KLM overbooking

KLM overbooking

Seven of us flew by KLM 838B from Jakarta on June 18 to London
via Amsterdam. As advised, we were required to reconfirm our
connecting flights within 72 hours at the latest. Of course on
June 20, we reconfirmed in London and on June 23 upon our arrival
in Amsterdam as our next destination we also reconfirmed, on July
5 upon our arrival in Nice we reconfirmed and we finally
reconfirmed on July 9 in Paris. We constantly reconfirmed for two
reasons, namely it was high season and we had requested seats
with adequate leg room which are often difficult to get.

When we left Paris for Jakarta via Amsterdam we checked in at
Paris Charles De Gaulle as among the first passengers, we were
issued boarding passes for a connecting flight from Paris --
Singapore -- Jakarta for only five of us, not seven. We were
already suspicious but the ground crew assured us that we had a
confirmed booking and we were given a standby boarding pass to be
changed at the transfer desk upon our arrival in Amsterdam.

Trusting the KLM crew we boarded and upon landing at Schippol,
we hurried to the transfer desk where they advised us we would be
assigned seats at the gate. We waited until the gate opened and
then immediately checked in, handing the two standby boarding
passes to the crew.

We were asked to proceed to the waiting lounge, where we were
told to wait for our seat allocation and again they reassured us
that because of our confirmed status we would be given top
priority. We waited and to our anger and disappointment we were
finally told that the plane was overbooked and we had to fly the
next day.

Of course we did not accept it but they insisted that we could
not board because of overbooking. In the end we had to accept the
bitter fact of having to fly the next day, all seven of us -- our
poor family. KLM, which is supposed to be one of the better
airlines, apparently made a silly blunder like overbooking which
resulted in a terrible experience for us.

HARRY G. OESEP

Jakarta