As much as I love Turkish Airlines–and I do love Turkish Airlines–trying to rebook a canceled Miles & Smiles award ticket has become an exercise in hopeless futility and endless frustration. While Turkish offers great value in mileage redemptions, be aware that a flight cancellation can really mess you up your award ticket.
Turkish Airlines Award Ticket Horror Story…No Flight Cancellation Goes Unpunished
Last year I booked an award ticket from San Francisco – Istanbul – Jeddah in business class for November 2023, using miles from Miles & Smiles (the Turkish Airlines loyalty program) that were going to expire. It was only 47,000 miles plus about $300 in taxes/fees and I figured it would be a great opportunity for me to return to Saudi Arabia and also experience Oman Air First Class (for my return flight).
But after the war broke out in Gaza (not sure if it was related, but it happened three days after), my flight from Istanbul to Jeddah was canceled.
First, a word about the Turkish Airlines call center. The men and women working there mean well: they are generally polite and their English is serviceable to excellent. I do believe they answer every phone call with a desire to help.
But help is the last thing I received…read on.
Call #1: I called in to rebook and was told that I could choose a new travel date up to a year in the future. I did not rebook on the spot because I was warned that once I chose a date, it would be locked in. The agent also informed me that I could move to any departure or arrival city, as long as it was in the same region (i.e. from San Francisco to Los Angeles or from Jeddah to Dubai).
Call #2: I chose a date in March. A new reservation was set-up and then a note was sent to customer service to open up “saver” seats, since there were none available on my travel date. I was told to call back in 2-3 hours.
Call #3: I called back and was told that the space was confirmed. But the agent was unable to issue the ticket and told me it would be sent back to the support desk to ticket and that I should monitor my email inbox.
Call #4: The email never arrived. The next day, I called back and was told the reservation had been canceled. A new one was set up. I was again told to call back.
Call #5: I called back eight hours later…but the reservation was not yet confirmed.
Call #6: I called the next morning and the reservation was still not confirmed.
Call #7: I called back that afternoon and the reservation was canceled. This agent told me the ticket had no value. I politely hung up.
Call #8: The agent claimed that her system would not allow her to rebook me and that I should send an email to customer service.
Call #9: I called back, this time with a feedback number generated from the website. I was told to call back later.
Call #10: After receiving an email simply instructing me to call back to book, I called back and was told that I could not change the routing and that I could not rebook unless “I” class (saver) space was available and it was not on my travel date. I explained that previous agents had set up a reservation and then sent it to customer service to be rebooked into I class but was told this was not possible.
Call #11: The agent was happy to rebook me and set up a new reservation for ticketing, telling me to wait for an email to arrive.
Call #12: After the email failed to arrive eight hours later, I called back and was told to wait longer.
Call #13: The reservation canceled. I called back to restore it and was told that it was impossible “because it was an award ticket.”
Call #14: A very helpful agent set up the reservation and sent it over again to be rebooked into I-class. I was told to wait for an email confirmation.
Call #15: I called back three hours later and an agent explained that my ticket could not be rebooked in March because travel had to begin one year from the date of original issue (in January 2023).
Call #16: The next agent claimed she tried to rebook me for March, but the system would not let her. She pressed me to accept a refund, but since the miles had already expired, it would have been a refund of only the taxes. I refused.
Call #17: Resigned to fly in January, I called with a new booking date this week. The agent set up the reservation and told me to call back to see if his support staff would open up the saver award space. I later received an email that my reservation was “confirmed.”
