Originally Posted by
Gnopps
I’m curious how Turkish Airlines handles overbooking situations and how often they occur. I know TK overbooks economy and upgrades to business, but has anyone encountered situations when the whole plane was overbooked? If so, how does TK look for volunteers (at gate, and/or check-in)? Or do they simply offload someone involuntarily. What has the compensation typically been?
My wife got IDB last night as she was connecting through from Paris on her way to Milan. The flight from Paris sat on the tarmac waiting for a gate for about an hour. (Can't wait until they build the new airport; IST can't handle the traffic at peak times). Anyway, she made it to her connecting flight with 20 minutes or so (they were still boarding) only to be told they had given away her seat. She got 400 euros, a flight out the next morning and a night in her own bed. They would have provided a hotel if we didn't live here.
Turkish passenger rights are essentially a mirror of the EU regs, with one exception: They pay the 400 euro compensation in Turkish Lira based upon the exchange rate of the date of the ticket purchase, not the date of the incident. Kind of sucks right now with the lira taking a nose dive. This of course has me wondering in this case which regulations would actually have to be followed in this case. Do EU regulations superceed Turkish regulations since this was a flight to Italy? I.e. could she have demanded 400 euro cash instead of the Turkish lira equivalent on date of purchase?