I am not sure if hotline agents could assign seats at the moment - it might be left to airport control for all flights, however even if the hotline is able to assign seats, your request may be rejected as you're not traveling within the next 72 hours.

Shoot, my lack of experience with Turkish award tickets led to the ignorant question. I read some more and realized the lack of ability to assign J seats isn't a usual "feature" for TK like it is for Y seats, but that this is specifically an adaptation for Coronavirus. That makes a lot of sense and I certainly don't want to tie up agent resources for something 200 days out. Thanks for the info!

Yes, the current block is due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation.
They simply blocked the seat selection for all flights to allow social distancing on flights which are scheduled later this month.

And, yes, if you're traveling Y, you would not be able to select seats for free until 100 days before departure, for J it's 355 days before departure.

The app still doesn't allow me to select seats, so I was curious and I contacted the Call Centre. The agent was helpful and allowed me to select the seats for all flights for flights all the way in December. My reservation was updated instantly.

He kept suggesting 2A and I just said yes... He must have thought I really want that 2A. I will probably change it to something else later on when the app lets me do it. I'm on a B77W, B789, and A333, anyone got suggestions for seats? Which side of the plane has the best views when landing in IST?

I usually prefer the right-side on IST arrivals as most arrivals to IST are from the south and the views are better.
However, for arrivals on from western cities ( mainly Europe and North America ), you wouldn't see much scenery except newly built residential areas.

Agree that right hand side seat generally gives you a better view of the city when landing from south to north. Keep in mind that seat 4A/K on the 77W and seat 5A/K on the A333 have a window missing. I believe some seats on the 789 have one window missing as well but since I haven’t flown on the TK 789 yet I don’t know which exact seats.

Just booked a paid business class ticket on the Turkish website for Feb/Mar of 2021. It's 262 days until the departure date, I wasn't given an option to select seats during the booking, I get given the buttons to change seats managing the booking, but everything is greyed out.

What's the deal here? I can't figure out why they make this so difficult. Is the only reliable way to get seats selected is by calling, what's probably an overworked call centre? Seems kinda nuts and a waste of everyone's time.

The online seat selection function is disabled to ensure social distancing as possible on flights. It would re-open when things get normal. I know it's strange to not be able to select seats online for travel in 2021, but the TK IT team has found it easy to disable seat selection for all flights rather than formatting something different for flights on closer dates.

Unfortunately, for now, you have to call the hotline or wait.

Oh, you know what, that's totally fine by me. I can understand that. Definitely easier to just disable the whole thing. Would've been nice for THEM to tell me that, but oh well :). Thanks for the heads up.

On the website it will show greyed out, but on the app it has an info icon and displays the following message: "Seating arrangements on flights will be in accordance with coronavirus prevention measures. Seat selection will not be permitted on these flights".

My flight is for Dec/Jan. What you can do is ring them and they will select the seats. It will update automatically on your side too, but the option to select/change seats will be greyed out still.

Thanks for the heads up, just booked a JL award and I'm wondering if it's the same deal with them, I click the seat change thing and basically just get sent to the same menu. I might try giving both a call, I just hate making those calls lol

I have no idea about JAL, sorry.
Probably it's the same deal.

I have 2 trips: in September and November (moved from March & May, respectively). To my surprise the message is gone and yesterday I was able to assign seats through the App.

Just checked and I can change mine as well. Noticed something odd: For my 787 flights the even number G seats in J are missing, making the row of 3 rather than a row of 4. Website bug, or Turkish will change their 787 seats (unlikely)?

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8121e3ac62.png

It's a known glitch on the TK website.
Normally, the configuration should look like;

R1: A EF K
R2: A D G K
R3: A EF K
R4: A D G K
R5: A EF K
R6: A D G K
R7: A EF K
R8: A D G K