Checked in online...follow the instructions on the screen to print your boarding cards, pay for extra luggage and select your seats.....easy?...no....I managed to print the boarding passes for Manchester to Paris.....trip to the airport...I explained my problem and was told to come back at check in.....No, I would like to know now how much our 5 extra bags are as I don’t want to be in for a surprise later.....
Well Christine from Air France was not the most helpful person even when I explained it’s a one way trip with husband and 2 kids and I could really do without the hassle later on......so home I went, repacked and checked the weight of our 9 suitcases, went to the post office, handed in a lost wallet at the police station, tidied the flat and hung around till 4pm.....
Taxi (small transit arrived) straight forward trip to the airport, three trolleys, no rows, off to Costa for coffee, no queue at check in....extra bags....£45 each, bit of a palaver as the girls tried to work out who to assign the additional cases too....1 extra case per person, no probs...but the 5th extra case £175....I hit the roof, well actually, I thanked the girls for their assistance and we took our 5 cases to the Air France desk to pay for them before they could go in the hold and hit the roof there.
I calmly explained to the woman that I had come to the airport this morning to sort this all out as I’d had the option of Peter’s company sending a case out for us, but the office was now shut. It was suggested I repacked in the airport, but as I explained still calmly ‘what would I do with the excess luggage?’ as 9 cases will not pack into 8 and 4 cases had already been sent off down the conveyor belt. The woman at the desk looked at me blankly, offered no suggestions other than keep repeating the company policy to me...so I cried and spoke fairly loudly to explain (again) this is the exact reason I came to the airport this morning to avoid this stress...we are on a one way trip and I don’t need the hassle...she picked up the phone, muttered something and put me onto the supervisor at KLM.
I repeated the whole saga, for the millionth time, she explained she wasn’t able to override the computer system, agreed that Christine on the desk this morning should’ve have been able to answer my questions and give me the information I requested and said the matter would be dealt with, she then provided me with the address to make a complaint, took £292 off us, which included a 20% discount that we would have received if the online service had been working....I snarled at the woman on the counter and off we went.
