Guide thread: Cv-19 ticketing, changes, rebooking, cancellation, open ticket options
Oct 26, 2021, 12:13 pm
#286
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Exile
Posts: 15,656
First, I would start with the visa issue; unfortunately, it's the passengers responsibility to obtain a visa according to her travel. It that traveler needs to fly TK into Turkey, that's her own problem and if she requires to fly another airline, she would need to contact the embassy and probably apply for a new visa.
If your flight has been cancelled, TK would book you on another *A carrier with award inventory but if there is no inventory, it's very likely that they would offer you a refund of your miles and taxes unless you could escalate the claim to someone superior that could rebook you on another carrier at a revenue fare bucket ( this would not happen unless the cancellation is made within the last 15 days days before the flight ).
If they only offer you to get a refund, your miles would still expire on 31DEC21 but if you ask open a claim through the feedback form, it's a likely situation that TK would extend the validity of those miles as a goodwill gesture but you would have to ask for it. They wouldn't be pro-actively extending the validity of the respective miles.
If your flight has been cancelled, TK would book you on another *A carrier with award inventory but if there is no inventory, it's very likely that they would offer you a refund of your miles and taxes unless you could escalate the claim to someone superior that could rebook you on another carrier at a revenue fare bucket ( this would not happen unless the cancellation is made within the last 15 days days before the flight ).
If they only offer you to get a refund, your miles would still expire on 31DEC21 but if you ask open a claim through the feedback form, it's a likely situation that TK would extend the validity of those miles as a goodwill gesture but you would have to ask for it. They wouldn't be pro-actively extending the validity of the respective miles.
I guess the only answer is to wait and see what happens around 28th December and then scramble around at the last minute if they cancel 🤣
Nov 2, 2021, 6:40 am
#287
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Exile
Posts: 15,656
If your flight has been cancelled, TK would book you on another *A carrier with award inventory but if there is no inventory, it's very likely that they would offer you a refund of your miles and taxes unless you could escalate the claim to someone superior that could rebook you on another carrier at a revenue fare bucket ( this would not happen unless the cancellation is made within the last 15 days days before the flight ).
I've been looking at the options on ExpertFlyer and there is award "I" class availability for DEL-DOH (AI) connecting to DOH-IST-ADB (TK). Do you think I'll get lucky in getting them to rebook me onto this? I'm ready to buy my own ticket from BOM-DEL if they can rebook me out of Delhi.
I plan to call them later this evening when I get home but any tips appreciated. This is the first time I'm actually trying to get a *A partner booking with TK so a bit apprehensive.
Nov 2, 2021, 10:14 am
#288
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Exile
Posts: 15,656
So I just got off the phone with the call center.
They claim that the rebooking policy for awards is that any rebooking must be within 7 days of the original date and must strictly be on the same carrier and same routing only. So the only option is to rebook for BOM-IST-ADB on TK metal, which of course is impossible to do since they are not flying this route at all as of now.
Additionally, they claim that they cannot see any award availability on any flight out of India to any destination on any airline on any date, so they can't book a new award either (he supposedly tried from BOM/DEL/MAA/HYD/BLR to DXB/AUH/DOH/BAH/MCT/RUH/FRA/LHR). I decided to politely HUCA but this is quite disheartening!
Help @ISTFlyer, you are the oracle of loopholes and policies that I must call upon to solve this.
They claim that the rebooking policy for awards is that any rebooking must be within 7 days of the original date and must strictly be on the same carrier and same routing only. So the only option is to rebook for BOM-IST-ADB on TK metal, which of course is impossible to do since they are not flying this route at all as of now.
Additionally, they claim that they cannot see any award availability on any flight out of India to any destination on any airline on any date, so they can't book a new award either (he supposedly tried from BOM/DEL/MAA/HYD/BLR to DXB/AUH/DOH/BAH/MCT/RUH/FRA/LHR). I decided to politely HUCA but this is quite disheartening!
Help @ISTFlyer, you are the oracle of loopholes and policies that I must call upon to solve this.
Nov 2, 2021, 10:31 am
#289
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Programs: TK Elite Plus,BAEC GGL,ITA Executive, AFKL Gold,QR Gold,HH Diamond,Bonvoy Gold,ALL Gold
Posts: 14,186
So I just got off the phone with the call center.
