 Poster: A snowHead
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Booked four tickets from Cardiff to Trondheim via AMS, flying Saturday. Tried to reserve seats for AMS to TRD, but only three available. Now I am wittering that I am not going to get a seat on the plane....can someone please reassure me that this sort of thing is normal... 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It happens I am afraid, and one of the reasons is overbooking of the aircraft (but not the only reason!), where those on a higher fare class than you are (i.e. paid more for their ticket) are prioritised. If this is the case there is no need to panic, the system will block enough seats to cover those higher fare classes but will release them as cancellations come in and people start to check in. Really important to check in online as soon as you are able to, and arrive at the airport early - availability is driven by fare class - then it is first come, first served. It is possible that when you do check in you are still not allocated a seat in which case getting to the airport early becomes even more important. Those who do not can find themselves on standby. Sometimes paying for an extra legroom seat will get round the problem so worth considering that.
Also, when you do check in don't worry of you have kids and you are not all sitting together - the cabin crew (who are normally pretty helpful on KLM, unlike their ground staff!) will sort you out.
You could also try giving them a phone, might be they are able to reassure you it is not an overbooking issue. Are you travelling with young children/an infant? If so, some (small) aircraft have limited seats with extra oxygen masks for infants and the booking system used to allow you to choose seats is conflicted. In this case you will be manually allocated the right seats and should have no problems. This used to happen to us on the old BMI flight from Edinburgh to Zurich.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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At worst they will put you on the next flight, I think its every other day.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@zikomo, thanks very much for your reply. I called KLM and had an online chat - they seemed pretty relaxed about it and said that a seat would be allocated when I checked in. The wife and kids have reserved seats but I'll check in as soon as I can on Friday morning. There are two flights a day from AMS to TRD so worst thing is one or more of us may have to wait for a later flight (more time for the kids to do their homework....)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@blahblahblah, thankfully there are two flights per day.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Managed to reserve seat - KLM released few more this morning by the look of it...
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Phew. Holidays shouldnt be about dramas.
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Glad you got sorted.
I worked in Utrecht for 6 months, and did weekly KLM return flights between Birmingham and Amsterdam. KLM were terrible for overbooking flights. Hence we got into the habit of always getting boarding pass the minute online check-in opened. (Esp. the Friday return home, when your 6pm flight might contain people who'd been bumped off earlier ones that day)
They also had a suspiciously handy knack of finding 'technical reasons' why one 1/2 full flight needed to be cancelled, and that flight's passengers merged onto a later flight that was itself, only 1/2 full.
Seemed like they were running a low cost model with Ryanair type customer service, but charging flag carrier prices. (Fortunately it was work paying)
The only reason I'd use KLM again, is simply because Schipol is one of the handiest hubs for indirect flights, and a really easy and pleasant to navigate around, and spend time in.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@selly_skier, the only reason we are using KLM is that we could fly from Cardiff to AMS and then to TRD (theoretically better than what was previously on offer with the very late direct flights from LGW [EasyJet do a better-timed direct flight to Are now, but we booked before EasyJet announced their flights]). Must say that the KLM staff didn't seem to know much of what was going on....all they could tell me was that there were no seats to be reserved and, erm, you'll be allocated a seat at check in. I could find that out myself. I'll be checking in first thing Friday morning - any idea if you can check-in for the second leg flight at the same time as the first leg flight? Glad to hear that AMS is a good airport for transfers.
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