eyeam2cool4u

I have a United one way reward ticket from YYZ to SFO leaving this Saturday. Went online to double check it and saw I was now booked on 3 flights. The direct one I booked and now also an earlier non-direct flight connecting through ORD. No messages to me on any changes.

This direct flight was very hard to book in the first place so not looking forward to calling Turkish or United and getting the typical run around. Looking closer at the direct flight departure time I wasn’t finding it so I looked up the flight # instead and it is for a direct UA flight from YYC to SFO not from YYZ and yet it shows as YYZ Toronto in my booking.

i suspect the direct flight will disappear on Saturday and thanks Turkish for not letting me know my new flight now departs almost 2 hours earlier and now has a stopover.

update: just received email from United asking if I wanted to pre-order snacks for my flight from ORD.

SK AAR

Give it a couple of days to clear/see what happens.

TPJ

Is it this Saturday?

I see 1 UA and a few AC flights available for sale in GDS'es:

As TK issued the ticket, I believe it is TK that would have to reissue it. I would call TK to confirm the ticket is exchanged - you should get a new ticket number. I am not sure if the Saudia workaround still works (you was able to view any e-ticket number on saudia.com), but it is worth to confirm if the PNR and the e-ticket match.

eyeam2cool4u

Checked with United and the ticket is invalid and needs to be reissued. No such flight from Toronto, it leaves from Calgary instead.

Looking to see what options there may be but I have found in the past that although Air Canada will show availability on Turkish’s star alliance award booking site the handover always fails when you actually go to book it. During Covid I was rebooking a cancelled flight through an agent and he too could see the AC flight but could not book it. On that one he ended up trying to find me a replacement flight as far out in the schedule as he could look for any date and nothing was available. So I had a cancelled flight with points that had expired and no option to rebook. I don’t think I even got my taxes back.

The Turkish site is so wonky, sometimes I see flights available and then they disappear for awhile. I have tried different browsers and sometimes one is better than another. It was actually working better on my iphone but I found if you wanted the 27th date for the flight date you had to select the 26th as your option in the radio button and that was not comforting, made we wonder if this was a translation problem.

eyeam2cool4u

Turkish tells me UA cancelled the flight. Surprised they didn’t tell me this directly. Not sure it is even true (would UA cancel a flight and then immediately re-assign the same flight # to a YYC to SFO flight, seems suspicious).

They offered to rebook me (thanks) and gave me one option being a 6 am UA flight, not ideal. And confirmed they could cancel instead but expired miles are expired miles. Didn’t get a clear answer as to whether they would refund taxes but based on prior experience, unlikely.

I am looking at trying to rebook within 30 days. I also lose my star gold status May 31 so extra costs, no lounge access, baggage fees etc.

To add to this they told me they can take up to 48 hours to approve any flight cancellation flight changes and I am running up to that deadline before my flight departure time.

This may not be my first loss of miles and fees due to reasons outside my control. TK Star Gold status was easier to obtain and good while it lasted but miles earned ended up mostly useless.

TPJ

They are not laying to you. The GDS display (see my previous post) also shows that the 6.30 am flight is the only UA flight on that day. If you need to fly to SFO ask TK to rebook you and exchange the ticket.

eyeam2cool4u

Yes I know there is only one direct flight now but was questioning if the flight I booked even existed at the time I booked it or was just a glitch as the flight # is for a different departure city.

i have spoken to 3 agents now and they have confirmed my ticket is a mess and that none of the three flights that are showing are actually confirmed.
The agents were surprisingly helpful explaining the interairline booking issues that could be the problem but were surprised by the 3 flights showing up in my account and that none of them were valid.

i am now looking to change to another day but one agent said I should receive a full refund including my points even though they are expired by policy but this requires a work around and escalation. They have started that but I am not confidant this will get resolved in time before Saturday but will give them another day.

Flights later in the month are few to choice from, just the one 6:30 am direct UA flight and it is only showing available for a few days but if not resolved I will pick from what is remaining.

eyeam2cool4u

To close out, TK came through for me 30 minutes before takeoff time and cancelled the flight as I had requested and reinstated my points. Interestingly in doing so they said no miles had expired despite me receiving an email in December indicating they were going to expire but maybe they rolled over anyway.
Expiry was my primary concern. If my miles had expired they were also willing to reinstate them provided used before August 31st so 90 day extension.

The many TK agents I spoke with were all very helpful unlike prior experiences and with my Gold Status I never had to wait to speak to an agent so this was good.

mrkymark

I thought coming back after a year Air Canada bookings would finally work on the TK site.

Guess not.

How do they get away with this?

ISTFlyer

Turkish Airlines doesn't prioritize fixing these types of issues apparently.
Still, someone could contact a sales office and book these awards.

mrkymark

Right?!?

IST, do you have any experience if AC flight are bookable via calling in or do I have to contact a sales center?

ISTFlyer

I have no experience with AC awards through the call center.