Istanbul Airport, Expedia disaster experience..
 

So if this belongs in another forum, please move. Fairly new here so not aware of all the subforums available.

Flight was Istanbul to Amsterdam on Turkish Airline. Ticket booked on Expedia. (this is the return leg).
7:20pm flight. I arrive at airport around.. 5:50pm.
Tried electronic check-in - the machine wont' scan my passport.. a airline representative tried it, failed, and told me to go stand in a MASSIVELY LONG time.
(i should have known better in hindsight.. there's gotta be a better line as I have no luggage to check, just need to check in).

Apparently check in closes 60 mins prior to flight. by the time i get to the agent counter, it's 52 minutes to flight.. closed.. go see Supervisor please - WHAT? I just waited like 30 mins and now i can't go on flight?

Supervisor- massive crowd of people, all jumping in to talk to supervisor, who's literally got 4 land lines ringing non stop. Finally i get someone who calls someone, and comes back to tell me - nope.. closed can't get in.. doesn't matter you have no luggage etc.. go see ticket office to change ticket. Her attitude sucked.. not sure if it's b/c she's swamped, or Turkish airline just sucks in general.. I've never flown them so I don't know.

Ticket office - sorry your flight booked on expedia is non refundable. forfeit .. ticket cancelled. You need to buy a new ticket.
Panic sets in a bit.. although I chuckled at the thought of posting a facebook update and say i'm in Istanbul and I need friends to send me money?

Called expedia - nope.. your fault. escalate to supervisor.. nope.. as monotone and lack any sort empathy.. sorry .. buy a new ticket..

In the end, found an airport hotel for the night, booked the next morning flight to Amsterdam.. out of pocket $300 and lesson learned I guess..

Surprised turkish airline says i booked the ticket elsewhere, can't do anything
Expedia says if Turkish airline can't do anything, they can't do anything.
so no one can do anything.. okkkk.. credit card company dispute? or just eat the cost b/c it really is my fault i guess.. I shoulda gone to the airport earlier I suppose..

Hardly a "disaster" in the sense of an airline incident. ;)

Sadly, yes. Welcome to the world of non-refundable tickets in Europe. They really mean it.

Based on the story alone I'd have to side with the OP on this one, as they did arrive on time and the airline rep could have walked him over to an agent once his passport didn't scan, or at least let someone know that the OP made it on time. That said 1 1/2 hours is pushing it for a departing flight, especially when you start boarding 1/2 hour before the departure time. It would have been a nice show of good faith had TK rebooked them without penalty.

Please follow this thread in the Online Booking Forum.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Definitely not a disastrous experience.

1. 1.5 hours for check-in is kind of tight, especially for a less-than-efficient airport, such as IST.
2. Why escalate everything to a supervisor?! (just because you didn't like the legitimate answer)
3. Non-refundable means just that. The fact that you purchased it on Expedia is irrelevant. You failed to show up on time and your ticket got cancelled.

It must be annoying as heck and I am sorry for this. The best outcome would be to take it as a lesson learned and move on. I've had a similar experience in CDG, but luckily my ticket was changeable for a penalty so I was able to get on a flight the next day. I didn't care about the $50 I was out; it was the experience itself that made me feel miserable. Needless to say, I don't cut it close anymore. :)

Did you tell the airline representative trying to help that you flight was leaving soon?

It doesn't matter that the ticket was from Expedia, you did not check in time for the flight. Not sure what putting it in dispute with the credit card will do, as they will simply respond you did not check in time for the flight, so they canceled your ticket.

Oh agreed.. it was definitely a lesson learned.
I will edit my post. i'm not really asking if i should dispute, more just random thoughts popping up.
it's a lesson learned and I won't cut it close going forward.
I didn't escalate for the airline, they told me to go to the supervisor desk.
for Expedia - their customer service sucks. I usually just ask for a supervisor right away unless it's a simple question.

Bottom line tho. yes. lesson learned.. It would've been nice to have it rebooked but it's not a requirement by them.

FWIW, I've flown through IST for years and I was absolutely shocked and awed by the TK check in lines I found a few weeks ago. If I wasn't one of those people who get to the airport way early I wouldn't have even had a chance.

Why yes you would if you knew about the various alternative ways I was told about AFTER i missed my flight! hahaha
there's a separate line for people without checkin luggage, a supervisor desk (actually 4 of them) which had a lot of people jumping in b/c their flights are closing, and i was told if it was really closing soon you can just jump in any of the check in lines and budge in and demand you get checked in.
really? i don't know. .but i was told that I should have just gone to ANY agent ...

ok.. :)

May I add. I agree.. it's not a "disaster".. just a really annoying experience.
^

FYI - Delta requires one to get to the Istanbul airport three hours early. The IST web site only says 2 hours for international flights, but maybe Delta has had to do quite a bit of re-booking?

OP - did you try to do on-line check-in ahead of time? It hasn't been mentioned so far in this discussion. I've found more and more hotels are letting one get boarding passes right at the hotel.

I'll admit the Istanbul internet cafe scene is a little sketchy. Some pretty good, but some downright nervous-making.

Romelle

Delta's ticket office is barely open three hours before their 12:15 JFK flight. One can check in at the counters across from their office, but if any modification is needed to the ticket, it involves a visit to the T. O. At least that was the case in my recent experience.
IST was the first airport I had flown out of that required security screening just to enter. That can add up to half an hour too. IIRC there were three security screens before boarding. Lucky for me I was arriving on an overnight bus from Kas and was way early.

I didn't but I later realized i could have. I didn't have internet access and didn't find an internet cafe. I normally always check in ahead of time online but of course I didn't this time. lesson learned! :)

If this happened to me, I'd be equally upset and mad as hell at TK. You were a little short for time, but they could have been a little more customer friendly! I think I would put in a claim with my credit card - you can't lose one way or the other. I have heard similar stories of problems with TK ground staff, and this is the reason I avoided them. Generally, I found most Turks to be extremely cooperative - much more so than Americans are! Seems to me this should not be blamed on Expedia!

This surprises me at Istanbul, because I had a very easy passage through IST, myself, in October. I flew Air France to/from CDG and had no problems, but I do always arrive with plenty of spare time. My return flight was at 9:30am and I took the 6:30am Havas shuttle from Taksim - probably arrived at IST close to 7am. I stopped for 20 min to get my pack shrink wrapped and then walked over to AF checkin and went through extremely fast, no lines at all, pack checked through to JFK by a really friendly Turkish lady. Flight was packed, but AF got us to CDG on time and a pretty good flight.

I don't see how this has anything to do with Expedia
- TK machine was not working
- airline rep's instructions were to go stand in line
- check-in lines were unreasonably long

I think it's a good case to follow up with the agency on.