DaveS

Would have been tempting without the 2 week quarantine returning back home

ankomonkey

Yes! It's a sweet deal that I now doubt I can take advantage of - I cannot justify taking my kids out of school for 2 weeks due to a great value trip to a country requiring quarantine when returning to the UK. We have flights booked for October half-term that I now need to cancel and for February half-term that may just survive if Covid numbers go the right way.

Romanianflyer

Would have been even more tempting if TK would actually have its proper soft product back.

I'm giving it a hard pass now if all I get is a carton box with a pre-packaged sandwich and a single small bottle of economy-class wine. The only way TK will get a big share of its frequent flyers back in the air is by admitting that their emphasis on "safety and cleanliness" is a false narrative and by reverting back to their normal pre-COVID19 on-board product.

ISTFlyer

As;
- Gastarbaiter travel decreases in the winter. No high-revenue O<-->D pax on these routes during the winter.
- Turkish citizens are not permitted to visit the Schengen area ( some exceptions apply but 99%+ of Turkish can't still travel ), plus UK & Ireland has a 14-day quarantine at arrival.
- Ex-Europe transatlantic travel is not possible without a 14-day stay in Turkey ( USA ). Canada is closed for most people. Maybe Europe-IST-Brasil is possible but connecting passengers to Brasil would not fill out planes.
- Ex-Europe eurasian travel is also not possible for many people due to the border closures in countries in the Far East.

Plus more;

So, it makes sense for TK to make a promotion on ex-Europe flights to Turkey as it would encourage filling the loads, encourage people using miles when the loads are pretty low, plus it would encourage more people to choose Turkey for their vacation.

SK AAR

Is this promo for flights to/from Turkey only - or on the entire TK itinerary if buying an award ticket to/from say GRU via IST?

ISTFlyer

The final destination of the passenger should be in Turkey so this offer is not valid on international connections through Turkey.

SFOTraveler1984

Is this targeted? The app is showing me the standard number of miles for a Germany-DLM round trip in October (30k) in J.

ISTFlyer

I guess so, it should be a targeted offer. I tried to do some dummy bookings and realized that the promotion is not valid for myself.

SFOTraveler1984

Ah, it helps to read the T&Cs:

"50% Miles discount offer is valid on promotional award tickets for one-way or round trip flights in Business Class or Economy Class from London (Gatwick, Heathrow), Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Dublin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Oslo, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Krasnodar, Rostov, Sochi, Minsk, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius to Turkey."

https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-t...g2MDE0MzkzOQS2

LoungeLizardHugo

I agree with you on the boxed food which, while not disgusting, is not good either (in J). It'll be awesome to get the Chef back! With that said, flying to/from USA, TK flights I've taken the past couple weeks, and booked in upcoming weeks, are fully booked in business class and economy is very full as well. Of course USA (thankfully) has no restrictions (health theatre) to re-entry. So the frequent flyers are demonstrably back in spite of the lackluster soft product. Quarantines solely and wholly kill travel. I feel for my UK friends

ISTFlyer

Sorry about my statement above, the deal is not targeted. I have done some more dummy bookings and saw availability on some of them although discount availability on these routes is highly limited.

From the T&C:
By the way, the phrase "improved social distance" seems like a misleading phrase. Also, I would repeat the fact that instead of this hygiene and safety marketing, I would be happy to TK to market a good hard and soft product.

Most people who really care about safety and social distance either travels by car on long-distance trips or if they have money, they charter a private jet.

If TK wants to cost-cut and maintain a decent level of service, it would be OK for the chef concept to be eliminated. Instead of a dinner trolley standard for starters and dessert, they could have multiple starters, main course, and dessert options and all meals could be served in a single tray during the pandemic era which could be modified later on. It was nice to have a variety of starters and desserts with the "little little in the middle" concept but it's not a must.

By the way, it's pretty normal that TK flights are rebooked in the upcoming weeks, especially in the USA-Turkey route due to the high demand because of quarantine and border closures. As TK is selling India-IST tickets as well for 31 October and later; if Delhi and Mumbai flights resume, USA flights would be packed and probably be overbooked every day.

DaveS

I recall the cost of the chef being discussed long ago. The suggestion then was that a chef is cheaper than a FA but still counts as crew so that they meet the minimum crew rule for the aircraft.

ankomonkey

OT, but LoungeLizardHugo has to be one of the best names on FT!

IAN-UK

It's not targetted ... unless, of course, TKnTowers have me secretly in their sights.

HOWEVER, as far as I can see, while there's plenty availability for early 2021, it gets much patchier as you pedal backwards towards October.

raporot

i dont understand point of these "sale".
standard fare EU-IST-EU in J is 15000k miles.
what is sense of it?
go to place where is Syria and Azerbaijan conflict?
very funny.