KLM Europe Boarding Rant
 

Flying full-rack J with some segments inter-europe..

This has probably been discussed to death but is it really so hard to call business class first? I had three segments inter-europe, from CDG, AMS and BCN....not one of them called zone 1/business class first. Furthermore, there's 50 pax in the sky priority line....where is the differentiation here?

Feeling frustrated at CDG I went up to the line agent, advised that I was in business, Zone 1....and she advised me to get to the back of the sky priority line! And I didn't show up late, I was waiting there the whole time for boarding to begin.

In spite I decide to board last, deciding that the FA can deal with my carry-on if there is any space issue, IDGAF at this point. I get on the plane and there are 2 others in biz...so probably not a huge deal to call biz first, right? Seriously, is it so hard to give your business class passengers some courtesy?

What am I paying for here? Super frustrating. This hasn't changed in years and I'm frankly sick of it.

/rant

:rolleyes:

Last week in AMS I was paged by the gate agent, who said I could skip the Priorty line and board with the gaggle of pax with mobility problems already seated at the jetway. That was definitely a first!

Johan

I hate it when, for example at certain AMS gates (and I'm not talking about bus gates), KLM says boarding when they really mean admission to a holding pen. There might be a SkyPriority line for the holding pen, when boarding passes are scanned, but nothing but a disorganized mess of gate lice at the entry to the jetway.

This is now also the regular boarding procedure with AF and I hate it. They start boarding and you're stuck in the jetway for another 5 to 10 min. Super funny in winter and summer... :td:

Doomed, are you not experiencing the same issues?

That holding pen is a major bugbear at AMS, almost as bad as the morons marshalling people at passport control.

I find the term gate lice offensive and inconsiderate.

I find the term gate lice offensive and inconsiderate.

Johan

My experience of flying biz with AF (within EU) is that they call group 1 to board before other SP pax and in CDG have a separate line for them. KLM just have a general SP line that all boards together, have been wondering why there are so many SP pax in last year or so ?

1 J-class long-long haul RT with a connection, and you already have silver status.

Never been on a KL flight where Zone 1 is boarded first (ahead of SP). Is there anything that outlines zone 1 must board ahead of zone 2?

Most airports in Europe also let silver/ST elite board at same time as zones 1/2. Which is why the line is a busy. That's probably the main cause of your angst.

SkyPriority isn't Silver boarding. That's Skyteam Elite, not Skyteam Elite+.

In America they call business class "First"

;-)

I'm honestly not sure if the sign says Zone 1 first (will take a close look next time and take a pic), however it stands to reason that they should be boarding business class passengers first, ahead of economy (regardless of status), this is part of what business class passengers are paying for. KL is basically saying FB silver and business class are equal when it comes to boarding order. Doesn't make much sense to me.

This is what it says on the website: https://www.klm.com/travel/gb_en/pre...ents/index.htm

"Prior to the boarding process, we invite passengers with reduced mobility and families with babies under the age of 2 to pre-board first. They are directly followed by our Business Class and SkyPriority passengers.

At many airports, we use zone boarding. Your zone is stated on your boarding pass and depends on your travel class, fare type and frequent flyer level. Passengers in zone 1 are the first to board, followed by zones 2 through 5."