Another user name to remember

Posted on the KLM website:

Amsterdam - Bad weather conditions
Because of the bad weather conditions in Amsterdam, some of our flights to, from or via Amsterdam Schiphol Airport may be delayed or cancelled. We apologise for the inconvenience. To rebook flights and ask your questions, please contact us 24/7 through KLM on Facebook or KLM on twitter, or call KLM Telephone Reservations for any questions you have. For the latest updates see the flight disruption page.

Good luck for those travelling today.

irishguy28

I was shocked to see how grey and foggy it was this morning.

And there's quite a wind up, too.

Sjoerd

Huh? There was a little wind this morning, but I had no problem doing my cycling routine in the normal time. The rest of the day was quite nice summer weather.
I think the story about "bad weather" is bull manure, and the real reason for the cancellations was bad planning related to the closure of the Zwanenburgbaan runway.

irishguy28

Today is the first day in weeks that I've not had my office window open - it was constantly being slammed shut by the gusts.

And it certainly hasn't been "nice summer weather" in The Hague - there has been low cloud and fog all day. Visibility has been extremely low. It looks more like November than May.

Sjoerd

I missed the news that Schiphol had been moved to The Hague

irishguy28

I guess I missed the part where I said I lived/worked at Schiphol!

tgsh2006

The situation at AMS yesterday was beyond chaotic. I agree that the 'real' reason was more to do with the closure of a runway for planned maintenance with the 'bad weather' story put about to assist KLM in avoiding EU261 obligations.

I was on the 06:30 LHR/AMS with a connection through to CPT on the 10:00. We were left sat on the stand at LHR for over 2 hours. The Captain admitted that KLM had taken the decision on Sunday 29 May (presumably in conjunction with the authorities at AMS) to restrict flights due to anticipating the bad weather in Germany reaching the Netherlands. Now, although the weather was 'gusty' it was nothing at all out of the ordinary for Northern Europe at this time of the year. Once the flight got underway at LHR the flight was uneventful with no turbulence and a landing that cannot be described as anything other than routine. Intercontinental flights were leaving and arriving at AMS with pretty much no disruption at all. This was a decision by the airline and the airport, it was obviously related to runway capacity, and the consequences were foreseeable.

Now, for the chaos at AMS itself. Despite KLM knowing for at least a day that this nonsense was coming no attempt was made to properly resource the help desks at AMS. One set of desks (7 in total) to deal with this mess. Queues in excess of 5 hours duration. Staff treating customers with disrespect and ignoring KLM's EU 261 obligations. No meal vouchers, no offer of communications assistance, nothing! Just excuses and demands of customers.

The chaos was such that KLM, in my case, rebooked me (without any consultation) to CPT on QR metal via Doha on an overnight itinerary on 2 sectors. I booked a daytime itinerary on a pretty much direct flight from Western Europe to CPT. If I wanted a detour via the Middle East I would have used my usual carrier EK. This was not the first available flight to CPT from AMS but rather the first available flight to Doha. To be fair to KLM they did rebook me on to this morning's direct flight to CPT and authorised a Hotel. Except when I got to the hotel KLM had failed to tell the hotel and customers were required to sit in a lobby for an undetermined amount of time. At this point I made my own arrangements and fully intend to send KLM the bill (I'm a lawyer by profession). Further, I am not satisified that events at AMS yesterday were extraordinary circumstances; however, the burden of proof of establishing if they are rests with KLM for the purposes of EU261.

In summary I hope to get away to CPT later today; however, yesterday's farce at AMS was foreseeable IMO and, as such, I will not hesitate to make the appropriate claim for compensation from KLM under EU261 upon my return.

simonsmith

We were flying back from AMS to LHR yesterday and were one of the very few flights that were not affected. We flew at 1550.

We had a lovely morning wandering around Amsterdam in the morning. It was dry, overcast and there was a slight wind. We knew there were issues at Schiphol and commented on how on earth could it be the weather. We even sat out and had a coffee.

The Crown Lounge was busy and there were ridiculously long waits to be served at the counter. people were getting fraught. Having said that even on calm days the wait to get served to ask for a shower key can be very long and despite having a couple of hours on my last two trips I have given up and my number has not been called before I have had to leave.

90 percent of flights seemed to be delayed or cancelled on the board. we were very very lucky.

there was a stiff breeze on take off but the flight was fine...very odd.

kapnee

Yes the 30th at Schiphol was beyond chaos. After sitting in the aircradft 2 hours in GLA, we then cirlced at AMS for another long time, arriving 3 hours late, and obviously messing our 1.5 hour connect time for the flight AMS-DTW. Weather there did not seem abnormal to me.

There must have been at least 600 people in the line for the "transfer desk", and only a couple of KLM agents working it. I'll credit Delta: I pulled out the phone, called DL in USA, and agent found me a route AMS-BOS-DTW today, the 31st. Best they could offer, obviously. Now we're here, tired but successful.

Then finding and eventually getting a van-lift to a hotel was another long wait, both that evening and again early this morning.

Seems like there was no real plan for such a cluster of cancellations. I hate to say it, but Delta seemed a lot more efficient at getting stuff done than KLM.

Ditto

KLM announced recently they will use a dedicated WhatsApp number for rebooking in case of major disruptions, have you noticed anything like that?

tgsh2006

When looking at live arrivals and departures it was obvious that it was the short haul intra Europe flights affected. Long haul proceeded pretty much as usual. The key point for me is that KLM took this decision THE DAY BEFORE and this cannot therefore be classed as unforeseeable extraordinary circumstances. KLM did not do everything that was reasonable. For example, they could have texted affected customers on the Sunday evening at least giving those who could the option to get to AMS that night. Transfer desks could have properly been resourced.

I eventually took my flight to CPT on the Tuesday morning without further incident. The flight was quite empty. Why on earth they tried to originally send me on QR the night before, to save merely 9 hours, baffles me.

irishguy28

This is how KLM handles periods of expected reduced capacity at Schiphol, as any seasoned KLM watchers will know.

Depending on how bad the situation is expected to be, they may even go so far as to cancel the majority of short-haul flights, or to refuse passengers who intend to make a connection in Schiphol (instead rerouting them so as to avoid adding to the numbers stranded in Amsterdam).

The idea is to try to reduce, as far as possible, the number of people that will end up "stranded" at Schiphol. From the reports above, it seems that people had to wait hours to deal with staff at the airport (does no-one use the free wifi to rebook themselves?)

That they made the decision the day before does NOT mean that "this cannot be classed as unforeseeable extraordinary circumstances" - it is a proactive reaction when they expect reduced capacity at Schiphol, and therefore disruption to passengers that can be ameliorated by rebooking/rerouting in advance.

I agree that it is not a perfect solution, but it's the model that they use. And when I opened the blinds and saw that the sky was touching the ground on Monday morning, I knew there was going to be trouble at Schiphol.

Sjoerd

You opening blinds in The Hague on Monday is totally unrelated to the weather at Schiphol that day. Which was fine.

KLM screwed this (the closure of a runway) up royally. No excuses.

Ditto

Indeed, I also didn't notice any (significantly) reduced visibility on Monday morning, unlike this morning for example.

irishguy28

I don't know where you were in the Netherlands on Monday, but here in The Hague - a mere 40km away from the airport - the tops of the tall buildings were not visible from the ground for most of the day. You may have been closer and you may have had clear blue skies. But there certainly was reduced visibility in this part of the Netherlands for the entire day. I posted a screengrab from a live webcam at Scheveningen above. That was what it was like, all day.