Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles - Booking JFK - Asia (HKG or NRT) Comfort with stopover

Is it just me or that there seems to be problem booking Comfort Class RT online to Asia if you want to stay at IST for 2 nights?

For example, I tried booking JFK-IST-HKG (or NRT) RT, it works perfectly. However, if I want to stay in IST and make a multi-city booking, for some reasons, all segments become Economy. In reality, the only difference is IST-HKG segment leaves 2 days later. Is there a fix/way to get around this online or I need to call reservation line? If this can only be done over the phone, will the fares be a lot higher? Currently they (Comfort RT) range between $1500 to $2200 if you don't travel during peak period.

If the fare allows rebooking and stopovers without penalty (so check the fare rules, pls) I would make the booking on TK web-page and then call TK to change the flights to add a stopover. If you are looking at CC it is very likley that rebooking and stopovers are permitted without costs, but you need to check that.

Do not book on Expedia or other third party web-page if you expect to change the flights with TK afterwards. TK will not touch your booking until after 1st segment has been flown unless booked by TK (call center or web-page)

SK AAR, thanks, actually I just figured this out too. If all of the segments are Comfort Class (A, O, or U), this is the fare rule quoted from TK's website - "! Rebooking/Rerouting is permitted without any charge and refundable".

However, suppose all of your segments are A and when you make a change of a segment and it's only available in O or U (O is still a good value BTW) at the time of requested change, I presume you'll also need to pay the fare difference. If anyone has done this before and come across such situation, perhaps you can clarify and confirm.

You're correct that one should not use third party booking sites (I never do for international flights, either airlines' own or local travel agencies), some mentioned Expedia but I've found there're not keen to offer TK fares even when they're available from TK's website. Vayama and CheapOair do but I wouldn't try it with possibilities of having to change dates and/or during peak periods (missed connections, bumped reservations, etc).

However, suppose all of your segments are A and when you make a change of a segment and it's only available in O or U (O is still a good value BTW) at the time of requested change, I presume you'll also need to pay the fare difference.

Yes, you need to pay the fare difference (for the entire inbound or outbound journey) and it complicates the flight change (do bear in mind that you will be dealing with TK agents with often very poor English), so you need to check in advance that the flight has A class availabilty on your desired date. If you do not have access to Expertflyer.com flightstats.com is your friend...

Another change of date scenario and I would appreciate feedback from fellow M&S members. If my ticket is a simple JFK-IST-JFK, Comfort A both outbound and return, and I want to change the return segment to a different date.

At the time of request of change at ticket office (I gave up on call center), suppose return segment has A fare available, do both outbound and return have to have A fare bucket available even though I'm only changing the return segment? This way they won't have to change to fare class O for the whole ticket.

Thanks again for the feedback.

edit: actually I found the answer from fare note during dummy booking (Comfort Restricted A) - both segments will be re-validated at the time of change so it will be change fee + fare difference. In this case, would I be better off just flying the outbound as it is and request change after first segment while in Turkey? From the verbiage below (italic) it seems like after flying first segment I'll just need to pay the change fee as it will be based on the fare at the original ticket date, rather than change fee + fare difference right now.

I know my intended return date will have a lot of seats left, I did it last year on the same date and it was only half full. No wonder TK has no choice but to remove CC as it's usually half-full during middle of the week, although I'm still sad to see it gone.


CHANGES
ANY TIME
CHARGE EUR 150.00 FOR REISSUE/REVALIDATION.
NOTE -
A-BEFORE DEPARTURE-
ITINERARY MUST BE RE-PRICED USING CURRENT FARES
IN EFFECT ON THE DATE THE TICKET IS REISSUED
THE ITINERARY MUST MEET ALL RULE PROVISIONS OF
THE NEWLY TICKETED FARE INCLUDING ADVANCE
RESERVATION

B-AFTER DEPARTURE-
THE ITINERARY MUST BE RE-PRICED USING HISTORICAL
FARES IN EFFECT ON THE ORIGINAL TICKETING DATE.
THE NEW ITINERARY MUST MEET ALL THE RULE
PROVISIONS OF THE NEWLY TICKETED FARES SUCH THAT
THE RECALCULATED FARE COULD HAVE BEEN USED FOR
THE NEW ITINERARY IF PURCHASED ON THE ORIGINAL
TICKET ISSUE DATE

Do it in IST after the first flight. Your assumptions are correct.