Seat Selection [Master Thread]
 

I have a *A award booking, and I'm attempting to get seat assignment. So I call Turkish 800 number for the US. I go through the menu, selecting changes to existing reservation. I get the following recorded message, not quite verbatim:

"Our office is presently closed. Our reservations hours are Monday through Friday, 9am to 8:30pm Eastern Standard Time."

As I type this, it is 7:46pm Eastern Daylight right now. I've tried to call twice today. Where else can I call?!

Turkish Airlines Reservations
 

You can call directly to Istanbul 011 90 221 444 0849. These lines are open 24/7 and everyone speaks English.

Wonderful. Thankfully Vonage and Skype are cheap for international calls.

Please let us know if you are successful with this. I have tried several times to call Turkish Air in Istanbul with very limited success. In the past I have had much more success with their 800 number here in the US, so I am concerned that it does not seem to be available any longer.

I tried once more - today in fact - with the 800 #. I'm hard of hearing and had an extremely difficult time understanding the woman's accent. I gathered something about having to wait until October for seat assignment. My flight is mid January, so I assumed some kind of 90 day rule.

That, or there's an aircraft change. The ANA tool shows the IST-ORD-IST route switching from A343 to A330 on October 24. Thus, my January flight shows A330 with ANA. However, TK website still says A343 for the route regardless of date.

You can choose seats starting 24 hours prior flight, online at www.thy.com online cehckin section. You can even print out your boarding pass and just drop your luggage at the counter.

Choosing a seat other than that, as far as i know, is only available during the booking process.

That's disappointing, since I'd like to try and make sure the two award seats I've got are together and not wait until the day before - I may not be able to check in online while in Istanbul.

Would also love to know if the route will be switched to A330 in winter, and if not - whether the 3 remaining A340's will be converted to the new C seats by then. (As far as I can tell, as of end of April, 4 out of 7 had been converted.)

No other way to reserve a seat other than 24 hrs before?
 

You mean there is no other ways to get a seat of your choice? My travel agency also told me that she got a response, "TK RESPONSE NO SEAT SELECTION THIS FLIGHTS"

Anyone has other type of experiences?

According what I've read and what I've been told, seat assignments can't be made more than 100 days prior to the flight. I was told as much when I finally spoke to a TK agent to get C seat assignments together. Agent told me I would need to call back in the first half of October for my January flight.

Respomse from Munich Office
 

The guy actually told me that I could only get a seat request 7 days in advance. But I fly economy of course. Perhaps they have a different set of rules.

But I really found it so hard to believe.

I think that's for intra-Europe. For intercontinental wide-body flights I've usually been able to obtain a seat assignment about 3 months prior to flight departure.

Their phone system is a joke. For days I've call the 800 number in the US and any option I select either disconnects me, gives me someone's direct voicemail or rings endlessly.

I finally chose the option "New ticket sales" and was routed to a woman in Turkey, or at least Europe based on the ring, and got the ticket change and seat assignments I wanted. Forget going to the existing reservations / changes options, they'll fail you.

I am flying TK BOM-IST-LON-IST-BOM (Y class) at the end of this month and so far I have been unable to get seat assignments of any kind. Not through the website and not through talking with agents.

I have been told to wait until a few days before I travel, but surely this is quite unacceptable (and it probably won't happen anyway). The TK website is quite woeful, too.

So, my first impressions of TK are quite bad, and I will probably not book with them again.

How can such an incompetent airline become a member of the Star Alliance? Standards are certainly falling. And Egyptair is next.

:rolleyes:

When can I book seats?
 

I have a return in C booked for next February LHR to CPT...I have rung Turkish and they say I can not book seats...but cannot say when I can...is there a time before when they allow us to book? Tx

Yes, TK don't let you book seats until a certain period before the flight. I think it is 90 days before departure but others with more knowledge will know better.

Just booked some tickets for x-mas '09 and the website said 100 days for seat selection.

I called TK in London today to get D&G seats in the F cabin for myself an the Mrs. and 3 successive agents failed to assist - the first insisted that I was an economy pax, the second said the same, the third insisted that only H & K seats were availble (in First???) and then left me on hold...

My last call has me worried - the agent insisted that the aircraft was indeed a 77W and proceeded to offer me J & K seats (which sounds like C config on a 333). I queried it, but was told not to be worried. I queried how there chould be J & K seats in the F cabin with a 1-2-1 config. She sounded very worried by my questions, probably because I knew more about it than she did. :D

In the end, she gave me D & G, as I requested, but told me they were not together. Any wisdom on the board?

For Business class :
You can make seat assignment about 90 days b4 your departing day.

For economy class :

Short haul (Europe,middle east, north africa) flights 7 days b4 your departing. 90 days for long haul flights.

I knew about the 90 days for J. But didn't know that it was 7 days for short-haul economy. Thanks. ^

Mystery solved. Flight downgraded from 77W to 333. :(

Been offered a choice of F on an inconvenient later flight, or C on the originally booked service. I'm likely to accept the downgrade, so I can arrive in time for dinner with friends in IST.

Will TK still allow me my limo transfer, if I accept the downgrade from F to C, do you think?

I saw another "A/C Downgrade 777 to A340 1st class booked" It's odd... I am wondering what will tk do?

Thanks for that clarification. Now I know why I couldn't even see a seat map for my IST-TBS segments at the end of the month. Interesting seating policy though, especially for *A Gold members. A la BA's crazy seat assignment policy.

