weegiewife

Hi all. I could use some advice! Given all the mayhem happening with aviation generally, I just checked my RT GLA-AMS-RAK flights in September for a work event to find that my departure flight from RAK at the end of my stay has been pushed back to later in the day. Not a problem. However, in changing the flight, they have also changed my outbound flight from AMS to RAK to one that overlaps with my flight from GLA to AMS.

i.e. my previous booking was to fly out of Glasgow at 6:05 am, arrive AMS at 8:40, and then depart AMS at 13:35, arriving RAK at 16:25.

Now they have my GLA-AMS flight as dep 07:25am arrive AMS at 10:00 and also on AMS to RAK on the same day dep AMS at 07:00 and arr RAK at 9:25. They seem to expect me to be on 2 flights at the same time.

When booked via KLM, the GLA - AMS flights are with KLM and AMS - RAK are codeshare partner Transavia

I am going to give them a call, but I suspect that somehow they are either going to suggest I change my GLA-AMS flight to the day before, which I can do if necessary but will then be stuck with the cost of a hotel night at or around AMS, which I don't relish doing unless I can stay airside and avoid all the delays getting checked in and through security that are happening, or tell me too bad so sad and if I don't like it I can cancel the flight. I'd prefer they fix their mess because cancel and refund will be awful - all other rebooking ops aside from easyjet cost a fortune right now and are on airlines having just as many operational issues!

Thanks for any advice or information you can provide that will help me approach the impending call with them most effectively to get me to RAK for work.

BA850

I’ve had a quick look at FlightAware, and it looks like options between Amsterdam and Marrakesh are limited (one flight per day on Transavia, if that).

There are more options on Air France out of CDG, but unfortunately they don’t fly to Glasgow.

So I’d say you have two options: Swallow a delay to your trip, or work out a GLA-AMS-CDG-RAK itinerary (KLM to Amsterdam, AF or KLM to Paris, AF to Marrakesh). If you opt for the latter, spend a bit of time online working out an itinerary, then call KLM and say “the itinerary you’ve provided is impossible, this is what I’d like to do instead.” The more prepared you are before contacting them, the better.

Goldorak

You should look at AF from EDI to RAK via CDG, assuming going to EDI from GLA is OK for you. I don't know your date of travel, so cannot check if this is an option or not, but you can do it before calling. I am sure KL will accept to change your city of departure (and return eventually) to EDI.

weegiewife

Thanks both! It;s looking like it will be GLA-AMS-CDG-RAK. I am far enough away from EDI that I don't think that will be an option for me but I do appreciate the suggestion! Sometimes I forget about the EDI option

atflyer

Good you found a solution. KLM is not always looking at the whole itinerary, unfortunately, when they change one flight. I had 1 month ago a AMS-CDG-FLR booking, the AMS-CDG flight cancelled by KLM and was put on a later flight that would arrive in CDG when the CDG-FLR flight was gone already. What was really irritating me is that contact with KLM did not help. 'You booked via a travel agent, arrange it with them'. In the end my employer's travel agent solved it, there was a later CDG-FLR flight. Bad service, when KLM cancelled the AMS-CDG flight they should have given an alternative for my full itinerary.

irishguy28

That's one of the basic rules of buying air tickets.

When you do your business with an agency - rather than directly with the airline - then you have to deal with the agency for all your queries, changes and problems with the ticket prior to travel. You can only ring an airline to make changes to a ticket if you bought your ticket directly from the airline.

That applies across the industry. It's not just for KLM - it applies for all airlines and all agencies in every country around the world.

atflyer

Yep, that is all fair enough if you want to change something yourself. But what KLM did is unilaterally changing part of a flight trajectory, leaving me with an unflyable ticket. KLM created the problem in the first place, and could (and in my view should) have ensured the new itinerary was flyable.

Two days later on the way back it was AF dropping my FLR-CDG flight. Not nice since it led to a forced additional night stay, but at least they had the decency to provide me directly a new FLR-AMS ticket that worked.

It is however true that in the current messy times I see the value of directly booking with your airline, certainly if another outlet is just marginally cheaper. That is however not always possible since many of us work for organisations that oblige you to book via a company travel agent to avoid a lot of administration, to ensure they can track where employees are, etc.

irishguy28

I take your point that KLM are the ones that messed up the ticket, but your employer insisted that you deal with a TA rather than direct with KLM, so you can't skip the middleman. Most things in life have an upside and a downside, and using a Travel Agent isn't all upside. Until the ticket is handed over for airport control, the airline should not touch the ticket at all - it's not "theirs" to deal with.

In the normal scheme of things, a second pass should have occurred, and your itinerary should have been fixed. Of course, in the current climate where changes are happening shortly before travel, this would not have been enough. It's always better, anyway, to call in and proactively have the change made rather than waiting to see when/if it gets "fixed", because at least then you have some input into how you get rebooked.

Any decent corporate TA should be reachable 24/7; if they're not, then your employer is paying for poor service.

tgv2

Does airport control apply for each segment or the whole ticket? Let's say I fly today outbound and my inbound is one week later.

irishguy28

It's my understanding that you can only approach the airline with queries regarding the sectors that are under airport control, and for which it is now too late for the agent to do anything to change those sectors. For these imminent sectors only the airline itself can help.

If your query relates to sectors that you are not about to fly, and which are therefore not under airport control, then you have to contact the agent.

Goldorak

In my experience, once you have flown the outbound, the airline can touch the ticket for the return sector. I don't know if there is notion of date for this, but it applies for sure to non-immediate flights (like in 4-5 days).