Help! KLM Charged £4000 for economy Class Flight!

neil_mcd

Hi!

Long story short - I rerouted the return leg of a holiday in Calgary. I was flown back to Edinburgh for surgery (snowboarding accident) and needed to reroute to complete my journey back to Stavanger, Norway.
I was initially told this would cost 100€, then after confirming dates I was told this fee would be waived given the price difference in flights (Edinburgh - Stavanger being cheaper than Calgary - Stavanger). I received confirmation on the flight numbers, Travel Class (Economy) and Booking Status (Confirmed). So far so good.

The day before I flew I went to check-in online. No success. I called KLM who restated that my booking was confirmed and asked me to try a full login to find my details online. When this failed it then transpired that the seats were booked, but no ticket issued. I would need to sort this out at the service desk before my flight.

Day of the flight I was told my flight was fully booked, and only a £4000 business class place was available. £4000 wasn't really an option, so I asked to book a seat on the 12noon flight for ~£260. With 10 mins left before the 9am check-in closed I then called KLM directly (Edinburgh airport only has a Servicair desk) to see if they could sort me out under my original travel arrangements. They replied that they would send my request through their ticket office and to expect a response in 2 hours time. I replied that the plane departed in 1 hour and after sitting on hold I was given a ticket issue code and allowed to board. I flew my route as per the earlier booking, economy class relieved that KLM had pulled things together at the last minute.

Alas. I now have a £4000 charge on my credit card.

KLM will only accept complaints via email - i wrote my transcript of events at length and sent in my complaint. I understand that KLM record all customer conversations for just such occasions. The main body of my response was as follows:

After checking your booking, I confirm that whatever the situation new booking or changes in the booking, the customer must first accept the changes and the fares, in order for us to proceed with the booking, and also the customer must provide us with the card details.

Based on the above we cannot respond favourably to your claim.

While I fully sympathise with your personal situation we regret that we are unable to modify our fare rules to take this into consideration.

i.e. because we were able to charge you, you must have been aware of, and accepted the cost of the flights.

My latest response:

Regarding your last communication in connection with my claim I wish to state that I am greatly disappointed by your response.

Regarding my credit card - I wish to categorically state that I did not authorise £4000 worth of flight tickets. I understand that KLM record all conversations of this nature. Please review these conversations.

Injury and booking charges aside, I received confirmation of my Flight Numbers, Travel Class (Economy) and Booking Status (Confirmed) some days in advance of my flight.
On March 19th I flew out in my Economy class seats on my aforementioned flights.
How is it possible that these Economy flights were able to total £4000?

I am currently awaiting on their next response... Are KLM going to give the the runaround? What do i do if its more of the same???

Thanks for reading, Neil

dmg24

Do you have any proof of the payment you agreed to pay?

Your post is a little unclear, which flight(s) did you actually take?

Hintza

I'm not even sure where you are flying from and to where?

neil_mcd

Hi - I did everything over the phone in this case. I printed out my booking details which stated my travel class as economy and booking status as confirmed.

I have no hard copy of flight prices as I was only told that a 100€ rebooking fee would be applicable.

I flew from Edinburgh to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Stavanger.
My original flight was a return trip to Calgary.

Hope that helps, Neil

dmg24

What was your booking class (it will be a letter)?

Was your original ticket changeable? What booking class was it?

neil_mcd

My original flights were all Q class. My return flights are listed as K class.
Restrictions are listed as NONENDO/CTC KL FOR CHANGE XXL RUL.
Didn't expect tickets to be changeable, but asked regardless and was eventually quoted 100€.

Neil

dbuk44

I had similar problems with KLM but not in your league.

I got nowhere with their CS support. Its dire.

In the end I raised a dispute with my credit card company and asked them to provide evidence that I had given an authorized mandate for the amount billed..

Since it was a charge-without-card present they failed and a couple of forms later the money was refunded by the card issue.

dmg24

You were on a semi flexible fare, and your new ticket was in a higher fare group, but still not a fully flex. Whilst £4000 for an economy ticket is not unheard of on the day of travel, it would be hard to believe that your ticket would be anywhere near that amount.

Are you a member of Flying Blue? It would be worth giving them a call, even if just to speak to a person.

I had the same thing happen to me with KLM (though flying with AF), I could see my itinerary online but once I got to the airport I apparently had no ticket. My story turned out differently because I was flying in La Premiere (first), so the staff sorted it for me, but I still had to stand at the ticket desk for 40 mins with lots of people looking at me as if I had messed up.

Let us know how you get on.

The_Hallowed_Way

dbuk44 wrote: »

I had similar problems with KLM but not in your league.

I got nowhere with their CS support. Its dire.

In the end I raised a dispute with my credit card company and asked them to provide evidence that I had given an authorized mandate for the amount billed..

Since it was a charge-without-card present they failed and a couple of forms later the money was refunded by the card issue.

+1 to that. As the OP describes it there's nothing that KLM could produce to prove that OP had authorised a charge of £4000 for an air ticket.

Some years ago I had a situation with KLM where I missed a flight due to a hire car breakdown. My colleague, who re-arranged the flight, had to book a new ticket. However, when I got to check-in I was told that I only had to pay €100 for the change of ticket. It seems like KLM's left hand still doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

neil_mcd

Thanks everyone for your quick replies. I'll try Flying Blue (I'm Petroleum Club) and see what sort of answer i get back from Customer Support.

Cheers, Neil

fluffnutter

If you paid on your credit card and get no joy with KLM, you could try taking it up with your card supplier under the Consumer Credit Act.

TBH though OP, I really did have difficulty understanding your post and I'm still not sure what's happened.