KLM online booking tool is a joke

hanjeer

Hi,
I would like some advice on what seems like a blatant ripoff.
Are airlines allowed to let you book one price and then find out on the final payment page that the advertised price doesn't exist?

I had to book a flight through KLM and basically because I was waiting for confirmation on my dates, I couldn't book until today. So just to keep a tab on the cost, I was checking the prices all week to make sure it hasn't changed, basically I get as far as the pre-payment page which basically gives you a summary of the fees. Anyway today I go ahead and book and up until the final payment page (it is quite a few pages) everything comes up with the normal price, once I get to the payment page, the cost shoots up by about £160. That's quite a big sum, are they allowed to do that? I'm not talking about a difference between an advertised price and a final price. This original price is mentioned throughout the booking, there's even a msg that says only X ticket left for this price, and then after you fill all the passenger details and moved on to paying that they decide to let you know that this price isn't available. And this isn't a fluke where I just happened to miss the last ticket, you can go through the process now and it will still book it by the advertised price but ask you to pay for the higher one. i have tried contacting KLM, but their bookings line is busy (and has been for the past 4 hours) so I am now dealing with them through twitter which is just slow. Is there a point of pursuing this further or shall i just cut my losses and book my tickets before the price jumps again

Listerbelle

Yes, they can and do do this.

Check hipmunk.com as an alternative flight finder

hanjeer

Really, that blatantly sneaky, I thought they would put a bit more effort than hide the price until the very end. Thanks for the link but the flight I want on hipmunk still points to KLM with the fake lower price. This is so infuriating!

photome

where and when is the flight.

I often book with KLm and have never seen the issue you describe

littlereddevil

I have booked with KLM for years and have never ever seen this problem

MrsC....tobe

I've never seen that with them. Try booking through skyscanner, I recently searched on skyscanner and klm and the price skyscanner had was cheaper by about £60, it linked through to bravofly.
Remember for most flights within Europe now klm charge for hold baggage too so that might have been a factor.

hanjeer

Well I have been booking with them for the past 15 yrs but its only this year that I have been having problems with them ( a flight a few months ago through their website ended up being 350 cheaper if you split them into 2 separate flights even though they were the exact same flights).
I have attached some snapshots of my booking attempt today but it doesn't seem to work. So I will have to send the URLs from yesterday that I sent to KLMs twitter feed:
Initial booking is Image 1 and price page is image 2

tomtontom

I have duplicated the fault the OP describes, it finally lets you book at £1149.50! Other routes are fine. I don't think the system is a joke, just that there is a glitch, which from reading your Twitter exchange they are doing their best to help you with.

hanjeer

Well whether glitch or not, they have been advertising these prices for the past week and a half and every flight search engine advertises these prices for those fights when the fare doesn't exist and hasn't for a while now. My problem now is that I'm trapped with these flights as I got other ppl to organise their connecting flights through Amsterdam at the same times and only because I thought these were the prices quoted. I could have flown from London for 500 cheaper but I can't now. And yes their customer service was helpful but this is still false advertising

callum9999

hanjeer wrote: »

Well whether glitch or not, they have been advertising these prices for the past week and a half and every flight search engine advertises these prices for those fights when the fare doesn't exist and hasn't for a while now. My problem now is that I'm trapped with these flights as I got other ppl to organise their connecting flights through Amsterdam at the same times and only because I thought these were the prices quoted. I could have flown from London for 500 cheaper but I can't now. And yes their customer service was helpful but this is still false advertising

Why? Are you contractually obliged to travel with those people? And maybe I'm misreading the situation, but if you werent sure enough on the timings to make the booking yourself, why did you tell others to book it?

While most of us prefer being with friends and family on long flights, I'm sure you can cope a few hours without them.

hanjeer

Hi,
Heh you're right, I do need to explain this better. In my effort to be discrete about the travel details, I wasn't aware that I came across as a petulant child.
Basically what happened was that my husband was flying out for business and wanted to travel along with my toddler. Because the company was paying his ticket. he had to do his booking separately. So we had to pass on the details for the tickets I found (which is where this whole palava started) and everytime i checked those tickets and added passengers these were the prices I got. And I couldn't actually book my tickets until his went through, because I wasn't sure if they would agree to the dates. Anyway that part ended up being pretty straightforward and they booked a non-refundable ticket for him so that's when i went ahead and tried to book mine and found out on the payment page that these weren;t the prices I was quoting all week. And since, he can't cancel i have to go ahead with it even though it would be almost half the price to fly out from london. I sent a formal complaint, not sure it will get anywhere but worth a try