Old Sep 8, 2017, 8:42 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: flyerby
E+ members receive two upgrade vouchers per membership year that can be used as system-wide upgrades. Vouchers are not delivered to E+ status holders in physical or electronic form and only exist on the screens of TK agents.

It is advisable to call TK to verify the number of vouchers you have prior to and after the upgrade (unless you have no vouchers left).

Upgrades are done by calling TK CS or a local TK office (by phone or email).

One voucher is needed to upgrade per direction. For example, the itinerary LHR-IST-BKK will need one voucher to upgrade, and the itinerary LHR-IST-BKK-IST-LHR will need two vouchers. If an agent tells you otherwise, HUCA.

How to find itineraries with availability for a voucher upgrade?
Find an itinerary in any class in Y that has 4 seats left in J booking class on the same itinerary as the Y. To be extra cautious, you may also check the individual legs (when applicable) for 4 seats left in J booking class. For example, for the itinerary LHR-IST-BKK, check at least that LHR-IST-BKK has 4 seats left in J booking class, and in addition, check LHR-IST and IST-BKK individually too.

You can no longer check for upgrade availability without having an e-ticket number.

A relatively low-risk method of proceeding is therefore...

1) Reserve a ticket online with TK but don't pay for the ticket yet. Just put it on hold for 48 hours for free for E+ members.
2) Book an economy class ticket on the same itinerary with a reputable USA-based OTA that offers a 24-hour cooling-off / full refund period.
3) Once you have received your e-ticket number, go to Manage Booking on the TK website and check if TK has offered a business upgrade with miles for your intineray. Any segment eligible for an upgrade with miles on the website is also eligible for an upgrade with E+ vouchers.
4) Another option would be to call TK CS and ask an agent to check if the ticket in (2) is upgradeable with your vouchers. Do not upgrade this ticket; just check.
5) Once availability is confirmed for your itinerary, pay for the ticket in (1). Upon payment and ticketing, call TK CS to ask an agent to upgrade this ticket.
6) Cancel for free the ticket in (2).

Another even lower-risk method would be to skip (1) and just upgrade the ticket in (2). If unsuccessful with the E+ upgrade, you can proceed to cancel your economy ticket within the 24-hour cooling-off period. Going with this route, you would then have to be in contact with the OTA and not TK in cases of schedule change, cancellation, or IRROP, which is not usually advisable unless you really have to.

You might be asked to enter a PIN number via an automatic system to access your vouchers; this is the PIN you use to log on to your TK M&S account.


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Elite Plus upgrade voucher

Old May 28, 2019, 8:02 am
  #571  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Netherlands
Programs: TK Elite, QR Gold
Posts: 1,272
My elite plus status is expiring at the end of May, and so were my 2 vouchers. However, I was successful in upgrading my flights from AMS to CANCUN and back - for vouchers. Not a bad deal for 550euros.
Called the TK 1800 number, and asked to check whether there is upgrade (J) availability for the flight I was looking for. Ofcourse, it wasnt possible - due to november changes... etc etc.
I booked a ticket on expedia.com with a 24 hour free cancellation, and then called the TK 1800 number again. I gave my eticket number and the agent was able to process the upgrades for all the segments with 2 vouchers, in less than 10 minutes. Fantastic! Cant wait to try to new 787 on this route in September.
Culture Guru is offline  
Old May 28, 2019, 9:07 am
  #572  
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 17
I also managed to upgrade my return flight from Europe to Asia.
Called up the hotline, and the agent obviously could not confirm upgrade availability without a ticket number. Booked the flight on priceline with 24h cancellation guarantee. It's a shame, as with priceline you can't choose the booking class, and I would have gladly paid $100 or so more for a higher booking class in the return leg (btw, matrix doesn't seem to work either).

