Originally Posted by
irishguy28
You would not be going airside to rebook. You would see what rebooking option (if any) had been proposed in advance in the app, or you would immediately join the phone queue to speak to an agent.
Going to the airport specifically to change a ticket is not advisable. Waiting until you get to the airport, and furthermore waiting until you have gone airside (meaning you have checked in and handed over your luggage, thereby indicating acceptance of the ticket that, within minutes, you seemingly want to change) is not a sensible approach.
In the highly unlikely event that your flight is cancelled in the brief period between checking in at the airport and departure, you would presumably be alerted in the app and/or appraised of the fact when you attempt to board your flight. What would then happen - I don't know. I would expect you would be encouraged to travel to YYZ and see what Westjet/KL can do for you there, or see what has been done with the ticket while you are in the air. From KLM'S perspective, all rebooking options for you probably go through YYZ and no other partner serves YQR so I cannot see them shifting you from this AMS-YYZ flight...it'sthe inevitable first step to get you close to YQR....especially if you are already holding a boarding pass and have luggage checked in!
My apologies, I neglected to mention that we are connecting in AMS so would already be airside. Everything you wrote makes sense, of course!
KL does route through YYC, YEG, and YVR in western Canada as well, usually with WS as the connecting flights so that should be an option. And yes, I agree that typically airlines don’t want to rebook you until you are enroute or at the next airport even when you already know you will miss your connection. In our case, I would want to try to make a change at AMS if I already know the onward flight is cancelled. Today, for example, the YYZ-YQR flight was cancelled 14+ hours in advance so it would be known prior to leaving AMS that there are no other options that day.