john_t

I've been routine TK flyer back and forth US and Turkey since '93. I am used to its imperfections, but they are still the best option for many scenarios. I am currently trying to book a multi-city trip: BOS_IST-FCO and stay in Rome for a few days. Then FCO-IST-ADB, stay for 10 days. Return ADB-IST-BOS. This is for a family of 4 in August. In an effort to avoid multiple itineraries and throwaway tickets, I am trying to consolidate the travel to TK on a single itinerary.

First, the website multi-city tool gives an error every time I put in the above set-up (trying for a week now). Tried on Iphone, Ipad, PC (3 different browsers). So I called the 1-800 number and spent some time with the agent to set up the reservation. He also tried the website on his end and confirmed that the same error comes up. He set the flights, everything looked good, pricing set, then he puts me on hold for 20 minutes. He says he can't book the reservation because the system doesn't accept this set-up under a single itinerary. The system is forcing him to book it as multiple/separate itineraries, not simply connections. He says that I have to go to the local airline office at the airport to sort it all out and buy the ticket. I pushed back a little, trying to understand what the hell he was talking about. I am calling a major airline, which offers multi-city itineraries, he set it up for me on his end, confirmed the pricing, but can't complete the reservation? He then set up a request for corporate to call me back. So now I am waiting for the next 24 hours (until the temporary reservation expires) for TK to call me back. Let me just say that, from years of TK experience, I am not holding my breath on getting a call-back, especially when they are trying to move their operation to the new airport now.

A bit frustrated and the alternative airlines are so much more expensive that I am bound to make this work somehow with TK. Anyone else running into a similar issue?

mandilmos

I guess you were buying iy relatively cheap but I am %90 sure with current ticketing rules that wont be cheap for you any more. since last quarter of 2018 TK change the ticketing rules dramaticly ( specially for combinations).
so now system does not allow you to combine one leg of bos -fco to return leg adb -bos.

although I am %99 sure it is related combinations rules of the ticket, I cant explain you well :-(

as long as TK wont change them again , you wont be able to combine them cheap .

simple forget that cheap prices for now .

PVDtoDEL

I would recommend just booking BOS-FCO, ADB-BOS on one ticket, and a separate one-way FCO-ADB. It's not unusual to have difficulty issuing tickets when you transit the same airport 3 times.

john_t

About $1,500 per person which is a pretty good deal considering the alternatives start around $4,000 p.p. But most importantly, I am simply trying to buy a multi-city ticket that is priced as being available from TK, even by their own reservation agent on the phone. This seems to be logistical or computer problem deep in their system.

Oh and I just looked into the mechanics of buying the ticket from the airport. The airport sales are from 8-11 PM and there is no guarantee as to what pricing they will give me (according to the agent on the phone). I should not say agent, because it is actually Call Center, as referred by TK itself.

john_t

Another option we are looking at is 2 separate round trip tickets. BOS-FCO-BOS and FCO-ADB-FCO, with connections depending on the airline. We would just have to cross customs and re-check bags in FCO on the way back, which is an inconvenience we are willing to deal with.

Actually I just looked up your suggestion and I can ticket it from the Turkish Website and it comes to the same amount! You are a genius. Or I'm just not very smart We may definitely do this and we may have more airline choices too.

SK AAR

I doubt you will be allowed to ticket BOS-IST-FCO / FCO-IST-ADB // ADB-IST-BOS as a BOS-ADB return ticket; you are back tracking to FCO. You need to either ticket BOS-IST-FCO // ADB-IST-BOS (+ FCO-IST-ADB o/w on separat ticket) which most likely will be very expensive as FCO and ADB is not in the same country - or BOS-IST // ADB-IST-BOS + a separate return ticket IST-FCO.

deleter

Doesn't it make more sense to book BOS-IST-FCO; FCO-IST (stopover)-BOS and then just book a simple IST-ADB return on a separate itinerary, last time I checked TK was really liberal with stopover rules and the return to ADB from IST shouldn't be that expensive.

john_t

LAX21

I'm having similar issues with their stupid married segments. Trying to book OTP-LAX-OTP comes up as 3100+ EUR in K class. Booking OTP-IST-LAX-IST-OTP comes up to 2100 EUR in J. But the site gives an error, of course. The only way around this that's I've found so far is to try and find a day that works OTP-LAX on outbound and book LAX-IST-OTP inbound (or vv.)
Even more frustrating, I've been searching availability on EF and it seems that on 99% of the dates searched, if EF shows J4 this does not seem to reflect the real TK availability, based on what prices their website spits at me...

john_t

LAX21

No luck with the phone agents. I even went to my local TK sales office and they told me that it's a married segment that they cannot 'divorce'. Ugh. She showed me her screen where the availability was JC CC KC ZC, etc. Funny enough, if I wanted LAX-OTP, the system would be happy to sell me that same flight that was showing 'closed' but at a higher price (K bucket or higher)
I ended up purchasing the tickets with the layover in IST on the return segment, hopefully I'll be able to change the return once the outbound is flown...

flyerby