Y Seat selection
 

Hi. Just booked a Y trip BHX-BKK vv for next Easter so obviously too early to select seats. Within 90 days of the flight, will a 'select seat' option become available in MMB or will I need to phone somewhere to get a seat selected?

Thanks.

Seat Selection
 

It looks to me like you can't pre-select seat in Business (or Coach for that matter) early. Is there any way around this? We are traveling from JNB-IST-FRA in Business but it is next year. Thanks

If you are flying business and you-ve bought your tickets well in advance, you can usually call the airline three months before and reserve a seat then. Flights don-t open for seat selection less than 100 days before departure.

Some further information just in case it-s useful at some future stage: if you book online at Turkish Airlines within 100 days of departure you can also select a seat regardless of whether you are are travelling economy or business.

Seat Selection Economy (W Class)
 

I made an international reservation that will transist Istanbul (but have not paid for it yet) for a cheap seat in Economy on the TK USA website.

When I tried to choose a seat, I got a message saying something like seats could not be chosen for a "short while" or until several months in the future.

Does your advise that Business seats can't be selected until T- 100 days apply to deep discounted economy seats?

My outbound flights is not until January (almost six months out) and my inbound flights until March (about eight months out).

I had a bad experience on China Eastern with moving target of when I could request a seat (that was eventually moved to only being able to request at check in), and don't want to pay for a ticket without having a decent chance of getting an aisle seat.

If I call shortly after T -100 days for each flight, will I have a good chance of getting an aisle seat. Other than being *A Silver via United, I have no status.

I'd say you can go ahead with the booking, calling them at T-100D will surely make you get an aisle seat.

I went ahead and booked. The airfare was just over $ 1000 for NYC->PEK r/t which is a couple hundred less than UA or any other *A flight, and it will give me a chance to take the free day tour TK offers international transits passengers.

The reservation agent (paid on the website to save the fee however) said he was "certain" I'd get an aisle seat at T -100 d, and thought I'd have a good shot at the roomier seats just behind business with my earlier reservation. UA recently announced service between EWR and IST as well. Flying on New Year's Day (so I get EQM credited for 2013) should make it easy as well.

I had a lot more confidence in TK keeping their word about letting me book T -100 D than MU which is the other cheap flight. Besides, *A is better (IMHO) than ST, and MU only credits 50% RMD/EMQ to Delta, the other FF plan I am elite with.

Anyway, I will update in a couple of months (hopefully) about my success in getting my aisle seat.

I have a roundtrip flight from ORD to IST in November. I understand that I can't choose seats for about another month, based on the dates and a 90-100 day leeway.

My question is how will I best be able to choose seats, should I call the airline or can I do this online.

When I last called the airline, I couldn't get the hold music out of my head for a week. I hope that there is an online option. :)

As far as I know, there isn-t as yet an online option for this. The only way is to try and ring the call centre.

OK, thanks for the reply. It appears I will get that hold music stuck in my head again....:)

You don't have to call IST, instead you could call your local office (if there is one). The music was amusing.

I booked my flights for late Oct. on thy.com and they told me when I can pick my seat.

For long haul is 100 days before departure, and for intra Europe flights it 7 days before departure AFAIK.

After reading this thread I called asap to Istanbul to get a good window seat for my IST-HKG Comfort Class flight. No queue, no on hold, the guy in the 24h reservation center was service minded and prompt for my requests ^. I´m surprised positively; although in near future customer should be able to reserve his/her seat online like I do with LH, SQ and other. But I´m happy now, got best seats...

In year 2012 calling the airline(who markets itself Europe's best airline) for seat assignments is simply not acceptable.

Yep - online services are easy to create, but their hard product is good however.

Short-haul "intra-Europe" seat selection in Y
 

This is my first time buying a regular Y class ticket from IST to European destination. I read somewhere here that you can select seats 7 days in advance. Or is it possible to call them now? (It's just such a nightmare talking to TK reservations.) Can one select an exit row in advance? I am *G if that helps. On TK domestic they are good about putting elites in the front of the plane where they have better seats.

If I put the TK PNR into the website then I don't see any seatmap link. I actually bought the ticket on UA's website because it was much easier and no service fees.

I've done Y booking class short-haul in eco (in combination with CC long-haul) and then I recall selecting a seat during booking. Luckily I managed to upgrade these flights.

Do a dummy booking on thy.com and see if the seatmap is showing. If yes - you can select seats for the particular flight by calling/emailing callcenter or sales office.

Does anyone know if TK now blocks bulkhead seats and the 2 seats rows at the back of their 777?

I called TK today to get seat assignment for me and 3 kids, and they told me that those seats are gone (seat map opened yesterday) and it's very strange that they are all gone.

I'd very much like the 2 seats row because I can easily get to my kids and they don't have to sit next to strangers.

Right now I have them in a row of 3 and me in the middle row aisle. It's ok but it's not easy to get to the one sit by the window.

Thanks in advance!

AFAIK, they seems to block bulkhead seats in B777 (reserved even in Comfort Class when seat map opened 100 days before flight) and maybe those last rows have already booked by pax from call center?

I don't think TK used to block any seats - we used to get bulkhead everytime we call the call centre.

The last rows could also be blocked because AF blocks them by default. They call those seat Depotee seats.

I called office in HK because they seem to be able to do the same thing as the call centre people in IST. Calling IST is a hit and miss.

Just called IST call centre and I got the last 2 rows :)