KLM review by Robert 2014-12-24

Hello fellow travelers. Here is some sincere advice: do not fly KLM! The KLM on-line booking system is highly unreliable. I booked a return flight from Manchester UK to Toronto on September 26, 2014 for an outbound flight on Dec 5, 2014 and a return flight on Jan 12, 2015. I used Flying Blue points for the flight and purchased a larger seat, a Comfort Seat, for GBP80 or E104.09, as part of the booking process. Air France/KLM took the cash portion of the air ticket and the cost of the Comfort Seat from my bank account on Oct 1, 2014. Unfortunately, the KLM system did not record the purchase of the Comfort Seat and so now, after seven calls to KLM to change the date of my Jan 12 flight, I am unable to change the date of the Comfort Seat or get a refund for the Comfort Seat because there is no electronic record. I have given KLM the bank transaction number but so far nothing has been done. In one sentence: KLM took the cash but did not provide the service and has no electronic record of the booking. My bank says it can help me to recover the money because no service was provided but what a pain in the neck! The KLM booking staff are all very nice and full of regret but can do nothing. Sadly, this is entirely consistent with my long-term experience of problems with the KLM website. It is very 'buggy'. One of the many KLM staff I spoke to about this issue made a very revealing comment "hmmmm, this is very unusual Mr. Jackson. Usually the system bills people twice for one seat but I have never seen it bill someone and not give us a seat or an electronic record". I did explain to KLM that we are a traveling family that has accumulated many hundreds of thousands of points on KLM and that we have one family member traveling globally for Shell on business who has complete discretion over whom to fly with. All to no avail!. So my best advice to you is to fly with pretty much any other major airline and do not fly KLM or Air France. So KLM/Air France, if you are interested, the booking ref is 33OY5U.