I have flight from Asia to USA via IST. I have booked 3 awards tickets in economy class as part of same itinerary. After reading the post, I understand that I have to pay to select seats otherwise in last 24 hours when I check in, seats will be assigned automatically. I can change seats which have been automatically assigned at check in but then I have to pay. In other words, I have to pay before or during checkin, if I want to choose seats.

I see economy class configuration is 3-3-3
Will I get 3 seats together when system chooses it as I want family to seat together. The cost of choosing standard seats is around $60 per seat (both flights combined). Thanks.

Addendum: at check in, I got all 3 seats automatically assigned together without any fees.
In theory if I want to change seats now after automatic assignment on check in (I don’t need to), then it’s not free as mentioned in previous post.

Not necessarily. I OLCI'd but had to go to the desk at JFK to get my bp's, had added my AC Aeroplan number online but it didn't stick, had to retro claim the miles for one of the segments. Then it was time for HEL-IST, once again did OLCI but no bp. Counter asked if I have a M&S card. I said my AC Aeroplan should be in, wasn't so that was added. A few days later for IST-ATL I again OLCI'd this time I got a mobile bp but surprise surprise I was again asked about M&S so I had to give AC number again at the counter.

Looking closer at my bp stubs, HEL-IST and IST-ATL bp's had "FTAC" after checking in at the counter vs. the other bp's did not. Not a huge deal but worth being aware of.

Didn't fly with TK so far, so I just wanted to check one thing. Bought a ticket through my agent for J SFO-IST. It is a 787-900 and I presume the map I got from the agent (image below) looks a bit misaligned - D E F G should all be sets in the middle row (some of them with seats next to each other, the others with tables next to each other) and the K seats (as well as A) should be just single seats, right?

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...adce1d2f98.png

Yes, all correct. The distance between the seats is misleading in the map.

3K is a perfect seat for a single traveller.

Thanks for confirming. Will probably move to 2K, as the bed is near the window, not aisle.

Btw, while we are talking about this, any suggestions for J in TK 777-300, seems seat somewhere in G would be the best (as the toilet is on the left so the middle person might more likely move over the left person (as well as there are more chances that those two persons are travelling together).

Except for the middle seat all J seats on the B773 are fine IMO.
On my PTY-IST flight earlier this month, less than half of the seats in the C/J cabins were occupied, so had a window and aisle seats to myself :tu:

Well, what do you know, I guess TK is reliably unreliable! Fast forward a year from my original issue, we booked an itinerary with Booking.com which included 2 TK flights (CPH-IST and IST-BOS), mixed with some Iceland air flights for a stay over in Iceland. Booking.com was great - easy to set up the reservation, it took us to the TK system to select and pay for our seats for the TK flights. Once again, a week or so before our trip, our seats that we paid for on the Turkish flights disappeared. Calls to TK went nowhere - they had no record of any paid seats for us. Feedback Form did not work this time. Booking.com kept saying that all the seats should be fine, that our seat payment was sent to TK, but that was clearly not the case. Having dealt with similar paid seat problems with TK, I know that this was not Booking's fault, although that's who we ultimately paid. Long story short, we are now in a dispute with Booking.com for a refund of the TK seat payments, since we had to pay TK AGAIN to get seats for the family to sit together. This shouldn't be that difficult - TK needs to fix their paid seat IT issues once and for all and not have customers go through this kind of stress before their trip.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5035813e7b.jpg
As I understand, TK now wants everyone in Y to pay extra for seats, and if you don't, seats are assigned automatically at any point during OLCI?
And if you are not happy with that, chances are that you can't change anything just because TK blocks (assigns to all booked passengers) almost all seats before OLCI begins?
Not a pleasant perspective, given that they want 18 euros for a 2-hour flight.
Is there any way around all this trap (except paying exorbitant prices)?

TK does offer complimentary seating for TK Elite and Elite Plus members and in normal cases, the higher packages would include complimentary seat selection but I guess that the Romania - Israel market is not one of them.

At online check-in seats are assigned for a fee or randomly, however, the system doesn't assign every passenger who hasn't paid a random seat before OLCI begins.
People receive their seat assignments once they check-in ( either online or either at the airport ).

Also at airport check-in, seat assignments are free of charge and someone could get any seat ( including an exit row ) without any fee if available.

Earlier in the thread there are reports about almost all seats being blocked / assigned before OLCI. And that coincides with my (although not recent) experience on SIN - IST flight, when at beginning of OLCI all seats but 3-4 were blocked and I was assigned some middle seat. However I was able to change to 12A at the airport, but I was TK Elite at the time.

As IST says, maintain top or second tier status, then you can choose your seat for free. Incidentally this is the EXACT same as every other major trunk carrier in Europe (with the difference being that top tiers on the rest of them have a free crack at EE seats, while TK E and E+ do not).

It's really ridiculous to charge for all seats during online check-in.
Even almost all US airlines let you choose some seats during check-in for free. I understand charging for premium seats, but randomly assigning seats and charging for any change is very greedy of them.

I like to stand up more often than most people during transatlantic flights. And I'm okay with any aisle seats. This option now leaves me either to pay $40 each way for a regular aisle seat or disturb my neighbor every time I want to stand up...

Not exactly.
There are airlines which have small price difference between "light" and "classic" (or simular with seat choice included) fares.
There are airlines which do allow free choice during OLCI.
There are airlines which do respect their alliance top tiers of other airlines (in terms of seats choice).
TK does neither of this and it looks like I would only fly with them if they are way cheaper than others (which is rarely the case).

We have a segment on J in the A321-200 but the seat map on the app when performing seat selection shows 2-3-2 configuration for the entire flight, including business section which seems like a bug? Flight is still awhile away though

That’s TK. Even on their 777s, J is 2-3-2 seating. Kinda sucks if you’re in between two strangers. But I guess it’s still better than being in a middle seat in the back.