onlysuites

Tried everything possible. Spoke to three different agents. Two said it was not possible...the other said that it was possible but i would have to pay the change fee of £70.

Not really worth it. So had to sit in the lounge for 4hrs Although on a positive note it was not that busy today.

pmcg

Travelled through AMS today and had a very good result from KLM to get a better connection.

Arrived from CPH at 13:31, our next flight to EDI was scheduled for 17:40 on a F70. I knew that there was a 14:15 KLM 737 flight going to EDI that the evening before had seats in all classes. Our later flight only had 2 full fare seats left. The 3 of us were all booked on super cheap tickets.

Transfer desks at C were very busy so we went to the Schengen lounge (14:45). Asked the agent if we (all PE) could get on the next flight. She called the gate, asked, gave them our names and original connecting flight details then told us it would be fine and we should hurry along to D54.

Rushed down to the gate (flight boarding) and picked up our new Boarding Cards with seats 4D, E & F in Europe Select.

Lost count of how many times I said thank you.

spotwelder

"I would like to take a later flight" I said to the Alitalia [Always Late In Take-off And Late In Arrival] ticket agent.

Sir, the flights are all at least 2 hours late today. Would you like me to book you onto one that is 3 hours late instead?

[sorry, a modification of the original London Underground poster and comment, "the last tube is later than you think" with the comment "why pick on that one" written underneath.]

Recently we were held up by a "late passenger". Turned out they could not get the coffin up into the hold.

Not very helpful I know but someone might just smile.

NickB

Arrived at LHR at 5pm. My flight was due to leave at 8.25pm. Asked whether I could stand by on the 6.15pm and was given the 'this is not possible, sir' treatment. Ticketing agent told me that they were no longer allowed to let you stand by on an earlier flight if you are on a non-flexible ticket, PE or not PE.

So, 3 hours at Holideck as a result.

Turned into a nightmare as long queue for the runway out of LHR + Polderbaan arrival at AMS + network problems and train cancellation with NS, resulting in an arrival in Enschede after 2 am. I was not a happy bunny.

pmcg

I can accept it quite easily if I'm told that my ticket can't be changed. After all if I have booked an £89 return to CPH that is "non-changeable" then that is what it is "non-changeable".

On my last journey though I was extremely happy that KLM allowed it to be a little more flexible thus getting me home in time for dinner with the family and giving them a few more seats on the later busy flight.

Avallon

[offtopic] Why on earth would you want to live in Twente though? All you get are students, cows and other peasants [/offtopic]

NickB

Yes, I agree. This was not meant as a complaint, rather as an additional experience, especially as it stands against what I had always encountered in the UK before. (If I was unhappy, it was not unhappy with KL as such, just plain unhappy ).

What it does mean for me, though, is that something that used to be a plus factor for choosing KL has now disappeared. If they don't feel like bending the rules slightly for a PE, fair enough. But, then it also means that I will not be particularly inclined to fly them.

NickB

and it takes forever to get there too

Avallon

What you make money on as an airline is the hardcore business/leisure flyer who you can bind to your company. You need to spend a lot of money to entice a new customer to your company, it would cost peanuts to keep the loyal traveller.

But then, with the coming of AF the non-braindead flyers will flee elsewhere anyway (CSA here I come ) Apparently their frequent travellers are currently refused lounge access at CDG and given a two-drink voucher instead.

Dambus

Was this from the ticket desk in the check-in area or air-side?

When travelling hand-luggage only I'd have reasonable success getting an earlier flight (or even a re-route to RTM instead of AMS) from the KLM service counter in T4. The last time was about 2 months ago although all the earlier flights were overbooked so also ended up hanging around the Holideck for 3.5 hours.

It seems that the only way to get this kind of flexibility is (or was...) to be at the airport and deal with it face-face. Having to head to the airport to get on a later flight (as in the OP) defeats the purpose a bit....

-- Dambus

NickB

Was ticket desk land-side.

Jenbel

Please don't do this if checking baggage. They will not want to offload unless absolutely necessary (and they'd know you came in ok), so a non appearance with through checked bags would probably mean a delay for everyone else on the flight... its not really fair on them.

Swiss Tony

VERY fair point, but in my defence, the OP hadn't declared he would have checked baggage when I made my comment (and assumed that everyone was like me & just stuffed what they could into a carry on then rely on the laundry service for the rest...)