atflyer

Yes, you will have since KLM boarding pass.

FlyingRVS

Thank you. My fear however is that at time of online check-in, I will be rerouted to Air Baltic website and in that case (since they are not a Sky Team member AFAIK) my BP will not have SP logo..

johan rebel

A former colleague of mine lived (and still lives, as far as I know) only a few minutes from the airport on foot. He had a habit of cutting it very close, would amble over at the last possible moment, go through security and head straight for the gate, getting there when boarding was already in process. One he realized he had forgotten his passport just as he was about to go through security. He ran back home like a bat out of hell to fetch it, and somehow still managed to catch the flight.

Your pragmatic choice has plenty of advantages, but I've opted for rural serenity instead. That comes with consequences which I happily accept, such a travel time of at least 4½ hours to the nearest airport that's of any use to me (the five closer commercial ones are not). That limits my flight options and leads to occasional airport hotel nights, but so be it.

Johan

johan rebel

If so, print a new one at one of the machines in the KL SP check-in area. Should only take seconds.

Johan

newbiegal

GuWonder, Appreciate your response. Yes, I am going to drop an air tag in my checked baggage and hope for the best!

BA850

AirTags are very useful. Not for reuniting you with lost luggage any more quickly (nothing can do that, I’m afraid), but if you do land in Delhi and see that your bags are still in Amsterdam, you can at least file a report straight away without waiting for goodness knows how long at the baggage carousel.

That said, my general advice at the moment would be to travel with hand baggage only if you can. My travel is split between AF/KL and BA/AA, and the only hub through which I’m more or less relaxed about checking bags at the moment is CDG.

GUWonder

There are circumstances where AirTags can be useful to more quickly reunite with mishandled baggage, but the core benefit in such situation starts from potentially being informed earlier and better about what has happened to the bags and being able to make plans based on that information.

Haven’t used Air Baltic-operated flights out of AMS, so don’t know how it would go when it’s KL-marketed or otherwise.

There were two FTers who have posted In this thread about Air Baltic-operated flights out of AMS. Maybe they are open to private messages asking them about how it turned out if they went that route.

FlyingRVS

Thank you Johan. So even if flight is carried out by Air Baltic, good to know I can still print out a BP with SP logo in KL SP check-in area. That's a relief.

newbiegal

Final question, if luggage doesn't reach the arrival airport on time, does KLM deliver to the final destination in our country of travel? For me, I am travelling beyond Delhi and would not be able to come back to Delhi to pick my luggage up.

GUWonder

Yes, they will do so in India. Even going back into the days of Northwest Airlines, I’ve had it arranged for NW/KL to deliver mishandled baggage to GOI, HYD, BLR, IXJ, SXR and LEH when my travel party members have arrived into DEL off KL without all the checked in luggage. And nowadays there are more flights to and within India than back in the days of NW-KL, so they can be a bit faster in getting the bags out beyond DEL and BOM than used to be the case.

newbiegal

Whew, that's a relief, thanks GUWonder!

johan rebel

. . . the Zwanenburgbaan (18C/36C) will close for maintenance and upgrades on January 2nd, and reopen again in July. Hopefully!

Johan

johan rebel

Wow! KLM appears to have an incredible propensity to lose your bags (and those of your numerous travel party members as well, apparently). Not only just about every time on your countless flights to CPH, but to other places as well. How can somebody be that unlucky?

Now what happened way back in the days of NW/KL doesn't really have any bearing on the current risk of losing your bags, nor of your chances of being reunited with them. There may well be more flights these days, but there are also far more passengers, far more bags, but far too few baggage handlers at Schiphol. Anybody who has actually been there recently can attest to the piles of bags stacked up or lying around all over the place.

KL has an obligation to deliver to final destination, that's for sure, but that's no guarantee it will actually happen. If the bags do not arrive in DEL at all, or only much later, the whole point becomes moot.

I've never flown KLM to DEL, and I'm an HBO guy anyway, but I figure that these days the only sensible course of action is to avoid checking bags if at all possible. Peace of mind is probably the greatest benefit.

Johan

hb192

I'm not sure if this is helpful for others but we arrived at the airport (departures 2) at 18:20 for our 22:20 flight this evening and there was no queue at security whatsoever. We walked straight up to the non-prority queue and there was one person in front of us. We were through in less than 5 minutes even with my partner accidentally leaving a bottle of water in his bag.

johan rebel

For sure!

The situation at Schiphol is so fluid and unpredictable that every extra data point helps, in that it gives us at least some sense of how bad things are at specific times of day and days of the week.

Congratulations on breezing right through!

Johan