KLM: No Food for a Blind Passenger for Four Hours

Here is a complaint about KLM service. I wrote this complaint about my negative experience in a KLM international flight. I was not sure who to contact for this complaint. KLM has a mechanism to submit complaints online, but I tried for three days repeatedly. After typing all the information I would always get the error, “Please check the data you supplied.” I contacted Delta’s disability assistance service where a supervisor Ms. Regina gave me an email id that she said she always uses. It was Klmcares.klm.nl I emailed them only to be told that they were not the right department for this complaint. I requested them to forward the complaint to appropriate department, they emailed back saying something to the effect that they can’t do that. I have registered this complaint on Delta’s website. I am posting this complaint here as well. Hopefully KLM will some day read this and take the corrective action. Dear sir/madam. I am a frequent flier, regularly flying internationally on Delta and other partner airlines. My SkyMiles number is: 9207519647 I have a complaint regarding my experience in an international KLM flight I took from Delhi, India (DEL) to Amsterdam, Netherlands (AMS.) The final destination of this trip was Orlando, Florida, USA. Here are some details about this flight: Flight number DL 9438 Departed: 05/08/2013 @ 3:20 AM Arrived 05/08/2013 @ 8:25 AM *operated by KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines I am totally blind but I travel a lot. I have already achieved silver medallion status with Delta. I often face problems on the airports but I never encountered such a trouble in side a flight before. Apparently, the person in charge of the area where I was seated did not have much idea how to deal with a blind person. I could not complain about it before as I got very sick after reaching the US. Now that I am better, I thought of approaching you with this issue so that blind passengers, such as me, do not feel mentally harassed in future. I spent about four days trying to submit this complaint on KLM website but repeatedly I got the message asking me to check my data. I was not shown any specific issue with the information I submitted. Now I will come to the specifics of my issue, which is the shabby in flight service in case of a blind passenger. When I travel, the first thing I find after being seated in other flights is security information. An attendant comes and informs about emergency exits, lavatories and the bell to call for assistance. Since it is repetitive in nature and I travel a lot, I don’t care much about it. But I definitely care for a call bell, so that I can ring for assistance in case of emergency. But no attendant came to me after I got seated so I neither got to know about emergency exits and lavatories, nor about the calling bell. In most of the flights the attendants help blind people with these things, in addition to that they also help the blind passengers with the in flight entertainment. But nothing happened in this particular flight. Even though the absence of this assistance made the trip boring, it did not make it unbearable. But at the time when the lunch was served, the attendant walked past me without offering me my share of food. I tried to call her but she did not listen. The passenger sitting next to me had gone off to the rest room and I understand she was not interested in food. I definitely was. This made me very depressed. I assumed that the attendant serving food would come back after serving lunch to other passengers but I was wrong. I still did not know where the button to ring the bell was. After half an hour I had to ask my fellow passenger who told me where the bell was. But nobody came to me even after repeated ringing of the bell. About two hours after the lunch was served to everyone interested except me, the attendants returned with something else to serve. This time I managed to draw her attention. She pretended to be surprised when I told her that I was not offered lunch. Then she reasoned that because I was asleep she did not offer me food. When I clarified that I was not asleep at that time. She remembered that my fellow passenger was not there on her seat at that time. I found it strange that I will get food only if there is a passenger next to my seat. The attendant then offered to get me something to eat after she was done with what she was doing at that time. Finally, I got my lunch more than three hours after everyone else in the flight had eaten. I found it discriminatory. I was given such a shabby treatment even though I had indicated at the time of the booking that I am blind and would require assistance. What happened to me was against the International norms and treaties on civil aviation. The idea of Going to court also crossed my mind but there is not much point before I let you investigate the matter and resolve it to my satisfaction. Going to courts is not an ideal solution, as the courts can award compensation but they cannot ensure a better treatment for the people with disabilities. KLM supervisors can try to train their attendants how to attend to the needs of a disabled passenger. You are requested to investigate this matter and do the needful.