Turkish Airlines

[babysteps]

1 hour ago, SATaxman said:

Thank you for the response. As I said, I was not aware that "confirm" meant change. I did it to hold until I could speak with a second person, since the first person asked my 7 times if I wanted to cancel, did not understand that I wanted to change, and then he hung up. When I dialed again, the recording said there would be a 35 minute wait. I was scared that he would cancel it before  I spoke to another person. The reasons I gave were pretty urgent, not frivolous. Most companies do have the ability to grant exceptions. We were willing to pay, by day 14; however, did not want to risk losing the first flights which had not been changed by Turkish, but would be cancelled to make the change on the back half.

@SATaxman yes this is very frustrating. I apologize, I wasn't trying to blame you. Sadly I suspect the airline doesn't care if your reasons are legit or not, they can just say "no". Airlines today rarely grant exceptions even for their super-best customers, but if you can make that happen go for it!

 

I would suggest you consider having a plan of how you will deal with the itinerary and/or the seats in case an exception isn't granted. From what little I know of the details, I'd be very surprised - pleasantly very surprised - if an exception is granted.

[SATaxman]

On 10/2/2023 at 11:08 AM, babysteps said:

@SATaxman yes this is very frustrating. I apologize, I wasn't trying to blame you. Sadly I suspect the airline doesn't care if your reasons are legit or not, they can just say "no". Airlines today rarely grant exceptions even for their super-best customers, but if you can make that happen go for it!

 

I would suggest you consider having a plan of how you will deal with the itinerary and/or the seats in case an exception isn't granted. From what little I know of the details, I'd be very surprised - pleasantly very surprised - if an exception is granted.

Update.

Although Turkish Airlines believes that I confirmed the change they sent us on September 15, I realized yesterday that I have not received an email with my "new" itinerary with seat assignment. Spoke with a manager in the ticketing department. She sent 8 e-mails, one for each of us for each of the 4 legs. All in Turkish! Did not show seat assignments. She checked and gave me the seat numbers. All window, all together. She asked several people in her department and none had any idea how to send me the info in English. When I booked originally in June, on my computer, all by myself, I received a confirmation e-mail, in English with all of this information. Crazy!

[EJL2023]

1 hour ago, SATaxman said:

Update.

Although Turkish Airlines believes that I confirmed the change they sent us on September 15, I realized yesterday that I have not received an email with my "new" itinerary with seat assignment. Spoke with a manager in the ticketing department. She sent 8 e-mails, one for each of us for each of the 4 legs. All in Turkish! Did not show seat assignments. She checked and gave me the seat numbers. All window, all together. She asked several people in her department and none had any idea how to send me the info in English. When I booked originally in June, on my computer, all by myself, I received a confirmation e-mail, in English with all of this information. Crazy!

Sooo……..you are good now?

[SATaxman]

Just now, EJL2023 said:

Sooo……..you are good now?

Still unhappy, not enough to spend thousands of dollars. Worked out one of the reasons we had to be home earlier that day. Still makes no sense why we did not receive email with our new itinerary 2 weeks ago. And why I now have 16 pages of Turkish info.

[PhD-iva]

I’m sorry you’ve gone through this experience and I hope things are getting worked out to your satisfaction. Moral to this saga (IMO). Avoid Turkish Airlines!

While I hear good things about their bizclass experience and their nice biz lounge in Istanbul, the weight of all other comments are Scary/Unsatisfied. 
Unfortunately for me, I am booking a cruise embarking in Istanbul, and I have always used the cruise air. Guess I’ll be paying a deviation fee to secure a better airline than Turkish Air.

[babydrum]

I am currently holding business class tickets for Turkish Airlines.  It's my first time flying with them and I am looking forward to their long-haul inflight service.  I purposely booked a 22 hour lay-over on one end and a 9 hour layover on the other so that I can hang out in Istanbul  and see some of the sites.  I couldn't figure out how to get a multi-day layover without paying extra.  Anyway, I had the option to hold for 3 days for $90, 7 days for $130 or 15 days for $200.  All holding fees would be added to the cost of the ticket so it won't really cost me anything. 

