Originally Posted by
Ivan Lyakh
Lack of responsibility - this is what I discussed with KL employees on Ultimate dinner as a key problem with AF/KL crew. When such situations occurs, there is no real mechanism how to punish the crew for misconduct. Everything is left for his/her attitude to work. If it is appropriate and professional, you will get top treatment. If not, the same situation like here will occur. As an example, if Platinum tier customer complains to the crew in Emirates and Qatar, this will result to multiple problems up to removal of bonuses and dismissal (if complain was serious). I never heard anything similar in AF/KL. One of the reasons, why gulf carriers are always top notch in service and AF/KLM are from very good to perfect, unless you are unlucky to have a poor motivated crew.
I would have to somewhat disagree with you on this. The immense majority of the AFKL crews I have flown with provided great service and customer care, as well as good Ultimate recognition. In the recent posts, we spoke bout an IT glitch that makes crews unaware sometimes of presence of an Ulti on board. That doesn't make the service is bad, it's the "regular" good service but without extra recognition and attention normally part of the Ulti protocol. Of course, we cannot blame the crew for not providing the latter if they are not aware.
The case of the chief purser I mention in my last post is certainly different, as he did not have the ultimate info in his cabin pad (100% sure even if not checked), but I told him I was Ulti, he said he would come and he did not which I don't find acceptable in a long flight. Of course I could have lied saying I was Ulti and was prepared to show him my card if needed.