UPDATE: Although it took them some time, in the end Turkish Airlines provided compensation for the events detailed below by offering two free business class tickets to any of their destinations worldwide. My wife and I accepted this compensation and in January 2013 we had an uneventful return trip to Southern Africa with a three-day stopover in Istanbul. At this point we consider that our original experience was attributable to bad luck and/or idiosyncratic problems in the Jakarta/Singapore stations, and although I would still advise to be careful when flying with TK with a reward ticket and to double check that all flights are confirmed, etc., my wife and I would gladly fly TK again in the future and appreciate their customer service efforts to set things right.

More details can be found in the rest of this thread, including a final update at its end.

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First of all, I am posting this in Aeroplan because my wife and I were travelling on a couple of Aeroplan reward tickets, but it was Turkish Airlines who downgraded and mistreated us, and Aeroplan actually cleaned up after them the best they could. So, I want to make it clear that I am not complaining about Aeroplan or Air Canada, nor seeking compensation since the case is closed as far as I am concerned, but rather since I was travelling on Aeroplan miles I would like to share my experience so if others are thinking of booking an Aeroplan reward ticket involving Turkish Airlines they have a fair advanced warning of what to expect, and can try to look for other options.

So, my wife and I were coming back from our honeymoon in Asia, and were booked in business class all the way there and back. We had previously flown with Swiss, Asiana and Singapore, and in all three the hard product was very nice, and service impeccable as expected. When booking we had the option to fly Thai on our way back from Jakarta to Europe (in retrospective, it was a terrible mistake not to take that option), however since I had seen pictures of the new Turkish hard product on their A333s I decided to give it a try, even if I had never flown TK, so on June we were booked on TK67 from Jakarta to Istanbul via Singapore.

Before the flight the experience was already a bit sub-par, since we could not select our seats until a couple of months before our flights, even if we were travelling on business class (being this a honeymoon we had booked eight months in advance). And then... oh well, I can confidently describe this as my worst experience with any airline in any part of the world, irrespective of class of travel, and since I work mostly in developing countries, I have flown my share of less-than-well-known airlines, so I can tell you without hesitation that my flights with Air Burkina should make the employees I had to deal with at Turkish Airlines flush. I understand the limitations when operating from countries with limited infrastructure, but I do not think that is at play in this case, and I only blame Turkish Airline utter lack of any concern for quality service.

My wife and I had confirmed our reservation, however when we arrived at the airport in Jakarta, we were told that most likely we would have to travel in economy class from Singapore to Istanbul, because they had overbooked the business cabin. I found this really strange, as in my experience business class is rarely overbooked, so I inquired whether they had had to change equipment, and they told me, that no, that they had had some last minute paying reservations, and that since we were travelling on reward tickets they were bumping us to economy class. I protested that irrespective of how we paid for our tickets, Aeroplan had paid Turkish Airlines to transport us in business class, and that it was not acceptable that they bumped us to make room for last minute paying passengers, without giving us the option to be rebooked or refunded, and without telling us what would be the compensation if we accepted the downgrade. They told us that they were sorry but that there was nothing they could do, as this was handled by the Singapore supervisor, and that if we wanted to explore other options we would have to talk with her there. I continued to protest, but seeing that the Jakarta acting supervisor was useless (concededly TK ground agents in Jakarta other than the supervisor were nice and sympathized with us, however apparently there was not much they could do), we gave up and decided to talk with the supervisor in Singapore (I asked to talk with her on the phone from Jakarta, but I was advised that it was not possible, for some obscure reason). So, off we went to Singapore, in business class.