Some data points in case they are helpful:
Outward availability before // after upgrade: J4, I1 // J3, I0
Return availability before // after upgrade: J4, I4 // J4, I4
Salomon82 is offline  
Old May 28, 2019, 9:55 am
  #573  
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 310
Originally Posted by Salomon82
I also managed to upgrade my return flight from Europe to Asia.
Called up the hotline, and the agent obviously could not confirm upgrade availability without a ticket number. Booked the flight on priceline with 24h cancellation guarantee. It's a shame, as with priceline you can't choose the booking class, and I would have gladly paid $100 or so more for a higher booking class in the return leg (btw, matrix doesn't seem to work either).

Some data points in case they are helpful:
Outward availability before // after upgrade: J4, I1 // J3, I0
Return availability before // after upgrade: J4, I4 // J4, I4
You can call Priceline and ask them to up-fare your booking class. TK does not charge change fees if you are changing classes without changing your flight.
max_kolesne is offline  
Old May 28, 2019, 11:26 am
  #574  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: CDG
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 1,607
Well all these data points are definitely interesting since they are contrary to what I've been told I will let you know once I book my tickets in a months time.
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Old May 28, 2019, 11:33 am
  #575  
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: QND, BEG, BUD
Programs: AY Platinum; TK Elite+; MR Titanium; HH Diamond
Posts: 109
Originally Posted by Salomon82
I also managed to upgrade my return flight from Europe to Asia.
Called up the hotline, and the agent obviously could not confirm upgrade availability without a ticket number. Booked the flight on priceline with 24h cancellation guarantee. It's a shame, as with priceline you can't choose the booking class, and I would have gladly paid $100 or so more for a higher booking class in the return leg (btw, matrix doesn't seem to work either).

Some data points in case they are helpful:
Outward availability before // after upgrade: J4, I1 // J3, I0
Return availability before // after upgrade: J4, I4 // J4, I4
Re Priceline, whenever I booked TK tickets on Priceline with ITA-Matrix-Powertools it respected the booking class choices on Matrix. Just have to be careful to actually pick available classes since sadly Matrix shows way too much phantom availability...
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Old May 30, 2019, 1:26 am
  #576  
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
Programs: BA Silver, TK E+, AA PP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 12,979
Originally Posted by max_kolesne
You can call Priceline and ask them to up-fare your booking class. TK does not charge change fees if you are changing classes without changing your flight.
With TK I would be rather worried about:
  1. booking a fare with an OTA
  2. upgrading that e-ticket with TK
  3. going back to the OTA to up-fare
  4. losing upgrade because...well... it's TK world famous IT!!
But if you mean booking Priceline and then up-faring before calling TK, then as long as that change doesn't screw up the 24-hour cancellation I suppose that might work...
craigthemif is offline  
Old May 30, 2019, 3:08 am
  #577  
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 310
Originally Posted by craigthemif
With TK I would be rather worried about:
  1. booking a fare with an OTA
  2. upgrading that e-ticket with TK
  3. going back to the OTA to up-fare
  4. losing upgrade because...well... it's TK world famous IT!!
But if you mean booking Priceline and then up-faring before calling TK, then as long as that change doesn't screw up the 24-hour cancellation I suppose that might work...
yeah I wouldnt do it after the voucher. Too much risk losing the upgrade chance. I just wanted to say OTAs such as Priceline has the ability to sell different fare classes over the phone even if they may not list the classes on the website.
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Old May 30, 2019, 10:42 am
  #578  
 
Join Date: May 2016
Location: SFO, DUS
Programs: BA Gold (OW Emer), TK ELPL (*G), Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, IHG Gold
Posts: 528
Quick question as I have received conflicting information about this:
when you use the vouchers to upgrade an economy class booking, is the booking class on the ticket then updated to J class? Last time I used my vouchers this is exactly what happened and the reservation looks entirely like a J booking in the app, I was able to select seats, etc

But I have also heard that for some people, the booking class was not updated and a "comment" (?) was added to the reservation that an upgrade was applied.
I think in this case I would be rather nervous that I will actually end up in J

