KVS

For Upgrades, you should be looking for the J Class; CS is for Awards.

foothill

Thanks!

I had booked LAX-FRA as a MR, then found this post. I got LAX-IST for $100 less than FRA (though FRA, no less) with 3k more miles.

lkar

10 hours on a two class A330? That's a pretty big upgrade to me, for a star alliance upgrade using 25 or 30k? I wouldn't upgrade from comfort, but from coach to business, even old style is pretty good on a flight that long.

lkar

Sorry, this is a pretty rookie question, but how do I book an itinerary that would be AYYA with a stopover in IST? For example, if I want to fly LAX-IST-ICN-IST-LAX with a stopover on the return.

I can book it as a roundtrip on thy.com, but that doesn't give me the stopover except as an overnight. If I try to do multiple destinations, it comes back with error messages. And if I try to book it on any other search engines, it kicks it back because the LAX-IST are comfort and the IST-ICN are economy and don't have CC.

GinFizz

Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten that while for most *A airlines CS indicates both upgrade and award availability, there are exceptions (TK being one of them).

thaidai

Got Last TKs CC deal HKG IST LAX. 574 euro. Booked. 29 feb rtn 4 march. MentalBut do able.add LAX IST LAX. $1192. Total mls 37464+3746 for $2000 ish, Lax 2hr30min to connect ?Cd citizen .just carry on, .048 pr ml

SiberianTiger

Super great job BryanIAH!! Thank you for the info

brahms77

I checked the fare rules via expertflyer and it seems like both stop-over & cancellation/refund is free for this "A" fare. The fare also seems to be valid until May 2012.

Can anyone confirm if one would be able to request stopover (without a fee) after booking (e.g. JFK-HKG) a simple round trip via IST?

SiberianTiger

is this fare gone? Can't find it Hmm...

SiberianTiger

Only found it for NRT in the spring, will bonuses be the same?

lkar

The fare rules on ita for "A" fares indicate a 300 euro cancellation fee, unless I'm reading it wrong.

I'm having a terrible time figuring out how to book this. I would think if you are traveling on a route that involves all comfort class, you should be able to find a booking site that will let you book premium economy with a stop over using multiple cities. My problem is that I'm trying to book a trip that involves a comfort class leg and a leg on a plane that doesn't involve comfort class, and I can't seem to make anything work with a stopover. If I try to book it as a regular roundtrip, I can do it, but adding the stopover kicks it back because not all cabins are premium economy.

Wiley

I just got back from a TK IAD-IST-DEL-IST-IAD trip in J. Flight was excellent and the lounge in IST is great...they even have a roving massage therapist! The planes were relatively new and it was all great until the very last leg. The utter chaos of trying to board a US bound plane in IST was enough for me to say never again! Sure security is one thing, but incompetence is a whole different matter. There's no reason why it should take 9 (yes, NINE) different people to see my passport and boarding pass before they'll let me even into the departure gate when in other airports it's barely one or two. It would also be one thing if these lines moved quickly, but they don't...specially when several flights land at the same time. The third party security company they hired, Gözen is utterly incompetent and is incapable of handling the type of traffic of these US/Canada bound planes. Until TK does something about these Gözen idiots, I'm staying the hell away from IST and TK no matter how nice their flights and lounge are!

fdflys

That security hullabaloo in ist is truly awful but it's not TK's fault so much as it is the USA. If you are flying somewhere else from ist (say hkg) it's just like any other boarding process. Unfortunately, departures to the US often have additional gate security (in hkg when you are actually boarding there is another layer of security where they go fishing for water bottles). The ist situation seems unusually egregious because they have you moving through such a small place and the additional checkers are only 2 or 3 feet apart. That said, the locals do seem to routinely push themselves into the boarding lines and are completely indifferent to boarding by class or status. It's kind of like how they seem to think an empty seat in comfort class is an available seat in economy.

SiberianTiger

wow, this is scary!! Thank you for the heads up ^

Lori_Q

Found a decent CC roundtrip fare LAX-IST-AMS (Amsterdam) for mid-April - ~$1300 all-in. The extra EQMs for transiting via IST are tempting, but for the same money, I can get an upgradeable W fare on UA from Denver, as well as double RDMs.

Comfort Class is a good thing. Excellent food, comfortable seat. As others have mentioned, the IST security for US-bound flights is a hassle, but I wouldn't consider it a deterrent. Heading to the gate 30 minutes earlier than you ordinarily might makes the experience less painful.