Oct 28, 2019, 12:32 am
Last edit by: sammyg901
Last Updated: 21 AUG 2021
Due to various changes to the TK IT-system booking partner awards has taken a great step back. Details below.
Online: Potentially working?
See recent (July 2022) posts - it seems possible to ticket *A online IF you can find availability. A lot of availability does not show. If you can see X or I class on ua.com but not on turkishairlines.com then likely a ticket office can assist
Since August 2021 the online *A ticket payment flow is broken ("continue" button does not appear on the credit card entry page) so transactions cannot be completed. No known workarounds
From 18 Nov 19, you may continue to book partner awards online for selected airlines, routes and options. Not all options that you could book with another partner is bookable through the TK website.
Availability could be checked online via the United website without being a MileagePlus member with the book with miles tool at the flight search engine. Note: For UA flights, check 'X' fare bucket, for other airlines check Saver Award.
TK Hotline: Partially working
From recent reports ( fall 2020 ) in this thread, it is now possible to book *A awards from the TK hotline although still, not all agents are capable to do it; you might need to HUACA multiple times to find an agent that knows how to book *A awards. Although, it's strongly suggested to make your own research on availability before calling them.
Sales Office: Working
A sales office could book *A award tickets. You could call, e-mail or visit them in person. Some offices do not answer phones or do not reply to e-mails so visiting them in person would improve your chances to book a *A award ticket.
First class award: Not working
TK has stopped issuing first class awards since at least September 2019.
Due to various changes to the TK IT-system booking partner awards has taken a great step back. Details below.
Online: Potentially working?
See recent (July 2022) posts - it seems possible to ticket *A online IF you can find availability. A lot of availability does not show. If you can see X or I class on ua.com but not on turkishairlines.com then likely a ticket office can assist
Availability could be checked online via the United website without being a MileagePlus member with the book with miles tool at the flight search engine. Note: For UA flights, check 'X' fare bucket, for other airlines check Saver Award.
TK Hotline: Partially working
From recent reports ( fall 2020 ) in this thread, it is now possible to book *A awards from the TK hotline although still, not all agents are capable to do it; you might need to HUACA multiple times to find an agent that knows how to book *A awards. Although, it's strongly suggested to make your own research on availability before calling them.
Sales Office: Working
A sales office could book *A award tickets. You could call, e-mail or visit them in person. Some offices do not answer phones or do not reply to e-mails so visiting them in person would improve your chances to book a *A award ticket.
First class award: Not working
TK has stopped issuing first class awards since at least September 2019.
Everything You need to know about booking Star Alliance awards with Miles&Smiles
Jan 13, 2018, 9:49 pm
#196
Join Date: Jan 2008
Programs: BA Gold, AS MVP, TK Gold, Bonvoy Titatium
Posts: 162
I need to issue a ticket on LH with TK miles departing today (Sun) from HKG and was directed by Call Center to HKG airport office to issue the ticket yesterday (Sat). However TK airport office denied my request as they are managed by SATS which do not issue redemption ticket. Call center then directed me to feedback and raised case for me, but after waiting till 3am I was asked to go to Official TK sales office to issue my ticket. I called back and raised another case but till now 12.47pm I still didn't get any reply from them. Can anyone help and direct my case any airport office that can issue ticket on behalf? Please PM and your help is greatly appreciated.
Jan 14, 2018, 12:11 am
#197
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Denmark
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 11,834
You cannot wait for someone to respond to your complaint; it will take days/weeks. Call the TLV office and ask if they can help you (I hope they are open on Sundays).
I may be that you have to forget about traveling on a redemption ticket today and have to buy a normal (but maybe very expensive) last minute ticket.
I may be that you have to forget about traveling on a redemption ticket today and have to buy a normal (but maybe very expensive) last minute ticket.
Jan 14, 2018, 6:55 am
#198
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: YOW
Programs: TK E+, AC 25K, A3 S, UA S, BoNVoY TE
Posts: 103
Has anyone had any recent success booking Ethiopian (ET) business class awards using TK miles?
The ability to book ET business class awards has disappeared from both United and Air Canada's web-sites; neither airlines are showing ET J awards on any routes, only Y availability. There have been threads in both airline's Flyertalk pages about the disappearance of these awards.
ET J award space is still visible through ANA's web-site, but I do not know if it is bookable.
Would appreciate if anyone has any recent success (last 6 months) booking ET J awards.
The ability to book ET business class awards has disappeared from both United and Air Canada's web-sites; neither airlines are showing ET J awards on any routes, only Y availability. There have been threads in both airline's Flyertalk pages about the disappearance of these awards.
ET J award space is still visible through ANA's web-site, but I do not know if it is bookable.
Would appreciate if anyone has any recent success (last 6 months) booking ET J awards.
Feb 1, 2018, 8:32 am
#199
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Cologne
Programs: FB Plat, IHG RA Spire, TK Elite+, HH Diamond, LH SEN, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 972
Just like to share my recent experience of booking Star alliance partner flights with TK miles.
