mashlakito

I just got an email saying that my flights have been changed. How can they not realize that with there change of the 1st leg there is no way that I will be able to catch my 2nd fight (on each way).

Have people had this happen to them?

Yunnnn

Yes, it has happened to me on a cash ticket with TK.
Please take note of your rights - Turkish Airlines call center agents are extremely incompetent and if you don't get your way, simply hang up and call again or go to a ticketing center if you're able to.

You will be able to reschedule your entire itinerary -7/+30 days. You can reschedule your flight from BSL to TLV or TLV to BSL entirely or only the leg that is affected (thus creating a multi-day layover in IST).
You can also change your departure/arrival city to one within the same area/vicinity as long as its served by TK (defined by TK Award Charts).

I would take any other statements coming from the agents with a pinch of salt.

I have been given unfactual statements that I can only change the entire leg (XXX to YYY via IST), or I cannot change only the IST-XXX leg that was affected.
Some agents also claimed that I will not be able to check in for my flight if I don't make the changesd
Some agents claimed that I will be able to check in for the first leg, then be marked as NOSHOW for the miss connection second leg, hence incuring penalties and I have to pay cash for a new flight at IST.

But seeing as yours is an award ticket issued by UA, you're really out of luck. You'll have to get UA to reissue with another carrier/flight or simply get a missed connection at IST and standby for a next available flight.

Jaenks

Yes, happened to me and also with LH. There is a "robot" who assigns new flights, not the physical person. Contact the airline and they solve the issue.

mashlakito

It is actually issued by Aeroplan. So I have to get in contact with Aeroplan or with Turkish Airlines?

So, the contact should be to Turkish Airlines? And no to Aeroplan that issued the ticket?

alamah

You should contact Aeroplan, who issued the ticket.

zebranz

Just happened with me on UA Award ticket. No issues as my destination was MUC and UA just put me on their metal.

Looks like TK having a person with a dart board doing scheduling.

ISTFlyer

The thing that people are not aware of this is that if you book a partner award, it's the partner who issued your ticket who is responsible to rebook you on something. Most airlines have robots that would auto-protect the passenger on other flights and they might not able to co-operate with the operating airline's system very efficiently as it was a direct airline booking on the same carrier.

Turkish Airlines use Troya and Air Canada ( Aeroplan ) uses Amadeus which are two different systems which explains the issue.
The passenger ( in this case the OP ) must contact Aeroplan and they would reissue the ticket accordingly.
​​​
In this case AC's rebooking policies would apply, TK rebooking policies only apply to 235- stock tickets issued by Turkish Airlines.
The OP is left to what Aeroplan allows to do on the ticket.

Alfredbali

Yes happened to me several times with 100% TK tickets.
The rebooking process is a total pain with TK, about 25% chances of getting a competent and willing to help agent/sales office in my experience.
Good luck.

Lioneye

I agree.

TK had a schedule change which made transit impossible. I phoned & was passed around to 8 or 9 people until a competent one picked up - immediately apologised after seeing how many times I'd been transferred, saw the issue & change the booking to flights I'd researched & requested.

Fly2Connect

That's the problem. Aeroplan can't open seats on their planes as they don't fly to those destinations and Turkish didn't issue the award ticket so they don't have to either. You need to find current award availability bookable by Aeroplan, call them and rebook. If you can't find anything they'll let you cancel the ticket.

This is the single biggest, and often overlooked problem with partner awards. When it works its wonderful. When it doesn't its a complete disaster with different parties claiming to lack responsibility over the ticket.

hotturnip

Eeeek.

Yeah, I think it's unlikely Aeroplan will come up with anything other than refunding the miles. They could force award space on their own metal, but not partner airlines. Worth asking, though. Maybe there's something on LH? Or Aegean?

sha8192

In my experience, Aeroplan can call the ticketing center of the operating airline to force open revenue seat for rebooking.
This of course depends on the operating airline’s rebooking policy (the ones I have experience with, AC/BR are generous and can re-protect award tickets on any of their metal), and the competence of the agent. This usually requires a superviosr who knows other airline’s rebooking policy.

Remember that Aeroplan is just yet another “travel agency” and the rebooking guidelines apply to them.

Fly2Connect

As far as I know this is possible in theory, but is not a requirement of Aeroplan or Turkish and in practice is extremely difficult to execute. I've never gotten it to work with AC and NH, but YMMV. I'd give it a shot, but do not be surprised if they say no--they aren't required to do anything more than issue a refund.

mashlakito

Just an update. After being on the phone for 4+ hours with Aeroplan regarding this issue we managed to come to a satisfactory conclusion with me being re-booked. 4+ hours because the first agent I spoke essentially didn't care and the only option I was given was to cancel ticket and have everything refunded. Re-dialed Aeroplan and got a competent agent who spend over 2+ hours checking into several options and everything worked out in the end.

Fly2Connect

Did the agent find already open space or were they able to get TK to open something up?