robdls

Logged in and see they officially are messing with my reservation for AC 810 on April 21 and AC 811 on May 3. Now I have DTW-YYZ-FRA (no Istanbul) and YYZ-DTW.

Looks like my options to get to Istanbul are either Lufthansa or Turkish Airlines. Anyone have a preference or recommendation? I would be leaving from Detroit.

Thanks!

Dorian

Fly both all the time and prefer Turkish.

Jasper2009

I'd probably choose TK, especially if you're in J and want to get a decent amount of sleep on the eastbound flight.

Lights_a_blur

I agree that TK is a better choice. If you can get it DTW-YUL-IST, you'd be on the 333, which has no middle seat in Business. The 77W ex YYZ is 2-3-2, so a small chance of a middle seat.

robdls

I wish I was in business...just flying on one of the flight deals that was around November 23. $290 plus taxes in Economy booked through United. What is preferred for economy...333 or 77W?

I was going to call in to United to get rebooked on TK 6 / TK 5 as ORD-IST, but don't see those listed on their site. Is it possible to get United to place me on these? Or am I limited to what I see on United.com?

Just need to know so I can push United as its painful talking to them. Earlier when they canceled AC810/811 on the weekend I started my trip 2 days earlier to fly AC and that took me about 1.5 hrs on the phone.

yyznomad

Was there a military coup in Turkey in the last week?

Stranger

Not quite. but it's steadily moving toward the dark ages.

wilsonc

AC 810/811 is not coming back March 1st as previously announced. I was booked on AC 810 on March 17th, but AC changed my reservation to drop my YYZ-IST leg, as IST was not my final destination. They originally put me on YYZ-FRA and then left my flight out of IST in my booking, with no flight between FRA-IST. I called AC and was told AC has stopped flying YYZ-IST and they agent booked me on a more direct routing.

24left

Just guessing but I'm sensing this thread title is the central collection zone for issues with AC flights to IST etc, kind of like ""Somewhat scary one near Winnipeg" - The AC Master Incidents Thread"


Sadly.

skchin

If there was, flights to turkey would be cheaper from the US.

gpicur

I have been monitoring AC J fares via IST from DMM & CAI for the past several months. There were some very attractive fares connecting AC 810/811 and the 787 looked attractive. Then, all of a sudden last week, all the connecting flights to 810/811 disappeared. In fact, I couldn't find any availability on 810/811 for the rest of 2017. I checked to see if AC had any press releases and I found nothing, until today (2-23-17). I found an article in a Turkish Newspaper, in Turkish that seems to source an AC spokesperson and the English translation is posted below. My question, is the AC cancellation of IST flights being driven by economics of politics ?
ARTICLE PER GOOGLE TRANSLATION:
"We are hanging our flights to Istanbul for a period of time. We are in continuous evaluation. According to the student, we plan to resume flights. "

Passengers who take tickets from Air Canada departing from Istanbul are directed to the company's partner flights.

Air Canada's first stop on Europe's exit is not Istanbul. The company recently has new cancellations in some cities in Europe."

The Turkish Version is as follows:

Kararla ilgili Air Canada’nın Türkiye Müdürü Nedime Konuksever talebin az olduğunun altını çizerek, “Bir süreliğine İstanbul uçuşlarımızı askıya alıyoruz. Sürekli değerlendirme içindeyiz. Talebe göre uçuşlarımıza yeniden başlamayı planlıyoruz” dedi.

İstanbul çıkışlı Air Canada’dan bilet alan yolcularıysa, şirketin ortak uçuşlarına yönlendiriliyor.

Air Canada’nın Avrupa çıkışında durduğu ilk istasyon İstanbul değil. Şirketin son dönemde Avrupa’da bazı kentlerde de yeni iptalleri var.

softsign

I had a layover at IST for a trip in early April that was supposed to continue on with AC811. Unbeknownst to me, AC changed my booking from MLE-IST-YYZ to MLE-IST,FRA-YYZ, with no connection from IST-FRA (and 3 hours to cover 1100 miles). Their system claims that an email notification was sent, but I never received it. Even if I did, what kind of routing is that? If it's an automated change, it's terrible. If it's a human decision, that's even worse.

nm761

So, now that AC started tinkering with existing bookings, here is my experience of dealing with this issue today:
- Original booking YVR-YYZ-IST
- Noticed a protection YYZ-FRA in the existing booking with no onward journey
- Called AC, the agent was apologetic and started figuring out how to get us from FRA to IST
- I asked (again) to check whether YYZ-TLV was a consideration. Response was negative
- I questioned as to why no protection on YVR-FRA directly. She checked with the supervisor and rebooked on a direct flight, with a seamless connection onto to LH from FRA to IST
- No positive upgrade space available on YVR-FRA, so waitlisted. I questioned that considering that we had a confirmed upgrade to IST before
- Agent didn't argue, said that she understood and escalated to the supervisor. Told me that I would call a call back in 24-48 hours. About 4 hours later received an itinerary change with the upgrade cleared (and booked into Z class) and no call to advise of this action.

So, J to FRA, Y from FRA to IST, still making it to IST with a shorter flight time (although I did spend about 2.5 hours dealing with the issue between three separate calls with AC0)

CanadaDH

Thanks to this thread, I logged into an upcoming booking I have for May. I also had an IST-YYZ flight booking with Aeroplan affected.

Was booked YYZ-IST-MRU (all with TK and still good) and MRU-IST-YYZ with the final leg on AC. I originally had all flights on TK, and actually switched to the AC flight because of better timing on the return. Now I'm wishing I had left well enough alone and kept all flights on TK, as Aeroplan doesn't seem willing to try to get TK to open up space.

I've been switched to MRU-IST-CPH-YYZ, still all in Business, and arriving back home 15 minutes ahead of my original arrival of AC811. I don't like the extra leg, but I'm still home earlier than if I waited for the non-stop flight with TK.

Agent managed to update the booking, and got it ticketed while I was on the phone. Total time on the phone from dialing to new ticket numbers issued was 21 minutes. I'm not happy with the flight cancellation, but OK with the solution and the speed with which it was corrected.

flybit

its GONE, AC is running from IST, lets hope Turkish get rights for daily YYZ flights now. ^
my flight April 22 is officially cancelled.