nomiiiii

I have Star Alliance gold through Singapore Krisflyer. I can show this status on my phone/printout etc if needed.

I have an economy cash ticket bought on Turkish airlines/Turkish metal, and would like to earn United miles on it (so united frequent flyer number attached to reservation). I don't have any united status.

Is there any way for me to take advantage of star alliance gold priority queues and the turkish istanbul lounge while still having my united mileage number attached to it?

ISTFlyer

For the TK Lounge in Istanbul, agents would not let you in, unless they change the FFP number on the boarding pass.
For fast track queues, agents generally glimpse at boarding passes, and do not scan anything, thus a flash of a *G card and TK boarding pass could work but YMMV.

matthewgolf34

I am looking at ORD-->IST--> ATH this fall which shows J availability on Turkish metal. It previously showed on partners, but disappeared 2 weeks ago. Is it simply random if it will show up again on partners?

I'm debating just using all of my Citi points to book via Turkish. I would prefer to save my Citi points but also understand it is risky to not just book.

ISTFlyer

Hi ​​​matthewgolf34 and welcome to FlyerTalk!

Relying on partner award availability is risky as it totally depends on demand and if you are traveling on a popular date, partner availability might not come back. Although, it's known that if a flight is empty partner availability might appear closer to the flight date when algorithms detect that they wouldn't expect a certain amount of empty seats.

matthewgolf34

Quite helpful. I appreciate it as well as the warm welcome

Newbury newbie

Well I’m supposedly going on a SE Asia cruise in January 2023, boarding in Hong Kong and sailing to Singapore. So, recently I’ve been looking at our options for getting out to HKG and returning from SIN in business class. We live in the UK but I’m warming to the idea of getting TK flights from AMS to IST to HKG and back from SIN to IST to AMS. Dummy bookings are giving me BC return fares of £1,495 each, so just under £3,000 for me and the wife. I reckon those fares will not be beaten and significantly cheaper than TK, BA, and QR out of LHR. So I’m on the cusp of booking these flights for next Jan/Feb 2023, but wary that I’ve got a lot of money at risk.

To save me trying to understand the small print of booked fares (these are J fares I’ve noted) where do I stand if Covid is still keeping HK closed and my cruise itinerary changes. There’s a possibility this could switch to sailing out of and back to Singapore. If so, can I amend these tickets? And at what fee? Also, if it got completely cancelled, can I get a cash or voucher refund, and again at what sort of fee?

Saintsfanatik

If I have just disembarked from an international flight in Business Class, at my final destination, is there anything stopping me from hanging out for a while in the Business lounge before I leave the airport?

ISTFlyer

Turkish Airlines does not offer lounge access on arrival for Business Class passengers at any airport.
If you are speaking at Istanbul, without a valid onward boarding pass, you wouldn't even be able to get into the departures level.

ibn_battuta

Hello, I had an open ticket on Turkish Airlines that I used to make a booking from Brussels to SFO for April 18th. That was one month ago. There was a difference in charge that I had to pay and I've been waiting for a month for the head office to "confirm" the price before I can pay. My flight is in 10 days and the reps keep telling me that someone will be in touch soon. It's always only 1-2 days away. How concerned should I be getting?
Is there a chance they just don't get around to confirming the price?
Are they going to tell me on April 17th that the price is actually double that?
It's a very important trip and my customer service interactions with Turkish don't fill me with a great deal of confidence.

starflyergold

If are based in Brussels maybe try the TK desk at Zaventem. I found them to be very helpful.

ibn_battuta

Thanks starflyergold, i checked on the Turkish Airlines website and the Airport office number is the regular call center number. Is there another specific number for the Zaventem office?

ISTFlyer

If I understand correctly, starflyergold was trying to advice that it would be essential to show up at the office/ticketing desk at BRU in person.

starflyergold

That is correct.

KL808

Sorry if this has been discussed a million times, but couldn't find the answer.

On award travel is the system/website broken to book more than 1 person?

ISTFlyer

If you have no previous transaction on Miles&Smiles and are trying to use your miles for the first time, you could only use them for yourself online.
Otherwise, the system is working and I am able to book for more than 1 person at a single attempt.