Call #18: I called back immediately to ticket it and I thought we were finally done…the agent said the taxes were slightly different and took my credit card information. Then all of a sudden…after a long pause…he asked me from where to where I was traveling. I told him. He then said, “I’m sorry but the new price is 120,00 miles.” I tried to pull up the reservation using the old record locator and the reservation had been canceled…somehow this guy canceled the reservation. I explained that the mileage should be an even exchange because the change was involuntary. He said, “I understand, but I cannot do anything.” I asked him to put me on hold and restore the reservation he canceled, but he said it was impossible and that I had to send an email to customer service…
Call #19: I sent an email to customer service and got a response back the next day saying that I had to pay a $150 no-show fee because I missed the first segment. That’s ridiculous because I called about the flight cancellation before the trip and was told there was no way to get me to Jeddah that day. Therefore, the reservation was canceled until we could figure out a new rebooking date. I called in…willing to pay the fee just to get the process done…but was told that I could not pay the fee over the phone and would need to (wait for it…) send an email to customer service and ask them to process the payment.
Call #20: No mention of the no-show that was not really a no-show, but I was told that I could only rebook within seven days of the originally canceled flight.
Call #21: I was told on this call that I could only rebook within 30 days of the original flight date.
Call #22: The agent set up the reservation and sent it over to customer support to be confirmed, like in the past.
Call #23: Even though the space confirmed, the agent could not ticket the reservation. He asked me why I created a new reservation instead of using the existing one and I told him that it was not me who made the new reservation. He told me he could not help…but that I should fill out the feedback form online.
Call #24: The agent told me that he could not help me and that Miles & Smiles tickets could only be booked at the airport. He told me that Turkish call centers are unable to re-issue award tickets. I did not argue…
Call #25: An agent seemed helpful and rebooked the reservation for the following day, as requested. He told me to call back in an hour to make sure it was processed.
Call #26: I called back an hour later and was told the ticket was not finished and that I should wait for an email.
Call #27: By the following morning, no email arrived and the agent told me to be patient…with the flight departure six hours away.
So folks, I am heading down to Los Angeles International Airport in hopes of resolving this…
No kidding, this has been an award ticket nightmare!
Am I the only one who has had such a terrible time dealing with the Turkish Airlines call center?
image: Turkish Airlines
You’re something else…
I had a bad experience with them. Not this bad, but bad nevertheless, and it seemed hopeless.
You do NOT need to go to LAX. You simply need to email the Turkish office there. They will then fix it. There are several message boards out there that discuss these types of issues. I’m in DC and simply emailed the Dulles Turkish ticket office. They resolved the issue quickly via email and nothing further was needed. Just find the LAX Turkish ticket office email, send them a concise email with all your supporting documentation (original flight, cancelation notice, what you’d like to do, etc), then it should be resolved quickly.
Consider yourself lucky that the Dulles airport Turkish sales office resolved your issue. There is no guarantee that other airport sales offices will provide assistance by email. I am speaking from experience.
“As much as I love Turkish Airlines–and I do love Turkish Airlines–”
To each their own. I’ve had enough similar experiences over the years, and watched a few friends deal with them too, that I will do everything in my power to avoid flying them. I log about 150K miles a year on Star Alliance carriers. They are too big and frequently display a could give a shit less attitude.
Couldnt agree with you more David. Everything is all hearts and unicorns until something unexpected and then its turns into a fubar of biblical proportions with everyone passing the buck. Mopt even on an award ticlet.
Matthew another data point for TK awards for other passengers: they started requesting the credit card used “to combat fraud” before letting the pax check in. My brother ran into this in Doha last week and fortunately I was staying overnight there and could pour cards out of my wallet until we found the right one…
He loved his flights home afterwards! But was extremely stressed by originally being denied check in…
This pretty much mirrors my past experience dearling with the Miles&Smiles call center. Long story short, the call center agents are incapable of resolving any issues and can only book a new reservation or process a cancellation (with the $75 fee). They are simply not empowered to make any decisions or to problem solve. To resolve nearly all issues, you only have 2 options: 1) fill out a “feedback form” and hope you get a coherent/logical reply or 2) go to a local Turkish airlines sales office and beg them to help you. BTW…Flyertalk forums are full of horror stories if you’re interested…
Same Experience, I have been fighting to receive a refund of my tax and miles for the last year. Last time they sent me approval codes, they asked me to go to the ticket office.
