Originally Posted by
scubadu
And yet... the title of the thread is "What are the pros/cons of Turkish as a FFP?" and was started by an OP that is literally, by their own posting,
not a "TK regular" so it's something for them to be aware of.
This problem is more prominent than you are implying and you know it. I'm not sure why you continually minimize this issue for those that are impacted by it (well I know why, because
you haven't personally experienced which makes it significantly easier to brush off as a "corner case"). Put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer that is
not a "Flyertalker" but sees that their credit card offers a points transfer to TK and TK has the tickets and availability they need to take your family on a nice vacation. They transfer say, 250,000 to 300,000 points to make the booking and then they are stuck in a quagmire of not being able to book tickets for their trip (and for the nth time, not everyone, particularly in the US, lives near a TK sales office) and now they have a bunch of stranded points that are difficult to use. TK doesn't provide any warning when transferring your points from a credit card that says, "Oh, btw, we aren't going to let you book tickets with these points for your family."
I find it abhorrent that you continue to make excuses for this type of customer unfriendly policy. If TK doesn't want to allow people to book tickets with miles transferred from a credit card then there is a simple solution for that; stop supporting transfers from credit cards! Nobody is making them enter into these marketing arrangements with credit card companies
You keep trying to imply this customer unfriendly policy is related to reducing fraud, yet you have no answer when I've pointed out in other threads that there is literally no other FFP in the world (that I'm aware of or have run across), that disallows the booking of more than one award ticket with the points in their account (no matter how those points got there). How do all the other airlines in the world mitigate this fraud risk but TK can't seem to figure out a way to do that? (Note: there are some FFPs that do attempt to mitigate fraud on award tickets, but they do not differentiate between booking one ticket or more than one ticket).
Furthermore, as you are well aware, they don't even adhere to their own policies. They say you need to book your first ticket solo before booking award tickets for others and you are fully aware that there have been numerous reports in this forum (and on blogs) that even after booking a ticket only for themselves they are still unable to book tickets for others going forward.
You seem to always just brush this off as, "Well, that's just TK." Bollocks. They can, and should be better. There are countless examples in this world where we've accepted poor behavior that we no longer accept in today's world. When you operate a business in todays world, particularly a global business, fraud is always a risk it will never by zero. But the adults in the room figure out how to manage/mitigate it without stomping all over their legitimate customers. It's time for TK to do the same.
Finally, the thing you seem to miss is that these type of policies cause possible customers to not shift their business to TK. For example, I would be open to being a "legitimate" customer and have considered obtaining status on TK (to be my *A program) but this situation continues to keep me from going down that path, because my thought is "what if I do all this and then they still won't let me book an award ticket for my wife?" That is crazy. Now, maybe if I was a customer consistently crediting to TK this wouldn't be an issue BUT I don't know that and this policy is my first impression of TK.
Regards
The OP is looking for a FFP that he could credit *A miles on flights; not transfer credit card points and I assume that someone who mostly flies transborder between the US and Canada wouldn't be able to achieve the level to purchase a redemption without tens of flights unless that person flies international long-haul or something longer than a 200 mile flight on a high RBD.
He also never mentioned credit card transfer partners, at all in his posts.
If the OP flies TK on a regular basis and if he achieves TK*G by flying TK and other *A partners, and redeem miles for TK flights for someone else, I doubt he'll encounter any problems.
Originally Posted by
IAN-UK
At the end of the day the very best strategy is to maintain a decent level in two (or more) programmes. Also known as not keeping your eggs in one basket.
I'm Gold(OWE)-equivalent in all three major alliances. Today feels rather awkward flying Y with Etihad 😱
Originally Posted by
AfterHour
Why would you fly Y on a none alliance airline when you have gold status with all three?
I had a similar case when flying to AUH where EY was significantly cheaper and I couldn't justify the cost difference between TK ( incl. AnadoluJet to DXB/SHJ ), QR, RJ, etc... and EY and EY had much better timings than any other airline, not arriving at 2-3am in the middle of the night for example.
*****
Also for the OP,
It's correct that you'll get less benefits than MileagePlus on United, and you would be limited to +1 x23kgs checked baggage, preferred seats at check-in, United Club access, Group 1 boarding, Premier Access only and Free confirmed Same Day Change if there is availability on the same fare bucket. Also when crediting to TK M&S, the E+ subscription wouldn't work as that is associated with a MileagePlus account and UA doesn't allow cross benefiting two frequent flyer program benefits on the same occasion.
Also for Air Canada, there are zero seat selection benefits at all, and the benefits remain as priority security, Zone 2 boarding, lounge access, business class check-in, +1 x23kgs checked baggage on select itineraries and that's it.