Originally Posted by
Downgrade
Dear,
First of all, we are sorry for the irregularity you have suffered.
In consequence of our investigation based on your feedback, it is seen that your ticket has been issued from United Airlines system.
Since the ticketing was not made by us and the irregularity was caused by reasons beyond our control, we unfortunately cannot meet your demand.
We kindly submit for your information, and wish to meet you in new journeys.
Sincerely Yours,
Hakan E.
Customer Representative
TURKISH AIRLINES INC.
Customer Contact Center
Mixed carrier tickets will leave you vulnerable to the airlines point the blame at each other. A big caveat emptor!
The moral of this story is do not travel TK on UA purchased tickets.
TK is notorious for bad ground staff and poor customer service and clearly some have a problem in dealing with United issued tickets. There are multiple reports on the TK forum of passengers with non-TK issued tickets being told they have zero baggage allowance and forced to pay baggage fees:
TK IST-MIA using United miles - FlyerTalk Forums
help: turkish airlines ignored united ticket 1st bag, charged me $115! - FlyerTalk Forums
Turkish Airlines charging for baggage on TK operated flight (United Award) - FlyerTalk Forums
No Baggage Allowance on UA Business Award tickets on Turkish - FlyerTalk Forums
I am sure some will still push that this is United's fault for issuing strange tickets, but why then would that only come up with TK and no other star alliance airline? Clearly there is some problem with some TK agents reading or interpreting UA tickets, but this should be something that should be easily rectifiable by check in agents, and certainly rectifiable by customer service agents after the fact (who should refund the erroneous charge). That the customer service agents refuse to recognize that there is no scenario an international ticket on TK would have zero baggage allowance suggests a system problem with TK and a deliberate intention to accrue revenue from spurious baggage fees.
My take home is if I ever do fly TK, I will only do so if I buy the ticket directly from that airline...