They claim that the rebooking policy for awards is that any rebooking must be within 7 days of the original date and must strictly be on the same carrier and same routing only. So the only option is to rebook for BOM-IST-ADB on TK metal, which of course is impossible to do since they are not flying this route at all as of now.
Additionally, they claim that they cannot see any award availability on any flight out of India to any destination on any airline on any date, so they can't book a new award either (he supposedly tried from BOM/DEL/MAA/HYD/BLR to DXB/AUH/DOH/BAH/MCT/RUH/FRA/LHR). I decided to politely HUCA but this is quite disheartening!
Help @ISTFlyer, you are the oracle of loopholes and policies that I must call upon to solve this.
They claim that the rebooking policy for awards is that any rebooking must be within 7 days of the original date and must strictly be on the same carrier and same routing only. So the only option is to rebook for BOM-IST-ADB on TK metal, which of course is impossible to do since they are not flying this route at all as of now.
Additionally, they claim that they cannot see any award availability on any flight out of India to any destination on any airline on any date, so they can't book a new award either (he supposedly tried from BOM/DEL/MAA/HYD/BLR to DXB/AUH/DOH/BAH/MCT/RUH/FRA/LHR). I decided to politely HUCA but this is quite disheartening!
Help @ISTFlyer, you are the oracle of loopholes and policies that I must call upon to solve this.
*****
By the way, not poster specific but as a general reminder that because I am from Turkey doesn't mean that I am affiliated with Turkish Airlines or I work for Turkish Airlines; and because of the high amount of PM's that I am getting regarding of TK policies, I have decided to share the information here that I wouldn't answer queries that belong to threads via PM anymore until further notice and delete them without notice. I am sorry for any inconvenience that this might cause. A reminder that we have a flame-free thread in the forum and everyone is welcome to post their questions over there even if it's too dummy to ask and someone ( maybe me ) would be responding queries as soon as they could.
Nov 2, 2021, 10:34 am
#290
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Denmark
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 11,846
You should consider requesting a refund of the existing TK award ticket and then book a new award ticket from scratch. Asking for TK to rebook your M&S award to another carrier will most likely fail (even with I class availability) and is much more complicated than simply booking a new award.
Nov 2, 2021, 11:32 am
#291
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Exile
Posts: 15,656
Originally Posted by SK AAR
You should consider requesting a refund of the existing TK award ticket and then book a new award ticket from scratch. Asking for TK to rebook your M&S award to another carrier will most likely fail (even with I class availability) and is much more complicated than simply booking a new award.
I'm leaning towards buying an Air India ticket to Kathmandu and picking up TK from KTM-IST-ADB. It's just over $100 each for the one-way plus a $30 visa for Nepal, so that may wind up being the final fallback.
Nov 25, 2021, 1:55 am
#292
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Munich
Programs: QR Platinum, TK Elite Plus, SQ Gold, BA Gold, VS Gold, Globalist, HH Diamond
Posts: 101
I´m holding a TK J ticket for a domestic routing with severe schedule changes. Is it eligible now to reroute also to an international EU-IST direct flight?
Nov 25, 2021, 8:38 pm
#293
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,465
Turkish free change policy is a scam. Sorry for harsh words. In short, "fare difference" applies, and this "fare difference" is huge because Turkish is repricing the ticket from cheap round-trip fare to expensive one-way fare.
Here's the situation: I booked a round-trip economy ticket from Canada to Europe specifically because Turkish advertises zero change fee policy, which also works after outbound is flown, in case I need to change the return. Turns out when I try changing the return after flying the outbound, Turkish does not allow to use the same cheap round-trip fare class that is still available, but instead uses an expensive one-way fare, resulting in a very large fare difference. It's a huge gotcha. Now it's cheaper for me to just throw away the return portion and just buy a new one-way ticket on another airline.
Here's the situation: I booked a round-trip economy ticket from Canada to Europe specifically because Turkish advertises zero change fee policy, which also works after outbound is flown, in case I need to change the return. Turns out when I try changing the return after flying the outbound, Turkish does not allow to use the same cheap round-trip fare class that is still available, but instead uses an expensive one-way fare, resulting in a very large fare difference. It's a huge gotcha. Now it's cheaper for me to just throw away the return portion and just buy a new one-way ticket on another airline.
