Aviatrix

I booked a couple of tickets last Friday using the Amex card that is stored in my account.

All seemed to be going as expected... got my booking confirmation, booking appeared in my account, I went back into the booking a little while later to select seats. All very much as normal... except for one thing:

No ticket.

There was a note in the booking to say the ticket would be issued later, and as this was a code share (Air Baltic) I assumed that this was the reason. I made a mental note to check on Monday, and to give them a ring if the ticket hadn't been issued.

Didn't get round to checking until today... only to find that the booking had disappeared from my account!

Phoned KLM - and was told that the booking had been cancelled because I hadn't paid for it.

What??? How can their system possibly have accepted a booking, issued a PNR, allowed me to choose seats... if my payment had, allegedly, not gone through?

The agent put me on hold while she went away to investigate... then came back to me, profusely apologetic, told me there was a problem at their end and that Amex booking weren't being properly processed. And she advised me to keep a close eye on my bookings in the next few weeks as she didn't know how long it would take to fix the problem.

Thought I'd pass this on, for the benefit of other Amex customers!

My booking has been reinstated (phew!), and I now have our tickets.

Ditto

did you check your amex statement at any stage?
You can get a PNR issued and choose seats etc. without paying, AF/KL don't offer this option online, but that doesn't mean it is impossible, it can be done via a TA.

edit: actually, if used to be that if you get as far as the payment screen and then close your browser, the PNR stays there for about 2 hours and you can return to it and complete the paymenr

caliform

Wow, thanks for letting me know. I always charge flights to my KL-Amex. My bookings appear to be unaffected though.

Actually, AF's website issues me a PNR, seats, etc. pre-payment (and then states it is 'awaiting payment'. The seat is taken out of inventory (I can see it in Expertflyer as gone) and held for an hour or so.

Aviatrix

Yes, I did know this - but it's irrelevant here as my booking was made online. In my experience klm.com will not issue a PNR if a payment hasn't gone through (it's happened to me). All the indications were that the payment HAD gone through.

Ditto

Good to know, I never had issues booking with KL and paying with Amex, with the last time being less than 2 weeks ago, I always double check I got an e-ticket by e-mail

irishguy28

Exactly. They may not "offer" it, but this is only because it is unavoidable; this is how their booking engine works. The PNR is created; then payment is accepted; then at some later time, the e-ticket is issued.

Goldorak

I did several AF bookings those last days with my AF/KL FB Amex stored in my profile and had no problem. But thank you for alerting us. Better be informed for "nothing" than having a problem.

Sjondorn

Thanks for alert. I will pay attention when I'll be booking my flight soon that'll be paid via AMEX.

Aviatrix

"I did several AF bookings those last days with my AF/KL FB Amex stored in my profile and had no problem"

From what the agent was saying the issue appears to be specific to klm.com. I wonder if it has something to do with the recent revamp of their booking tool?

Meneer Guggenheimer

THANKS! Made a booking to Southhampton the 22nd... payed for it... and it gone....!

irishguy28

Why do you all book on klm.com?

Book with a third party, avoid the booking fees, and often pay less for the ticket anyway.

Gajan

Which are good travel agents to use?

Xandrios

Often its either good or cheap.

AFKL still has a problem to issue mixed (booking) class tickets through their website. Third parties can, and in some cases the difference is quite large. Eg, I was looking for a roundtrip AMS-LHR yesterday and the price difference (exact same flights) was about 70 euro. On a ~200 euro ticket that is quite a lot.

Then, when booking through a 3rd party, officially, you will have to go through them for all changes. Schedule changes, booing changes, refunds. Most of the cheaper OTA's are slow and in some cases expensive for such 'services'. However a subset of the OTA's, somehow, allow you to do most of those actions through the AFKL websites. So I have been able to book flights through OTA's and change the departure dates through KLM.com as if it was purchased on that website.

One thing to keep in mind though, is that when booking through an OTA, the KLM hotlines/facebook/twitter support will simply refuse to touch your ticket if you have an issue with seat selection, online check in, etc.

So for me personally it depends a lot on the actual price difference, and how complex the itinerary is. Simple roundtrips on common routes I gladly book through the cheapest OTA; complex multi-carrier ones I would not. Except perhaps the 'established' ones, like expedia - but those are hardly ever cheaper than booking direct anyway.

irishguy28

There are hundreds of TAs out there who will sell you a ticket cheaper than KLM will. (I often wonder if this means they are sacrificing part of their commission - effectively sharing it with the customer - to undercut the airline AND their many other competitors).

A comparison tool such as momondo or Skyscanner will guide you to the cheapest tickets. Having the ticket issued in another country - typically Germany - will also usually bring the costs down. (That said, many of the agencies have mutliple "storefronts" so you may find your ticket is issued in a different country - and by a different agency - than the one you thought you were buying from).

Beware, though! Some agencies offer additional "dossier costs" and all sorts of "airline bankruptcy protection insurance" that you don't need, or "Additional service fees" in order to do stuff that you can do yourself, anyway, once you get the PNR [selecting seats, adding FFP numbers], or to be able to call them on something other than a premium-rate phone number - so don't accept any add-ons. [Also, watch out for adding baggage. They usually charge more than you would pay direct on the KL website] With some agencies, some of these costs are unavoidable, but you will learn soon enough which ones to avoid. Some add ridiculous fees for certain payment types, and this can change over time, so again, keep an eye out for this. But in general, you can save €20 or more on a typical cheapest-avaialble shorthaul return by buying elsewhere instead of from KLM.

If you have any inclination of changing, upgrading, cancelling, or doing anything with the ticket other than simply flying it exactly as it was booked - then book direct from the airline.

Meneer Guggenheimer

I got conformation of a ticket with payment info. As it is AMS-SOU ticket I do not care about seats etc, so I did not check anything. Never had this before. KLM says I did not pay and removed the flights. Now the flight is of course more expensive. The amount was not taken from my AE card. So it must be a glitch. Annoying.