My partner (FB Platinum) is traveling between BRU and MAD today on a MNL AMS BRU AMS MAD AMS MNL WBC ticket. BRU flight was 90 min late and he narrowly missed that 1pm MAD departure. Although a 4pm MAD flight by IB is available, KLM says they won't put him on that flight 'because there are still KLM flights available today.' So, he's been put on the next KLM flight, at 5.35pm, which gives him a 4-hour wait in AMS and brings him 4.5 hours later than expected into MAD.

I advised him to suggest the agent to put him through CDG, still gaining almost 2 hours, but then the 2.15pm AMS CDG flight got cancelled as well and that precluded the entire CDG setup.

What is KLM's exact policy (if any) in terms of rebooking on another airline? Is a passenger never reaccomodated on another airline unless no more KLM alternatives are available, even if such KLM alternative entails long waiting times? If a FB Platinum on a WBC ticket can't even receive a better deal, I feel sad for the many other passengers who were apparently in line because of a bunch of missconnections.