Palal

TK is advertising TATL flights starting on June 10 (e.g. 2x daily IST-SFO). They've just announced that they'll restart flights within Europe on June 18 which means 2 things:
- No connections will be possible from non-Turkish origins
- The fact that they'll restart TATL flights is very much in doubt.

So what happens when an average person buys a ticket on them, TK eventually cancels the flight and then refuses to refund the $$ for 3+ months?
Also - they'd have to pay EU 261/2004 compensation to customers whose flights are canceled within 2 weeks of the flight date. What are the chances of them paying it? (I'm guessing close to zero).
What kind of crazy & shady business practices are these? Grab your customers' money and run? Waaay to earn your customers' trust!

ISTFlyer

Not to be confused. The press consultant of TK, Mr. Yahya Üstün has mentioned that the previously planned ex-Anatolia to Europe flights are planned to be resumed on 18 June. Here is the tweet. Many media companies have interpreted this tweet in a false way that flights would resume.


I'm also not finding right that TK is making last-minute cancellations but their strategy is to cancel these flights last minute, get the much as money as they could, then refund it according to the Turkish law which is 60 days after the flight restrictions have been lifted. Also, when it comes to EC261/2004, I assume that they would say that Turkey is not accepting inbound pax at the moment so it's a government restriction which is considered as an extraordinary situation.

And, yes, you are correct in your last sentence. That's their strategy.

warakorn

Almost all airlines are following the same strategy. Again, some passengers will always fall for these tricks.
My advise: Do not book anything at the moment!

This is up to the court. If a German court has jurisdiction (that happens for ex-Germany flights on TK) it won't accept an extraordinary circumstance excuse, if the government restriction was already known to the airline when selling the ticket. Not all government restrictions are extraordinary, esp. if they are known already.

Again, if the flight would depart from German soil then EU/German law applies -> cash refund is mandated within 7 days. A German court couldn't care less about Turkish law, esp. knowing the political situation in Turkey.

craigthemif

Agreed. I really do laugh sometimes at the people so desperate to travel that they are booking multiple flights instead of just waiting and booking when the situation is clear. I'm a 100,000+ mile per year flyer with multiple hotel elite statuses, and I won't be booking anything until 2021 at the earliest since I like having my money in my bank account and avoiding aggravation...

A Turkish company is going to ignore "German law / German courts" until you go get a court ruling in Germany, which will take you much longer than 7 days and probably longer than 60...

During the last few months, lots of people have mentioned "the law" in various jurisdictions. This only matters for the tiny handful of people willing to go to court - the rest of us depend on the company policies in place and any special treatment being provided to elites, protections via a credit card, etc.

nacho

I saw Chinese students in the US bought like 9 sets of the tickets to see which flight doesn't cancel (they are desperate to go back to China during summer holiday).

ISTFlyer

With 9 sets of different tickets on different airlines they could have easily chartered a jet

nacho

Yes, I read that a Shanghai mum chartered a flight back to China.

mlqsko

Fortunes are made in time of crisis. Just because you're sensitive enough to wait for 2021, doesn't necessarily mean everyone else agrees

You can laugh at the people who bought Europe-Doha QR tickets and now have flights to Australia instead.

PS: There are people with less than a dozen of hotel nights a year and still have "multiple hotel elite statuses"... barely means anything these days

craigthemif

Yawn... They don't have "flights" to Australia. They have tickets that they may or may not be able to use should Australia keep its borders shut. And FWIW, changing tickets to Oz is based on the decidedly dodgy assumption that going to Oz is better than Asia, simply because it's farther away.

Feel free to tie up all of your money in "airline vouchers" or prepaid "flexible" hotel reservations that are never refunded. I prefer cash. Judging by the massive number of complaints about airlines not processing refunds, most people agree with me...

wcreek

I have never understood why people blame others instead of taking responsibility for their own actions? If it ain't gonna fly don't buy the ticket, if you are repulsed by the corporate policies, once again, don't buy the ticket, your pathetic whining and sensational click bait headline is not gonna change their policies. If you didn't actually go ahead and bought the ticket then maybe its time for you to grow up and stop obsessing with the things you can't control or change?

Palal

If the policies are clearly advertised on the website, saying "we haven't made up our minds about whether we're going to fly flights in the next month, and you may lose access to your money for 3 months." then I have no problem with that. At the moment, they're not saying that on the website - so it IS disingenuous on their part.

P.S. this is flyertalk. Whining and clickbait forum topics is what this site is about

mesuttoker

You have to consider that airlines industries are not like reguler businesses.If you want to fly to certain destinatios, you have to make your plans aaccordingly and most of the times weeks before. As all we know, sitiation evolves so fast even sometimes it is changing daily if not hourly. So I believe if they wait for everthing settle down, than that means no flight for a long time. And my personel opinion,if I got a good deal I would take the risk.

ISTFlyer

mesuttoker , the problem is that all other airlines announce cancellations and schedule changes at least 15 days before departure while TK waits until the very last minute ( 1-3 days before departure ). Also, other airlines have cancelled smaller routes ( in terms of demand ) for the entire season as they know they would not operate it. Even Pegasus Airlines did this. However, TK is still trying to "keriz avlamak" ( find and trick uninformed people who are not lenient towards the situation ) and get their money. It's pretty obvious that TK would not have x8 daily CDG flights or x3 JFK flights on 1 July but they are still selling them and IMO, they would try to sell tickets until somewhere between 25-28 June.

Also, if I get a good deal, I could take the risk but this doesn't mean that I would prefer TK over an airline who has a precise schedule for the near future.

Palal

I think that's key - if you're travelling now, chances are you need to and a relatively-reliable schedule (even if it's down to ±1 day) is what people are looking for when they're looking for options. TK is once again showing that when stuff hits the fan, they don't take care of their passengers.

I ended up re-booking on LH and won't come near TK for quite some time, deal or no deal.

ISTFlyer

I also booked my long-haul travel to the USA in July with QR. They were $500 cheaper ( worth the long detour ) and they would probably not change their schedule at the last minute. Probably I would also consider flying QR on my next USA trip later in the fall season - currently booked with BA for that trip but I assume that BA would not resume their night-stopper IST service for a while.

For a while, TK would only get my money on domestic flights and shorter international flights if there are no cheaper alternatives.