Arriving at Norwich at 21:30 on Friday 29th August, my bag did not arrive. Reported and filled in a PIR. I overheard another member of staff saying that KLM always leave 4 or 5 bags behind on each flight into Norwich! The next flight from Amsterdam was the next morning at 09:00 and I rang at 09:30 to be told that they had my bag, and they would give it to the Courier who came at 13:00. I asked for it now but was told it would have to wait for the courier. Eventually the delayed bag arrived at my home at 18:00 hours, 20 hours late.

Speaking with the courier he told me that he usually delivered between 15 and 20 delayed bags from KLM each day. This was just to Norwich from Schipol. How many others are delayed on a regular basis.

Temba College have used KLM since 1994 for our annual youth tour to Europe. During this time they transported ±780 students on our behalf for which we paid them in full. The fact that they can fly us into London and out of Amsterdam suits us.

We bought four sectors (48 tickets) from KLM on the internet namely: See Air Ticket

Cape Town to Amsterdam 25 June 2008

Amsterdam to London 26 June 2008

London to Amsterdam 16 July 2008

Amsterdam to Cape Town 16 July 2008

In one instance - one girl from Amsterdam to Johannesburg 16 July 2008.



We read KLM’s terms and conditions carefully.

Nowhere in the terms and conditions is it stated that we have to make use of all sectors, neither does it state that the non-use of a sector constitutes a route change. Their terms and conditions further do not state that we need KLM’s permission if we want to surrender one or more sector. It merely states that the carrier (KLM Air France) will refund us if we do so. We never asked KLM or planned to ask for the refund and we made that clear in writing.

We furnished KLM with written notice that we would not be using flight KL 1000 from London to Amsterdam on 16 July.

On 15 July KLM in three separate phone calls, advised us of the following.

The flight KLM 1000 from London to Amsterdam was hopelessly overbooked and they could not accommodate all our students on that flight. See the affidavits.

That unless our group traveled from Amsterdam to London in order to fly from London to Amsterdam on (the overbooked) flight KLM 1000, they would not honour our tickets from Amsterdam onwards. It was impossible to transport 48 students from Amsterdam to Cape Town at that late stage.



They demanded almost €8000 from us in order to put us on our flights to Cape Town and Johannesburg. We needed to raise the above amount before 09h00 that particular morning. The amount per student differed between ±€67 to ±€420. The fact that this makes absolutely no sense to any normal human being was of no concern whatsoever to KLM-Air France.

The front desk staff of KLM – Air France, clearly don’t know what is stipulated in the terms and conditions and were unwilling to read it. I begged the supervisor, Mr Kuijer, to read it. He and all his staff refused. Mr Kuijer was later helpful but the majority of the staff remained extremely arrogant and unhelpful.

It left me with no other choice other than to try and raise the money. I offered my passport in order to give me time to raise the money. They refused and the aircraft departed without 20 of our students. We were stranded without accommodation, food and needed to deal with extremely unhelpful and arrogant KLM – Air France staff.

These particular 20 youngsters were then waitlisted.

One girl lost her passport and the police enforced KLM to support her. The police officer advised both the student and I that this was entirely KLM’s mistake and that KLM were liable for the support of the girl. After they advised KLM as such, KLM gave her meal vouchers and a confirmed seat on the next flight.

On Sunday 20 July, the 9 boys still stranded were given confirmed seats by the supervisor, Mr Kuijer, for the 22 July 2008. He confirmed this to all 9 boys and I.

I confronted Mr. Kuijer in front of the boys. It was apparent that Mr Kuijer had not read nor understood the terms and conditions of KLM Air France Internet booking conditions.

On Tuesday 22 July we arrived 3 hours before departure at the Schiphol Airport and we were informed that two boys had once again been moved to the wait list. After 3 hours of immense stress and some tears, they managed to get on the plane and landed safely in Cape Town where these last 9 boys were eventually re-united with their families.

CONGRATULATIONS KLM OFFICE IN ACCRA, GHANA!

YOU CAN SUCCESSFULLY BOAST OF HAVING SOME OF THE RUDEST RESERVATIONS OFFICERS IN THE COUNTRY.

THERE IS A PARTICULAR LADY WITH A VERY DEEP VOICE LIKE A MAN'S, WHO IS CONSTANTLY CONSTANTLY RUDE.

I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT I WONDER HOW SHE STILL HAS A JOB. IT ONLY TELLS US THAT IF YOU WILL ALLOW YOUR CLIENTS TO BE TREATED LIKE SHE DOES US, (PHONE OR IN PERSON) THEN YOU REALLY COULD NOT BE BOTHERED.

WE KNOW ABOUT THE PRESSURES OF THE WORK, BUT IF WE HAVE TO BEG YOU TO BE NICE TO YOUR OWN CUSTOMERS, IT MAY JUST NOT BE WORTH IT.

KLM charged my debit card twice for trans-Atlantic flight tickets and the debit came mid-way through my visit to the USA. This has left me with no money to settle a hotel bill and the threat of arrest not to mention 2 missed meetings that formed the very basis for my trip. No 24hr customer support has left me with no-where to spend the night other than in the hotel lobby.

The only customer service I could find is a call centre taking reservations. They could not help me. There is a very real chance that I may be arrested because of them.

Security check-in is important and therefore must be treated with responsibility. Such task should not be turned by KLM employees into a cheap entertainment show or a bureaucracy lesson that defies the common sense. I wear suspenders with metallic clips that do not appear to be a security risk for other airlines checkpoints. At boarding time, an arrogant KLM employee instructed me to remove my suspenders and pass one more time through the metal detector gate. With my pants below the knees, I had to show my Calvin Klein underwear to the audience I order to please the smart KLM security check procedure. This was however a sort of happy ending. What if I do not wear panties? Should the KLM’s check-in procedure release the boarding pass only for those that wear panties? I don’t want to further elaborate on this KLM issue that hopefully will trigger some corrective action. As a remark, the dinner cutlery KLM crew makes it available to the passengers during the flight can be in the wrong hands away more dangerous than my suspender’s clips.