I travel with KLM quite regularly. I switched to KLM after an “unfortunate incident” with Emirates, an airline which I had used for a number of years. My regular routes are BHX-AMS-KGL or NBO or EBB. I travel business, most recently in December 2014 and January 2015. I have somewhat mixed views on the KLM experience. I find the cabin crew individually all very helpful and with a genuine interest in the passengers. I can get a constant supply of coffee, for example, without having to go and ask for it, which is nice. However I find the systems rather regimented – I dislike for example being inspected with a torch to ensure I am wearing my seatbelt on a night flight when the seatbelt light comes on, and I would object extremely to the cabin steward feeling under my blanket, which happened to the person sitting next to me. The catering is OK, I need to be selective what I eat and I have never been unable to eat on a flight. The in flight entertainment is average. Value for money wise I prefer to book through Kenya Airlines and use code shares on KLM flights, I have never understood how KQ can sell me the same KLM flight on the same plane cheaper than KLM does.
Flights are, of course, always late but not by much. Baggage handling in AMS is good, I have have only been using KLM extensively for about 18 months but so far I never arrived without my luggage even on a short transfer.
On the ground however, things are less attractive. The business lounge in AMS is OK but always understaffed and thus getting any kind of customer service requires extensive queuing time. The last time I travelled back into Europe from Africa (December 2014) flights were disrupted by bad weather. Inevitably this caused extra questions for customer services but it seemed that KLM didn’t see the need to put on extra staff to help manage it. I have found that the lounges in other countries are hit and miss because they are all shared.
I also agree with other comments made here that trying to follow up issues with customer services is very difficult if you can’t put the issue into a little box on a website – contacting a real person is not easy. KLM has put a lot of faith in its website and wants many things handled through the internet. Many times – particularly in Africa – I have found this faith is misplaced. Often the site will not let me select a seat, book meal preferences etc and even when it does sometimes what I have input does not get saved. I am never confident that KLM has in its system what I think I have put in. For this reason I prefer not to book tickets and pay on-line.
All in all I will continue to use KLM as my preferred carrier simply because there is no better alternative from KGL to BHX, which I can do with only 1 change. But as soon as there is an alternative …..
