I know there are many well travelled members on here so I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
The wife is off home to Thailand in June to see family and has booked the flight with KLM.
On the return leg there was a wait of 2 hours and 40 minutes which was great as it gave her time to stretch her legs and have a quick bite to eat and not have to hang around for the connection. Unfortunately she has had an email today informing her that the connecting flight has now been cancelled and that she has been rebooked on another flight which has made the layover between flights 10 hours. A ridiculously long time to hang around.
She has been given the option of requesting a refund, but that means having to book another flight.
Is there any grey area where the airline has to provide access to a lounge or some sort of accommodation or is it just a case of suck it up or cancel?
Cheers.
Suck it up or cancel I am afraid, unless you are business, 1st class or belong to the airline membership scheme with required level you will be unlikely to be allowed access to the lounge.Originally Posted by jaytip
There maybe a pay lounge that can be used, these are usually pretty reasonable if you have a long stop over when you take in to account the food and drink you will buy.
Does your travel insurance cover delays over a certain number of hours? If the circumstances qualify, of course
Where's the connection? Some airports have hotels inside them where you can book a room.
Unfortunately none of the above. First time she’s flown with KLM.
Problem is, I don’t think this would be classed as a delay as she has been informed of the change.
I had a quick look at Yotel which seemed ideal but at €270 she quickly dismissed it.
I think she’s just going to cancel and rebook with another airline.
The only reason for using KLM was the convenience of being able to fly out of Cardiff instead of travelling to Heathrow.
Some credit cards will give you access to the lounges.
Hmm you're wife is 'lucky' myself and the Mrs are booking with them to come back to UK from Taipei - with a 90 min stop in Thailand. TPE->(BKK)->AMS->UK
KLM have 'cancelled' the AMS->UK flight and so we now have gone from a 4 hr layover to a 10hr one.
but......
They have cancelled the AMS-TPE return flight and booked s on the next one so we have gone from a 2hr layover to a 26hr one........ Utterly ridiculous, I dropped them an email and it took them 3 days to confirm they could move the 1st flight back to the one 24hrs later to give us the 2hr layover again.
Flying in this brave new world is going to be a pain for the next few years.
Previously we could fly direct with them from TPE->AMS in around 12-14 hrs, now via BKK it's 16-18 hrs. Covid, Putin and everything else has a lot to answer for.
Last edited by eldrich; 23rd April 2022 at 12:26.
I don't know what time of day it is but if I had 10 hours at Schipol I'd head in to town. Lots to do there.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
She would have been landing at 06:15 after a 12 hour flight.
You’d think they would have suggested the easier option first.
Unfortunately for my wife, she’s quite tight for time off work, so doesn’t have the luxury of moving days with her flight.
If it was me, and on balance the inconvenience was still worth using KLM, I'd be looking at a combination of the Yotel and the Aspire Lounge to ease the pain.
You could also ask them to return you to another nearby provincial airport if it gets you home quicker.
In my view she should be doing her best to sleep on the plane and then stay up until 9pm when she gets home, otherwise she is just prolonging her jet lag.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
That would have taken the cost of her flight to over £800.
She would have been better off flying direct with Thai Air for that price.
I would think that the three hours in the Aspire lounge before her flight (which is all the lounge access that would be available to her anyway) and a four hour stint in the Yotel earlier wouldn't come out to much over £100.
Easing the pain of the wait isn't free.
She has cancelled the ticket now anyway and she’s going to book with another airline.
Thank you everyone for your tips and suggestions.
Do Qatar still fly out of Cardiff? Could be an option.
Else EVA Air doing some decent offers from Heathrow
Sadly not. She’s flying with them from Heathrow now though.
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