On arrival to Singapore everyone had to deplane, and the Singapore supervisor was waiting for us at the exit, accompanied by a security guard. She was incredibly rude from the beginning, and told us that we were creating trouble for her, and that what did we want. I explained to her that I didn't find it acceptable that they overbooked business class just because, and that in Jakarta we had not being offered any other options such as being rebooked or refunded, or explained how we would be compensated if we accepted the downgrade. She replied that it was not her business, that Singapore was just a stopover station, and that there is nothing she could do, that the Jakarta station was to blame, and that we would have to call customer service to find out about possible compensation. I protested that in Jakarta they had blamed Singapore, and that in Singapore they were blaming Jakarta, and that all in all we were left without options, forced to accept whatever they would offer us ex-post, and being treated rudely by the airline. She replied that it was none of her business, and threatened to unload our bags and leave us there if we did not accept her terms, and even threatened to hit me (I am not kidding) when I expressed my amazement at the incompetence of the airline in general and hers in particular (the security guard got in between she and me and appeased her). We were very upset, but seeing that the supervisor was, or wanted to be, useless, and possibly mentally unstable, we just told her to put us in economy class to control damage. However, she told us that we would have to travel in separate seats in economy. At this point I simply told her that if she had the power to reseat us to economy class, but she didn't have the power to reseat others so that we can at least seat together (I am not particularly fond of couples asking to swap seats to seat together in any flight, because usually they could have booked their seats together in their first place, and because this usually happens in short flights, but remember, we had booked our business class tickets eight months in advance, and we had booked our seats, together, two months in advance, and this was a 12+ hour overnight flight) she was even more useless than I thought (I know I could have been more subtle about this, but at that point we were really really upset, and that was the last straw), at which point she must have realized how ridiculous the whole situation was was because she inmediately got us a seat together in economy, and apologized, blaming the Jakarta station because apparently their usual supervisor was on holiday and she was getting a lot of this situations, etc. It was such a sudden change of mood that, again, I doubted her mental health, but seeing as how she was now in a conciliatory mood, I apologized myself for calling her useless, but reiterated that how we had been treated, in general, was really not at all acceptable. She apologized again, and told us that she would speak with the purser, so that the crew was aware of our situation, and so that we got at least got business class service even if seated in economy, which I found a nice detail, so off we went to our economy class seats, which turned out to be in the last row, with tiny pitch. However, the crew in our section of the economy class cabin were not only incredibly rude in general, to the point that they seemed to be deeply annoyed by anyone talking to them, but told me that they had no idea what I was talking about when after being ignored for about half an hour I asked for a business class blanket. They told me it was not possible, even after I explained the situation and what the Singapore supervisor had told us, so I asked to talk with the purser. She was nicer, but still very cold, and informed us that she could not provide business class service in the economy cabin, because it would make the other passengers jealous, but that she could send business class dessert for us, and that she would indeed see that we got business class blankets. It was the first time I ever heard that excuse, and I wondered why they didn't think about that before making the whole economy cabin walk pass the business class, but she had a point from the logistical point of view (I understand that it is difficult to go back and forth between the business cabin and the last row of economy carrying stuff when it is not part of the standard operation, and I only expected the "business service in economy" thing because of the Singapore supervisor), and anyway by then I was fed up with the whole situation, so I just thanked her in advance for the dessert, and went back to my wife in the last row of economy. We eventually got our business class blankets, but as of today I still do not know what happened to the dessert we were promised, as it never appeared, nor did again the purser, and at that point I decided it was not even worth bothering to ask to speak with her again, assuming that either she was as useless as the supervisor, or that the supervisor just lied to us or didn't know what she was talking about, or maybe both.

On arrival to Istanbul the transfer took ages, as the airport was heavily crowded, and we could not talk with anyone at customer service as most of the counters were closed and even the priority line was incredibly long. Moreover, Turkish Airlines ground crew was the rudest I have ever encountered, and I am not exaggerating one bit. My wife was pushed (literally, pushed) aside by an agent who was just passing by, and another agent just put her headphones on and walked away when I asked her for directions (I swear I had never seen anything like that, I said "Excuse me, ...", and she put her headphones on and looked the other way, and ignored a couple of other attempts to talk to her). We eventually made it to our connecting flight, and luckily it was uneventful, so no need to talk with the sour-looking crew, but when we arrived to our destination airport the Turkish Airlines customer service was closed so we could not talk with anyone.

When we got home I called Turkish Airlines customer service phone, and although I had to wait quite a bit the representative was actually nice (a real surprise at this point), and filled a complaint on my behalf. However, it took them almost two months to get back to me, and their reply was to acknowledge the downgrade, and to refer me to Aeroplan for compensation.

I called Aeroplan and after explaining the situation they (nicely) asked me to send an email, and within 24 hours they had reimbursed me the proportional part (corresponding to the percentage of the itinerary involving the downgraded flight, about 30%) of the difference between the economy and business class reward ticket miles, 9,300 miles per ticket. When I saw the quantity I thought it was too low, since being European I am used to EU passenger rights which contemplate much higher refunds in case of downgrades, so I called Aeroplan again to inquire how they had calculated the quantity, and they passed me on to a supervisor who explained to me the method (which I have described above), and who after reading the story again offered her apologies on Aeroplan's side, increased the compensation by 5,000 miles per ticket, and seemed really annoyed at the fact that we had been told that we were downgraded for travelling on a reward ticket, since Aeroplan had paid Turkish Airlines for our transportation anyway.

I thought that the compensation was not appropriate, since at least in terms of our compensation it cost Turkish Airlines almost close to nothing to downgrade us, and therefore they will not doubt to do it again the next time to fill their pockets at the expense of the passenger, but since it was not a European Union flight or airline this appeared to be the standard compensation, and the Aeroplan supervisor was already going out of her way to increase it given the circumstances, so I thanked her and considered the case closed.


It was the first and last time my wife and I flew Turkish Airlines, as after such an appalling experience we have decided to blacklist them irrespective of price or class of service, but I wanted to share the story so that if anyone is thinking of booking an Aeroplan reward involving Turkish Airlines they think twice before doing it. Also, if any Aeroplan representative is reading this, I would strongly advise them to review their collaboration with Turkish Airlines. I guess that being a Star Alliance member perhaps they cannot avoid working with them, but by doing so Aeroplan exposes itself to a serious reputational risk, as although Aeroplan customer service and Air Canada service is generally good, Turkish Airlines is subpar to say the least. Again, I would not say I am particularly picky, and I understand that in contexts with limited infrastructure things do not always go smoothly (heck, even in contexts with good infrastructure many times things do not go smoothly), but I had never been treated so rudely or experienced such an appalling service at so many levels, in so many interactions, as when flying with Turkish Airlines.

All the best,
Markam