I've been flying KLM for years and never knew about this site until today - it seems to have all sorts of info not available elsewhere, for example:

There is an extremely detailed description of the KLM/AF illness and death policy here: https://www.afkl.biz/trade/s/policie..._US&country=US

Who knew that KLM/AF policy allowed you to change your date of travel to a later date without regard to advance purchase restrictions and will waive service charges if you are sick and have a doctor's note? https://www.afkl.biz/trade/s/policie...%20their%20own

Schedule change rebooking rules: https://www.afkl.biz/trade/s/policie...%20their%20own

YR surcharge refundable even on non-refundable tickets when the ticket was issued in certain countries: https://www.afkl.biz/trade/s/policie...%20for%20cabin

You can get an extra seat for cabin baggage and the charge for the extra seat is 25% less than the ticket for the passenger: https://www.afkl.biz/trade/s/policie...%20for%20cabin

They have all of the legal information available as it's required. Unfortunately, they sometimes forget that they have these rules, especially to the emergency cases listed here. In addition, if you are in an emergency situation/situation out of your control, you can get SAF refunded as well based on the rules here.

I made a post about dealing with the emergency refund rules as I was in such a situation. Long story short, got into a bad car accident but the KLM agent on the phone didn't abide by the rules and nearly got lost out on a J ticket I paid because the agent I called didn't abide to the rules by rebooking/giving a voucher but processed a refund instead. It took a couple months to get this resolved through my bank basically threatening to go to court. I can see why AF/KL hardball this rule as there are people who are willing to bend them to their own advantage. But. when someone provides everything that they require and it turns out in their own internal investigation that the agent screwed up by not offering a voucher/rebook, then it shouldn't need to take a bank to start to threaten them to go to small claims court to finally abide to their own rules.

Point is, knowing the rules and following them will only help you should you ever face such a situation, although I hope no one ever has to be in such a predicament.

Very useful post with links for future refereance, thanks OP

I've known that site for a while, but never knew that they had such detailed info! Thanks for the heads up - and THERE goes my afternoon, haha!

And while you are studying up, can you or anyone else figure out what the quoted language in red below means:

Prior to commencement of travel:

When a customer is unable to travel due to their own illness or the illness of a travel companion (family member or not), Air France and KLM will waive advance reservation/ticketing requirements and service charges (if applicable) when the customer wishes to travel later.
KLM will apply the same for an immediate family member who is not traveling

Not clear to me what benefit this is attempting to give to family members who are not travelling.

This is how I understand the wording. It's not about granting another benefit, it's about granting the aforementioned benefit in a broader set of situations.

I'm still not getting it. The rule spells out how you can postpone your trip due to illness. So what benefit is afforded to a person that is not travelling?

Benefit to the non traveller is that you (traveller) can postpone your trip to stay at home and look after them

It means when flying KL, you can postpone your trip if one of your direct family member is ill, even if they are not part of your travel party.

If that's what it means, that's a pretty amazing benefit. The rule could use a little more fleshing out - for the passenger being sick you need a note from a doctor saying you can't travel. Not clear what the note would have to say for a non-travelling family member.

It's something like a discharge statement from a hospital or doctor that shows that it is a real medical situation and not akin to your parents calling the school claiming that you're sick because you didn't want to go to school. People usually receive a patient summary/discharge statement if they go to the hospital in developed countries.

Put it like this. Your son/daughter has been in a bad car accident. If you can't travel because you wish to be there by their side (and I'm assuming most parents would), you probably wouldn't think it's fair that you lose out on your ticket.

My last independent travel policy had the same clause in it.

Note that the portion of the first website portion you link to in your first paragraph is different than afkl.biz. afkl.biz allows a waiver of advance purchase rules in the event of illness, the portion you linked to does not explicitly allow that waiver.