Never again Air France/KLM – Not the Quality Spa Resort Hotel, Norefjell.
Thought for the day….” Have you ever thought that the word ‘politics’ comes from the Latin word ‘poli’ meaning ‘many’ and tics, which are blood sucking creatures?”
“Why does round pizza come in a square box?”.
Another airline on the ‘no-fly’ list, or rather, the AirFrance/KLM group. I cancelled some flights with them about 2 years ago, and whilst I knew that the ticket was non-refundable, the taxes were (because they had not been incurred). Yet try getting these unused taxes back from Air France (who are collecting the taxes in advance in anticipation that they will become payable WHEN you make the flights). Lots of useless replies from their so-called Customer Service, many unanswered emails and also wrong answers from them when they did reply. The matter dragged on and on, and eventually, a partial refund of the taxes was received, but even then AF took out an extra administration fee.
It should not be a difficult and frustrating matter to get unused taxes refunded, but with the KLM/AF group then it is. The poor customer ‘service’ from AF, their frequent wrong answers, and also their use of no reply email addresses just made the whole matter so frustrating. Life is too short to have problems like these, so based on my experience of AF/KLM ‘customer service’ then I will not be making any more bookings with them. Better to avoid problems in future, and I do not want another exercise in frustration, which is what dealing with AF/KLM turned out to be. And any airline that sends out emails to which you cannot reply should be avoided. Lesson learned !! Good customer service is important, except, apparently at AF/KLM. So by sending out emails that you cannot reply to, and by making the whole business of getting a refund of unused taxes so frustrating then they have lost all future custom. Why send out emails that you cannot reply to, especially when those emails come from the CUSTOMER SERVICE department? And why mess people around when refunding unused taxes should be quick an easy?? AF/KLM will not be seeing me onboard again.
An abstract photo today for a change. Some beachside railings on a promenade taken from an unusual angle, and then cropped to make it a little more unusual. See what you think.
ALL PHOTOS ON THIS SITE ARE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE.
http://www.qualitysparesort.com http://www.qualityresortnorefjell.com http://www.norefjellspa.com
New, looking old – Not the Quality Spa Resort Hotel, Norefjell.
Thought for the day….” Better to be a star rather than a spark. Sparks are for the moment, stars are for the future”.
“Talent is the key to success, but you have to find the door”.
Update on the story about the refund from Air France. I cancelled an air ticket with AF, and understood that the actual ticket was not refundable, as the conditions stated, but asked Air France to refund the taxes. Things like departure taxes had not been incurred, as I had not travelled, so I expected a refund of these. After many many emails to Air France, and to some very unhelpful customer ‘service’ departments, then finally I got a refund, minus a 20 euro ‘administration fee’. Still very unhappy with Air France because I had to write so many emails to them, but at least I have got most of the taxes back. So the moral of this story is that even if the airline says no in the beginning, then keep on at them as they ARE supposed to refund the taxes.
A new photo made to look old for today’s picture. The shot comes from the museum at Ballarat in Australia, and started off as a colour photo, then was converted to black & white and finally was given the sepia touch to make it look old. It was just a matter of waiting for the tourists to disappear out of the scene then an easy job to capture this scene, which could be from the 1800s but is actually quite recent.
jeritilley 