EK788

Has anyone ever faced an issue where there is definitely space in J (as says so on Expertflyer as well as my travel agent's GDS) however TK says that J class is closed?

I'm flying with my wife next month and we are both E+. I called to use our upgrade vouchers and was told that I could only use mine and that I'd have to hang up and call again to do my wife's due to the automated PIN entry. While doing my upgrade I made sure to ask about availability for my wife and I was told that J is wide open and that I wouldn't have any problem.

Fast forward about 10 mins and I call back to upgrade my wife's ticket, I was told I could only upgrade 1 leg as the other leg had no J availability. I HUACA but I was told the same thing. My travel agent was able to make me a booking in J so it definitely wasn't a case of phantom availability.

TK drives me crazy sometimes. Is there anything you guys suggest I should do? I plan on calling the TK sales office here in ACC tomorrow however I don't know how knowledgeable they are on E+ Upgrade Vouchers.

craigthemif

Call the US hotline via skype. They processed my E+ upgrade with reasonable efficiency.

EK788

I always call the US hotline via the 1-800 number, but no dice this time (at first). AFAIK, all the 24h customer service numbers get directed to the same call centers.

On my 5th call I finally managed to get through to someone who could see availability in J and processed my wife's upgrade smoothly.

TK has a lot of work to do if they want to stay competitive and have a good customer retention rate - especially with their IT systems and employee training.

vincewy

Instead of replying here I think it's better to reply here, since this involves difficulty upgrading as opposed to general guidelines with regard to upgrading.

I'm having same issue as OP trying to upgrade using vouchers, it seems TK has practically zeroed out J fare buckets to most (if not almost all of) city pairs. To upgrade successfully, it requires flexibility, long term planning, luck, and quick action if you see J fares popping up, as if you discover treasures these days.

By just using YYZ as example, the only J fares available are going to IST (very expensive Y fares), ATH, SJJ. All other cities to Europe only have K fares or higher. Trying to use the voucher(s) with longest routes? Good luck, from NAm to East Asia, I'm only seeing ORD-China (PEK,PVG,CAN), the rest all start with K.

craigthemif

ex-North America to East Asia is not a particularly relevant sample for "zeroed out J buckets". Few airlines are going to sell cheap J fares for the long way round, when most North Americans would fly to East Asia over the Pacific. TK can earn a lot more money selling a YYZ-Europe to one person and a Europe to Asia to a second person.

Perhaps YYZ is harder than others (because of the relatively limited number of flights EK, EY, etc. are allowed to Canada), but I had my choice of most North American TK destinations for an upcoming trip over there on pretty much any date.

And others have mentioned in the main thread, you can always call and see if your upgrade will clear into K or higher.