Yesterday evening the queue to even go down the stairs to immigration at the bottom of the E pier stretched all the way along the corridor down to lounge 2. Did not look like a fun time.

You jinxed it for bragging ;)

I was also surprised in my last cancellation about (1) no rebooking, (2) long wait for platinum line, and (3) first person at the platinum line apparently not knowing all the options that he had (luckily I called again and got another person). I wonder if the experience is any better for people without status in terms of waiting on the line and having someone knowledgeable at the other side.

My wife landed this morning on KL592 (JNB-AMS).

Flight was directed to a remote stand, so the fully packed B789 was transferred by bus. Thereafter the line for immigration took more than one hour.

Strange thing (off topic), no upgrade offer during check in, but Y fully booked and she thought to have seen 2 op-ups during boarding.

HUCA works
 

My second call was answered after 26 minutes or so, by a very bureaucratic, inflexible and unhelpful agent. I think he was having a very bad day. He only offered me a choice of two fights, either 7 hours earlier, or 7 hours later. Neither would work for me. I had done my homework, knew exactly what the options were, but he adamantly refused to consider them. He claimed all flights were full due to the Dutch herfstvakantie, blamed Schiphol for forcing KLM to cancel flights, bla bla bla.

I called again this evening. Waited another 27 minutes, got a friendly and competent lady on the line who immediately offered me exactly the flight I wanted, without me even having to ask. The whole process took not even two minutes, and she also made sure to allocate me the best seat still available. So I'm now on a flight departing not even two hours earlier, which the first agent claimed he could absolutely not book me on. Go figure!

:D Guess that serves me right.

Johan

Flew last Thursday from Schiphol to a European destination in the morning. When I arrived at 7am, the regular, non-priority queue for security was completely empty.

Looks like KLM has initiated a November schedule massacre. The guy who coordinates flights for our business unit has in the past few days received a deluge of cancelation/rebooking notifications, he already has a few dozen reservations to deal with (we have from a handful to up to about 30 AMS flyers on weekdays, none or only a few on weekends). Several people who were rebooked and accepted the alternative offered have now had the new flights canceled as well.

I suspect they will do the same thing to December in a few weeks time, once they are done messing up everybody's November trips.

Johan

Johan, it pays to know when to pick your fights!

Tough choice, so I hung up, called again and was fortunately offered a fight at High Noon.

Perfect!

Johan

As Schiphol and KLM crash and burn, the airline' CEO has declared that sustainability and diversity are her top priorities.

What was Nero doing again while Rome burned?

Johan

Certainly not minding the wellbeing of his citizens or caring about the environment.

Give the guy a break, he was the emperor, for crying out loud. The average emperor has far more important matters on his mind, although it would make financial sense to at least mind the wellbeing of the household slaves, especially when market prices are high.

Johan

Major Australian airports all have some sort of priority lane for immigration and/or security. It is usually open to premium passengers and status holders if the airlines pay for it. In Sydney, theres even express customs on arrival for example.

Much of this has been on and off due to covid but its definitely present down under.

Are longhaul flights @AMS getting cancelled too or is this a case of reducing schengen flights from 5 to 4 daily?

Some long haul flights too, like SFO-AMS KL606 and AMS-JFK KL641 on Oct 5, AMS-LAX KL603 on Oct 6, and others.

Well, I booked my next set of flights through CDG, but have cause to be in Amsterdam in December for a couple of days so will have no choice but to book and await the inevitable schedule cull. Arriving in Amsterdam one day and continuing onward a few days later reduces the impact of any disruption, but it’s still a pain.

It’s the same in every industry, I’m afraid. Until recently, I worked for a company which hadn’t really pursued such a course, but which almost overnight embraced it wholeheartedly. Senior HR folk started regurgitating whatever nonsense they’d paid to hear from diversity consultants and we were all invited to attend an online seminar which presented a highly dubious interpretation of the UK’s Equality Act (and indeed one which was at odds with the legal opinions of the then-Attorney General, who has since become Home Secretary). It became all-consuming, utterly unbearable and of course an enormous distraction from the work we were supposed to perform.

KLM need to get the basics right before virtue signalling, is my humble opinion.