I wanted to fly from FRA to New York. I wanted to do this in LH First Class but as you know you have to wait until 14 days out. So I first booked Lufthansa J for 2 of us FRA -> NYC. I called the Elite Plus line, they sorted it out in no time and I then had to visit a sales office, I used Dusseldorf airport.
When availablility opened up for FRA - NYC I called the elite plus line and they created me a new reserveration and I had 3 days to go to a sales office. I first went to Cologne airport and they could not figure out how to pay for the flight or anything, even after several phone calls to head office. I then visited the sales office in the centre of Cologne and the same, no idea. In the end I drove back to dusseldorf airport and it was seemless. They refunded my J class flights as I needed the miles and then paid for the F flights. It took about 45 minutes, there was some issues with refunds as it's very difficult for them to refund to a card and they don't carry 500 Euro's in cash. Fortunately I just paid the difference in taxes between the J and F so avoided this problem.
I wanted to fly from FRA to New York. I wanted to do this in LH First Class but as you know you have to wait until 14 days out. So I first booked Lufthansa J for 2 of us FRA -> NYC. I called the Elite Plus line, they sorted it out in no time and I then had to visit a sales office, I used Dusseldorf airport.
When availablility opened up for FRA - NYC I called the elite plus line and they created me a new reserveration and I had 3 days to go to a sales office. I first went to Cologne airport and they could not figure out how to pay for the flight or anything, even after several phone calls to head office. I then visited the sales office in the centre of Cologne and the same, no idea. In the end I drove back to dusseldorf airport and it was seemless. They refunded my J class flights as I needed the miles and then paid for the F flights. It took about 45 minutes, there was some issues with refunds as it's very difficult for them to refund to a card and they don't carry 500 Euro's in cash. Fortunately I just paid the difference in taxes between the J and F so avoided this problem.
Feb 2, 2018, 1:39 am
#200
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: PRN
Programs: LH HON* || HH Diamond || Accor Gold
Posts: 1,271
Dear FTs,
I used miles to book a return ticket KBP-IST-KBP for travel in July 2018 (the miles were to have expired on 31 December 2017). If I now cancel the award booking and request miles to be re-deposited, what would be their expiry date?
Thank you for your feedback.
I used miles to book a return ticket KBP-IST-KBP for travel in July 2018 (the miles were to have expired on 31 December 2017). If I now cancel the award booking and request miles to be re-deposited, what would be their expiry date?
Thank you for your feedback.
Feb 2, 2018, 2:38 am
#201
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: TK E+, RJ S, AZ E
Posts: 1,869
You can change your travel dates (as long its not more than one year since the time of ticket issue) if an existing award class exists.
Feb 5, 2018, 6:11 pm
#202
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Programs: NZ*G, QRPC Gold
Posts: 127
Thanks everbody for this thread. Super helpful.
It appears the 'visit a ticket office' or 'return a completed form' approach is inconsistent to say the least. Any ideas for what I might expect when booking an award flight on Air New Zealand (yes, there is availability) for an Australia-> New Zealand flight (one way award).
Will I need to traipse to an office (which means I won't book), or can the taxes etc be paid remotely?
It appears the 'visit a ticket office' or 'return a completed form' approach is inconsistent to say the least. Any ideas for what I might expect when booking an award flight on Air New Zealand (yes, there is availability) for an Australia-> New Zealand flight (one way award).
Will I need to traipse to an office (which means I won't book), or can the taxes etc be paid remotely?
Feb 5, 2018, 6:16 pm
#203
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia and Stockholm, Sweden
Programs: VA Platinum, SQ Gold, TK Gold, Hhonors Gold, Accor Plus Platinum, Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Premium
Posts: 1,022
Thanks everbody for this thread. Super helpful.
It appears the 'visit a ticket office' or 'return a completed form' approach is inconsistent to say the least. Any ideas for what I might expect when booking an award flight on Air New Zealand (yes, there is availability) for an Australia-> New Zealand flight (one way award).
Will I need to traipse to an office (which means I won't book), or can the taxes etc be paid remotely?
It appears the 'visit a ticket office' or 'return a completed form' approach is inconsistent to say the least. Any ideas for what I might expect when booking an award flight on Air New Zealand (yes, there is availability) for an Australia-> New Zealand flight (one way award).
Will I need to traipse to an office (which means I won't book), or can the taxes etc be paid remotely?
Feb 23, 2018, 11:54 am
#204
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 66
as >20k miles would have expired this year, I booked a one way J class ticket on Austrian Airlines JFK-VIE for 45k miles.
The hotline was knowledgeable and if you entered you M&S number before being connected, they already have all the personal information from the profile. I had my reservation after 10min call where most of the part was just confirming my data from my M&S profile.
The Reservation is valid for exactly 72h - now the tricky part: getting the fees calculated and paid.
