We are way on time at the checkin desk at Schiphol, Amsterdam. A friendly stewardess tries to help us, but without luck. She urges us to go to desk number 16…
We head over to the amusement park line, but there’s little to amuse. Slowly we shamble closer and closer with our bags and bicycles. “Sorry, but I can’t give you any boarding passes. Your flight is overbooked.” Owkeeee…, but, we payed for it? “Sorry, KLM overbooking policy. You and 13 other passangers can’t get on this flight.” Oh, well, we’re not alone, that makes it easier.., NOT! “I suggest you go to the gate and wait there for a boarding pass, you never know, there’s always a chance!” What to do? We sigh and head to the gate for more info and a bit of luck.
It’s 14:20 and in 10 minutes the gate will close, the plain will take off and we are still in Amsterdam. The waiting room is nearly empty now and we start to get a bit nervous. “Last call: KL0677 to Calgary is boarding now!” Yeah, but without us! Then we hear our names through the speakers. We jump up and run to the desk.. oh, a red light starts to flash, we have to go back to the desk again with our recently acquired boarding passes. A child has been moved to sit next to its mother.., well, is that my problem? Uh, yes, we have to travel apart. I’m thinking, let the child be alone, gives the mother some peace too. But no, again.. policy! Sigh, at least we can fly today.
Once we are in the plain a nice gentleman is prepared to change seats, so after all we can sit next to each other. It looks like the Dutch TVM Ice Skating team also were victims of this KLM Overbooking policy; Sven Kramer, Simon Kuipers, Ireen Wust en Voorthuis are flying economy. And after 8,5 hours we come to the conclusion that ice skaters have huge asses, that Voorthuis is an Apple fan and that Kramer is not as tall as he looks on tv! Together with them we wait for our bicycles and Simon Kuipers has a little talk with us and wishes us a great bicycle trip in Canada. Friendly!