krzysz

On 23 February (Monday) I took a flight from LIM to AMS (KL744), operated by the aircraft with the registration PH-BVI, named Nationaal Park Vuurland. It was my second time on KL (the first one was the outbound BCN-AMS-LIM flight) and in general I was quite impressed with their inflight service and the cabin crews, whom I found to be excellent. For instance, the sandwiches served on short haul flights in Y in Europe are very tasty, and on the whole I find KL to be better than LH, for example.

However, after the flight from Lima I noticed I had been badly bitten by bed bugs during the flight. I was wearing a t-shirt and I got several bites on the upper left arm that I was holding against the wall next to the window while sleeping. My seat was 20A. I have notified KLM Customer Care about this and provided photo documentation. I also posted a polite message on KLM Facebook, praising their cabin crew but also suggesting that they should take the aircraft out of service and thoroughly disinfect it. KLM claims to have the best and fastest social media service, and indeed, my facebook message was deleted within half an hour.

According to the Flightradar24 data, http://www.flightradar24.com/reg/ph-bvi, during the last few days the aircraft involved also flew to SCL and EZE and back (flights KL701/702), and today it got back from Lima. Prior to my flight it flew to JNB. If you happen to be taking a flight operated by this aircraft and you sit in the front part of the economy cabin, you may choose not to store your personal items on the floor under the seat, or else you risk bringing a nasty surprise back home after the flight in your hand baggage (I hope this didn't happen to me).

In the automated email response the KLM team states the it may take more than 10 days to reply to my notification. I think my message to them was very polite; I praised the cabin crew and service and just asked them to remove the bed bugs from the aircraft (I realize it can be a tough job). I didn't mention any compensation, and I also stated that I would be quite happy to fly KLM again. I wonder what their response will be. In general I liked my first KLM experience; it's just that I am still itching and it's not fun.

irishguy28

While you may indeed have been bitten by an insect on board, it is very unlikely to have been a bed bug. Bed bug bites can take as long as 14 days to become apparent - if you are certain that you were bitten by bed bugs, then it almost certainly occurred in the days before your flight.

krzysz

[QUOTE=irishguy28;24427542]While you may indeed have been bitten by an insect on board, it is very unlikely to have been a bed bug. Bed bug bites can take as long as 14 days to become apparent - if you are certain that you were bitten by bed bugs, then it almost certainly occurred in the days before your flight.

I am quite certain this happened on board. I wore long-sleeved shirts before the flight and a t-shirt on board. The itching became more acute two days after the flight. The bite patterns also look typical of bed bug bites: two/three bites in a row.

roadkit

Bed bug bites can take days to appear, but they can also appear within a couple hours. I'm inclined to agree with OP on this. The sad news is if KLM suppresses this information and takes no action, they are passing along a major health hazard to potentially hundreds of passengers.

rocketfodder

I was eaten alive by bedbugs one night on a boat in the Maldives. They can definitely show up after a few hours!

djjaguar64

I hope this is not the aircraft from SIN-DPS which I just booked for S$440 in J. Were the bed bugs in the J cabin?

MojaveFlyer

Too many personal experiences with bed bugs. I don't know where this 14 day idea comes from, but I've had bites bother me well within an hour, if not a few minutes (thinking of the ones in wooden chairs and tables in cheap Sri Lankan restaurants, for example)

tyroner

Could it have been fleas on board perhaps?

Andy49

I'm sure there are all sorts of nasty insects on board brought on in our hand luggage. Sometimes they spray the cabin, what exactly is that meant to be killing and why is it only sometimes on the same routes?

MaxVO

I suggest you take photos of bite marks and continue to document your experience. I find the KLM's attitude toward this hazard outrageous.

irishguy28

This is only ever done when required by the authorities in the country of arrival. I experienced it a few times on my first few flights to Australia, but they apparently stopped this requirement many years ago.

orbitmic

Not really - while what you say is absolutely true of the "in flight spray" before landing, most airlines use disinfestation sprays as part of the standard aircraft preparation routine at the end of the day (short/medium haul aircraft) or during turnaround (long haul)>

Xandrios

I suspect that they may have sent you a private message afterwards. However if you have not had contact with them before those messages might end up in the "Other" messages box on Facebook. Only after you have replied to the first one they appear in your Inbox from that point onwards.

irishguy28

My understanding was that Andy49 was talking about what you called the "in flight spray" - he said "why is it sometimes only on the same routes" - though perhaps Andy49 is talking about experiences of such spraying as an employee, rather than as a passenger, although in that scenario I would not expect such questions to have been reserved for today on this forum!

Matt777

Besides being a travel enthusiast, I'm also an entomologist. There is no way to tell for certain that you were bitten by bed bugs, since there is no scientifically verified way of looking at "bite marks" and saying which insect caused them. It could have been bed bugs, fleas, or something that bit you earlier in the week. There's also the possibility that it's not even any sort of bite to begin with.