Meet the airline brave enough to apologise for its failures

While Air Canada simply ignores customers after leaving them stranded without their baggage and Qantas chief Alan Joyce blames his customers for airport chaos saying they are not "match fit", at least one airline has had the decency to apologise for its post-Covid incompetence. 

KLM, the Dutch national carrier, has admitted to failures and sent an apologetic email to customers. Refreshing.

"If you have flown recently or are planning to do so in the coming weeks, you will have noticed that airlines and airports all over Europe were not sufficiently prepared to cope with rapidly increasing numbers of passengers," KLM president and CEO Marjan Rintel wrote.

"This has also impacted many KLM passengers, and I sincerely apologise to those of you who experienced a disruption or lost a suitcase when flying with KLM this summer. We simply must do better, and in addition to earlier actions, we have taken several steps to improve our performance:"

Rintel says KLM reduced its number of flights swiftly "to go back to the reliable service and quality you may expect from KLM".

He said the airline does not sell all available seats and therefore keeps some seats available for passengers who have missed a flight or had their original flight cancelled. Which is eminently sensible and decent.

KLM has also extended transfer times between flights, giving passengers more time to make connecting flights at Schiphol Airport. 

"Solving our operational challenges is KLM’s top priority," says Rintel. "Every day 28.000 KLM colleagues work around the clock in challenging circumstances to get you and your luggage to your destination in a comfortable and timely way - as you may and, of course, should expect from us.

"In most cases, we definitely do. However, in recent weeks the main issue related to late delivered and/or misplaced luggage. We have put additional measures and resources in place to get the luggage back to its owners and solve the necessary aftercare and claims.

"We have hired extra people in our Customer Care Centres to support this effort, but because of some backlog, they are not yet as available for our customers as we want them to be. We understand that this is very frustrating and can leave customers feeling abandoned. But rest assured that we are working on your case.

"In the spirit of honesty and transparency, I felt it essential to reach out and apologize to those of you who were directly affected. We will do our utmost to restore your confidence. Millions of passengers choose to fly KLM each summer, and it is in these difficult times that we must show what we’re made of to continue to earn and deserve your trust in our brand."

Bravo!

Is Air Canada the worst airline in the world?

Canada is a beautiful country with so much on offer for tourists.

It certainly deserves a better national airline than Air Canada, a pathetic excuse for an airline with zero quality standards and pitiful customer care.

Ryanair has its its critics. United is not universally popular and Australia's airlines have come under recent fire.

It is not an easy environment for airlines right now. But as post-Covid demand for flights has soared, quality standards have plummeted.

And no airline exemplifies this more than Air Canada, where ludicrously lines, lost baggage and surly service are the norm - and sorry is not a word in the corporate vocabulary.

 

It is now 10 hours since the last of my four booked flights with Air Canada and I am still fuming. I have vowed to warn as many people as possibly to avoid these charlatans.

Of my four booked flights: Venice-Montreal-Toronto-Montreal-Venice, two were cancelled, all were hours late, my baggage was lost for six days and sent on a crazy tour of Canada, and the care factor was zero. 

My first leg was Venice-Montreal. The flight was several hours late "due to the delayed arrival of the aircraft”. My connection to Toronto was missed. My baggage went astray. 

I spent two hours roaming the thousands of bags dumped near the various carousels in the international terminal before lining up for 90 minutes to lodge a missing baggage report - along with hundreds of others. There was one person doing this job, occasionally two. 

Near the desk were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of lost luggage files left unattended. 

When I got to this buffoon of a clerk I gave him a printed address and phone number of my address in Canada. Which he managed to get wrong.

I had missed the last connection and the airport hotel was full. Zero assistance from Air Canada, who booked me on a flight to Toronto the next afternoon. 

Presumably wanting me to sleep on the floor at the airport. 

For their errors I had to pay for a taxi and a downtown hotel and I also booked a train to my destination in Kingston for the morning. Saving several potentially wasted hours. But hundreds of dollars down the drain. 

Air Canada, hilariously, or insultingly, sent me a refund for my unused flight sector of 8.84 EUR. Gibbering idiots. 

Just a matter of waiting for my baggage to arrive, then at my sister's house. Except it never did. It went to Windsor, Ontario (obviously because my name is Winsor), and was then en route to Kingston before my sister alerted Air Canada to the fact I was already back in a hotel in Toronto.

My bags, lost for six days and containing some key medication, finally turned up 12 hours before I was due to leave the country. This despite the efforts of the helpful Air Canada Twitter team. 

My trip back to Italy was via Toronto Island Airport and Montreal. Perfect as I was staying on the Toronto waterfront. But that flight was, all too predictably, cancelled and I was put on a new flight from Toronto Pearson (of course!) that would have ensured I missed the Montreal connection. 

I splashed out on a taxi and got to Toronto Pearson Airport several hours early. 

I was repeatedly told all earlier flights were full and "not to worry they'll put you on the next flight to Venice when you get to Toronto". That flight was two days later.  

One undignified meltdown later I was put on an earlier flight that had several empty seats. Hilarious. 

Made it to Montreal; where the Venice flight was delayed by a further two hours. First excuse: security issues. Second excuse: no cleaning team. Apologies: zero. 

We finally got to Venice just a couple of hours late - and my baggage made it too. 

All in all an absurdly stressful week and an airline without morals or a clear plan. 

Air Canada is clearly not worthy of membership of the Star Alliance (My Virgin Australia FF allowance made zero difference). Air Canada also has a four-star SkyTrax rating - surely a sick joke. 

I've flown with Ryanair and several other dodgy budget operators. None came close to match the insouciant incompetence of this mob.  

My advice: avoid Air Canada and the thousands of lost bags piled up at its terminals. Fly with someone else, or stay at home. These people do not deserve your money.        

# Writing this, I became so angry that I had a coughing fit. So beware. Flying with Air Canada could be dangerous to your health.