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[ not sure if this belongs here or in the KLM subforum; decided to post here, hope the mods will move if this place is inappropriate]

Hi,

I'm just back from an award flight with KLM and had an interesting experience that I want to share with you all.

We wanted to go to the dutch antilles, so somewhere last dec. I booked:
- jul 5: AMS -> CUR
- jul 19: BON -> AUA
- jul 26: AUA -> AMS
Transport from CUR to BON was arranged locally.
This was ticketed as a return ticket with AMS -> CUR as outbound segment and BON -> AUA -> AMS as an inbound segment with a 1 week stopover in AUA.

Seats for all 3 segments were reserved early may. The strange thing for this part was that they could not get me a seat in the first section of the plane, but only in the 2nd. (I think the first row I could get was 23). Mail to FB of course resulted in "no reply".

The odd thing happened on jul 18/19 though.
I tried OLCI but could not check in and the status of my flight in the "manage my reservations" showed up as "not translated" instead of e.g. "seats reserved" for the next segment. Additional code contained NO (where it would be "seats reserved" in the past). The e-ticket itself showed OK.

The next morning (jul 19, around 9 am) I was called by the FB desk on my mobile. (flight was at 7.15 pm). They advised me that the flight did not go as it was listed in the system as "Not Operational" (hence probably the NO code).
Upon my reply that the flight actually already had departed from AMS (this was KL769, a circle flight AMS -> BON -> AUA -> AMS), they reassured me that the flight was not operational and advised me to come early and go to the ticket desk first. They would reroute me through DAE or AF
Odd thing was that the AF flight was also at 7.15 pm, and AF does not fly to BON at all (so just a codeshare).

When asked the FB desk could not give me the phone number of the BON ticket desk and the KL website only revealed as contact the address of the handling agent for KLM.

(actually after being contacted by a spanish? lady speaking english with a terrible accent, I called again to get a dutch speaking agent. This one told me that if his collegue said the flight was not operational, that it wasn't despite that the KLM system showed that the flight already departed from AMS. The information I got on departure times was from a computer, whereas the information from FB was from a human, suggesting it was more reliable; wondering where the agents get their info from).

We ended up getting to BON airport at 3 pm.
Apparently the local staff was aware about the issue from jul 18, but could not contact us (as the reservation did not contain the mobile number, although FB had it on file).

The flight itself was operational. However, apparently KLM does not have the rights to fly passengers from BON to AUA, so they could not take us onboard.

In the end we were rebooked on a different airline (Tiara) flying from BON to AUA on the next day (actually the maiden flight for them on this segment), and KLM put us up in a good hotel (plaza beach resort) with dinner and breakfast and transport.

All in all, it ended up not to be too bad. We were a little bit later in AUA, but had a good time at the plaza, so we are not really unhappy.

Strange though that you apparently can ticket a segment that they cannot transport you on. Also odd the FB helpdesk cannot even give you the phone number of the local ticket desk. And finally the FB helpdesk gives out bad information and is really not helpful (but what's new here )

Thanks go to the KLM BON ground staff though (especially Karin or Karen). They made a lot of effort to resolve the issue for us (and inbetween explain the problem to me).