door" (...) I am quoting the captain, who very nicely came to the lounge to tell us this news... It now looks like we are going to leave in about two hours.., so i reckon the total delay will be 8 hours...

does the eu regulation apply here? or is this force majeur?

As far as I know, yes.

If you check in on time for any flight, including charters:
from an EU airport, or
to an EU airport from one outside the EU, when operated
by an EU airline,
and if the airline operating the flight expects a delay:
of 2 hours or more, for flights of 1 500 km or less,
of 3 hours or more, for longer flights within the EU, and for
other flights between 1 500 and 3 500 km,
of 4 hours or more for flights over 3 500 km outside the EU,
the airline must give you meals and refreshments, hotel
accommodation when necessary (including transfers) and
communication facilities.
When the delay is 5 hours or more, the airline must also offer
to refund your ticket (with a free flight back to your initial
point of departure, when relevant).
If you do not receive these rights, complain immediately to
the airline operating the flight.

See http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/passenger_rights/doc/2005_01_19_apr_leaflet_en.pdf

Kind regards,
Maurits

Sorry to hear of your predicament.

Yes, this does come under EU regulations - the regulations apply to EU-based carriers worldwide, and to non-EU carriers for departures from EU countries (so you wouldn't be covered on a NW flight from LAX, but you are covered on KLM).

From an article I read in a UK consumer magazine yesterday some airlines are trying to claim that technical problems are force majeure, and there are now cases going through the courts which hopefully will clarify the situation. I can't see how they can claim it's force majeure when they've admitted that some fool broke the door!

Remember that the EU rules don't give you much in case of a delay. Only hotel accommodation (if needed) and food/drinks. Studied the subject after a 17 hour delay in AMS-SIN :( Just as Maurits quoted!

It's been a bad day for KLM's longhaul operations today. Yesterday's KL606/SFO arrived today just about 23 hours late. KL602/LAX is finally supposed to arrive at 19.35 local time or about 6.5 hours late, and also KL686/MEX is only arriving in the evening, almost 6 hours late after yesterday's KL685 to MEX had to return to AMS. KL798/GRU arrived in AMS more than 4 hours behind schedule because of ATC problems in Brazil - yesterday's KL797 had to make an unscheduled stop in Salvador - and KL430/DXB arrived about 3.5 hours late because of fog in Dubai.

Strangely enough, KLM is coping well with all these delays. So far only KL861/NRT has left AMS about 2 hours late because of late inbound equipment and KL895/PVG has now just been delayed for about 2 hours as well. If anything else goes wrong, I'm pretty sure that KL837/SIN will once again be sacrificed.

ok home safe and sound, 6,5 hours late, but hey. The crew was fantastic (thank god they voted to go "over their hours", because they had been hanging in the plane all the time the cargooor was fixed..) They did a 'reduced meal service', which in C meant serve all at once starter, main and drinks (like on the BKK flights) slept like a log in 77k, which was only partly frustrating when you come home at 9pm... Must have been worse for all those pax who got stranded at SPL for the night...

Thnx Maurits for the link,

* When the delay is 5 hours or more, the airline must also offer
to refund your ticket (with a free flight back to your initial
point of departure, when relevant).

This can't really be true can it? Anyone EVER got that? To whom does one write? I tried it very gently with the NWA staff in LAX... what a laugh...

* When the delay is 5 hours or more, the airline must also offer
to refund your ticket (with a free flight back to your initial
point of departure, when relevant).

This can't really be true can it? Anyone EVER got that? To whom does one write? I tried it very gently with the NWA staff in LAX... what a laugh...Forgot about that rule. Always wondered how that works if you're on your way home, refund your ticket and fly home for free :)

So likely this is only an option on the outbound flight, and I wasn't offered this. Didn't ask for it either.

It's been a bad day for KLM's longhaul operations today. .Tell me about it. KL592 was due to depart JNB at 23.55 that day, but the captain announced a 10-15 minute delay due to unspecified 'problems' with the cargo (it was a combi). Fifteen minutes came and went without any news. After an hour we were finally informed that a mistake had somehow been made by someone somewhere, with the result that one container had to be unloaded. Needless to say, this was the container farthest in, so all the cargo had to be taken off the aircraft and then reloaded, minus the offending container. When this had been accomplished and the jetway removed, the captain discovered that his seatbelt was broken! The jetway had to be reconnected, and an engineer summoned to fix the seatbelt. This fortunately did not take too long, so we finally arrived at AMS with a delay of only 48 minutes, which meant that only pax to SFO and DTW missed their connections.

The flight itself was fine. My (WBC) seat had only three technical problems, and the IFE system had a brain hemmorage early in the morning and could not be fixed. We did have a purser who took her job seriously. Not only did she do a bar service herself (I can't remember when I last saw that!), she also visited the cabin repeatedly and engaged all passengers who wished in conversation.

Johan

It's been a bad day for KLM's longhaul operations today. Yesterday's KL606/SFO arrived today just about 23 hours late. KL602/LAX is finally supposed to arrive at 19.35 local time or about 6.5 hours late, and also KL686/MEX is only arriving in the evening, almost 6 hours late after yesterday's KL685 to MEX had to return to AMS. KL798/GRU arrived in AMS more than 4 hours behind schedule because of ATC problems in Brazil - yesterday's KL797 had to make an unscheduled stop in Salvador - and KL430/DXB arrived about 3.5 hours late because of fog in Dubai.

Strangely enough, KLM is coping well with all these delays. So far only KL861/NRT has left AMS about 2 hours late because of late inbound equipment and KL895/PVG has now just been delayed for about 2 hours as well. If anything else goes wrong, I'm pretty sure that KL837/SIN will once again be sacrificed.
same for NWA's flight 54 DTW-AMS for Thursday, about all factors that could delay a flight came on.

18h15. I boarded the A330-300 N810NW service to AMS
18h45. Since there was some snow in DTW, alot of connections where late, and we had a 15 min. delay
19h15. Because of the snow we had to be de-iced
19h45. We push back,start the engines and waited 15mins therafter we taxied about 100mtrs and waited
20h15. The captain came on and told that there was a technical problem and we probaly should go back to the gate.
20h33. we pull into gate A60.
21h15. The captain came on again and told us that there were working on it and that it would take another 30mins.
22h05. The captain comes on and tells there are a few more things that had to be done and at 22h30 we took off

the next day at 11h15 we landed and ran to gate C29 just to hear that the bus for KL 1725 left