EU 261 claim assistance needed
 

Hello:

So my wife and I were traveling from Rome to Amsterdam via Zurich last month. The first leg was on Alitalia, the second leg on KLM. Both tickets were booked with KLM using Flying Blue points. Upon arrival in Zurich on Thursday evening we were informed that our connecting flight to Amsterdam on KLM had been cancelled and that the next available flight would be on Saturday morning. The airline provided us with two night hotel stay and a couple of meal vouchers but that's it. This has me wondering the following:

1) How do I find out the exact reason for the flight cancellation? Is there a website which would tell me this info?

2) Since I'm a U.S. Citizen and live in California, am I eligible to file an EU 261 compensation claim since my travel occurred within Europe? If so, where do I go to do that? I only found this link for UK residents, but not an equivalent for U.S. residents.

I appreciate any assistance folks here can provide. Thanks!

Yes, you are eligible, and you need to file your claim with KLM as the operating airline.

You can do it here: https://www.klm.com/travel/nl_en/cus...stomercare.htm

You story is hard to believe. You state that you were due to fly ZRH-AMS on Thursday and that KL flew you on Saturday (2 days later)?
Unless there were some special event affecting AMS, this seems weird.
KL has six flights a day and there are quite a few other operated by other airlines.
Even if no nonstop flights were available, they could have rebooked you with a connection.
Maybe you are talking of a week when there was an ATC strike or a heavy snow storm :), but under EC261, the airline has the obligation to reroute you at the earliest opportunity.
I am notdoubting your version, just that KLM seemed not have have made a big effort to find a reroute.

OP - You say that you are looking for the "exact" reason for the cancellation. What was the "general" reason given by KL for the cancellation. The best source of information is often at the departure airport. Even though you may later get better information, it seems hard to imagine getting stuck at a major European airport for two nights without any information. Was it snowing, were there other flights cancelled, was there an ATC strike?

Indeed, there are 6xKL, 4xLX, HV and U2 flights on Friday, it's hard to imagine KL could not find a seat on any of them and any connecting flights.
OP might be talking about KL1962 from Sep 21st, https://www.schiphol.nl/en/messages/...september-21st
It would seem that the airplane that was supposed to operate said flight was redirected to operate AMS-ATH-AMS instead, which should allow a fairly straight forward claim.

How can anyone give proper advice when the OP does not give the flight numbers and dates?

Without that info no one can state with any certainty that you are due compensation.

Sorry for the delay in follow-up (caught a bad cold right after I posted this!). I do appreciate everyone's feedback and recognize that I perhaps left out some additional details which may help shed some light on what transpired here. We landed in Zurich where we were scheduled to board KLM 1964 on the evening of Thursday, August 9th. However just prior to leaving Rome we got word that our connecting flight had been cancelled. Seeing as how we got word of this literally as we were boarding, ground staff advised us to proceed to Zurich and that staff there would assist us further.

When we arrived in Zurich, we went to KLM contracted customer service desk. Staff there said all non-stop flights to Amsterdam the next day (Friday) were fully booked. They offered us a connecting flight through Geneva on Friday but we declined since we didn't want to risk getting stranded again. Instead, they offered to put us on a non-stop flight for Saturday and gave us a two night hotel stay and a couple of meal vouchers. I'm not certain as to what the reason was for the cancellation to begin with which is why I asked if there was a way for me to find out online somewhere before filing my claim. I will try the link above though and see what they say. Thank you all for your input and assistance.