dragos

I am NW platinum for 4 years now. Yesterday i arrived from Amsterdam to Boston and after 2 hours of waiting in the baggage claim area i was told that my pet (Dalmatian) was left in Amsterdam. The agent informed me that NW received a message about this from Amsterdam however they did not wait for me on my arrival but rather let me waist 2 hours waiting for the dog. I was promised by the agent that the dog will be put on the first flight out of Amsterdam but this did not happened. Two calls to NW luggage tracking ended with the agents telling me they do not know when the dog will be sent here.

All the paperwork for the dog is in order and the delay is caused only by NW negligence. I paid Euro 300 for the dog to get here in Boston.

Has anyone experienced this before? Am i entitled to any compensation for this incident?

Thanks for any help!

Dragos

avidflyer

Well the dog should get a boatload of miles and a hotel voucher.

Seriously, that is horrible and you should absolutely be compensated, not only for the cargo charge, but for your inconvenience. Send a TTU right away and write a formal letter to Customer service.

Sorry to hear about your experience.

dragos

Thanks for the advice. I called customer service and they were extremely nice. They offered 15k miles for compensation and instructed me to call their pet service for a refund. I called Priority Pets twice! No result the first time a supervisor hung-up the phone and the 2nd time I was told they do not refund pet fees.

Any Advice?

Thanks

kcnwa

Everyone from Priority Pets is probably out working on the van at DTW. Seriously, unless they've updated it, that thing was about to fall apart last time I saw it!

Did you eventually get your pet or know when you will?

While I don't think NW Scoop can help directly, perhaps he can give you some more information on whom to call. It's too bad this happened, and the fact they have been a pain to work with, I think a refund is in order, the miles are a nice gesture, but at the end of the day, you paid for a service, and they preformed dismally on it.

dragos

Thank You kcnwa! NW does not know yet if the dog made it on NW37. They promised to call once they have the information.

SchmutzigMSP

I don't have any specific advice as I've never sent a pet as cargo/checked luggage, but I would recommend that you do not let up on the calls/information seeking until you have a satisfactory outcome, be it a good enough update on the process or when the dog is in your possession. I would recommend always staying calm and professional, even though I can imagine this may be a trying time for you.

With any luck, perhaps NW scoop can look into the matter. Maybe not in real-time, but perhaps follow up afterward and figure out what went wrong and how they can improve their coordination with their vendor Priority Pets.

Best of luck.

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

I agree that you need to be all over this until you have your dog in your possession. Focusing on getting your dog home safely seems to be more important than whatever compensation in a case like this.

As KLM is the handling agent for NW in AMS, you should place a phone call to +31 (0)20-6495168, the KLM Schiphol Animal Hotel
to make sure they are aware of your dog and that they have taken care of him.
If not, they may be able to take action locally to get your dog walked, fed and watered and to get you assurances and clarity.

You could also try to contact KLM cargo who are responsible for the animal hotel by general phone
Tel.: (31) 206498000
Fax.: (31) 206494553
Office hours: MON - FRI : 07.00 - 23.00 SAT-SUN : 09.00 - 17.00
Local time: 18:32 hrs.
E-mail: [email protected]

Next time you fly with your dog, consider introducing yourself to the captain if possible when boarding or ask the purser to hand him a note explaining that you are travelling with your dog and appreciating him taking accountability for ensuring that the dog is on board and in a safe on-board environement before departure.

dragos

Thank you for the advice; i will definitely do that in the future.

canndlewic

Sounds like a terrible situation. I hope they are taking care of your dog food/water/fresh air etc. I would not settle with 15k. A live animal is slightly different than a suitcase of dirty clothes. (Could smell the same though)

azj

Sounds like an awful situation. When shiiping pets via Priority Pet, there is specific paperwork involved. A copy of that paperwork is given to the captain with the rest of the flight paperwork. It indicates the passengers name and seat and also the flightw little fido is scheduled to fly on. There is usually a notation as well on the flight attendant paperwork regarding this.

Whenever I see this, I make it a point to personally look and see if a pet was dropped off. If so, I then either personally tell the passenger or have the FA tell the passenger that their pet has indeed boarded. Upon pushback, I confirm with the ramp staff that the animal was indeed boarded.

I preflighted a plane once and found a large case of frozen chicks sitting in our animal bin. It seems the ground staff in MSN didn't notice the night before and when the power was removed from the plane, so was the animal bay heat. It was February. You do the math. Since then I've gone out of my way to make sure that we as a crew do everything we can to make sure the pets makes it onboard. Even on the saab. I can't comment on every crew however.



AZJ

NW scoop

dragos,

You have a private message.

NW scoop

kcnwa

I think many of us would be very interested to hear the outcome, so please, post some update on future developments.

Ginger K

Dragos, do you have your pooch??

azj, I've heard that is the policy on NW, for flight crew to confirm that pet is boarded and then notify pax. Really glad to hear you do that. ^

I'd be surprised if KL doesn't have a similar policy, it just sounds like it didn't get followed.

dragos

Thank you all for your support. The dog was delivered tonight an all is well! Thanks to one member I was able to contact the Pet hotel in Amsterdam and was told the dog was very well cared for during the delay.

Again thanks for all the help!

P.S. I received a very nice message from NW Scoop and I will pm him with all the details.

slippahs

dragos: Very glad to hear your fido is safe and sound! ^