The rudest airport staff I ever encountered was at Schiphol in Amsterdam. I was moving to Sweden and flying KLM from Los Angeles-Amsterdam-Stockholm. I brought my cat with me from the US and they lost her at the airport. This was when she was supposed to be taken to the vet facility that they have there at the airport. I paid extra for this service. After waiting and worrying for 5 hours they finally found her in the lost cargo garage that they have. This was in late June! She hadn't been fed, given water, or allowed to use a liter tray. I asked to see her but they refused stating that I needed to get onto the next plane to Stockholm. Then they had the nerve to try to have me pay extra money since I had missed my earlier flight because of waiting to find my cat! When my cat and I (she had to ride cargo) finally arrived in Stockholm she had no fur left on her nose, only blood because she had clearly tried to scratch her way out of her carrier. She also was covered in her filth of feces and urine. She stunk and was dehydrated and hungry. She had been in that carrier for over 24 hours at that point because there was a delay at LAX airport, and then when I had "missed" my flight from Amsterdam I had to be routed to Copenhagen with a 2 hour wait and then onto Stockholm. I wasn't able to see her during any of this time. When I finally saw her I cried so hard and it took everything in my power for me to not yell at the staff (though the Stockholm staff had nothing to do with it). Instead I sucked it up and later wrote a letter to KLM at Schiphol stating my and my cat's experience. I never even got an apology, in fact I never heard anything. The Schiphol staff claimed that she went missing because there were no tags or papers on her carrier. Ironically the staff in Stockholm said that they did not understand this since it was the first thing that they noticed on her carrier. I had laminated papers that were duct taped to three sides of the carrier. I also attached a food baggy to the side so that she would have her food at the vet facility. Apparently that was a huge waste, in the end I paid $150 extra for services for her that she never received. And what's worse in that they didn't seem to care at all.
Edited to add: I chose KLM based on their great track record of transporting pets. I researched it at length before moving and finally chose them because of this. I didn't even live in Los Angeles, I lived in San Diego but because KLM doesn't fly from there my father drove me and my cat to LAX so that we could fly on this wonderful airline that would treat my cat well. I still get tears in my eyes when I remember seeing her after the ordeal.
Needless to say I will never fly KLM again. Because of that it is also unlikely that I will go to Schiphol either. I realize that it is a lovely airport but I am still so angry over their negligence and refusal to accept any responsibility that it makes me bitter. I'm sorry for the rant I usually don't do this.
