Turkish Airlines Status Match

[prozac]

Thx. Tried that. Unticked and reticked the boxes again, no difference....TK just hate me.
It's not the points...just typical TK.

 

[pagingjoan]

Do you fly with them? And do you like their service? Just their IT that disappoints you?
(Just wondering.)

 

[prozac]

Do you fly with them? And do you like their service? Just their IT that disappoints you?
(Just wondering.)

Yes, done a few flights .......IST lounge is great, IT is cough.

 

[legroom]

Yes, done a few flights .......IST lounge is great, IT is cough.

Prozac

How did you go about preselecting your TK seats?

Care to share your method / success ?

Have two TK J coming up

Apparently you could only call them at T +100 days to request seats !!!

 

[prozac]

I think I may have pre-selected seating on the SQ site with whom I had my other flights booked. If this is not possible then I did not pre-book. Sorry to be vague but just a bit hazy on the details now. Ground staff in IST are helpful and had no issues whenever my flights transited there other than some confusion when they decided my SQ boarding passes all needed reissuing. Shorthall flights to other countries in the region were on 737-800 with only a handful of J seats (about 16). Didn't seem to matter much what seat you selected as they are all much of a muchness anyway and usually enough spares that if you didn't like the seat you were in you could just sit somewhere else.
My advice if flying these short routes would be to not bother with J seating if the cost was vastly different to Y.

 

[pagingjoan]

Must be something to do with the TK vagaries because my memories of seat pre-selection are hazy also.

I do remember a bit of a battle to get them to stick but, as with Prozac, I believe that I managed it through whichever other site showed the TK bookings on that multi-airline trip, so possibly LH at the time.

It did work, as I recall, but took some fiddling around. We have had mainly J on the TK flights, with Y on one short haul.

 

[legroom]

Thanks

Being used to QF, SQ, CX, AA seat selection with ease I am slightly annoyed at the vagaries of airlines such as TK.

But it comes with the "territories" I suppose as it is not a 1st tier airline.

 

[prozac]

Their buggey website leaves a lot to be desired. Good luck.

 

[Flashback]

Prozac

How did you go about preselecting your TK seats?

Care to share your method / success ?

Have two TK J coming up

Apparently you could only call them at T +100 days to request seats !!!

I just simply looked at what was available and e-mailed TK to book the seats. You can also call them and do the same.

 

[dfcatch]

So my TK match will expire in October....

Hope they do a soft landing to the same status

 

[Baysider]

Their buggey website leaves a lot to be desired. Good luck.

Seems to mainly plague the English language site. The Turks I work with have no problems on the Turkish language pages.

 

[Baysider]

How did you go about preselecting your TK seats?

I've always been able to pre-select by phoning the Sydney number, and it's never been +100 days.

Seat Selection (Business and Miles & Smiles Elite) - call 02 9255 9900 and select option 3.
Miles & Smiles Award Bookings - call 1800 750 849 (connects you to Turkey at no charge).

 

[Baysider]

Do you fly with them? And do you like their service? Just their IT that disappoints you?
(Just wondering.)

They are great to fly with. Codeshares are with Thai to BKK then onwards with TK - the TK product is far better than Thai's. They haven't won Airline of the Year in Europe three times in a row for nothing.

 

[pagingjoan]

They are great to fly with. Codeshares are with Thai to BKK then onwards with TK - the TK product is far better than Thai's. They haven't won Airline of the Year in Europe three times in a row for nothing.

My own TK on board experience has been fine. But, at the time of the post you are quoting, my question to prozac was in relation to his dissatisfaction with aspects of TK's ancillary services, particularly their IT. It wasn't clear whether or not that dissatisfaction extended to the EK in flight service.

Prozac did respond in a couple of posts soon after, expanding on his own experiences with ground staff and flights. The TK IT was the main bugbear.

 

[smit0847]

They are great to fly with. Codeshares are with Thai to BKK then onwards with TK - the TK product is far better than Thai's. They haven't won Airline of the Year in Europe three times in a row for nothing.

Hmmm - I'm not sure I'd agree with this. I've flown both several times and while TK's lounge in IST is far better than TG's J lounges in BKK and the on board food is much better I would say the hard product on TG is better (esp the A380s to Europe) and the TG service (both onboard and phone support) is much, much better. TK cabin crew view passengers as an inconvenience.

