Three Cheers For Orbitz: KLM Airlines Can Go Rot In Perdition Eternally

OS got to spend his Saturday putting out a major fire started by one incompetent gate agent in a small airport in the UK.

It's a long story, too long to tell today. But, it will be told. He plans to begin by telling his story to KLM. If they don't respond appropriately, he'll be telling it in more public forums.

That one incompetent gate agent, by mistakenly denying one passenger a boarding pass, came within inches of blowing up a year's worth of work, and the sacrifices of many families on behalf of their children.

Let us remember, KLM are the folks who allowed the Christmas Day Bomber, traveling one-way from Africa, on a dodgy passport, all tickets paid in cash, to board a plane to Chicago, and come within minutes of killing hundreds of people.

So, we can conclude that KLM policy is: If you're young, Muslim, male and dodgy, you get a boarding pass. If you are female, Christian, middle-aged and respectable, then screw you, lady.

KLM, in short, sucks. And OS, so long as his lungs exchange oxygen, will never ever willingly put a dollar in their pockets. He's had enough bad experiences with them over the years, capped off by this nightmare, to be totally cured of ever booking travel with them again.

Orbitz, on the other hand, through whom the ticket was booked, did yeoman service in straightening out a mess they had no hand in creating. Ditto for Delta, who worked with Orbitz to clean up after the gate agent dropped her pantload on us all.

For today, that's all OS can do. In about ten days time, he'll have time to make KLM his hobby. He'll go through channels first before he goes public. Today, though, he had an epiphany: It is impossible to do business in a business environment that allows one gate agent to hold the entire enterprise hostage.

But, in the meantime, to all his readers around the world: Learn from OS's experience as you consider your next foray into air travel.

Don't get screwed like he was screwed today.