LH4116

I think yoy are better off using those miles on something else as cash fares BKK-SIN are quite low. I've found fares of 200 USD return on SQ.

Bumping the thread: have anybody successfully managed to book a Star Slliance award with Miles&Smiles? Also is it possible to book Japanese domestic flights? The chart states a price of 7500 miles for a domestic one-way in Economy.

nacho

I'm wondering about that too - I'm thinking about booking an UA award and if it's only 7.5k then it's a great deal (UA will require from 10k to 25k).

TPJ

This is absolute B.....IT - TK will have to collect payment and issue the ticket. Then settlement is via IATA Clearing House once the ticket is used - it is called 'interline agreement'.

Call again - request for supervisor. If not complaint via Facebook or online form.

LH4116

I tried calling them to make a Star Alliance redemption the other day. Boy what a cirkus! Typing in the M&S number resulted in the call getting cut off, so I had to call the regular reservations center and have them connect me to Miles&Smiles. After being connected to 5 different agents, I finally get one that seems somewhat competent… Until s/he accidentally hangs up the phone.

merijn

He is not completely wrong.
Yes TK can and will collect the fees/taxes for Thai flights.
But as i found out TK does not accept online payments and you have to pay at a TK office in person or as in my case via a ATM machine.
I booked 2 Thai Business class tickets via TK office in Bangkok (without any problem by email) as Istanbul office is useless.
TK office in Bangkok informed me that TK is not accepting online payments and if i would like to use a credit card i had to do this in person at there office or i had to use a ATM machine in Thailand. (where i live )

LH4116

I booked an award ticket today, or well sort of. The office in Istanbul gave me a booking reference with confirmed flights but the tickets still haven't been issued. Miles haven't been drawn yet, but I'm guessing they will be drawn once the payment of the taxes is made?

Anyways my nearest ticket office is at Arlanda Airport and I'm wondering whether I have to go there myself to pay the taxes or if it's possible to do a bank transfer or send the money via envelope in cash? It's only €4,30 that I have to pay in taxes. Also did they charge any service fee for making an award booking?

nacho

Did you book an US domestic ticket?

LH4116

It's a Japanese domestic itinerary. Can't get in touch with the Arlanda office by phone.

vincewy

It's amusingly bad if you're not involved with the shenanigans.

To describe how inept the customer service area is (this can be either on the phone or ticket office although the former is much worse), I just tried to cancel a very simple one-way award ticket, just €20 fee which I'm completely aware off and gave the code using phonetic alphabets, agent told me the system was down and couldn't process it. Even more amusing, the agent transferred me to someone else at TK who can't speak English (agent didn't want to deal with it). Good thing I have a little bit of knowledge in Turkish and the employee just laughed with me.

For OP, please, don't bother with *A award on short haul, worst value for your miles. For 45000 miles you can get one-way award from Europe to Bangkok (or Kuala Lumpur if unavailable), in fact you'd still be ahead buying another 45000 bonus miles to make this round trip, unless you're based in OSL and ARN, which J fares are bargains.

BKK/DMK - SIN market is so saturated with capacities that airlines are almost willing to give away tickets just to fill seats, hoping you’ll buy something onboard or add luggage fees to boost revenues. Shop around and see how cheap those fares are.

vincewy

I just sampled one airline randomly (Tiger Air), 1 month from now during the day, with 1 piece of checked bag and a meal on board, RT for 240 SGD ($200 US).

For OP, unless you're obsessed with *A lounge (you can pay for lounge accesses at either airport) and TG, please save those miles for long-haul award on TK. Otherwise you can give me those miles and I'll buy the ticket for you of the airline of your choice in economy

nacho

So does the domestic itinerary costs 15k return according to the new table?

I'm thinking about booking domestic US and I wrote to CPH office and they haven't replied (I doubt that they will).

TIA!

LH4116

Yes that's according to the table. There is a dedicate chart just for domestic flights, similar to what Miles&More has. The problem is that most of the agents aren't well informed about the chart and didn't even know the price of my award, so I would expect there to be some discussions when they try to charge me the cost of an intra-Asia award when I'm flying Japanese domestic.

Oh well I am giving up on even trying to have an award ticket issued. It's simply impossible as the ticket office doesn't respond to my email and the on-hold period is about to expire. Don't want to drive all the way to Arlanda only to be told that I can't issue my award at the ticket office.

Strangely now it also seems that even TK awards have to be paid and issued at a ticket office. It's no longer possible to book award tickets online on TK metal. Un friggin believable…

geminidreams

Last week I rand the local office in Australia to book an award ticket on a star alliance partner. They then gave me a number that connected to Turkey. One hour on phone on hold and gave up. They don't seem to want you to book award tickets.

parabone

Well...i dropped the idea of using my TK miles on an award booking with TG simply because TK customer is completely awful...first they tell me taxes& fees are around 30 euros, but when i finally get to the airport....100 euro.

I booked instead a Jetstar ticket at a bargain price.

However, i had to use my miles since my travel plans suddenly changed.So i booked an award one way business ticket from BKK to CPH via IST.Can anyone recommend a good seat? Night flight.

TK customer service is absolutely zero.They still owe me 40 euro for cancelling one award booking ( 2 pax).They charged me 40 euro for each pax instead of 20.They charge 40 euro for miles refund in case of no show, while i cancelled the booking in person at TK office in Bangkok.

One other thing. When i went to the airport to get my award ticket, the female TK staff had no clue about newmiles and smiles program.

Amazing.

merijn

I used the TK office in Bangkok to book two award tickets on TG without any problem.
I did everything by email but the only thing is that you only can pay the tax in person at the TK office (they don't accept remote CC payments) or by using an ATM machine in Thailand.
As i live in Thailand this is not a problem for me but i can understand that this is a issue for others.