KLM - changes?
 

I booked a ticket on KLM from TXL-AMS-CDG a week from today.

I'm being called into a last minute meeting so I need to change the TXL-AMS portion of this ticket.

My original flight for this leg leaves at around noon but the flight afterwards leaves at around 2pm so I just need to take the next flight.

I tried changing online but it said that I need to contact them. I tried calling them but they said that this ticket is non-refundable and non-changeable so I can't change it (can't pay a change fee + fare difference, etc.).

I may end up just canceling the ticket and buying a new one but I'd prefer not to do that.

I know that with most airlines there's kind of an unwritten "flat tire" rule if you miss your flight but I'd rather not count on it as I have a dinner that I need to attend in AMS at 6pm that I can't miss and with this they may end up putting me on a later flight or no flight, etc.

Any thoughts from FT wisdom?

"Flat Tyre" rules are an American thing.

If you miss your KLM flight, and make no attempt to contact them, it will be cancelled in its entirety. Even if you do attempt to contact them, it is unlikely that they will do anything other than apply the rules of your ticket.

KLM has changed its fare structure quite a lot over even the last few years - but for at least some of the last 2-3 years, even the most basic economy fare was changeable (for a fee, plus fare difference - so it would be quite expensive to change now).

It sounds like at the moment, the cheapest fares are again completely non-flexible.

Don't forget to investigate other airlines for a cheaper last-minute flight.

Depends of the market of origin. Look back the pdf which were posted last year when they announced the new light/normal/flex structure.
For example a light fare ticket from the UK is changeable at the same fee as the normal fare (£60).

Your concern should be that if you miss the TXL-AMS flight, the AMS-CDG segment (and the return portion if you have a RT ticket) will also be cancelled.

I would try and change the meeting🤔

While the ticket desk might agree to put you on the next flight if you missed the flight by a matter of *minutes* and you had, for example, checked in online and got caught up in a lengthy security queue, there is absolutely no guarantee they would do this... and then of course you might end up being on standby for the later flights, which would be stressful.

So my advice would be to look for another solution than "missing" the flight.

This would be my preferred option too. If they can't reschedule during the week tell them you can't do the proposed time. Presumably you had already booked leave for that time!

Ok so here's the conclusion w/ a few questions...

I could not change the meeting. It was a meeting with about 35 people coming in from around 20 companies so I knew the meeting couldn't get changed. It also had about half of them flying in from various countries, etc.

My company wanted me there to present my stuff and lead a discussion for about 45 minutes as well as participate and mingle over lunch, etc. My original flight was for 12:15pm and this event was scheduled to go until 4pm.

So I knew that I would not be able make my flight. Since there was no way for me to change my ticket the day before I booked a whole new fully refundable ticket for around 500 euros. I'm in discussion with my company to see if they will cover some or all of it but that's another discussion.

My new flight was at around 6:50pm (iirc). There was a 5:30pm flight and my meetings actually got done at around 3:30pm so I went to the airport with some co-workers and got there at around 4pm.

I tried to explain to the woman at the check in counter what happened but between language issues, etc. she just didn't understand what happened.

My goal was to try to see if she can do anything about my old non refundable ticket for the flight that I missed. If she was kind enough to let me go standby on the later flight, I would do that and cancel my fully refundable ticket.

The conversation went something like:

"I missed my flight at 12:15pm. Is there any way that I can take another flight standby tonight?"

"(looks at me with disgust) you're coming now? (looks at her watch) let me see your passport"

"(hand her my passport)"

"did you book another flight today? why do you have 2 tickets?"

"Well, if you can't do anything with my nonrefundable ticket for the flight that I missed, I have a fully refundable ticket for tonight."

"(confused) you have 2 tickets... (prints out my boarding pass)"

I get my boarding pass and it's for my refundable ticket. Oh well. My nonrefundable is gone.

Interestingly enough the next day, I got alerts on my phone and in the KLM app telling me that check in is available for the 2nd leg on the flight that I missed. I already had another earlier flight on the refundable so I just check in on that flight and took the flight but at least from the app standpoint, it looks like it didn't register that I missed that flight.

For my nonrefundable flight I paid extra funds to book seats (around 20 euros) and paid to check in a bag (25 euros). On my fully refundable fare, it came with seats and a check in bag already. Is there any way that I can get a refund on the seats and bag purchase?

Expensive lesson either way.

Yes, you can get that back, along with a refund for the tax of the unused segments.

I think it might have worked better if you hadn't purchased a fully refundable ticket, you could have potentially do that at the airport, 500€ sounds very steep for an economy one-way TXL-AMS-CDG.

As I understand it, the OP flew on the "non-refundable" fare, so therefore "consumed" the seat and bag payments on the return flight. As such, no refund would be due, as these purchases were used (on the return flight - (s)he was a no-show for the outbound).

As I understand it, the €500 was for a return flight. The OP knew (s)he was going to miss the outbound of the original booking, and therefore bought a new, second, fully-refundable return ticket.

I think you mis-understood... if OP would have flown on the non-refundable ticket, he could get his refundable one back and no issue.

Having read the OP's post again, it seems that they flew the refundable ticket in its entirety.

The "app" message about check-in is a red herring. I often get updates and reminders about flights that were cancelled. Just because the app tells you you can check in, doesn't mean that there is still an e-ticket available for use.

This was always a one way ticket. I ended up flying the refundable ticket in it's entirety and did not fly the nonrefundable ticket at all (either leg of the one way ticket TXL->AMS->CDG).

The mobile app message may have been a red herring. I suppose I could have tried checking in to see what happens (see if it gives me a boarding pass) but I didn't want to take up a seat that I knew I wouldn't use (in case the airline decides to give it up for standby, etc.).

Yes, I could have bought a refundable ticket at the airport last minute but flights were pretty full since it was a Friday night. The 5:30 flight was full the day before when I was buying my refundable ticket and the 6:50 flight that I was on had low availability and I did not want to be stuck unable to fly to AMS.

I did not fly on the nonrefundable fare at all (either leg) so I did not consume the seat reservation or the check in bag.

The fully refundable fare that I did consume seemed to include both an assigned seat (as a seat was assigned to me when I bought the ticket) and included 1 check in bag.

I will make an attempt to expense both flights at work and will see if my expense report is accepted. It's over budget though for this flight so I do have to use some credits that I had built up by spending less in the past on previous flights but I suppose that's fine.