Star Alliance - Europe Airpass Tickets denied

I have an Austrian Passport (EU) and my partner has a Myanmar Passport. We both can proof that we are long year residents in Thailand (work permit, registered at embassy as residents in Thailand, utility address proof etc.).


We have purchased two business class flights with Turkish Airways from Bangkok to Vienna return.

We have planned through the Europe Airpass Planner a round trip around Europe. When we contacted several Thai travel agencies to issue coupons for the Europe Airpass we were informed that the Austrian Passport holder is not eligible for a Europe Airpass as he holds an EU passport. I dispute this as the rules of Star Alliance state:

The Airpass is available to residents of a country outside of Europe in connection with travel to/via Europe.

We contacted Turkish Airways directly who informed us that only the Myanmar Passport Holder is eligible for a Europe Airpass

Can anyone in this forum please enlighten us?

thanks

Strange. How about trying a different airline? From staralliance.com:

"Q: Whom do I contact to book a Star Alliance Europe Airpass Ticket?
A: You should contact one of the Star Alliance member airline reservation centres directly, your local travel agent or use the online Europe Airpass Calculator to create a valid itinerary of your desired trip. You may email it directly out of the tool to your preferred Star Alliance airline offering this service for availability check, calculation of the gross fare and reservation."

PS It's Turkish Airlines (not Airways) ;)

Turkish has a very good business class with flat beds and good food...Austrian Airlines quite old business. Dont mind the stopover as the Turkish Airline Lounge should be good what I heard

Just prepare the details of the airpass under this link and order it from the respective airline using the tool:

http://www.staralliance.com/en/booking/airpass-planner/#

Residency and citizenship have nothing to do with the airpass, all that matters is the arrival on a *A carrier from outside the region. I have purchased the scandinavian and europe airpass on tickets originating and issued in the US.

Now the difficult task is to convince the staff of Turkish Airlines in Bangkok that they are wrong. Living so many years in Thailand I am not surprised that their Thai staff has no clue about rules and regulations :-)

Now the difficult task is to convince the staff of Turkish Airlines in Bangkok that they are wrong. Living so many years in Thailand I am not surprised that their Thai staff has no clue about rules and regulations :-)

Why don't you buy the airpass from a different airline? I don't think there is a requirement that the airpass has to be on the ticket stock of the transcontinental carrier or on Thai?

Oliver,
does one need to have a return ticket from outside of Europe and back? Or is a one-way sufficient?

Thanks,
David

Why don't you buy the airpass from a different airline? I don't think there is a requirement that the airpass has to be on the ticket stock of the transcontinental carrier or on Thai?

That is definitely a possibility. My travel agent informed me that he will contact Lufthansa tomorrow. Let's see how that goes

Just wanted to update everyone.

My travel agent contacted today Lufthansa who confirmed that it is of course no problem to issue the coupons for the Europe Airpass. Turkish Airlines staff in Bangkok simply had no idea about the rules and regulation.

thanks

Unfortunately the whole story is not over. My travel agent who now confirmed that the coupons for the Europe Airpass can be issued told me that the price is far off from what the Europe Airpass Planner had calculated.

For TWO tickets the calculated price was 47.888 baht including taxes (approx. 1197 Euro - for 5 flights) but now the travel agent quoted a price of 88.000 baht including taxes for TWO tickets.

Can anyone please give some information why the prices of the Europe Airpass planner and the one from the travel agent are so different?

thanks

New Update: Our travel agency tried the whole day to book the coupons for the Europe Airpass but it seems that there is an error with the Europe Airpass Planner.

If the selection is made to fly with Turkish Airlines to Europe one gets redirected and informed to contact the Airline directly. Turkish Airlines still refuses to issue Airpass for EU passport holders even we complained that it is against the rules but it's Thailand.

If the selection is made to fly with Austrian Airlines, there seems to be a bug at the website as the website wants to fill in 3 Passanger Names (instead of 2 persons as chosen at the Flight Planner).

Still after hours of trying no success in getting the Europe Airpass coupons issued. If anyone knows a hotline or has any information how to solve this problem, please be so kind and let us know.

Oliver,
does one need to have a return ticket from outside of Europe and back? Or is a one-way sufficient?



The rules are vagues: its via/to europe on *A

It looks like you need a better travel agent. I did book these tickets for friends in the past thru my TA - and it was never a problem. We had *A return tickets (i remember that RT is necessary but am not exactly sure), then it was a matter of minutes to book the flights from the pass.

Unfortunately still no good news. Our travel agent tried to book the coupons for the Europe Airpass from Star Alliance after we have planned a route with the Europe Airpass Planner.

But there seems to be a bug on the website. The moment one enters the two passenger names, a third field with another name comes up.

After the travel agent gave up, I have contacted Miles & More in Bangkok. They confirmed saying it's very likely a bug at the Star Alliance website and told us to send a complaint email, which we did and the usual useless computer generated reply came back.

Slowly we are running out of ideas what to do.

Is anyone aware of the bug on the Star Alliance Website? Does anyone know another way how to book those coupons?

Miles & More Bangkok had the idiotic suggestion to book those flights through the normal Travel Agent system, that the prices are more than double, wasn't a concern.......

Getting really upset now.

Any comments are highly appreciated

Lufthansa Miles and More has just called back, confirming that it is indeed a bug at the Star Alliance website. They have contacted the IT department but it will take some time to fix that problem, according to their information.

They have requested my Airpass itinary number and told me that they will calculate the "best" price for me? No idea what that means, but lets see what comes out of this never-ending-drama

We got contacted by Austrian Airlines - Thailand office, who have booked for us the desired Europe Airpass Route. Their price was instead of 24.000 baht as indicated on the Star Alliance Planner 36.000 baht per person. They were so friendly to check with the Head Office of Austrian Airlines in Vienna. The answer they forwarded to us was this:


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“ Anyhow, there are two possibilities: passenger accepts taxes and you issue the ticket. If he does not accept bad luck, we cannot issue ticket for such amount. Btw, I doubt that all taxes are included in the estimation below.
For example TOTAL TAXES: 966.10 THB
That´s less than €25.-… I don´t know which taxes are taken into consideration but I strongly doubt that YQ and all that stuff is included.
So my suggestion: if passenger wants to complain ask him to complain at staralliance.com coz this is definitely their problem!

As Star Alliance has a huge disclaimer under their price calculation, there is nothing much we can do and we accepted those prices, happy that this holiday will take place. Why Star Alliance's Airpass Planner is so completely wrong with calculating the fares, we will probably never find out.

Thanks