Just finished up the 17 day best of Italy and had a great time. Warning about air options if you fly SeaTac to Ams. We flew Delta non stop with no issues, the trouble started when we needed to fly to Milan. KLM cancelled our direct flight and rebooked us to Paris, Luxembourg and then Milan. On our return trip to Amsterdam from Rome the plane had mechanical issues and we sat for 1.5 hours with no Ac before finally be allowed off. We had to deplane and many people missed their connecting flights. Lucky we had a couple days cushion on both legs. If you’re planning to use KLM be very careful with your connecting flights as we found their services to be very unreliable. Hopefully this is a temporary problem with klm just a heads up.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8125 posts
KLM has not been the same airline since its merger with Air France. And Schiphol Airport is also having staffing problems after being one of my favorite gateway airports.
You might could have caught a flight AMS-Milan on EasyJet non-stop, and their airfares are often ridiculously inexpensive.
We flew KLM-AMS a year ago, and it was perhaps the worst flight with the worst food we've ever experienced. The flight attendants stayed back in their kitchen to minimize any contact with passengers and the risk of spreading COVID. Thankfully our return flight was on Delta to Atlanta and the difference in food and service was night & day.
For now, we'll avoid KLM and flying into AMS until things normalize.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
13905 posts
"You might could have caught a flight AMS-Milan on EasyJet non-stop, and their airfares are often ridiculously inexpensive."
But if they'd tried to do that on the "fly" from an outbound flight they might have risked having the return ticket cancelled for as a "no-show" on the AMS-Milan flight.
I'm sorry you had so much trouble getting to Milan! What a way to start a tour! AND to get home! I found the routing awkward as well.
I did Spokane->SEA->CDG->Milan on Delta with the CDG->Milan leg on Air France. It worked really well. I had never transited thru CDG but it was actually a good transit. I had allowed myself a 3+ hour connection time thru Paris and would go with no less in the future. I timed it from the time I stepped out of the door of the aircraft onto the stairs to when I was at my departure gate and it took me 1h5m walking at a moderate pace with one quick comfort stop. I had also checked before booking to see how many flights per day AF flew to Milan and it looked like they went every 2 hours or so, so I felt like I had some backup in case there was a problem.
The thing I worried about the most was whether Air France would weigh and measure my carry-on so I needed to pack for that eventuality. They did not although several folks had had the experience of having a bag weighed on a flight. In the process I spent money on a much lighter carry on bag, obsessed for weeks over weighing packing cubes and tee shirts, lol and learned I CAN pack a suitcase so it weighs just 16#, lol! New skill!
Coming back home I'd routed myself thru Atlanta as there was a direct ATL to Spokane flight but of course that flight was deleted soon after I signed up and I had to go ATL->MSP->GEG. In retrospect I should have gone Rome to CDG and maybe spent a few days in Paris then the direct flight CDG -> SEA ->GEG.
Hope your BOI was good!
Posted by
Fairfax, VA
763 posts
Sounds like you might be entitled to EU compensation for your trouble.
https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks for the response I’ll see if we are eligible for compensation. That was a long and unpleasant day of around 14 hours. We almost missed our rescheduled connection flight to Ams as our Rome to Paris was delayed as well. Of course the Paris flight was on time so we had to sprint to the gate with only minutes to spare. Glad that’s over with!