I was scheduled to be away for a 4 day business trip. By now, this has turned into a 5 day business trip with over 24 hours lost to delays, missed connections due to delays and cancellations. At no point have KLM properly reached out to me despite discussions on social media, emails, phone calls and attempts to liaise with business services.
I was late to my original destination by 8 hours due to a missed connection, wholly at the fault of KLM. The return trip has been even worse with my first flight delayed by two hours, my connecting flight missed but also cancelled and then being left overnight in AMS with no support or directions. When we landed we were assured that someone from KLM would meet us and help us for ongoing flights. This was a lie. Nobody was present in the airport from KLM and we were advised by staff tidying up for the night and a passing cabin crew not to leave the airport due to the 5 hour queues for security.
Within the airport, my group spotted multiple mice and those operating passport control were wholly disinterested. If I had not asked for their attention, I could have easily moved unchecked into other parts of the airport. Other people seemingly did and the staff did not care.
My replacement connecting flight was scheduled for 19 hours later. KLM made no attempts to provide hospitality, made no attempts to provide accommodation and instead opted to try and upsell further services, such as additional leg room and lounge access, via the self-service transfer desks. This is tone-deaf and money grubbing. On rescheduled flights with new transfer times approaching 20 hours (for a small hop between Europe and the UK) these should be offered for free if KLM cannot be bothered to provide hotel accommodation.
Currently, my replacement flight is delayed (that means I have experienced a total of six delayed, missed or cancelled flights due to KLM) and I would not be surprised if it ended up cancelled.
While I understand that the difficulties with Schiphol airport due to the reluctance of the owners to pay employees a fair, reasonable and acceptable wage, are not the direct fault of KLM, KLM did not make even a slight attempt to be accommodating or display a burden of customer care. The attitudes at both Schiphol and KLM are late stage capitalism run riot. Delays and cancellations are normal, customers are to be treated as commodities / cattle or a means to siphon money rather than people and staff are to be neglected, exposed to burn out and overworked to the point where they are disinterested in fulfill their jobs, even when crucial for security. Which unsurprisingly leads to employees quitting, worsening the issues.
I have not travelled abroad to conferences or for business in many years and, given this experience, I will be reluctant to in the future. I will absolutely be avoiding Schiphol and KLM who have provided atrocious support and customer service throughout.
Beyond dire. Avoid KLM.