nickal320

My flight BLQ-AMS tomorrow was canceled. No other morning or mid-afternoon flight is available in Y from any suitable airport. There is a flight from FLR but it is only available in J. Can I get them to rebook me from FLR? I supposed EC261 would cover this. I tried to call and they said company policy is not to rebook in a different class, but I do need to get to AMS at a certain time� Should I call and point to EC261?

dkeng

You will not get a free upgrade in this kind of case. Forget about it. And no, EC261 does not give you any right to this.

nickal320

It�s not a free upgrade. It�s getting me where I need to be when I need to be.

Fabo.sk

EC261/2004 requires that they offer you the closest flight in same class of service. Of course it's mainly meant so that airlines can't just decide to downgrade pax, but it also applies here that they don't have to upgrade you just because it's the most convenient.

Rather than asking for AFKL flight in J, look for a flight with another airline in Y.

irishguy28

The rebooking policy is below; there is no scope for accommodating you in a higher cabin due to the cancellation.

However, it seems that everything is full in Economy from BLQ for tomorrow; even AZ appear only to be selling business class on the route (unsurprising, as presumably all Economy seats were snapped up by displayed KL customers already).

Two suggestions, which you may or may not find helpful:
- if you want to travel in KLM in business class, enquire about paying the Fare Difference. This is, however, likely to be eye-wateringly expensive but at least I would expect they would waive the change fee if this is possible.
- consider repositioning in Italy this evening/early tomorrow so that you can depart from another airport. Florence (50 miles away) seems to be pretty full, like BLQ, but there are economy seats on KL flights from Venice (85 miles away) available for tomorrow. You can check other airports based on your ability/willingness to travel further afield to get to AMS tomorrow.

If you get no satisfaction and end up booking a replacement flight yourself: there's also a direct Transavia flight from Pisa (74 miles away) tomorrow afternoon with seats available which is still a little cheaper than the connecting Star Alliance options available to you from BLQ

Also: don't forget to claim your EC261/2004 compensation (€250 per passenger) when you get home.

nickal320

Thank you, especially to Irish Guy. I had eyed that VCE flight�only one seat was available and by the time I got through to KLM (on WhatsApp, the phone line would be cut off), it had been sold already.

The PSA would have arrived too late, but by a stroke of luck, one seat out of FCO at 12:40 became available and I managed to get that one.

Two questions:

1) Once my itinerary is over, can I claim back the cost of my train ticket to get to FCO?

2) In the same reservation, I had an onward flight to GLA on Sunday. I don�t think this flight was canceled, and I am not sure why, but I have been rebooked on a different flight arriving 4 hours later than originally booked. Am I entitled to �250 compensation for late arrival?

AnaTFN

Good that you managed to find an option. In cae it helps for the future: once KLM also cancelled my Dublin-AMS-Oslo flying Y, and the only other options were in J next day or Y two days later. They could not get me into J, so I had to wait two days, but I asked over the phone about the cancellation compensation and it was more expensive than a one-way J so I ended up not rebooking, taking the cancellation compensation (250 Euros if I remember correctly) and in the same phone call asking them to buy me the one-way J ticket to get back home. Might have worked in case like yours too.

nickal320

unfortunately the o/w J was something like �1k, so not an option�

Fabo.sk

Call in and ask to be reinstated on the original flight. If it has been cancelled, you are eligible for compensation. If it has not been cancelled, demand to fly as ticketed.

nickal320

Will try to sort that out once in AMS. Really can�t spend the morning chasing KLM as I need to do work.

Separately, what compensation am I entitled to because of the change of origin? I presume the price of my train ticket to get to FCO can be claimed as necessary travel expenses. However, I note that the CJEU recently ruled that an early departure of 1+ hour entitles you to compensation in line with the distance of the flight. Because I now need to trek across central Italy early in the morning, am I covered? My FCO flights leaves 20mins before the original BLQ flight. I also read that it was expected for airline to compensate 50% of the normal compensation amount in case of rerouting: would this be covered too? Thanks

Fabo.sk

The 50% cut is based on how much later you arrive. You arrive in AMS less than 2 hours later, so it applies.

I don't know if they will claim your departure time from FCO counts or to count also the travel to Rome from Bologna. I would hope so. Ideally I would like you see the train ticket refunded and 1/2 compensation, but it might be a fight.

nickal320

Thank you. Sorry for my delayed reply, been very busy with work. I submitted my claim to KLM on 29 October, after I arrived, and am still to hear back... I tried to get that sorted in AMS but they just redirected me to the website, which is frustrating. I had a similar issue in CDG last year, and they did everything on the spot in the airport, no questions asked. KLM on the other hand... Does anyone have any idea how long I should expect to wait?

Fabo.sk

Several weeks is normal. I would start getting antsy if no response after 6 weeks.

nickal320

Thank you. Hopefully I will have a nice email under my Christmas tree then!

irishguy28

I genuinely don't think you will be able to get KLM to pay for your surface transport costs to that other airport, because the request to fly from that airport was yours, rather than an imposition of theirs imposed involuntarily on you.

(And yes, I understand that the only reason you requested to fly from that other airport was because you found it unacceptable to wait so long to get transported from your original airport, and you therefore consider it a necessary/voluntary detour in response to KLM's actions - but still, that doesn't mean KLM has to pay for a transfer to a different airport. The compensation you are paid is intended to go some way towards paying for such inconveniences; and again, I know accept and understand that, had you waited in BLQ, you would have got the same compensation amount, and probably a free hotel and meals, and come out "ahead" of the situation where you paid out of pocket to get to a different airport in order to get home faster)