KLM is not playing fair.
 

I've about had it with KLM's policies. We are so nice to them and they treat us like dirt. To make a point, I refer to Continental as "we" and KLM as "them". Let's examine:

We have a pile of lounges in airports all over the world that we let them use by flashing their card. They have three lounges in one airport that they hassle us when we try to enter.

We let them shower in our lounges. They do not let us shower in theirs. They closed the showers in there and are now issuing shower passes for the Mercure (across the hall from the KLM lounge) - but ONLY to KLM Platinums and NO OTHER PLATINUMS. This is in violation of Sky Team rules.

We let them use free internet in our lounges. They charge a LOT for internet in their lounges. They give KLM Platinums free internet vouchers but ONLY KLM PLATINUMS and NO OTHER PLATINUMS. This is in violation of Sky Team rules.

We give them unlimited space available upgrades on flights within North America, and they put us in the back of the plane and leave us there even if first class is wide open no matter where we fly. Their first class is nothing but coach with a curtain behind you and slightly better food.

We allow their frequent flyers flying coach to carry two suitcases of up to 70 pounds each on all flights. They allow all their passengers to carry one suitcase limited to 44 pounds and they do not give frequent flyers any leeway on this.

My last two KLM segments (12 hours each segment from AMS-BKK) I was given two of the worst seats on the plane - a middle seat in the back and even the seat next to the middle bathroom so I would get bumped every three minutes and inhale that wonderful aroma for twelve hours straight. They did not acknowledge the Continental Platinum status. Continental would not do this to KLM's Platinums.

In short - welcome to KLM.

Shock! Horror! Oh my God! No way! :eek: :eek: :eek:

The European concept is not limited to ONE suitcase only. KLM (in line with many other European carriers) allows you as many bags as you like so long as the total weight of all the bags do not exceed 20kg (44lbs). On routes to North America and certain other destinations the piece concept applies; 2 items which weigh no more than 32kg (70lbs) each. In addition KLM top tier elites are entitled up to 20kg free baggage allowance. Very generous.

It's called Business Class ;)

The 44 pound total weight limit applies to pretty much EVERY IATA airline flight that doesn't touch North America. Fly NW AMS-BOM or NRT-SIN without a connecting flight to/from the US and you'll be subject to the same restrictions (you can take more than one bag, but they can't weigh more than 44lbs TOTAL). Fly KL JFK-AMS-XXX and you'll still get 2 bags of up to 70lbs each.

Still, I agree that KL's customer service for partner plats leaves something to be desired.

As erik123 said, welcome to KLM. :D Inevitably, I spend quite a bit of time on KL as I am based in AMS, but I'm hardly the airline's biggest fan. It seems to be a feature of many KL frequent flyers, actually.

The first part is incorrect. Since KL/NW/CO joined ST, I haven't gotten an upgrade on CO. In fact, the gate agents specifically say that complimentary upgrades are no longer extended to KL elites.

KL does not offer upgrades to "Europe Select" to its own elites either. Not that they're much worth having in the first place, as "Europe Select" is a pathetic joke for a business class, let alone First (which KL does not have). You should be given access to the "Select seating" area which may or may not have an extra inch of legroom. It's hard to tell the difference anyway.

Hmmmmmm
 

Much like Effiel 65, I'm blue and will not by on KLM anytime soon. Royal Dutchmen be damned! However, to look on the happy :) side, we still get 100% eqms on all fares! ^ ^

I also have problem with NWA/KLM.

Last fall, right after CO joined Skyteam, booked my parents on KLM IAH-AMS-DUB. Of the 4 segments that can earn CO miles, only one was posted. Had to send boarding pass to get credited.

And just this week, booked them again on KLM IAH-AMS-MAD, using nwa.com. While I can put their Onepass numbers in there, and they stayed, they couldn't recognize them as Gold Elites. Call Worldperks (regular NW phone agents are useless, Worldperks desk somewhat better), and they can't explain why, saying perhaps the names booked isn't EXACTLY the same as the one on Onepass record. Whatever...

Anyways, so there's no way I can get them assigned the Elite seats up front. The only way they can do it is to get to airport early and show their Elite cards. Fortunately, the flights look pretty empty right now.

I think one problem is that KLM totally contracted out its US service to Northwest. So, even NWA's people call them they. That put a big barrier between the airline and their customers.

