This is the long-haul thread, check the short-haul one for Manchester.

Sorry - where is the short haul thread please?

Ah - right - got it thanks!

I have a 1 Sept BKK-IST-BRU and doubt BKK will be open...wait and see...
Returning home 30 Sept might even be more of a problem being a foreigner...

Question:

I have Two separate PNR's booked with American Express on TK for June 30 JFK-IST-MRS-LYS-IST-JFK . Both PNR's outbound date is June 30 and returns are different. This is for me and my wife. TK sent us cancellation notices on both. I called TK to cancel and have them issue Miles in our Miles & Smiles account and they told me to do it from the Web as they were issued by a Travel Agency. I submitted from Coronavirus Related Request Form Yesterday and got a reply today that I have to contact American Express for them to submit the request. Has anyone experienced something Similar ?? Usually when cancellations happen ( I had tons this year under same conditions with booking with Amex ) I have always dealt with the airlines when Cancellation was initiated by the airlines themselves.

Should I contact AMEX ?? I thought this could be easily taken care of through TK Website.

I am Elite +

If you booked with AMEX then probably best to call them to handle the cancellation - especially with a company like TK where CS during IRROPs isn't known as being stellar... good to have AMEX lean on them a little if necessary.

Thank you for the reply

This is so stupid, Amex will have a tough time handling this with trying to have them add miles to our respective accounts. The TK Website clearly indicates that this can be done via
online form, Call Center or ticket offices. If I chose an open ticket option and then changed the destination I would have flown within the same region would AMEX need to go to a TK OFFICE to re issue the ticket ??
I am going to wait for replies on this Forum before I proceed . Basically TK by being so difficult that it is forcing us to go for just a simple REFUND and lose revenue.

Dave69NewYork ,

If you have purchased your ticket via a third party agent ( in your case: AMEX Travel ) you need to contact them.
This was always the case for third party bookings. TK would not touch the booking.
A sales office agent would not touch it either. You must contact AMEX Travel, they must contact the dedicated travel agent department at TK and perform the change.

This is not a TK-only thing, some other major carriers do the same thing such as the Lufthansa Group, British Airways, etc...

People asking questions and advise from ISTFlyer about the things that not even Minister of Transportation nor TK does not have an answer or can confirm :-) Meanwhile the announcing of restart and cancellations continuing hand in hand and restarting dates move further to late summer/autumn.

Yes, that's why I've written some remarks at the WIKI.
It's true that I could only tell what's available on the booking system and the Turkish Airlines website.

More postponements are likely.

Thank you ISTFlyer !!

Bogota and Havana which was not on the WIKI are now added to the list over there.

ISTFlyer trying to get Miles and Smiles into your account in Lieu of a Cancellation of your ticket is A NIGHTMARE !!! called Turkish Airlines they told me to call agency to get the Miles into my account instead of refunding through Amex. I called Amex I had them call TK but TK told AMEX that they have a SPECIAL CODE that Amex needs to get from Turkish Airlines SALES OFFICE in Chicago via Email in order to get the code and enter into the System in order to get Miles into TK account !! This is such a hassle !! Amex called TK Chicago office and they did not answer. So now, AMEX is sending an EMAIL to TK Sales office in Chicago with both PNR info in order to get a code to then cancel tickets and get miles into account.

Let us see if Chicago office will answer. If they don't , then I will get a REFUND because we have the refund codes. I can not believe how difficult TK makes it EVEN FOR AGENCIES to get Miles refund into an account. Basically they are forcing people to get refunds and they are losing revenue.

Dave,

The TK hotline agent you talked first was right, they don't have the power to touch travel agency bookings. All transactions must be handled through your travel agency ( AMEX Travel ).
Also, the refund with miles option only applies for bookings through Turkish Airlines directly ( website, hotline, sales office ). So you would not be able to get miles for your cancelled flights. It's either an open ticket or a full refund.

AMEX Travel should contact the TK corporate sales office ( in your case: Chicago office ), and they must handle the situation for you. By the way, even though AMEX Travel starts a refund process, TK would not refund them until 11 August 2020 ( according to Turkish law ) unless you file a chargeback or a DoT complaint.

By the way, I would like to remind you that I am not a Turkish Airlines employee nor I work for one of their subsidiaries.

Dear ISTFlyer I never thought that you were a TK Employee. I put you in context because you are quite knowledgeable in these matters.

TK told Amex that Apparently if Amex contacts TK Sales office that they would give them Codes to enter into system to get Refund as Miles into TK M & S Account. Let us see what happens.

One question for you:

IF I want to make these tickets OPEN JAW with validity till Dec 2021 what do I need to do ?? Or what does AMEX need to do ??

And IF we make them OPEN JAW , then how do I book my Open Jaw ticket ??? With Amex or TK Directly ??

Thank you for your insights.

Sorry if I misinterpreted you.

If you would like to convert your ticket to an open ticket, you would need to contact AMEX travel. They would probably need to do something in their system or contact the TK corporate office in Chicago.

When you would like to use your open ticket, you would need to contact AMEX Travel again, they must reissue the system, either via their system or via contacting the TK corporate office.

However, unless you bought your ticket with AMEX points that expired or something similar, I would suggest that you get a refund as being in the triangle of ( passenger-TK-TA ) could be generally painful in case of an IRROPS as it is now.