KryptonionNipple

Hello I am fairly new here as well as being new to the whole travelling experience. Here is my story. Me and my boyfriend have booked to go to Japan from the UK, we have booked our flights with Turkish Airlines through Travel Republic.

My question is, we wanted to see if we can upgrade our seating from economy to business class since it will be a 20 hour flight. How do we do this? Can we do it at the gate?

Any replies would be great as well as advice to Japan, thank you!

ksandness

I have never taken Turkish airlines, but as far as advice about Japan is concerned, read some of the existing threads on this forum and buy a guidebook. (If you don't like paper guidebooks, the Rough Guide--and perhaps others-- is available as an e-book.)

sooge_sj

This question is not specific to Japan. Since it is more about upgrading a TK flight, you might get a better response if it was posted on the "Turkish Airlines | Miles&Smiles" forum.
Maybe the moderator can move it to that forum.

tobegold

TK offers upgrades at check-in if available, not sure how much they charge.

duvin

Check http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/turki...-upgrades.html

SK AAR

You should inquire at check-in. If seats are available upgrade for cash or points should be possible. I have no idea how much you will be charged to upgrade to JPN. It should be 45,000 points if you are member of M&S with TK.

pineapple_juice

45,000 miles + "limited capacity" business award space

craigthemif

You can inquire at check-in. It's not going to be cheap. Staff in London (or wherever you are departing the UK) are probably not able to give you a cheap upgrade all the way to Tokyo, just to Istanbul.

If you fancied travelling in Business Class you should have been looking out for special fares. For example, there was briefly a Qatar Airways offer for 700 pounds or so. Flyertalk has a great Premium Fare forum for things like that.

Japan is fun. Be prepared for one of the weirdest, sensory-overload experiences of your life if you wander around Tokyo whilst jet-lagged.

dvs7310

BTW, it's nowhere near a 20 hour flight, I think the worlds longest flights are only about 18 hours. You'll have a few hours to Istanbul, a break at the airport there, then about 10-12 hours from Istanbul to Tokyo. I've taken the IST-NRT flight many times.

Any upgrades offered will be on a segment by segment basis. You'll have to attempt to upgrade your IST-NRT at IST somewhere. My best guess is that you should start at the transit counter before clearing transit security. However you might have to clear immigration and go to the main ticketing desk in the check in area. I don't know about TK, but many airlines can't process upgrades on the spot and limit it to the ticketing desk. Last time I asked about Y+ to C upgrades was LAX-IST and I believe they told me $1600, it wasn't bad considering the normal business class fare on the route but was hardly a no-brainer bargain either. Another, more likely, issue you may run into is lack of availability. TK's C cabins on the A330 are quite small and fill up with paid C fares quickly. Unfortunately we lost 777-300 service a year or two ago.

duvin

There is a ticketing desk in the secure area as well.

altitude75k

"TK's C cabins on the A330 are quite small and fill up with paid C fares quickly. Unfortunately we lost 777-300 service a year or two ago."

Agreed. Prefer the 777 over 330. Losing comfort PE was a big loss. LOVED it!