tigertanaka

Long time lurker here with a question.

The first sector of my flight MME-AMS-HAJ was cancelled on Sunday due to snow in Holland. After ages on hold to KLM (and a fair amount of negotiation) they rebooked me out NCL-BRU-HAJ on SN.

Obviously SN is Star Alliance but am I likely to get by Flying Blue miles from KLM? I have contacted them but not yet had an answer.

Thanks for any help/advice.

irishguy28

You should get the miles for the originally-booked route, even though you didn't travel on it. You probably will have to chase this up with them, though.

Keep all the evidence - original itineraries, any boarding passes you may have managed to get before the flight(s) were cancelled, and definitely keep everything you have relating to the alternate flights you ended up taking.

It may require a call to Flying Blue - or talk to an agent at the Flying Blue desk in the KLM Crown Lounge at Schiphol the next time you are passing through, a face-to-face discussion is always the best for sorting out problems, and they are fantastic staff in there - but don't throw any piece of evidence away until you get it sorted out to your satisfaction.

Try to keep the SN boarding passes too. Once you have successfully got your FB miles/segments for the cancelled itinerary, you can claim miles on the SN segments in any Star Alliance (*A) program which you may be a member of. (However, even if you have to send in originals of the SN boarding passes, or if the FB agent at the airport takes them away [ask for them back!], you may still be able to claim mileage for the SN sectors online, in whatever *A program you may be a member of, without having to physically present the boarding passes)

KQ321

So yes, you should earn FB miles for MME-AMS-HAJ - although as irishguy28 says, you'll probably need to make a retro-claim, as the system won't be able to process this automatically.

Good to hear that KLM were willing to rebook onto an entirely different carrier ^

tigertanaka

Thanks both for the replies - I spent ages looking on klm.com but struggled looking through the Ts&Cs.

It may be a bit tricky as the rebooked flight was cancelled and merged with a later flight which landed in BRU late (where I was supposed to collect the boarding pass for the second sector) and I ended up not even going in the terminal building. No boarding pass and entered the Shengen area without a check!

Thanks anyway, i will wait to see what happens - in AMS in a few weeks so can argue it out then,

irishguy28

That doesn't really matter. As far as Flying Blue is concerned, they only need to be convinced that you took OTHER flights, booked by Flying Blue/KLM, and what happened to you on those flights doesn't matter. When they can clearly see you were rebooked onto another carrier, it should be a simple matter of manually having the miles credited.


I may be reading that line too negatively, but I would advise you to approach them with a different mindset. It shouldn't need to come to an argument, so don't expect/anticipate/spoil for one!

tigertanaka

Yes I understand, its just my way of writing. I am not in the habit of having arguments with people!

Thanks for your advice on this matter,

chrismoose

+1 for the staff at one Flying Blue desks in the Crown Lounge. They sorted out a similar situation for me. I think one flight they couldn't do themselves, so took a copy of the documentation to send off for me, and I did get all the miles.

tigertanaka

Just to conclude this one, yesterday I had an email from FB saying that my miles would be credited within a week and sometime overnight my account has been updated with both the miles and qualifying flights.

Thumbs up to FB for the prompt resolution of my issue.

Another user name to remember

And I used an old fashion letter a couple of weeks ago to accomplish the same in a similar event. Miles posted quickly too.

greggyfroggy

Thanks to all of you for providing this feedback. Since it never happened to me until... now, I was wondering what the system was. AF257 from SIN to CDG is cancelled tonight and they rerouted me on SQ... Hoping things will be smooth enough too to see the miles posted.