SkyLight8

My husband got injured and complete bed rest for few month. Doctor suggested that I had to take care of him and provided doctor notes. I have flight in around 36 hours with Turkish Airlines. My husband was not supposed to travel with us, only kids are travelling with me. We have uploaded all documents - surgery report, doctor notes, proof of relationship but we are not getting reply from Turkish Airlines. What are my options?
1) Rescheduling I don't know what date I should travel again, so rescheduling is not a good option.
2) Cancellation, they don't give much refund - its close to nothing.
3) Use Citi credit card benefits, it covers trip cancellation and delays. please suggest if anyone has similar experience, which options is best? Thanks in advance.

max_kolesne

Use your Citi card trip insurance policies. It would be the easiest.

SkyLight8

Thanks. We should thinking about filing class action law suit, as I did not see anywhere in terms and condition or fare rules that Turkish airline does not allow trip cancellation or delay due to medical reason. I saw many people has similar experience and Turkish airline did not provide any refund.

PVDtoDEL

When you buy a non-refundable ticket, it means that the ticket is not cancellable regardless of reason. The airline does not need to provide a comprehensive list of all the possible reasons you may wish to cancel your ticket.

This is an issue for your travel insurance - do not expect help from TK (or any other airline for that matter).

max_kolesne

That doesn't make any sense. No airline sells tickets with "non-refundable except something" policies. Non-refundable, as a term, is pretty self-explanatory.

cagcag

class action law suit?? Based on your personal misfortune? Try credit card insurance if it exists.

cagcag

And welcome to FT!

SkyLight8

Thanks for responses. I will try credit card insurance.

Based on experience I heard from others with different airlines, due to medical reason airline issued voucher which can be utilized within a year and in some cases they allowed rescheduling with paying fare differences. Both cases make sense. When person has medical conditions, they are bound to pay many medical bills. It should be courtesy from airline to help when person needed their help most. My agent told me only Turkish airline is one of the airline which does not cover medical reason/waiver. I saw many post on internet has similar problem with Turkish. Thought to throw an idea, not sure it is feasible or not. We will make sure that we don't book ticket with Turkish airline in future.

Often1

Just as you should carefully review the contract you have, you should review your travel insurance policy, apparently through a Citi card. Does your Citi policy cover your need to cancel in order to take care of someone who is not traveling with you? If not, then your Citi benefits will not help either.

As to TK, it is TK. Some carriers have specific contract provisions which cover situations such as this. You are not ticketed on one of those.

Threatening a lawsuit is the worst approach unless you can point to a contract provision TK has violated.

max_kolesne

"Should" and "shouldn't", and then a class action are different subjects. Don't also forget that TK is the national airline of a country where medical care for citizens is free, so they probably do not consider a person with medical conditions as someone who is bound to pay many medical bills.

craigthemif

In order to file a "class action", you would need to find thousands, if not millions, of fellow travellers (plus lawyers) equally deluded to believe the ludicrous notion that "non-refundable" is actually refundable if you have an excuse...

You should have travel insurance, perhaps through a credit card. That's what it's there for...

Truffles

Amazing....

FWIW, Mrs Truffles broke her leg in Turkey in our last trip. She had to have a spare seat next to her so she could have her leg elevated during flight. TK was full so medical insurance booked her on a BA flight. Nothing TK could do about it, even if they were willing. That is what insurance is for. She got her free seat, but lost out on a hot meal, or any free meal at all, free beverages and IFE. I can see why TK was full on IST - LHR and BA was not.

Voldoo

Really difficult for me to have any sort of sympathy for people that feel this entitled. And I think we are forgetting this critical element in all of this:

Why would Turkish Airlines issue a refund due to a medical issue for an individual that was not even booked to fly? I don't think your Citi Travel insurance will be beneficial at all either for the same reason. Best of luck to you.

max_kolesne

Feeling the same regarding sympathy with you. But, about insurance, many insurance policies have clauses for medical reasons relating to immediate family members as far as I know. Therefore, Citi Travel could cover something.

Often1

This thread points to the importance of reviewing one's travel insurance policy word-for-word. I know any number of people who can tell me what hotel cost will be reimbursed, but have no idea whether their policy covers medical evacuation to their residence or only to the closest medical facility able to treat.

Travel insurance is rarely costly and it can be quite comprehensive.