KLM online checkin - what a nightmare!

Old Jul 18, 2009, 7:59 pm
  #1  
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Thumbs down KLM online checkin - what a nightmare!

What a joke. It just seems to be the most unreliable system ever.

I've never flown KLM before, only AF. I am FB Gold, so was hoping to get a "pleasant and memorable" experience. Well, it's the latter, but certainly not the former!

First, I just can't get in at all. I've linked my e-ticket to my FB account so now see it on the drop down FB thingy on the website. I click on my flight reservation, and I get an error saying it could be my browser. I've tried 2 different browsers on 3 different PCs, clearing cookies and all that. No joy.

I give up

Then I receive not one but two emails about 30 minutes apart from each other from KLM advising I can check in online. So I thought I'd give it a go again.

I was a bit more successful: I was able to choose my seat for my LHR - AMS sector. Good Move on to the AMS - CTU long haul. Nope. Error. No can do. Computer says no

I log out and log back in again. It now says I've checked in, although I didn't get a chance to view / change my seat on the long haul flight. Nevermind, I'll print my boarding pass and see if I can do anything at the airport. Nope. As soon as I click on the print boarding pass, error screen again.

Oh FFS I say to myself. I've never had any real problems with my hundred of AF flights. KLM just can't seem to get it right.

I log out and log back in again to try one last time. And I can't even log in. It comes up with an error 1999.

I give up!
tfboy is offline  
Old Jul 19, 2009, 3:59 am
  #2  
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The eternal reply from KL when you complain about their horrible website: it is you! You need to throw away all your cookies and clear your cache etc. Mainly: please reinstall your PC for our website to work.

Jokers. One of the reasons I left.
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Old Jul 19, 2009, 1:46 pm
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Lightbulb

Just bad luck as both KL and AF had problems
First AF then KL, probably to many people trying at the same time.

You need to throw away all your cookies and clear your cache etc.
You would be surprised how this would solve many problems with some sites
But not with the AF and KL site's
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Old Jul 24, 2009, 2:43 am
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I have to run Mozilla's Firefox as an administrator (right mouse click, run as..) to get the KLM site working ...

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Old Jul 24, 2009, 11:06 am
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Originally Posted by Martijn
I have to run Mozilla's Firefox as an administrator (right mouse click, run as..) to get the KLM site working ...

Sorry to hear that but IE 7 and 8 did work correctly this morning
I had two colleages outbound this evening and they both had there BC within 5 minutes.
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Old Jul 25, 2009, 9:22 am
  #6  
 
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KLM check-in rarely has worked for me in the past.

KLM - The Unreliable Airline.
Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM is offline  
Old Jul 25, 2009, 10:12 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by estam127
Sorry to hear that but IE 7 and 8 did work correctly this morning
I had two colleages outbound this evening and they both had there BC within 5 minutes.
The KLM website is now completely ruined. Try booking a reward flight... If you know anything about IT you feel almost embarassed on their behalf.

Sometimes it works when you log in via the airfrance site instead.
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Old Jul 25, 2009, 12:14 pm
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The KLM and the Air France online checkin system is the same. In fact the AF checkin is hosted on KLM's servers, it's just different branding.

KLM also does the online checkin system for Czech Airlines and VLM (including before VLM became part of AF-KLM).

Of course the award for the worlds worst airline IT implementation must go to bmi for their diamond club 'upgrade'

As for making KLM checkin work, I now always do the following before I attempt checkin and it has avoided me running into random problems using Firefox - I know we shouldn't have to do this but...

1. Open up the preferences panel (Tools > Options in Windows, Firefox > Preferences in Mac, Edit > Preferences in Linux)

2. Select Privacy from the bar at the top, click "Show Cookies..."

3. Type klm into the search box at the top, now remove all the klm.com cookies in this list, including those on subdomains like www2.klm.com and secure.klm.com

This will remove all your KLM cookies without removing any other more useful cookies.
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Old Jul 25, 2009, 1:16 pm
  #9  
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It is the same application, but it works for me on airfrance.nl and not on klm.com. And yes, I did do the cookie thing.
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Old Jul 25, 2009, 2:03 pm
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Never had any problems with it.
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Old Jul 25, 2009, 2:56 pm
  #11  
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I guess it depends. I have 3 computers at home. The company one (highest security settings) always has problems with KLM, not so much with AF. It runs IE8.

My home pc runs IE7 and has medium security settings. It goes to hell on KLM about 75% of the time (regular & award booking and account information). AF works fine. Firefox or Chrome make no difference.

My travel PC runs IE7 with very low security settings. It works about 75% of the time. The 25% it doesn't work is - obviously - always during OLCI...

It is a mess and most travelers will have encountered problems since even the KL CSD admits the problems exists but IT is holding them off.
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Old Jul 26, 2009, 2:00 am
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I've not had any problems in recent years, using Firefox... but came across a new twist just now:

Received the standard "check in for your flight to the Netherlands and onward connecting flight(s)" email for my flight home tomorrow... but it only showed the first of the two flights (to AMS), not the onward one back to LCY. And when I clicked on the link I had the same thing - only one flight shown.

There have been previous occasions when I have not been able to check in for the second flight, but on those occasions that second flight was always shown, albeit greyed out. This time the system seems to think that I am only booked on one flight which is rather odd.

Will have a look again later (when both flights are within the 30 hour window).
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Old Jul 30, 2009, 12:35 pm
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Unhappy

For some reason it will not let you check in, when starting in Antwerpen, Is this anything to do with the fact that the first leg is operated by train? and of course the second leg from AMS, also can't be done because the first leg hasn't been checked in for.

What a nuisance!
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Old Jul 31, 2009, 2:42 pm
  #14  
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A true nightmare

Hi,

Just tried this whole afternoon and evening to check in for my flight tomorrow to BKK. I was offered the upgrade to Biz which I wanted to take, but the irritating system just did not go through to the page where you can enter your CC details.. called Reservation a couple of times and finally got an agent that was happily ready to help but sadly he could not do anything even after he tried to contact his ignorants colleague at the Web dept.

(sidenote: A thumbs up to him because he really tried hard and did not want to give up especially because of my status. But sadly after a while he had to due to the system playing up)

Now, even when I want to check in for the flight, it is just impossible, I got all different type of errors. Have used various computers and browsers with all the different settings, but nothing is working..

How hard is it to get a simple thing to work..

Just have to try my luck tomorrow morning or at the airport..

nldogbert is offline  
Old Aug 1, 2009, 2:46 am
  #15  
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
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i would suggest you try checking in through www.airfrance.co.uk. I've had similar klm OLCI woes and airfrance website works for me.

@:-)
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