I think they only won best European airline because of their food and the fact they are about the only ones to offer a proper Euro J on many routes. Apart from their lounge IST is not a nice airport to transit - it hasnt kept up with TK's massive growth.

 

[prozac]

My own TK on board experience has been fine. But, at the time of the post you are quoting, my question to prozac was in relation to his dissatisfaction with aspects of TK's ancillary services, particularly their IT. It wasn't clear whether or not that dissatisfaction extended to the EK in flight service.

Prozac did respond in a couple of posts soon after, expanding on his own experiences with ground staff and flights. The TK IT was the main bugbear.

IT is my main complaint. Found ground staff good in IST. Australian phone number just hopeless, they'll put you on hold for an eternity.

I have only flown their Euro J product which was a bit of a shock when I found myself sitting in a row of 3 cheap (yes, really old & cheap) seats IST-AMS. This did not bother me on their regional flights to from TBL as I figured it would be par for the course. Somehow I just reckon IST-AMS should have real J. Please don't try and explain it to me, I understand it, just don't like it. I might try their long haul J one day.

 

[pagingjoan]

An update on my experience with TK bookings and website.

This week, i needed a multi-city booking, taking in four countries, and attempting to minimise the usual penalties applying to one-way bookings in Europe. Found a relatively convenient set of flight all in J, at what seemed a reasonable price for the itinerary. After searching, I was pressed for time, and did not manage to confirm the flights that day, then was travelling for several days. Intended to finalise the bookings while we were on the move – but failed at that, too.

On our return, the first thing I did was to fire up the booking engine again. Inevitably, the fares had changed.
For the first time I can remember in such a situation, the fare for precisely the same flights, same dates, came down by almost 30%! (I had a print out of the earlier flights and fares, for reference.)

Unbelievable. I had to start again several times, just to make sure that I had not made some silly error in the routes or dates. So, for once, procrastination paid off.

Was also able to do seat selection without any problem - and a few seconds before the confirmation of payment showed up on my screen, I had an email alert that led me to the e-ticket, seat selection, fare conditions etc.

Maybe the IT team has been upgraded. Certainly, it was a very positive experience. Will report back on the flights - but they are a couple of months off. Another European trip and home again before the TK-related trip.

 

[prozac]

Please keep us posted pg of how you get on down the track.

 

[pagingjoan]

Please keep us posted pg of how you get on down the track.

Will do, prozac. I've flown TK J in Europe previously and it was fine. A better experience than yours, it seems, as we had "real" J seating on the LHR-IST-LHR legs, at least. Only a hazy memory of the other flights but there were all short haul, so it was of no importance at all.

I was fortunate to have the Status Match early on, so have been enjoying the Star Gold benefits for a heap of European travel for quite a while, courtesy of TK - and AFF! - and my partner has just been matched also (No thanks to his own efforts! ) A lot of our European short haul travel is on routes either not well serviced by OneWorld or too expensive on OW airlines, so the back up Star Gold is a godsend.

The IST Lounge is an entertaining element to the itinerary just booked. I've had only two visits there, so far, but the people watching aspect seems more amusing there than in most lounges. I suppose one reason is its sheer size and the number of visitors. It certainly is not on my list of relaxing lounges but it has its benefits. Let's hope this saga does not end in IT tears.

 

[ozkid]

Ok seem to be getting same problems as described above, I have a booking SYD-SIN-IST-VIE with the outbound leg on QF before changing to TK for the flights out of SIN to europe.

I've tried seat selecton on the TK website using the supplied booking code but it always fails
Even tried the turkish language page with same result
The QF my bookings page doesn't allow any seat selection options for the TK flights which was expected

I put in my Aegean FF number (trying to get star gold through that route) so no miles and smiles account.

should I try baysider's advice of calling the sydney phone number to select seats? Hoping to get my preferred aisle seat...
I've always been able to pre-select by phoning the Sydney number, and it's never been +100 days.
Seat Selection (Business and Miles & Smiles Elite) - call 02 9255 9900 and select option 3.
Miles & Smiles Award Bookings - call 1800 750 849 (connects you to Turkey at no charge).