Nov 28, 2021, 3:10 pm
#294
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Programs: TK Elite Plus,BAEC GGL,ITA Executive, AFKL Gold,QR Gold,HH Diamond,Bonvoy Gold,ALL Gold
Posts: 14,186
Turkish free change policy is a scam. Sorry for harsh words. In short, "fare difference" applies, and this "fare difference" is huge because Turkish is repricing the ticket from cheap round-trip fare to expensive one-way fare.
Here's the situation: I booked a round-trip economy ticket from Canada to Europe specifically because Turkish advertises zero change fee policy, which also works after outbound is flown, in case I need to change the return. Turns out when I try changing the return after flying the outbound, Turkish does not allow to use the same cheap round-trip fare class that is still available, but instead uses an expensive one-way fare, resulting in a very large fare difference. It's a huge gotcha. Now it's cheaper for me to just throw away the return portion and just buy a new one-way ticket on another airline.
Here's the situation: I booked a round-trip economy ticket from Canada to Europe specifically because Turkish advertises zero change fee policy, which also works after outbound is flown, in case I need to change the return. Turns out when I try changing the return after flying the outbound, Turkish does not allow to use the same cheap round-trip fare class that is still available, but instead uses an expensive one-way fare, resulting in a very large fare difference. It's a huge gotcha. Now it's cheaper for me to just throw away the return portion and just buy a new one-way ticket on another airline.
They should have honored the return portion of a round-trip ticket in your case.
Nov 28, 2021, 11:10 pm
#295
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,465
Trying online rebooking on TK website - same result. After outbound is flown, attempting to change the return results in pricing the new return flight as a one way fare (expensive), and then crediting the paid return portion of the round-trip fare (cheap). This means that it's never possible to change a TK return ticket for free, after outbound is flown. There will always be a very large fare difference.
Nov 29, 2021, 12:39 am
#296
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: FLYINGBLUE Gold QRPC Gold OMAN SINDBAD Gold
Posts: 408
Yes Turkish Airlines isn't always delivering on it's promise. I have an open ticket (following involuntary flight cancellation), and TK is refusing to ticket it on some dates, although they are still selling seats for those days (both cash and award).
Nov 30, 2021, 1:46 pm
#297
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: CPT,AMS
Posts: 4,412
Sharing my brief and good experience... was due to fly to CPT however TK cancelled all their flights from/to ZA, got the e-mail notification Sunday evening, clicked through the link/app (can't remember anymore) and was able to request a full refund which gave an error although the booking disappeared.
Called on Monday morning and got confirmation flight will be refunded, checked today and money is already back to my CC.
Called on Monday morning and got confirmation flight will be refunded, checked today and money is already back to my CC.
Dec 1, 2021, 11:32 am
#298
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,465
The way the "Zero Change Fee policy" post 2 is written now wrongly suggests that it may be possible to change a ticket for free after departure. Could you please update the post 2 to clarify that it's impossible to change a ticket for free after departure. Turkish Airlines policy is that after departure, any changes to return flight will result in a repricing to one-way fare, resulting in a significant fare difference.
Dec 1, 2021, 2:04 pm
#299
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Programs: TK Elite Plus,BAEC GGL,ITA Executive, AFKL Gold,QR Gold,HH Diamond,Bonvoy Gold,ALL Gold
Posts: 14,186
The way the "Zero Change Fee policy" post 2 is written now wrongly suggests that it may be possible to change a ticket for free after departure. Could you please update the post 2 to clarify that it's impossible to change a ticket for free after departure. Turkish Airlines policy is that after departure, any changes to return flight will result in a repricing to one-way fare, resulting in a significant fare difference.
I have also verified this at Expertflyer.
So, the experience that I had was totally different than your one.
Dec 1, 2021, 6:55 pm
#300
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,465
Earlier today, I have changed a ticket after the first leg has flown and the fare difference was the exact fare difference based on the historic round-trip fare that the ticket was purchased.
I have also verified this at Expertflyer.
So, the experience that I had was totally different than your one.
I have also verified this at Expertflyer.
So, the experience that I had was totally different than your one.
My ticket was originally purchased in fare class V (round trip). When I try booking a new round-trip ticket with the same return date, the same original fare in class V is available for a new return date. But when I try rebooking the return for that date, Turkish Airlines does not allow to book it in the original class V that is still available. Instead, they insist they can only rebook in class S (one way), which is significantly more expensive, resulting in a large fare difference. I have screenshots. I tried many times and many combinations, same result. Please update your post 2. It's misleading.