KLM royal Dutch airlines

[AnchorWHAT]

Am i being unreasonable to think KLM are a disgrace? I have only travelled twice with them, the first they lost my bag on the way home ( fortunately) it did turn up a few days later but this time i landed in Georgetown Guyana to no bag, 3 days later no word from them. My travel rep spoke to someone who just said they don't know where it is, i have tried all methods to contact but online it wont do anything without a-claim code which they didn't give me, i cant fill in a lost baggage form online because it says already reported, the whatsapp contact the website gives says not on whatsapp, facebook messenger is an ai bot, online chat not available and everything takes me round in circles because i haven't got a claim code. Just emailed the baggage folk but no response yet. I picked up a couple of tops, trousers undies and sox but no where near enough for the 26 day trip i am on as i was hoping my bag was going to show up on the saturday eve flight, it didn't. It was too late by then to go and buy more plus a bag to put them in also I'm on a budget here.
To make things worse, today i had to leave the city for 16 day trekking holiday in hot jungle i have no access to any shops and have exactly 4 of everything but not suitable stuff for trekking, i have thin wide legged trousers two unsuitable blouses and two t-shirts. I could cry as i think about my nice new walking trousers and carefully chosen clothes to be practical enough for hike and nice enough to wear for casual dining in the lodges which are very rustic so no shopping facilities or niceties like toiletries provided.
i have no hair or face products except a basic moisturiser, deodorant and small hotel shampoo, i keep picturing my toilet bag with my usual lotions and potions, not to mention my tweezers and hand mirror, curl band and waterproof jacket. The osprey bag alone would be expensive to buy again and everything else would cost a fortune to replace its ruining my enjoyment as all i can think about is my missing stuff, some of my old favourites were in that bag too ☹️
i am not here looking for advice ( unless you work for KLM lost baggage dept) i just needed to vent my disgust at the lack of help and communication from KLM. In todays technology how is it possible to lose bags, i was not the only one in fact several peple there had lost bags and said it was not the first time. Come on KLM how can you keep letting this happen surely it is time for an investigation as to why its happening at all and better systems to stop it happening again should be in place!
if you have read this far thank you for letting me rant. I know this is aibu but i am upset enough so can do without the nasty folk out there coming on the bitch at me, and yes, i should have had an air tag or whatever they are but i am not fully up to speed on technological advances so never thought i needed one.
wifi is intermittent here too so replies may be sparse if any are required. Thanks for listening 🥹

Very sorry to hear this! Appreciate the practical difficulties, but if there is any opportunity to replace any of the missing items, however imperfectly, do seize the chance, and charge it back to KLM afterwards. I have previously experienced the total inability to actually contact KLM, so can sympathise to a limited extent. Hope you have a great trekking holiday regardless!

Thank you. Sadly not as i flew into interior Guyana early today and there are literally no shops here, just the lodge, the biggest town is no where near either. I bought some trousers cheaply in the market in Georgetown on friday assuming that because they said the next flight in from Amsterdam was coming in on sat eve that i wouldn't need too much. To get anything from KLM i will have to claim and submit receipts which i don't have because i bought from the market. I really didn't want to spend lots on stuff that i don't have the budget for nor do i need back home. The trousers i got are nice for what i would do at home or for evening here but they are not the greatest for the rainforest. I am trying to be upbeat about washing things out every day so i have slightly fresher stuff daily ( its hot and sticky here ) but i have no where near enough for 26 days. Sorry you too have experience lack of contacts for KLM too, they need to sort that out too. If the bag doesn't show up somewhere they don't declare it lost until 21 days missing in action so even if i had a claim reference number i cant claim for the bag and contents until after that. Mind you if by some miracle it was found there will be little chance of them getting it to me until a couple of days before i return which is madness. Unless they fancy shipping it as freight to one of the planned lodges and paying excess baggage fees as the allowance is much less than the international limit. The plan was to leave big bag at the hotel in Georgetown and i had packed a soft bag to bring here with the lower limit. All carefully packed into a separate packing cube to bring 🥹
i am sure i can snap out of my melancholy and enjoy but i am going to be the oddest dressed participant looking horrid with bushy brows greying parting ( my cover spray was in there) dry frizzy hair and face, gosh i feel a mess. Teeth already feel wrong without my electric brush which yes, you've guessed it, was in the bag too. I had to resort to bringing my meagre stuff over on the flight in a tied up bin bag 😮

I love KLM

Actually, now I think of it, the only time over hundreds of flights that I have had a bag go missing was when I flew KLM to Amsterdam.

The actual flight was ok, food a bit bland, not a great selection of films staff were nice, but their customer service outside that is shameful. I can only assume you were one of the lucky ones who sailed through to collect your luggage off the rack. You may not be as fond if you found yourself on a long trip with none of your lovely stuff from home 😟

I appreciate this may not help much, but when my bag didn’t make it to (much less exotic) Newquay, my travel insurance gave me £500 to buy what I needed. Even if you can’t get everything in your current location, at least it would help the money worries over what you can get.

Other than that, I’d probably start haranguing them on SM. And get an AirTag for next time.

I’ve been trying to contact KLM for almost a month now as I didn’t get any of my pre-booked and paid for seats. They just don’t answer the phone or reply to WhatsApp’s and emails just bounce.

My luggage also didn’t make the connection in Amsterdam but fortunately it was on the way home and, to be fair to them, they couriered it back to me the next day.

Sorry you're having problems but I too love KLM. I have a beautiful collection of miniature blue Delft pottery houses that I've collected over the years from all the (problem -free) flights I've taken.

