KLM review by Lauren

If you are thinking of flying with KLM or their partner Air France, DON'T!

I am absolutely furious with KLM and Air France over our treatment on their flight from Amsterdam to Mexico City (AF/KLM Flight 8456) on 5 November 2017. I will never fly with either of them again. For our visit to Europe, we made our reservations through Air France (round trip Mexico City-Paris-Mexico City) in May of 2017, seven months in advance. For the return flight on 5 November 2017, we were given Paris-Amsterdam on Air France and Amsterdam-Mexico City on KLM. The extra flight was not particularly appreciated. Worst of all is that for 7 months we could not make our seat selection for the KLM flight. We tried everything imaginable. We both called and emailed both Air France and KLM 3 or 4 times a month during the 7 months prior to our flight. Every single time we were told there was no way to select our seats until check-in. As an example, I have sent them the transcript of my conversation with a KLM representative on 30 August 2017. It is photographed directly from Messenger on my phone, saying she did not have access to the seating charts, even though it was their own airline. The day we arrived for our flights in Paris, we had already been given middle seats on opposite sides of the plane without our knowledge. Not a window, not an aisle and not even together. As mentioned above, WE WERE NEVER ALLOWED AN OPTION TO CHOOSE OUR SEATS. I have also sent them copies of our boarding passes. I immediately asked for a change of seats with both the Air France and KLM representatives and was told there was no possibility of a seat change. I then asked the stewardesses for help and was told they were very sorry but the plane was full and all we could do was try to convince anyone in the seats next to us to exchange. Of course none of them wanted to spend 11 hours in a middle seat and they all refused. I then requested to get off the plane. I no longer wanted to be on that flight under those circumstances. The Stewardess would not let me off! I can’t believe that as an older citizen and a research scientist, I was forced to be a prisoner on their plane in a most miserable and uncomfortable 11 hours. The middle seats are too cramped. The stewardess told us that “all seats on the plane are equal” referring to size, but that is not true, as they well know, since size alone does not reflect the level of comfort or equality. I had no use of the arm rests. I could not get out without making the aisle seat person stand up. I had nowhere to put my purse, book, blanket etc. except on my lap so that the seat table would not sit flat. There is a large metal box under the seat in front of the middle seats, so that if you put your belongings on the floor there is no room for your feet. Also, the very limited room from the seat in front prohibits bending down. If you put everything in the upper rack you can’t use it or get to it. And, believe it or not, there was not even a window in the row I was sitting in! Only bare wall. How is that even possible? (Seat 29B, go see for yourselves). The entire entertainment system also broke down during the flight. That also included the control of the overhead lights so that we could not even read. The lighting system never came back in the middle seats. How is it possible to demand such an exorbitant price for a flight with so little in return and absolutely no comfort whatsoever. I have never felt so angry, humiliated, frustrated, nor so helpless to fix my situation as on that horrible day. I KNOW WHAT THEIR COMPANY IS DOING. They arbitrarily pick a certain percentage of passengers to be “fillers” for their middle seats, which no one will ever take voluntarily, especially if traveling alone. For those passengers, they make it impossible to select seats so that they can use them to fill their flight and make their full quota of money. It is probably illegal to do that in this manner, so they make it look like an unfortunate quirk of the system to give us no recourse. My husband and I sat on opposite sides of the plane in utterly miserable and unforgivable circumstances for 11 hours for a price over $2000! They are therefore satisfied and we certainly were not. Of our entire trip of 51 days, the flights alone were one of our greatest expenses for a total of only 22 hours. That represents 0.009% of our time and 100% of our discomfort. I WILL NEVER FLY ON KLM OR AIR FRANCE AGAIN. And I will tell everyone and anyone and by any means possible not to fly with them. It was reprehensible and inexcusable what they did to us. AND THEY VIOLATED MY HUMAN RIGHTS by not allowing me get off the plane. Only my personal dignity kept me from making a scene. Swallowing my anger and frustration has definitely hurt my physical well-being and will continue to do so for a long time to come. We deserve a refund on our tickets for the abhorrent treatment we received from them, but of course they have no intention of doing so since refunds fall under cancelled flights and not mistreatment of passengers. For cruel and unusual punishment of their passengers they deserve a legal denunciation and lawsuit. I seriously would like to sue them for emotional damages, unjust and illegal manipulation of passenger’s seating rights and violation of my own human rights. This should also include scandals in the press and social media. They do not have the right to knowingly deceive and torture their passengers for their own self profit. 

This is the typical reply I received and is what they say to all complaints as if that makes it all OK.  

Reply by KLM
Dear Lauren, we are sorry to hear that your trip did not go as expected. We do our best to ensure a smooth trip and we understand how disappointing the issues you experienced must have been. Please know that we can be reached via the information available through this link: http://klmf.ly/1DkDcMi for assistance with your concerns regarding seat selection.

I then replied to them and have never received a single response:
"Your replies to our complaints are placating, condescending and unsatisfactory. Saying "we are sorry your flight was not as expected and we try to make our passengers comfortable" and giving me a link that I have seen before and is essentially useless for solving the problems, shows that you have no intention or interest in solving our dissatisfaction with your service. You think that the 21% of customers (out of those responding) giving you a rating of 3 or less is insignificant for you to concern yourselves with improvement. You think your flights are adequate and you can serenely continue your cramped conditions and barely adequate quality of service. You also did not address my very valid complaint that you are illegally manipulating your customers seating rights in order to fill your flights. You also did not address my complaint that you violated my human rights by refusing to let me get off the flight. It is infuriating to come up against a big business with a web of obstructive methods to prevent solutions to public dissatisfaction. You want to make as much money as possible with the least amount of quality that you can get away with. I WILL NEVER TRAVEL WITH YOU AGAIN and I am sure you will continue to lose customers. Your poor stewardesses should quit since they are the ones that have to face your customer's miserable traveling conditions, knowing that your plane conditions are a disgrace. They can smile and sing while serving barely edible food, but that does not compensate for the basic problems with your flight quality. I still want you to give us a full refund without going through all the fatiguing run around on your web page designed to discourage continuing with the process". 

Rows of seats without windows and ALL middle seats should offer significant discounts and under no circumstances be assigned arbitrarily to passengers without their consent or knowledge. The Airlines should terminate IMMEDIATELY their illegal manipulation of passenger seating for the purpose of filling their flights. Their food is also of very poor quality. The meatball dish I had was tolerable but the salad and dessert were inedible. There is no excuse for breakdowns in the entertainment system on such long flights without compensation. And there is no excuse for those big metal boxes in front of every middle seat.