A Turkish colleague is wondering about the authenticity of a shuttle service that claims to be free for THY passengers, "Shuttle 777," www.shuttle777.com, that connects LAX and San Diego. The THY call center rep she reached said he had no knowledge of any special arrangement between THY and this service, and there's no phone number on the website. Anyone have any insight on the whether this is a legitimate and reliable service?

Looks like a scam to me, for a few reasons:

-Offer seems too good to be true
-Not mentioned anywhere on TK's website
-Not professionally done (hotmail email address)
-They happen to want email address and ticket number, the combination of which could be useful for stealing FF data or similar.


That said, I would recommend calling TK's LAX Sales Office (http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-in...e/sales-office) to find out. If this is a scam, then TK needs to know about it so that they can shut it down. If this isn't a scam, then you have your answer

I tried entering a random number, and it said "no passenger found". Would that perhaps suggest that they match it with the database or something?

A quick WhoIs search tells us that the site is registered by a "Four Seasons Tours and Travel" based in the Korea Town area of LA. My guess is that once you get on one of these shuttles they suddenly ask you for a "service fee" or something along those lines, or else they won't take you.

If you want to speak to them yourself, the phone number associated with the site admin is (213) 381 8000, which happens to also be the business phone number of Four Seasons Tours and Travel. Below is a link to their (very sketchy) Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/Four-Season...2850396160807/

It states very clearly that it's not provided by TK. I suspect that it's organised by some TA that they offer something if you book through them.

It is an authentic service which is provided for Turkish Airlines passengers, the shuttle service is operated by a third party company. The website and system is currently in the late phases of the development stage and early phases of the implementation stage.

The shuttle requires booking and currently only travel agencies can do that. Notice "Travel Agency Login" on the upper right corner in the web site.

Travel agencies make shuttle bookings based on ticket numbers and email address. After booking is complete, passenger receives a voucher, which they will use with a photo ID to board the shuttle. However should the passenger not receive it or accidently delete it they can search their voucher in the main page using their ticket number and email address.

That is why putting in a random number will not yield results.

Turkish Airlines is also promoting this shuttle service. They just did a few events last week in San Diego for travel agencies in the area.

Thanks, PVDtoDEL for confirming that my suspicions are valid, and thanks to TK8853 (welcome to FT!) for the information. I'm leaning toward believing that this is a legitimate promotion. To echo the theme of another thread, the fact that this is unprofessionally done, poorly promoted and not even known within the company is actually a hallmark of TK marketing! We also found a facebook post (warning: extremely Turkish male attire!) from a San Diego Turkish community organization that would seem to substantiate 8853's claim that they are promoting this within the community. Since my colleague is threatening to use Uber from LAX to San Diego instead ($150 fare, I think she said) I'm going to encourage her to give this a try and I'll try to report back on her experience next week - whatever Four Seasons might try to extract in fees or tips will surely be less than the Uber option...

Oh, and yes, we tried calling the TK LAX operations and sales offices but didn't manage to get through to a human. Never before have I encountered an organization with so many voice mailboxes...

Say what you want, but you gotta love the half tuck!

My colleague reports that she used this service successfully a few days ago and, to my surprise, actually reports having had a pleasant experience! The shuttle worked exactly as described on the website, no tips or fees were solicited from her, and she made it to San Diego significantly faster than she would have if she had gone the bus-to-Amtrak route.

The Hotmail address listed on the website took her ticket number and confirmed the shuttle reservation on a direct booking with TK, so booking one's ticket with an agency seems to be unnecessary.

By http://www.shuttle777.com/default.php I sent my flight information and they sended me back an confirmation mail and voucher but they never show up. I taked FlyAway shuttle to Union Stations and I traveled to San Diego by Amtrack...