hartfordsam

THY changed the time of my JFK - IST flight by a whopping 20 minutes. Now I can't manage my flight either on the App or the Website and it gives me two options to either change my flights or Cancel. No option at all to accept the new times so I can move on with my life.
Since it was a third party booking they wont let me change my flights either. I contacted the Travel Agency and they asked Turkish yesterday to do the necessary deed and Turkish has not done anything yet. Now I will loose my seat selection I guess.
I called Turkish CS this morning and I got a message saying due to high call volumes I can not be connected to a Rep.
Any Ideas?

ISTFlyer

First, TK has no fault here and the title is unfair in this case.

You have booked through a third-party and a schedule change over 15 minutes is considered as an involuntary change according to Turkish law which gives you the right to cancel or reschedule your flights without any penalty. In this case, TK can't auto-accept the change behalf of you and in this case, they would break the law. TK has nothing to do here and the third party that you have booked must confirm the changes on their end which should be a really simple process.

If the travel agency has contacted the travel support department of Turkish Airlines and still no change is made, that's another scenario but a TA should easily be able to confirm the schedule changes with maximum 5 commands.

hartfordsam

Its just a little under 24 hours since the Travel Agency contacted THY to make the change and get new Tickets issued. I don't understand why THY is taking such a long time for something so simple or maybe I am wrong and it is complicated.

hartfordsam

Maybe you can shed some light on this. I am taking the 1.30 PM flight out of JFK. This flight is no longer available for booking on any third party site (I check a couple) but still shows up on the THY site for more then double of what I initially paid.

ISTFlyer

If the flight you originally booked is available for sale, the agency should not have any reason not to automatically confirm the changes.
I am not sure when are you flying but TK 3/4 the morning rotation to/from JFK is still operating until the end of schedule.

hartfordsam

Thanks. My outbound is Nov 6 th. The Agency is telling me they have confirmed the new flight time but I am still unable to manage my reservation. I called THY this morning and they are telling me the agency is yet to confirm. I don't know who or what to believe anymore. I am going to wait another day and ask for a refund.

ffay005

Leeson learned: do not book with 3rd parties. It always turns into problems when there are changes.

If your flight is in November, then sit back and relax. Six more months to go. If your travel agency is a decent one, there is plenty of time for them to take care of it.

TPJ

Absolutely WRONG. I don't even know how many times my Corporate travel agency saved my trips by going above and beyond with finding alternatives and exchanging the tickets. I recall once during LH pilot strike I already reached my destination (LHR) while my work colleague - who purchased via lh.com - still queued up to have his ticket changed. Travel agency should not wait for TK to action the GDS booking changes, they should go ahead and just change it in accordance with TK commercial policy.

hartfordsam

Actually This Travel Agency has been very good and they were $200 cheaper then Expedia or the THY website. . When I changed my outbound flight they had it done in a few hours. I am not sure what the problem is here. Unfortunately sit back and relax wont work as the flight prices have been going up since I booked and if this cant be fixed I can still get Finair at a reasonable price

YLWflyer

travel agents still exist???

ISTFlyer

An involuntary situation would not cause any fare difference thus the current fares being higher than the time you bought your ticket, would have no impact on this situation unless you decide to cancel your ticket for your personal mind comfort and buy a new set of tickets. If there is a schedule change, your agency should confirm the changes and this would have no cost to them, neither to you.

I would agree with TPJ that there are many knowledgable decent TA's around but the majority of them at this time are cheap online websites that have negotiated fares which offer bad customer service and charge hefty admin fees when a customer is trying to do something voluntarily.

hartfordsam

I had used Trip.com. They kept changing their story and I ended up opening a dispute with my credit card company to get my money back. I ended up booking Finnair.

flyerby

This is a good advice, why immediately acknowledge the changes if you can do it in a few months and benefit from the option of free flight change or cancellation?
In addition, your seat reservation is kept (as long there’s no a/c change). I can remember a number of times I took a flight without acknowledging the time change.

nacho

Yeah but it's corporate travel agency so they might have a different arrangement than those selling to private individuals.

I had 2 crappy experiences with OTA for 2 trips I booked and cancelled due to Covid. One didn't refund and the other one took a hefty fee for cancelling the tickets. I had to go to Swedish consumer agency to get my $ back. A lot of OTAs are providing minimal services, I looked at some cheaper tickets but then they said if you call them it will cost you DKK 30 per call, if you want them to do anything it will cost this and that. Yeah I might save DKK500 per ticket but if they charge me to change my flight (as you know OTA can charge whatever they like as they know you can't go to the airline), I can easily pay more than DKK 500 for all the this and that services.

Lesson learned - no more OTA, always go through the airline (until things are 110% normal again).

ISTFlyer

So the issue is with Trip.com and as I mentioned in my first post in this thread ( post #2 ) Turkish Airlines has no fault here and the title is misleading.
I am not sure of Trip.com's business strategy but it looks like they purchase bulk fares offer cheaper fares than the TK website, but they don't care about customer service or they have untrained agents who act as robots.