I was going to check in with TK this morning in Cancun flying Cancun to Istanbul to Dubrovnik. 3 pax in J class. Last night I checked in TK app with the name and tickets numbers and can see my seats for both flights. This morning 5am at Cancun airport the agent says I cant get on the plane since my tickets have been suspended. I showed him confirmation and also ticket numbers but he said this has been suspended and cant do anything about it.

I called Lifemiles right away, took 20 minutes to get thru both English and Spanish line, the agent confirmed my tickets were suspended but no idea why and I am being told to email their security department to find out why this happened. They have 7 days to respond and you cant call them, you can only email them. Me, my wife and my 8 year old son stranded in Cancun without going anywhere and Lifemiles provides no explanation nor rebooking assistance� our 10 days vacation in Croatia is gone and I am beyond shocked. I have been using Lifemiles for almost 5 years without any major problems, flying business class several times a year, even got in first class with Lufthansa earlier this year.

I have another 4-5 booked with Lifemiles on Tap, Lot and Austrian and they all look good. I am suspecting Lifemiles and Turkish have some issues with their bookings. I wont know anything till they get back with me but has anyone experienced anything like this and why would it happen?

 

Best to have a backup plan if your flights are award travel booked on via the loyalty program of a Columbian airline.

"stranded"?

"I have been using Lifemiles for almost 5 years without any major problems" -- no such thing

 

That sucks and sorry to hear about it, although I can't offer any advice.

Avianca's incompetence can be astounding at times. It's unfortunate you had to experience it at such an inopportune time.

 

Sounds terrible.

It's worth reflecting on the fact that Lifemiles is borderline scamming the Star Alliance. They sell miles to LM members with the total expectation that these miles will be used on partner airline flights, often in a Premium cabin. The amount paid by LM to partner airlines for these seats is miniscule.

*A generally has to put up with this, as otherwise they would have zero coverage of South America.

But, at regular intervals, the operating airlines either block award availability to Lifemiles or kill tickets they haven't been paid for.

Lifemiles can be fun to travel hack when travelling alone and with a backup plan. But I wouldn't rely on it for a family vacation anywhere!

 

The borderline scam in this situation would be if AV is not paying the contractually agreed upon prices for flown award ticket segments and not . Maybe TK feels it's at risk of not getting paid its due by AV. Unfortunately, one or both airlines has ruined the OP's trip plans and that's inexcusable. Worse yet, is AV's customer service is such that they don't do much of anything to help their program customers in such situations. AV is truly lousy about this kind of thing.

The only times I've had AV-issued award ticket be a problem at check-in attempt for me is on solo-pax trips. Thankfully, all AV-issued mileage tickets for my family vacations -- including often with minors -- have gone off without a hitch. But combining AV with an airline like TK or some other operating carriers not known for having empowered at-airport customer service reps when it comes to IRROPs? That's a higher risk.

 

Have you seen anything reported that the other Star Alliance airlines are unhappy with Lifemiles' business model? I can see why they would be unhappy - particularly with the ability to buy miles for 1.1-1.2 cents per mile if you time it right. I also suspect that UA isn't thrilled with the fact that tickets to Europe are still 30K one-way on Lifemiles while UA itself has raised the price to 40K.

 

Other than the throttling of award space availability by point of sale, not really as a consumer.

 

I have not seen 3 I-class award seats on any TK route, lately. 1 seat - maybe, 2 seats - if you are very lucky, but 3 seats - never. It might be that AV booked a non-existing inventory or used incorrect booking class. I do not believe TK would suspended tickets without a valid reason.

 

AV can't forcibly book whatever inventory TK doesn't confirm, be it award or revenue. If AV did accidentally book a revenue fare, that's on them. TK will collect its due for whatever AV plated on the ticket.

I think a more likely scenario is AV placed the OP's e-tickets under some fraud review and neglected to inform them. TK just found itself with an e-ticket containing coupons they couldn't accept at check-in. The issuing carrier can suspend an e-ticket from use, but I'm not sure whether operating carriers can do this.

If TK really had an issue with the way AV was doing things, they could've just cancelled the space and block I/X inventory.

 

I recall that in the past (some years ago) there were several reports in this forum and in the TK forum that TK blocked availability to LM (and even refused to honor LM awards on TK metal?). Speculation was that TK was afraid of not being paid by LM/AV for award tickets issued by LM for TK flights (i.e. the pax travel with TK and subsequently TK is supposed to get payment from LM/AV). I believe there were rumors whether AV would go belly up at that times. In a bankruptcy situation other airlines will refuse travel on award tickets issued the bankrupt airline, as they will not be able to get payment for such award tickets.

I can't recall if other airlines did the same as TK.

 

TK is releasing 4 seats in J from CUN,MEX and PTY pretty much every flight as long as you book in advance. Check April 2024 and seats are loaded already. Depending where you live, this can make a sense

 

yes this is exactly what happened to us. I booked the tickets out of my wife�s account and used my credit card. Last name are the same but LM flagged it and never informed us to verify. I was able to log into TK and select my seats till the night before and had access to everything on TK app. Hard lesson learnt, going forward account member and CC must match

 

I�ve booked awards with my credit cards from my wife�s LM account many times.