KLM is a Dutch company. I'll say nothing more...

When you say it doesn't recognize their status, do you mean that nwa.com doesn't show their status, or that you simply can't select the elite seats up front?

If the former, that's very weird. If the latter, it's a known bug. Keep in mind that there are two distinct (but similar) seat selection systems on nwa.com. One resides on the res.nwa.com server and is accessed through the MyInfo page. The other resides on the www.nwa.com server and is accessed through the View Reservations button on the home page. You CAN usually select elite seats through the MyInfo page, but NOT through the View Reservations page. MyInfo, however, will only work if you booked the ticket through nwa.com while YOU were logged into the res.nwa.com system, which you may not have done if you are a OnePass member. If you can't access MyInfo, try the following link, replacing XXXXX with the Record Locator for the itin:

https://res.nwa.com/Secure/SeatMapRequest?recordLocator=XXXXXX

That doesn't always work for KL itins, but sometimes it does.

If all else fails, call KLM directly in AMS and ask for your family to be reseated properly. That seems to be the most common advice given over on the KL and NW boards. Good luck.

themicah - Thanks for you help. Maybe you can help me some more.

Both my parents are OP Gold Elites. Neither one has a Worldperks account. I have a non-elite Worldperks account, and I logged on as myself when I booked the recent flights for my parents.

Now, when I pulled their itinerary up on nwa.com, I do see their Onepass numbers under "Frequent Flyer Details". No mention of any elite status anywhere. And when try to get seats, only the seats in the back are available. Same thing when I called Worldperks as I described in my earlier post. I think the problem is that even though NW/KLM has my parents correct OP numbers, they just can't know it's Elite.

I think perhaps my mistake is to sign on as myself, who's not a WP Elite, when booking their tickets. And it's too late to do anything. Don't know if it's worth the money and trouble to call Amsterdam, though I'll give it a thought.

Thanks again.

nwa.com doesn't display elite status under "Frequent Flyer Details" in the MyInfo view. They DO, however, display elite status under "Frequent Flyer Number" in the View Reservations view. First check there to make sure that their status is showing up correctly. See links in my above post.

Assuming their OP status shows, try calling NW and asking them to "go into the KLM system" to choose the elite seats for your family. They sometimes have trouble getting KLM elite seat assignments to stick and not all seats are always available (exit rows are usually blocked out entirely). But if you're persistent the NW CSRs can sometimes get you into the front of the plane. But if the NW reps can't see the passengers' status at all, then it might be a wash. Good luck.

themicah - Thanks for your information again. I finally got the Elite seats without having to call Amsterdam.

- First, you're right that while the Onepass numbers were showing up in the "Flight Reservation Details" under "My Info Overview", they weren't showing up properly in the "View Reservations" view. Thanks for pointing that out to me.

- What the "View Reservations" view was showing was "NONE" under "Frequent Flyer Number". So, I clicked on that to change it. What's odd is that the CO numbers were there - but no Elite status listed - and I was stuck for a while before I decided to add the CO numbers manually one more time. Finally, after doing that, their FF numbers do show up in the "View Reservations" view, and if I click on their FF numbers, they show "Gold/Elite". Good!

- Third, another problem. Can't get seat selection page to come up. But knowing that NW finally knows of their status, I called 800-44-perks again. The agent saw their Elite status, found the open seats, but couldn't get seats assigned. He put me on hold for about 10 minutes, and finally got the Elite seats up front. When I asked what he did, he said he had to go into KLM's system to get those assigned.

Anyways, learned a lot today, and now I know what to do next time. :D

Thanks again, themicah.

[QUOTE=rkkwan]- Third, another problem. Can't get seat selection page to come up.[/url]

KLM seat maps never seem to show up in the View Reservations view. Only in MyInfo. Not sure why, but that's how it is. NW hasn't done nearly as clean a job as CO of integrating their reservation management systems online, so they have these two totally separate systems. Go figure.

No problem. It really shouldn't be this complicated, and I'm glad to spread the knowledge of the quirks I've discovered in my own frustrations with this system.

KLM rocks - what are you talking about?

IN all reality, most of the airlines in SkyTeam all offer something in comparable to the others... Granted I think Continental offers the most and best...

-Vincent

...which is now owned and managed by a French company. Need anybody say anything more?
-RM