AlicorporateUK

I thought to report this perhaps insignificant but still worth sharing experience I had with KLM call centre last Saturday. Right: I woke up (perhaps not entirely and you'll soon understand why ), got my self a brew and booked a flight (my dates were Tuesday 18th returning on Sunday 23rd of February); all done and I even didn't bother to look at the confirmation (I no longer get excited by such things ), however later in the day I opened the travel application on my BlackBerry and noticed a rather bizarre "Missing Accommodation - 38 nights" Needless to say, I realised that I had booked my return flight for the wrong month (March 23rd)... Anyway, I rang the number on the back of my card and an operator responded straight away: I explained what happened and also told her that I was aware about penalties for changing dates and that cancellation wasn't allowed; well, the lovely lady with an even more lovely Dutch accent proposed to cancel the booking entirely at no extra fees so that I could book again - this time for the right dates What a nice gesture I thought! ^

G

Henry III

It is nice when you get such good, old-fashioned service like that! ^

I made a similar mistake a couple of years ago - booking a weekend round trip with the return date set for a year later! Once I noticed, I immediately called the service centre and explained the error: the operator told me that, as the CC payment had not yet gone through, I could cancel for free so long as I booked the replacement, correct itinerary (which I then did); as soon as the new trip showed on MMB, the old, erroneous one magically vanished.

All's well that ends well.

-- Henry

mfkne

KLM still offer free refunds for bookings made via KLM channels within 24 hours of ticketing.

irishguy28

I've had them cancel and refund without penalty when I somewhow managed to book the same trip twice for the exact same dates - and not within 24 hours of either booking. Neither trip was changeable or cancellable.

Henry III

Presumably, you did so: to be sure, to be sure!

-- H

irishguy28

Oh Henry!

That wasn't even funny the first time.

ok986

is there somewhere an official statement of that policy?

irishguy28

For our US colleagues, there is:
http://www.klm.com/travel/us_en/prep...t/index.htm#p4

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/klm-f...some-help.html

I don't think it applies in Europe.

Concerto

I have found the KLM call center excellent and they really do seem to know what they are talking about and are happy to help as best they can...in my experience.

I know what you mean, AlicorporateUK, I receive so many confirmations that it is very tempting just to leave it until later before opening it and going through the details. But because I am very good at making stupid mistakes, I have trained and forced myself to go through the confirmations as soon as they come in. I have found with cheaper point-to-point promotional fares (such as AMS-GVA round trip) that my credit card tends to get charged immediately and a ticket number is issued on the spot. So, while the 24h cancellation policy certainly works (needed to use it quite a few times), the refund process can take a while. But it does work without problems.

mfkne

It does in NL: http://www.klm.com/travel/nl_nl/plan...ight/index.htm

Quote:

irishguy28

Is a free cancellation allowed within 24 hours of booking in...

AT - no
BE - no
CH - no
DE - no
DK - no
ES - no
FR - no
FI - no
GR - no
IE - no
IT - no
LU - no
NL - yes
NO - no
PL - no
PT - no
SE - no

mfkne

Which raises the question: What does "in NL" mean? A resident of the Netherlands booking a flight from anywhere to somewhere else? A resident of any country booking a flight originating in AMS to somewhere else? A resident of any country booking a flight from anywhere to somewhere else via klm.com after selecting the Netherlands as the country of departure (so as to get the Dutch website)?

irishguy28

I think it means any ticket bought on www.klm.com where the first sector departs from AMS.

The website now always (I think) re-directs you to the country of first departure, so regardless of which website country you initially select, the ticket will always be issued in the country from which the first sector departs.

mfkne

It doesn't redirect you (anymore) - it merely says the currency was changed to the local currency of the departure country.

irishguy28

I assume that's a side-effect of changing the country in which the ticket is issued, on the basis of a mismatch between the website country, and the country of departure.

After all, there's no need to "change" the currency from Euros (Germany) to Euros (Netherlands) for instance - so there does seem to be more than a simple currency change occurring.