Shocking customer service has been my recent experience with KLM this month too. Trying to return from a Christmas break and absolute chaos at Schiphol. Weather and cancellations happen, that’s fair enough, but the lack and confusion of communication was appalling. I was actually shocked our bags did appear at the end as it felt like everything else went wrong. You aren’t wrong OP and I hope you can still enjoy your trip which sounds amazing. If you used their WhatsApp ‘live’ chat you might get a response in around 72hours. Don’t ever expect anyone to pick up a phone.

This just came up on my Reddit feed, (been seeing a lot of KLM stuff after trying to get answers when I was disrupted) did you change at Miami? https://www.reddit.com/r/KLM/s/FLhosn08lU

I travel loads and the only time my bag has gone missing was when I used KLM

Sorry to hear about your experience! I love KLM, but I've never had an issue with luggage arriving.

I mostly just like that you get a free snack on every flight!

Interesting, flew from Bristol to Amsterdam then connected to Georgetown

Update
my bag is not lost, yippee, it has turned up on Tuesday's flight and tour operator tells me they will fly it out to me tomorrow morning. Cant wait 😀 next will be the hassle of navigating how to get it on our flight back to the City as it will be way over the internal flight allowance. Hopefully we can pay excess and be done.
the fun will start on return getting reimbursed for things bought so far. Wonder if KLM pay compensation for distress caused 🙄

I've flown KLM many times and never had any problems - them and BA would always be my preferred options (and Lufthansa but not an option from my nearest airports).

Best flight I was ever on was KLM to New York and the attendant looked like a stereotypical 'Helga' type from a beer hall (not unlike Kim Woodburn) and she was coming round roughly every half hour offering people various different drinks. I remember the plane was in darkness with most people sleeping and her face peering round the corner to us and going "Baileys?!" in a thick Dutch accent whilst waving a bottle of Baileys in our face! Of course we said yes...

Your travel insurance will also help with advice about your claim do contact them also

We lost our bags with BA once, many years ago. It took 6 days to get them back. Half a day wasted travelling back to airport to retrieve the bags. We flew home on day 7!

Sounds like the perfect flight.
I Have no issue with the actual flight or cabin crew, all were lovely. Just the week i have had to spend with no baggage.
i have only travelled KLM twice and first time they left my bag in Paris as i connected back to uk, at least that was on the way home and customer service on that occasion was good, it was couriered to my home. My issue and that of others responding is the total lack of any contact or information apart from one e mail as I landed telling me my luggage was delayed which as i had no data i didn't get until i logged into hotel wifi. Heard nothing from them since.

Thank you, I will investigate insurance but do feel KLM should take resonsibility too.

Nothing to add re KLM (I hope you get some compensation!), but I would love to hear more about you trip to Guyana when you get a chance. My parents are from there and I really want to go one day!

I know it doesn't help for long trips like yours, but I'd try to pack as much as possible into hand luggage. Its then garanteed to never get lost.
We were lucky with KLM flying us to Norway last year, although our first flight from Manchester to Amsterdam was rather a fast landing and it was a good thing I was a confident flyer. So for us it wasn't lost luggage, but a pilot that went a bit fast.

Yes we plan to pack lighter next trip and take hand luggage, or for longer trips put a packing cube of my clothes in DH bag and vice versa plus invest in a tracker.

KLM are the worst. They've messed up every flight Ive ever been on, made me incur vast extra charges buying new flights from other airlines due to their own incompetence, and even nearly lost my unaccompanied child.

And you cannot contact them. For any reason.

So far 7 days into the 26 day trip we have been to Georgetown which was very busy, I was a bit nervous about safety but to be honest we had a guide and everyone was really friendly. Did a market tour with a chef and back to the backyard cafe for lunch he cooked from ingredients we just bought. He is quite well know apparently on you tube / insta and made a programme with Gordon Ramsey.
wilderness explorers (thank you Shonnette) and a great travel company called rainbow ( thank you Jake) arranged the itinerary which gives us guides both in the city and interior. We visited the national park in Georgetown and fed the manatees which reside in a small lake there, a city tour to see and hear about the history, the natural world museum and a night out on the sea front full of stalls for food and drinks, busy and loud with reggae music, right up my street! A day trip to kaietuer falls was fun on a tiny plane and stunning view of the waterfall.
The interior is our birdwatching bit so staying in fairly rustic but very nice lodges and going into the rainforest birding every day, night drives looking for wildlife and night birds and the iwokrama canopy walk early morning. We have seen lots of birds and monkeys so far, more to come at 5 more lodges. River trips all been exciting and more of them to come too. Hoping to see giant anteater near one of them.
The trip finishes with 4 nights in Suriname with a plantation visit and a stay in pepper pot nature park and 2 nights in the capital city.
its such a beautiful country, not well developed for tourism yet but it is nice to be here before it gets too commercial. Loving it all, food is lush, and I am really enjoying talking to the guides and staff at the lodges with their sing song creole accents.
if you parents are still around tell them they have a beautiful home country.

It all sounds amazing!
I will let DM know. She always talks about her childhood (moved to the UK on her 20s), and the places she knew. Its definitely one of my bucket list to dos!

Glad it sounds like you're going to be reunited with your bags. My nephew flew with Delta (I think) which are owned by the same people who own KLM. He had a nightmare with his flight being overbooked, no other flights for 24 hours, no offer of vouchers for food/hotel etc. When he eventually got back to the UK, his luggage which has been on the previous flight, had gone missing. Anyway, I eventually managed to contact people in KLM by looking on LinkedIn I think it was. I can have a look to see if I still have the emails if you want them. They took ages to respond, but at least they did respond eventually!