MIA Sales Counter:
As I was in Miami, I went to the Miami airport sales counter (just the last counter of the check-in area).
It has limited hours as it's only open around a TK flight (TK doesn't operate daily out of Mia, so it's also closed certain days).
The agent initially sent me to Lufthansa to pay the fees but as expected, they couldn't access the reservation, so I got back to the TK counter.
The agent called IST and tried to go through the process but said to have technical issues and asked me to write an e-mail to the customer service team at [email protected]
MIA Customer Service:
The Miami Customer was quick to respond that they are working on it but also had issues with the reservation as the system seemingly said that there is no space available on Austrian although there was.
So after some inquires and 2 days of checking on the status, it seemed that we had hit a dead end.
JFK Reservations:
As I flew back to NYC and the reservation was about to expire, I decided to give it a shot and e-mail the JFK reservations team ([email protected]) and they were very quick to respond with the amount to be paid ($524) and the forms to be signed for the credit card payment and the issuance of the award ticket. I sent back the forms and minutes later had the confirmed ticket in the mailbox. They were also able to provide the Austrian Airlines booking code, which I used to reserve my seat on lufthansa.com (somehow it doesn't work on austrian.com) and to add the reservation in checkmytrip.
So I could have saved a lot of time by just e-mailing the NYC Ticketing team and I know the fees are ridiculously high but Austrian is the only option for direct flights to Vienna and my M&S miles would have otherwise expired.
All in all I'm happy that I was able to use the miles to get on my preferred date on the direct flight to Vienna even-though it came at a premium price.
The hotline was knowledgeable and if you entered you M&S number before being connected, they already have all the personal information from the profile. I had my reservation after 10min call where most of the part was just confirming my data from my M&S profile.
The Reservation is valid for exactly 72h - now the tricky part: getting the fees calculated and paid.
MIA Sales Counter:
As I was in Miami, I went to the Miami airport sales counter (just the last counter of the check-in area).
It has limited hours as it's only open around a TK flight (TK doesn't operate daily out of Mia, so it's also closed certain days).
The agent initially sent me to Lufthansa to pay the fees but as expected, they couldn't access the reservation, so I got back to the TK counter.
The agent called IST and tried to go through the process but said to have technical issues and asked me to write an e-mail to the customer service team at [email protected]
MIA Customer Service:
The Miami Customer was quick to respond that they are working on it but also had issues with the reservation as the system seemingly said that there is no space available on Austrian although there was.
So after some inquires and 2 days of checking on the status, it seemed that we had hit a dead end.
JFK Reservations:
As I flew back to NYC and the reservation was about to expire, I decided to give it a shot and e-mail the JFK reservations team ([email protected]) and they were very quick to respond with the amount to be paid ($524) and the forms to be signed for the credit card payment and the issuance of the award ticket. I sent back the forms and minutes later had the confirmed ticket in the mailbox. They were also able to provide the Austrian Airlines booking code, which I used to reserve my seat on lufthansa.com (somehow it doesn't work on austrian.com) and to add the reservation in checkmytrip.
So I could have saved a lot of time by just e-mailing the NYC Ticketing team and I know the fees are ridiculously high but Austrian is the only option for direct flights to Vienna and my M&S miles would have otherwise expired.
All in all I'm happy that I was able to use the miles to get on my preferred date on the direct flight to Vienna even-though it came at a premium price.
Feb 23, 2018, 12:19 pm
#205
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: TK E+, RJ S, AZ E
Posts: 1,869
Feb 23, 2018, 1:24 pm
#206
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 66
Mar 4, 2018, 7:58 am
#207
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: HKG/ SIN
Posts: 203
Hong Kong: has anyone booked/ ticketed a Star Alliance award in Hong Kong? Can I go to the office in Wan Chai? It is only 5 minutes walk from my office so I thought I might even skip the hotline? Are they competent? Would like to understand this first before transferring the points to TK. Thanks in advance!
Mar 4, 2018, 8:44 am
#208
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: CPH
Programs: UAMP S, TK M&S E (*G), Marriott LTP, IHG P, SK EBG
Posts: 11,086
Hong Kong: has anyone booked/ ticketed a Star Alliance award in Hong Kong? Can I go to the office in Wan Chai? It is only 5 minutes walk from my office so I thought I might even skip the hotline? Are they competent? Would like to understand this first before transferring the points to TK. Thanks in advance!
Mar 6, 2018, 11:04 am
#209
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: YVR/YUL/LHR/HKG
Programs: TK Gold
Posts: 576
Hong Kong: has anyone booked/ ticketed a Star Alliance award in Hong Kong? Can I go to the office in Wan Chai? It is only 5 minutes walk from my office so I thought I might even skip the hotline? Are they competent? Would like to understand this first before transferring the points to TK. Thanks in advance!
Mar 7, 2018, 2:17 am
#210
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: HKG/ SIN
Posts: 203
Thanks! So did you pay for a star alliance award? How did you book it? Which number (local HK number or US or...??