Dave69NewYork

Turkish Airlines announced that it is suspending service to China until February 09.

treb

I was booked on the flight to Shanghai on Feb 6, on the schedule BOG - IST - PVG with 16h layover, Business award ticket.
So I called the hotline to change the flight to HKG, seats were available in business.
However I had to learn that no award seats were available (only paid tickets), so they wouldn't book me on this flight.
Lucky enough the following day still award seats available, so now I am booked on this flight.

Instead of the 16h layover I now have 40h, and also I will not get the layover hotel (which was originally granted) because now I am not on the shortest possible connection.

I am very unsatisfied how TK is handling this situation. Of course I didn't plan to lose one day, and now I also have to pay for my hotel in IST. Is it normal that TK refuses to book me on the earlier flight? What happens if there are no award availablilities the next weeks - would they just leave people stranded in IST?

SK AAR

I think you should have waited a few days until a firm rebooking policy has been established. Most likely you talked to an agent who didn't know how to handle this except for requiring the obvious/normal; award seats need to available to accommodate a rebooking. Also there is a high chance that award seats will become available on the flight that you inquired about but currently shows no available award seats - tickets to HKG is not in high demand at the moment (to put it mildly).

treb

Thank you for your feedback.
I just checked and found that award space is available and called again, but no luck.
Only "Guaranteed" (C) available, while I booked with lower milage, and they won't let me go on this flight.
Thy are just treating me as if I wanted to do this change, and not like a flight cancellation where they should have different rules.
I also filed a complaint and received an answer from their customer relation center saying that these are their regulation.

Very disappointing!

ISTFlyer

The Turkish Airlines call center is operated by a 3rd party company ( whichever one you call ) so the agents do not have the power to open award inventory. However, if you visit a sales office, they would be able to process the change even though there is no award availability for the specific date.

I know, "visiting a sales office" may be strange and painful, but believe me, if there is one near your house/hotel, etc... it would be less painful to visit them compared to tell something to a hotline agent for 2 hours.

treb

I will try again tomorrow morning before checking in at the airport in Bogota ... although I guess my chances are very low, as they already rejected my complaint by e-mail.

ISTFlyer

By the way, do not check-in online if you’re seeking for a change. Proceed to the ticket counter instead of the check-in counter when you arrive at the airport; if you check-in before requesting changes, things may become more complicated.

tya

My mom has an award ticket HKG-IST-MAD on Feb 24. It appears now that TK is allowing pax on HKG flights to cancel trips for free.
The problem is, the miles she used included a slight portion which expired on 12/31 last year.
Is there a chance we can argue that the expired portion of miles also be credited back to her account? at least some sort of extension since it's not precisely like we voluntarily cancel the trip?

Or should we wait until if TK also cancels her HKG flight? (Or TK just won't make an exemption for that portion of expired miles whatsoever?)
Just wondering if anyone has similar experiences before. Any DP is highly appreciated!

ISTFlyer

If you cancel your ticket, you wouldn't get the expired portion of the miles back, however, you would get all of the taxes and service fees. Also, if TK cancels the flight you wouldn't get the miles back, in that case, you would have an open-jaw ticket and when you want to cancel it they wouldn't refund the miles, however, you would have the opportunity to use those miles by changing the cancelled to another date.

However, you also have the chance to change the origin to another destination in the same region. However, you might need to contact a sales office for this as the hotline would not able to open award inventory for flights that have no award seat remaining and might not do to a change of origin on your ticket. The hotline may do a date change without touching the route for free depending on award inventory.

tya

Thanks for the advice. Just talked to my mom and it turned out it's something more complicated. She bought her ticket (revenue ticket) but used the miles to get my aunt as a companion. I guess we will just wait until last minute to see if they cancel it, and call TK to see if they can keep the ticket like you said. I actually spoke to their office in TPE but they said I have to call their call center. Communication could be tough since English is not the first language of both me and the customer rep.

treb

Thanks for your adivce, finally everything worked out well.
First the lady at the ticket counter rejected, claiming that no seats were available. I instisted that seats are available, just in a different booking class. Then I was offered an economy seat, which I rejected ... after some discussion she asked her supervisor, then she did some sort of application in their system which got approved after 10min. The whole process took around 25 min.

Only bad thing ... they managed to lose my luggage.

SK AAR

Just to understand you correctly, at BOG ticket counters you managed to get rerouted to HKG rather than PVG?

ISTFlyer

As I understand so, yes. Technically in case of an IRROPS with TK you are allowed to change your destination for free if the new destination is in the same region ( TK region chart is considered determining regions ). This is valid also in case of a schedule change for more than 15 minutes.

treb

I managed to get rerouted on the hotline before due to the cancelation of the PVG flight.
On the ticket counter I was able to rebook to a flight one day earlier, which was not possible on the hotline.