The future of airline travel? (KLM "bumps and grinds" family)

I’ve had my share of bad travel experiences. But a recent European experience with KLM may surprise and shock you.

My journey begins well as my two teenage sons and I fly from San Francisco to Amsterdam for a wonderful 3-week tour of Europe. We work our way back to Amsterdam for our return flight, staying in the airport Sheraton the night before our departure. The next morning, as we check into Amsterdam 2 hours before our 11 a.m. return flight, we are immediately told that the flight is overbooked (!) and that KLM may not be able to put us on the flight.

My mind reels in disbelief. We paid for the tickets 6 months prior and no communications (e.g. email, phone call) had alerted us to any issue. The eventual airline statement is “KLM overbooked, EU law provides for compensation in these matters (600 Euro per person), and we’ll get you to SFO shortly.”

“Shortly” does not describe what follows. We end up on a 13:30 flight to New York City with mid-day connection to SFO, but thunderstorms prevent landing in NYC, we circle briefly, and we proceed to Boston to wait on a tarmac. (Internet stories suggest airlines are carrying less fuel to save on weight.) We depart that plane, after 12 hours , only to spend an additional 2 hours to wait for our bags (which never appear) .

So now it is midnight in one of the world’s biggest, baddest cities. No bags, no KLM staff, and no cell communications (batteries have died). I keep thinking “what are they planning for us? And where is KLM staff?”

We take several cabs in search of local hotels (all nearby “airport hotels” are booked) . I end up in Queens Flats, negotiating witho an innkeeper positioned behind bullet-proof windows at a Howard Johnsons. We uneasily step over locals who are sleeping in the lobby towards our two rooms.

The next morning I call KLM (NW is domestic partner) and ask them “what is the plan?” They have no plan. As we talk it through, the NW representative expresses amazement that I didn’t make the NYC connection (Don’t they already know this?! I was on the Boston tarmac at the time, in one of their planes, on their warped path to get me to SFO.) The agent starts offering me further multi-stops to get to SFO, I insist on non-stops, and after a half-hour cell phone conversation, we eventually get a non-stop to SFO for 6:00 p.m final arrival -- almost 48 hours after our original scheduled departure.

So I publicly ask KLM:

1) Are you okay with stranding a family at midnight in New York City?
2) Where are our bags? (As a hint, the baggage tags are attached to the boarding passes for the original flight which you took and held in Amsterdam.)
3) Where is my recovery of $500 for cab and hotel expenses in NYC? (Note: these are YOUR expenses – NYC was your plan, not mine).

And I continue to ask myself “what is the long-term lesson?” I think less family airline travel may be the only answer. In a world of airline profit pressure, the airlines don’t seem capable of caring for my family and my valuables.