ISTFlyer

Dear folks,

Starting from 1 January 2021, Turkish Airlines would charge for advance seating on international flights as well. Passengers who hold Elite and Elite Plus status, Turkish Corporate Club members, and sailors would be still able to select standard (non-extra-legroom ) for free; however, all other passengers including non-TK Star Alliance Gold members would now need to pay for advance seat selection. Obviously, this only applies for Economy Class and Business Class seat selection remains unaffected.

Paid seat selection would end at 26 hours before departure and at that stage, seating would become free-of-charge. However, exit row seats would not be able to be chosen online at a time less than 26 hours before the flight.

On domestic-international and international-domestic connections, for the domestic leg, the free seat selection is also suspended, and similar to solely domestic tickets, seats would be auto-assigned by the system or be available for purchase at online check-in.

Also, a reminder that during voluntary cancellations and changes, the seat fee that you paid would not be refunded.
If you upgrade your flight to Business Class and already have paid for a seat, your seat fee would be refunded to your original payment method.

Seat charges for regular rows would differ between $9 and $39 and they would be available for purchase 355 days before the flight.

Some example seat charges are like the following:
IST - LAX : ₺306.60 ( $39 )
IST - FCO: ₺110.06 ( $14 )
IST - LHR: ₺117.93 ( $15 )

For more details, you could consult this link: https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-t...nd-conditions/
Also a special thanks to max_kolesne for alerting me about this new change.

IAN-UK

Sailors What's that all about ?? Any special arrangements for farmers?



Given that Qatar recently joined the BA approach to paid business-class seat reservations; the state of affairs you cite is no longer obvious




Depressing, isn't it. Makes you feel some gratitude to BA for allowing its elites unfettered access to all seating from the time of booking.

ISTFlyer

I guess they are copying the idea of Qatar Airways. QR has recently rebranded the old Al Maha Lounge in DOH for mariners and seaman.

AFAIK, Qatar is not asking for money like BA; they have the Emirates approach where discounted business class passengers choose their seats at check-in.

TK should at least offer free exit row seating for their own elites, maybe from 72h or 96h before the flight until departure. The worst part is that you either pay, or it's first come first served disregarding status, and any other factors. I admire BA as they have a fair system.

IAN-UK

i guess they have contracts with shipping lines for the positioning of crew - and the provision of lounges and/or seat selection is a sweetner


I understood QR intends to charge certain categories of business-class passenger for seat selection, just as BA does.



They should offer free seating for their own elites. Full stop !

ISTFlyer

Just wondering, does anybody know another airline that charges exit-row seats for their own top-tier elites?
Personally, I don't recall any airline other than Turkish Airlines.

headingwest

Aegean!

1353513636

Asiana too.

DaveS

I went to book seats today for our LGW-TAS flights later this month. Outbound were free, but TK asking for $15 for each seat/segment for the return early next month. They wont be getting that! But I do hope we do not end up a separated family of 3. LCC's and even BA have taken flack for that. At least on BA, families do get some priority and are usually in our experience together.

asnovici

If you dont want to be separated why not ensure this by paying $15 per seat?

DaveS

As far as I am concerned, I have paid for the tickets in full. I don't think it is right to be charged again. I know this is an old argument that has been made with other airlines too. It is just sad to have another reason for being loyal to TK taken away.

ISTFlyer

Wait, DaveS aren't you still Elite Plus as shown on your profile?
If so seating should be free.
If not seating would become free at OLCI.

DaveS

Yes, still Elite+. I have just gone in on the app again and it is showing the seats as free for the return for my daughter and myself! Well for the standard seat anyway. £36.8 for exit or extra leg room though. My wife is on a separate booking, so it still wants money for her (no status). So it looks like a glitch/bug in the app. I will argue my wifes case to sit with us at a sales desk in IST or TAS.

ISTFlyer

It's completely normal that the system would ask for money for your wife on a separate reservation. It's not a glitch or a bug.
You might try contacting a sales office for this and please report back your experience if you do so. By the way, seat selection is free during OLCI.

DaveS

Yes, the glitch I was referring to was when it initially asked for payment against my own seat selection. I fully expected the fee on my wifes booking. On my own booking, it also priced in USD for all seats the first time round. On the second time it priced GBP for the exit seats. It looks like the app did not correctly look at my account the first time - I was fully logged in both times. This must be the app equivalent of HUACA.

TPJ

Agree. You cannot add your FF to your wife's PNR - name validation would fail. So, from the system perspective your wife is a non-tiered passenger who needs to pay for the seat assignment. Not a glitch.