 

Is there anyway you could do a mock booking and hold for 3 days to see if you find something you prefer, then cancel your existing booking and keep the new booking?  I know at one point, I was able to select the available seats and then hold at the end.  I'm not sure what I'd do if they extended or shortened my layover.  I don't think the cancellation fees were that high for business semi-flex.  

[SATaxman]

We have flown Turkish Airlines before. Enjoyed the experience. Love the lounge in Istanbul, and the food is pretty good. Love that the Business Class seats are next to each other and parallel. This aggravation may be partly due to my impatience. Unfortunately, our 19 hour layover starts at 7 at night. Not much time to safely explore the city.

[halfapair]

2 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

I’m sorry you’ve gone through this experience and I hope things are getting worked out to your satisfaction. Moral to this saga (IMO). Avoid Turkish Airlines!

While I hear good things about their bizclass experience and their nice biz lounge in Istanbul, the weight of all other comments are Scary/Unsatisfied. 
Unfortunately for me, I am booking a cruise embarking in Istanbul, and I have always used the cruise air. Guess I’ll be paying a deviation fee to secure a better airline than Turkish Air.

This is one person's experience, and it sounds complicated.

 

I have an O cruise in 2024 from Israel to Istanbul, and just booked our tickets on Turkish Airlines, open jaw SEA - TLV (via IST), and IST - SEA. Our tickets come with the ability to change them once, with a fee.

 

Caveat Emptor

[SATaxman]

1 hour ago, halfapair said:

This is one person's experience, and it sounds complicated.

 

I have an O cruise in 2024 from Israel to Istanbul, and just booked our tickets on Turkish Airlines, open jaw SEA - TLV (via IST), and IST - SEA. Our tickets come with the ability to change them once, with a fee.

 

Caveat Emptor

We will definitely fly Turkish air again in the future. This was just terribly confusing with them changing our tickets one way 3 weeks in advance and not being able to only chage the whole ticket for free, not just the changed part. We enjoy the food, the seats and the club. Still have no idea why the original ticket that I booked myself online had a confirmation email in English, with seat assignments and the changed one TA made was all in Turkish, and I had to request it multiple times.

[halfapair]

I think the lesson here is that when you get email notifications from airlines that your flights/itineraries have changed, and they want you to click a button to accept it, read it very carefully. Unless the change is minor (a few minutes here & there), I don't click that button.

 

There have been occasions where I have called and canceled the whole reservation (if the change is major you can do this) and started over. One time an airlines was going to have us do a layover in Detroit on Christmas Day. No, thank you. I got us on a Delta flight routed through CDG (in retrospect, I'm not sure that was the better choice). But it all worked out.

 

Moral of the story: When you get an email notice from your airline, be wary of clicking on links/buttons to accept changes made by them on your behalf. It's probably in your best interest to call Customer Service and talk to someone directly.

[SATaxman]

10 minutes ago, halfapair said:

I think the lesson here is that when you get email notifications from airlines that your flights/itineraries have changed, and they want you to click a button to accept it, read it very carefully. Unless the change is minor (a few minutes here & there), I don't click that button.

 

There have been occasions where I have called and canceled the whole reservation (if the change is major you can do this) and started over. One time an airlines was going to have us do a layover in Detroit on Christmas Day. No, thank you. I got us on a Delta flight routed through CDG (in retrospect, I'm not sure that was the better choice). But it all worked out.

 

Moral of the story: When you get an email notice from your airline, be wary of clicking on links/buttons to accept changes made by them on your behalf. It's probably in your best interest to call Customer Service and talk to someone directly.

Thank you. I did call before doing anything. The customer service person hung up on me, and did not answer my questions. He kept repeating "do you want to cancel this flight?" 7 times. I tried calling back and there was a 35 minute wait. I thought I was holding the first part of my ticket, which did not change, while I was waiting for someone to answer the phone. What I do not understand is a business who can have dozens of nice, sympathetic people, not be able to make an exception, when one of their employees mishandles this situation. Also why I now have 16 pages of ticket info all in Turkish.