Any experience with this? Thanks!
SFOTraveler1984 is offline  
Old May 30, 2019, 10:55 am
  #579  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: CDG
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 1,607
Originally Posted by AirCanada881
Well all these data points are definitely interesting since they are contrary to what I've been told I will let you know once I book my tickets in a months time.
Just quoting myself here to update everyone, I can confirm you need an issued ticket number to look for upgrades, so I booked on Expedia CDG-IST-DPS/SGN-IST-CDG, all upgrades went through but the agent was abit slow which was annoying...

I'm afraid I won't be much help for availability, in every case, inventory showed C4 D4 Z4 J4 I4 R4... So a pretty straightforward case.
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Old May 30, 2019, 10:58 am
  #580  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: CDG
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 1,607
Originally Posted by SFOTraveler1984
Quick question as I have received conflicting information about this:
when you use the vouchers to upgrade an economy class booking, is the booking class on the ticket then updated to J class? Last time I used my vouchers this is exactly what happened and the reservation looks entirely like a J booking in the app, I was able to select seats, etc

But I have also heard that for some people, the booking class was not updated and a "comment" (?) was added to the reservation that an upgrade was applied.
I think in this case I would be rather nervous that I will actually end up in J

Any experience with this? Thanks!

My TK reservation still shows Economy but this is what I received from Expedia: (LOL @them still showing Ataturk...)

UPDATE: TK reservation on their website now shows Business Class.

Last edited by AirCanada881; May 30, 2019 at 11:07 am
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Old May 30, 2019, 11:49 am
  #581  
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: LAX
Programs: TK M&S, LH MM, Global Entry, Hertz Gold, Sixt Platinum
Posts: 1,087
Originally Posted by AirCanada881
My TK reservation still shows Economy but this is what I received from Expedia: (LOL @them still showing Ataturk...)

UPDATE: TK reservation on their website now shows Business Class.
didnt use Expedia, bought tickets at TK sales office, but I have a few vouchers and mileage upgrades where its a similar setup: no mention of J in email confirmation after upgrade, but definitely shows as J on app and website. Could only select seats on website for some reason.
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Old May 30, 2019, 11:54 am
  #582  
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Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Programs: TK Elite Plus,QR Platinum,BAEC GGL,ITA Executive, AFKL Gold, HH Diamond,Bonvoy Gold,ALL Gold
Posts: 14,181
Nice that AirCanada881 could use his vouchers smoothly.
I can't think where I am going to use two of the vouchers when I qualify for Elite Plus in July. Ex-Istanbul tickets have less availability in J class.
I don't want to talk big but I might end up using these vouchers in European routes
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Old May 30, 2019, 11:55 am
  #583  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: CDG
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 1,607
Originally Posted by ISTFlyer
Nice that AirCanada881 could use his vouchers smoothly.
I can't think where I am going to use two of the vouchers when I qualify for Elite Plus in July. Ex-Istanbul tickets have less availability in J class.
I don't want to talk big but I might end up using these vouchers in European routes
Come to DPS with me Can't wait to try the 787!
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Old May 30, 2019, 12:34 pm
  #584  
 
Join Date: May 2016
Location: SFO, DUS
Programs: BA Gold (OW Emer), TK ELPL (*G), Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, IHG Gold
Posts: 528
Originally Posted by AirCanada881
Come to DPS with me Can't wait to try the 787!
Haha I also booked DPS using my vouchers - but in August. Lots of J availability when I booked. Maybe because it is a new route...
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Old May 30, 2019, 12:35 pm
  #585  
 
Join Date: May 2016
Location: SFO, DUS
Programs: BA Gold (OW Emer), TK ELPL (*G), Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, IHG Gold
Posts: 528
Thank you @AirCanada881 and @gr8pirate for your reports re. booking class after upgrading the reservation!
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