Arpoador

It seems you can choose between rebooking or a travel voucher.

legalalien

The email doesn't explicitly say "rebook without fare difference". They're willing to rebook for next Tuesday ... for "only" €743 extra.

nwflyboy

This announcement was only posted a few hours ago. By the time they posted the message, lots of people had already packed their bags, some were on their way to the airport, some had already checked-in their bags, heck, some flights had already departed bound for AMS. Those flights were in the air before the warning was posted!

It's insane to post a note like that just a few hours before it goes into effect -- don't these people have the slightest understanding about differences in time zones, and how long it takes to fly from one place to another? It seems they don't, because in just a few hours from now, a lot of passengers will be aboard flights landing at AMS who had checked their bags, and who will be connecting in Schiphol. Are they just going to toss all their checked bags in a pile (or make another pile next to the piles they already have)?

Really amazing how bad they are are running an airport.

dkeng

I guess this is better that accepting bags you cannot handle, but not by much. And surely they should waive the fare difference for rebookings in next few days...

I'm heading home this afternoon. Luckily my luggage is HBO sized but I look forward to seeing how this is handled at check in and gate...

TATLTAIL

This has been happening before Covid and the current meltdown, as it occurred in September 2019 to me returning VCE-AMS-SFO. Fortunately was able to rebook through CDG on AF, but between this and the current fiasco, I am avoiding AMS since many years.

Goldorak

This has already happened about 10 days ago from ICN. Same message received from KL.

GUWonder

Does this AMS baggage mess rule apply to passengers for all other airlines flying to AMS too?

mfkne

I don't understand why the system can apparently handle bags that are in transfer to destinations outside of Europe, but bags to destinations in Europe are a problem. What is "Europe" anyway?

I think we're slowly but surely getting to the point where either Schiphol and/or KLM are committing fraud because they are selling services they know they will not be able to render.

dkeng

They probably wish to reduce strongly the amount of bags in the system and this is just an easy to understand and implement rule rather than a technical limitation.

irishguy28

Something like 70% of all passengers at AMS are transferring, the majority using KLM on at least one of those connections.

The other airlines having hubs at AMS (easyjet, TUI, Transavia etc) don't really have a "connection" business model

This affects KLM far more than it affects any other airline.

irishguy28

either the IATA definition, or else decided by whether KLM serves the destination using a single-aisle aircraft, would be my guess!

irishguy28

In that story, while it is indeed credible that passengers will turn up at airports around the world for their KLM flights knowing that if their destination is elsewhere in Europe other than AMS their checked luggage will not be carried, it's not credible that the KLM check-in staff will not have been informed and that all checked luggage will be accepted and tagged as normal.

Instead of blithely checking everything in, those check-in agents will have "difficult conversations" for transit passengers, either persuading them to travel with just carry-on, or sending them to the ticket desks to get rebooked on routings that bypass AMS altogether.

And of course there will be passengers on more complex routings, checking in first in tiny outstations with a first sector handled by a partner airline oblivious to the latest KLM diktat, and therefore it is indeed likely that some passengers will be carried with checked luggage that KLM would rather not have. What will happen? That luggage will just enter the beast at Schiphol, probably miss the connection, and not be seen for the next few days/weeks.

irishguy28

that's plain wrong.

Since the first meltdown in late April, there has (continuously, I am pretty sure) been a "change without fare difference" waiver in place for tickets from, to, or via Amsterdam within defined time windows:

Here's the current iteration:

https://www.klm.nl/information/trave...-waiting-times

My experience, from late May/early June, was that you could rebook yourself on the KLM website (or app; the website is easier to use though) for free, with no fees. However, you can only do this once (you would have to ring up for any further changes, at which stage I am not sure you would get the "no fare difference" waiver a second time, unless it was because your choice of new flight itself fell victim to cancellation etc).

If your flight (or whoever's flight this is that you are talking about) falls within the relevant date range, and was bought prior to 8 July, then just go the website and change it yourself. It should allow you to change for no additional fee.

Note that the relevant dates are updated each week, usually on a Friday or Saturday (I think). This means that tomorrow or Saturday, the dates shown below should change; presumably to: "issued on or before 15 July 2022"; "departing on 15 July up to and including 30 July 2022", "new departure date is before or on 6 August 2022" but don't hold me to that.

b12e

I assume, if there is indeed a technical malfunction with the automated baggage system in Schiphol, that KLM will "manually" handle, so sort and load by hand, luggage. However, they can only handle so many pieces before that isn't possible any longer, hence the need for a serious reduction in luggage in the system.

This is a wild guess, but a plausible explanation to why "long haul" can still check bags.

johan rebel

But there is not.

The was a malfunction yesterday evening, which was resolved quickly, says Luchtvaartnieuws.

According to the same article, Schiphol says they have no idea why KLM isn't allowing Intra-European transfer pax to check bags.

​​​​​​Johan