[SATaxman]

Update: because of the 19 hour layover, and the situation in the Middle East , we booked one way home on Delta One and received a refund from our credit card company. Thank you to those who supported our concerns. We just received a $200 certificate to use on our next O cruise.

[osandomir]

7 minutes ago, SATaxman said:

Update: because of the 19 hour layover, and the situation in the Middle East , we booked one way home on Delta One and received a refund from our credit card company. Thank you to those who supported our concerns. We just received a $200 certificate to use on our next O cruise.

What was the refund for? Was it from the Turkish airline or from your credit card dispute?

[SATaxman]

The changed itinerary on the return trip and 2 weeks of phonecall transcripts and recordings trying to change the flight.

[Hlitner]

Would just add our own experience, with Turkish Air Biz Class, from Dulles to Athens (via Istanbul) which was all very good.  In fact, it was one of the better Biz Class experiences we have had on international flights.  

 

Hank

[SATaxman]

Just now, Hlitner said:

Would just add our own experience, with Turkish Air Biz Class, from Dulles to Athens (via Istanbul) which was all very good.  In fact, it was one of the better Biz Class experiences we have had on international flights.  

 

Hank

We love Turkish Air. Have flown to Israel several times. 2 weeks before our trip they changed our return flight to a 19 hour layover. Lots of back and forth. We were not comfortable leaving to airport to go to a hotel they were going to provide. Health reasons, protests, just general inconvenience.  I am sure our card company will try to recoup the $$. 9 hours rome to jfk. Much less stressful during a very stressful time for our family.

[Hlitner]

4 minutes ago, SATaxman said:

We love Turkish Air. Have flown to Israel several times. 2 weeks before our trip they changed our return flight to a 19 hour layover. Lots of back and forth. We were not comfortable leaving to airport to go to a hotel they were going to provide. Health reasons, protests, just general inconvenience.  I am sure our card company will try to recoup the $$. 9 hours rome to jfk. Much less stressful during a very stressful time for our family.

That is a bummer, and all too common.  In fact, we have a simple Delta flight to PVR which had a perfect 90 min lay-over in Atl.  Delta changed it to a 3 1/2 hour layover!  We have also had AA and UAL flights with major changes.  In fact AA changed a connecting flight so that our first flight arrived (at the change airport) about an hour AFTER our connecting flight was scheduled to depart.  When I called AA their reaction was "we have software problems."   With Turkish Air we only use them to fly to or via Istanbul (connections there are usually pretty good).  Interesting thing with them is that, with Biz Class, and flying through Istanbul, you can usually get a 2 day stop-over where they put you up in a 5* Hotel (free).  Pretty good deal if one wants to spend some time in Istanbul.

 

With your 19 hour lay-over, we would have cancelled the flight and booked with someone else.   These days, airline schedules are "advisory" more then real.  I cannot recall the last time we booked a flight that did not have at least one change!  

[SATaxman]

4 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

That is a bummer, and all too common.  In fact, we have a simple Delta flight to PVR which had a perfect 90 min lay-over in Atl.  Delta changed it to a 3 1/2 hour layover!  We have also had AA and UAL flights with major changes.  In fact AA changed a connecting flight so that our first flight arrived (at the change airport) about an hour AFTER our connecting flight was scheduled to depart.  When I called AA their reaction was "we have software problems."   With Turkish Air we only use them to fly to or via Istanbul (connections there are usually pretty good).  Interesting thing with them is that, with Biz Class, and flying through Istanbul, you can usually get a 2 day stop-over where they put you up in a 5* Hotel (free).  Pretty good deal if one wants to spend some time in Istanbul.

 

With your 19 hour lay-over, we would have cancelled the flight and booked with someone else.   These days, airline schedules are "advisory" more then real.  I cannot recall the last time we booked a flight that did not have at least one change!  

I could not figure out how to cancel the return flight or I would have done that. Arriving at 7 pm ND leaving for jfk at 2 the next after oin was unacceptable.