Help with Changes to flights due to medical
 

Hello,
I am looking for help from those with KLM knowledge regarding changes to flights when someone is in hospital.

My parents were visiting The Netherlands from South Africa, and my mother unfortunately broke her hip and had to go to hospital. They were due to fly back to SA on the 12th Sep (in Business Class) but changed their flights to 2nd October and was charged €1700 per person to change their flights despite having a medical certificate stating it was impossible for her to fly.

she has unfortunately had an infection in the wound and had to go to ICU, meaning they will now have to stay for another 4 weeks at least. So they will need to change their again. My father briefly spoke to someone online who suggested it would again be at least €800 per person to change it again.

surely KLM are able to change flights without charge for medical reasons? For example, I am UK based and fly BA. I was planning on visiting when the injury happened so wanted to come a couple days early. As a Gold Exec member, BA waived all charges to change my flight to get to the hospital, and said if I wasn’t Gold, they would just need a medical certificate and all costs would be waived. Why does KLM keep charging my parents?

I mean, what's in the contract of carriage ? Is there a clause in the ticket that states that medical reasons exempt the ticketholder from change fees ? Corporations are not obliged to waive change fees based on sympathy.

It's clearly a case where travel insurance would cover the charges, so I would pursue that route.

It is unlikely you will get a waiver beyond those in your ticket conditions, or what is in their general policies. I understand that it is frustrating, but this is definitely a case for travel insurance. That said, AFKL do have some waivers that are possible for medical reasons; check here: https://www.afkl.biz/trade/s/policie..._US&country=FR

I join the other posters to advise you to look at your parents travel insurance, assuming they have one linked to the credit card used to pay the tickets or if they subscribed a specific one.

Let's hope they have travel insurance. Otherwise the costs KLM charged you, will be a drop in the ocean.compared to the medical bill.

The relevant section of KLM's conditions of carriage (https://www.klm.nl/en/information/le...tions-carriage) mention only an "extension of the ticket validity"; this does not seem to preclude the charging of a change fee and fare difference though. To the best of my knowledge, all this allows is that the return leg can be pushed beyond what would have been the normal theoretical last-possible date on which to schedule the return flight, according to the fare rules. As such, all that KLM appears to guarantee is that the "expiry date" of the ticket will be extended - if the enforced stay was of a duration that the new return date would no longer fall within the validity period of the purchased fare. As such, it appears that the affected passenger will not be told that their ticket is no longer valid; but it doesn't mean that the return can be rescheduled free of any charge.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bd102ade52.jpg

Hopefully your mother is making a full recovery, which is afterall the most important consideration here. There's never a good time to become sick, but while you are away from home makes it even worse. And, like the other posters above, I sincerely hope the party had taken out adequate travel insurance.

Was a similar discussion recently here https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-...ing-stuff.html

Would trip interruption coverage associated with credit cards such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred reimburse for the ticket change fee & fare difference?

When they changed their flights and paid for the change they made it significantly more difficult to get a waiver. I would call the NL number, select Dutch (they will all speak English), and explain the situation.

Selecting Dutch won't get you through any faster.

I would think it guarantees an Amsterdam based agent which might improve the outcome? But maybe now all calls are handled from there?