Dear FlyerTalkers,

I am a passive user of this forum for years and had many, many happy journeys thanks to all the useful inofrmation you provide on here.

Unfortunately I recently had a horrible experince with TK and decided to share it with you. I will be very grateful if anyone is able to advise me on how to proceed as I am shocked how unprofessional and useless this company is.

Please find my story bellow:

We found a good deal on a return ticket from Venice to Sao Paulo via Istanbul (we live in London, UK., so we just booked connecting tickets London - Venice - London).

We also decided to extend our trip to Argentina. We were looking for a suitable flight from Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo, so we can connect with our original flight from there to IST.

I realised that the same plane we were booked on to fly from GRU, starts in Buenos Aires, makes a couple of hours stop-over in GRU and continues to IST.
So we booked a single ticket from Benos Aires to GRU. It was the perfect option... same airline, same plane, no risk of missed connection etc.

Everything went fine during our outward journey. TK even provided accomodation in IST due to forced long layover.

On the way back we were at the check in desk almost 3 hours prior to our flight. The lady took our passports and asked for the first suitcase. I told her that we would like to check our luggage all the way to IST or VCE, as we have another ticket.

She looked at me and said: "No way I'll let you board that plane". I was in shock and politely asked why? She started to radio over and eventually her supervisor turned up. He briefly told me that he is deniyng our boarding because we can't fly on two separate PNRs. I've been to over 50 countries and flew hundreds of flights and never heard such a thing. Couple of years ago I flew on 4 separate tickets, on 2 different airlines (same alliance) and they checked my luggage all the way. This is the same airline and the same plane...

After an hour of a conversation that was going nowhere he eventually mentioned that this is not our fault, but "the Brasilians". He mentioned that by one of their laws we should be denied boarding as we won't have sufficient time to collect immigration and check in again in GRU. They were unable to issue us ticket to IST.

To make the story short... There were 10 min. left till the check in closes, so they told us that the only option they will allow us on that flight is we were put on another flight from GRU. We were forced to pay 570 euro each and were out on a flight in 24 hours!!!

We were told that we will be provided accom. once we get to GRU.

So we paid and ran trough security etc. Once we landed at GRU, took our luggage, went trough immigration and we were at the check in desk that was still open. We briefly explained the situation and they said No problem... we will check you in. After a 5 min. staring at her screen, the girl said... "Oh, they cancelled your booking in Buenos Aires, can't do anything".

In brief... we were stuck at GRU, with no accom., absolutely no one to speak to etc. Missing our connecting flight to London and eventually getting home 38 hours later... not to mention the 570 euros charge per person.

Since we are back we trying to get our money back, as after my long research I am convinced that such a law doesn't exist.

TK Customer Service are appaling. They can't even understand what actually happened.

I'll be very gratefull if anyone is able to advise me.

Thank you in advance and travel safe!