Yesterday my sister booked KLM flights from Europe to the US and was calling me in a panic telling me the KLM website was insisting they had to pay 40 euros if they wanted the OPTION to cancel within 24hrs. I kept explaining to her that there was no way that was correct, every airline, ESPECIALLY when the flight is entering or leaving the US must allow for 24hr free cancellation.

But no, looking at the screenshots she was getting it truly made no reference to anything other than if you wanted to have the option to cancel within 24hrs you must pay 40 NONREFUNDABLE euros along with you ticket price.

As this was last minute emergency travel I told her just to go ahead with it. Today we see there is a much better option through AA so I have booked this for her and proceeded to call KLM to cancel what was booked yesterday.

The agent I spoke to flat out told me yes of course there is 24hr free cancellation on KLM and that yes the wording of that last KLM page before payment is deceiving because it implies the only way to have the option to cancel in the 24hr window is pay the 40 euros up front. This of course is not the case, paying the 40 euros is just to hold the flight for 24hrs. The agent told me they get a lot of complaints about this.

How is KLM not being called out more on this? What a terrible scammy way to trick people into paying their full ticket price plus $40 euros.