I was on my first overseas assignment with the organisation I joined recently and I had to fly to San Francisco. I had the misfortune of getting on KLM Dutch airlines. My god this sucks big time.
What happened: I had taken a Jet airways flight from Chennai to Mumbai . From Mumbai I was supposed to catch this stupid flight to Amsterdam and then from there to SFO. It was in 2003 and there was this SARs epidemic and they didnt allow anybody to fly through Singapore. After I got down from Jet I had to lug my two huge suitcases all the way to International terminal ....no help or directions from the airlines whatsoever.
I had to check in ALL OVER again. At the check in counter it was goddamn mayhem. They said that the flight was overbooked (I have no clue what that means) and that they had no space in the cabins above the seats so you need to check in even your hand baggage. There was this KLM staff who was going around offering 100 euros to any dude who was willing to postpone his flight. I was pissed about the fact that I had to check in my hand baggage. I fought hard first but they offered all kinds of stupid explainations. There was an old couple who had some important medicines in their hand baggage and still these idiots did not relent.
When people asked how to carry essential stuffs like passports and documents etc. they started giving people some flimsy polythene bags. Good for nothing unprofessional louts. I got enraged by all this and raised my voice and demanded to meet the manager. It was utter chaos. The India to Amsterdam leg was really pathetic. The seats had no legroom. The food was a pathetic excuse for a meal. The air hostesses were really rude. I really missed the inflight attention and the comfort of Singapore airlines. Singapore Airlines seemed a swan compared to this crow.
After getting down at Amsterdam the chaos continued adding to the woes of the passengers. The flight to San Francisco was delayed (no apologies or explainations offered) and there was no decent lounge to keep the passenges and we were just roaming around. The announcements were mostly in Dutch and they were like, to hell with people who do not understand dutch. Around after 6 hours of wait (according to schedule it was supposed to be 2 hours of wait, even Indian Railways was better anyday ) , we were shown the boarding hall for the flight.
The boarding process was equally tortous with announcement flying around in Dutch and I was just left guessing the instructions.
Finally after this mental torture we reached SFO and I vowed never to fly KLM again. I would rather take my hand built raft and sail to any overseas destination.
-the King