ISTFlyer

If you can't see the flights online or if a hotline agent could not see them on their system, I would suggest you to contact a sales office for booking your award ticket.
They should be able to search manually and find the desired flights and price them.

mintcilantro

Answering my own question here.

I can see single legs online but I cannot see connecting flights even if they are on the same airline.

I'm calling turkish to see if they will help me ticket it.

ISTFlyer

Please don't forget to report back your experience with the TK hotline.
Thank you.

mintcilantro

The hotline was able to see AI flights.

Ultimately I could not book AI because I needed two seats and only one was avaialble.. I got a really stupid agent and I did HUCA and then this new agent knew what he was doing and helped me book SFO EWR BOM on UA. Note that this itinerary could not be seen on TK website. I could see the individual segments but not both as one ticket. The connection time is < 4 hours.

I got the UA confirmation from him and select seats on the UA website. TK can be painful but it provides solid value if you can put up with the hassle.

ld0891

For Air China domestic ticket, the agent was able to put it on hold for 24 hrs without fuel surcharge. A bit shorter than TYP transfer which took ~36 hrs but still, redemption rate is pretty good.

bodiddely

Just booked a 7500 mile UA ticket to Hawaii for my friend. Transferred in yesterday from Citi, arrived about 18 hours later. Saw that the flight I wanted (IAD-HNL) was available with LifeMiles so I knew it was partner-bookable. Checked Turkish online Star Alliance booking engine but it wasn't showing (although connecting flights were). Ended up having to call Turkish 3 times (as instructed here) https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.c...ver-the-phone/ before I found an agent who could help me. The first agent seemed only vaguely aware of what a Star Alliance partner award was but insisted it couldn't be booked over the phone.

2nd agent was a lot more saavy and asked me for origin/destination and date etc. He found the flight I wanted but said United "has not made it available for booking by us" and said he had also "checked the other system" to no avail. He claimed United might be updating their system and try to call back in 2-3 days.

HUCA and get another saavy seeming agent. He found the flight I wanted as well, said it was available, but he had to "confirm with United." Ended up putting me on hold for 30 minutes while he confirmed with them, then brought me back on the line to ticket with credit card and mileage code pin. At that point I got a text message and email from Turkish saying 7500 miles had been deducted for a ticket for my friend's name, but the agent said I still had to hold we he "confirmed everything with United."

Ended up being on hold another 30 mins before he comes back and confirms me email, then sends me the e-ticket.

All told once I had a competent agent on the phone it took about 75 minutes. Not sure what the hold up was but glad I finally got it booked! 11 hour, $600 flight for 7500 TYP is quite a deal. Felt super good to be able to gift to my friend who was planning to travel to Hawaii for Xmas in any case.

mintcilantro

I needed to make a change on one of the flights I have booked using TK miles. The hotline claims only ticket offices can change the dates. Any experience making changes to an existing ticket?

It seems like it might be easier to cancel the original ticket and book a new one. I was trying to save the 30 minutes it will take an agent to note down names and DOBs.

ISTFlyer

The hotline agents should be able to perform changes, although it might be difficult to find a willing agent.
By the way, if you cancel and rebook, you would need to pay the $25 cancellation and mileage reinstation fee per passenger. If you solely change the dates without canceling the ticket, you would not pay any fees for the changes.

gr8pirate

I haven’t traveled in almost a year (but that’s another story), or kept a close eye of developments on TK FT, but given how little complaining over cancelled flights I’ve noticed here, it seems like TK are doing okay in that regard.

YOW_RTW

A data-point to pass along (Star-Alliance J-class Award on AC - Web-site: FAILED. Hotline: SUCCESS!):

I tried to book a domestic J award on AC today using the TK web-site. I was immediately able to find the flights that I wanted and the required miles and taxes were calculated. Interestingly, the required mileage was only 25,000 for a round-trip domestic J versus the 30,000 listed on the TK "Promotional Award" table. Unfortunately, I was unable to get past the passenger selection page without an error message. I called the TK Hotline hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. In this case, I was so very fortunate to have a highly competent agent on the first try who found the availability, deducted the same mileage rate as the web-site (25K), processed the taxes over the phone, and issued the e-tickets within a pleasant 15 minute conversation! I wish every experience with TK was like this one!

ISTFlyer

Thanks for the update YOW_RTW .

As many people had success booking a *A award at the TK hotline, I would modify the WIKI of this thread that booking via phone is now possible, but needs a competent agent.

no_idea

I was able to book 2 UA C- Awards (MUC/SFO)for 09/2021, only around amazed $125,-/ticket T&F. Very surprising, the webpage without any error message.

Tifosi

Another data point, just had an identical experience as YOW_RTW. I found a domestic AC J award on the TK website but it gave me an error message after I had selected the passenger. I called the TK hotline and had it ticketed, paid for, and the miles deducted in a 16 minute phone call with a very helpful agent.

TravelerMSY

A minor victory. Booked UA SFO-DFW in I class online for 12.5k miles without incident

fenix8o0

I'm forced to book two mixed cabin tickets because TK doesn't allow it. Would TK check through our bags to final destination if I could combine the tickets?