Originally Posted by
jay49
Does anyone know a good airline that will match Turkish Airlines Elite Plus. The best part of Elite Plus - the two free upgrades per year are worthless and a huge scam apparently. Quoting my other thread below because the forum won't let me link.
"Last year I went way out of my way to fly on Turkish Airlines to earn Elite Plus because I knew it came with some pretty good perks, most importantly 2 upgrades per year and at least two years of Elite Plus membership. I flew Turkish repeatedly even when they cost more and in lieu of the VASTLY superior Qatar because I knew I would get Elite Plus which would get me four business class tickets for the price of four economy tickets.
Now I decided to use those upgrades. I had my assistant call and find out. They were extremely unhelpful trying to avoid giving her any info because she was "not the card holder" even though she was only asking general questions. Eventually they told her, just call us and check the flights you want to book and we'll tell you if they can be upgraded.
So I called and tried to do that. Now they claim that they will not tell me unless I give them a ticket number. What a convenient scam. I don't want to buy a flight that I cannot upgrade and why would they EVER upgrade a ticket after the fact? It's hard enough to use miles (no availability). This basically means that these "free upgrades" are a lie and a scam. I'm never going to manage to book a flight by random accident that can be "upgraded".
Please tell me there is some kind of work around for this gigantic scam?
To make matters worse one of them told me that they "changed their system in November" to make it "impossible to get this information with a ticket number". "
I would like to disagree with you since I got upgraded on 4 TK flights a few days ago. TK E+ certificates are not a scam nor are they worthless. J class availability is limited; thus, it is hard to get upgraded on frequently-flown international routes. Most airlines have their rules regarding complimentary upgrades and it's not always easy to obtain them on long-haul flights. As for your other question, I've been offered a match from TK's Elite/Elite Plus status to UAL's Premier Gold status over the phone two years ago. Otherwise, I'm not aware of any other potential matches. I wish you a better luck on any future TK upgrades.