It seems like call center agents are not empowered to resolve issues even when it is something that we were not at fault for.
Like many comments above I am extremely careful to use them due to the issues I encountered.
Despite all the love for TK in the blogosphere, I’d highly recommend avoiding the carrier all together. When things are fine, they’re fine, but when not, you’re stuck in these type of Kafka-esque, “computer says no” situations. There is no service mindset, accountability, or empowerment and you’re seeing the results here. I can’t emphasize strongly enough that this carrier should be avoided.
So true. I don’t even find flying them to be so extraordinary… I don’t think the food menu ever changes, the seat isn’t exactly great, the lounge at IST is like being on a Carnival cruise ship, and staff are so-so (with flight attendants probably the best of the lot with them). Cheap Business Class (and cheaper coach) fares, and the stopover in IST is kind of a neat deal and I’ve done that a few times. But… heaven forbid things go wrong. I had a flight cancel with them once at IAD. Even as a paid Business Class passenger, it was go back to the counter, stand in line (the lounge can’t do anything, which is one place where US airline clubs tend to excel is assisting in IROPs, maybe because the senior agents bid it so they can sit at a desk all day). And it was pretty much a shoulder shrug and “the computer does not have any options for days.” Can you put me on United (I was going to Amsterdam)? No, it’s too close to their flight time, and we are not authorized….
I went on my phone, booked a coach award on UA for surprisingly few miles, told TK to give me a refund (which I phoned a former colleague who is a TK sales person in the US), checked in with UA and was sitting on a plane 2 hours later.
Yes I agree just avoid this airline. I had problems with Miles and Smiles and lost a considerable amount of points. They never resolved anything kept passing the buck it’s totally ridiculous.
I’ve booked a total of 4 business class award tickets with TK over the past 2 years. Half of those flights were cancelled about a week from departure, leaving me scrambling. Unlike you, I refused to hang up the phone until I had another flight booked – and it took me about 10 hours on the phone each time to achieve this.
TK’s customer service is a *HOT MESS*
I’ve come to the point where it’s not worth it to fly them despite the dirt cheap redemptions.
TK and QR call centers are in my experience like running head first in to a door, while being yelled at in QR’s case.
TK’s agents has absolutely no powers to do zilt and even if they did they wouldn’t know how to. It’s slightly better with the feedback forms.
ME3+TK are great in the air, just pray you don’t have to deal with their ground service due to IRROPS.
Plus as a friendly advise don’t fly them if you suffer from high blood pressure.
Matthew, over how many days did all these calls take place, out of curiosity? Entertaining account, at least from the view of this reader (not from yours I’m guessing). Sometimes, all you can do is laugh and persevere…
Most of the calls have been over the last four days.
I had a ton of trouble canceling an award ticket (albeit voluntarily) and getting refunded. They couldn’t even do it at the airport in Istanbul but told me I had to go to the original departure airport (JFK). After multiple calls I tried the office listed in Manhattan but they don’t do that. I finally emailed every customer support email at every US airport and finally someone in Houston helped me
I don’t understand why you persisted in calling them, after the third or fourth call I would have insisted on email communications.
Probably because he needed a resolution within a short time frame. If often takes several days to get a response after sending a message via the “feedback form”. Furthermore, there’s a high probably that the first response will be non-sensical and will require several follow up “feedback form” replies.
I will only communicate with companies by phone as an absolute, final resort. I like to have an audit trail of who said what to whom and when!
I had this recently as well albeit just 5 calls. I booked a one way Miles & Smiles in business from Rome to Muscat and when the confirmation email arrived I noticed it lacked my middle name as would be shown on the passport. My fault stemming from a year or two back when I originally created my account with them and failed to include my middle name. So my original fault but getting it corrected took 4 follow up calls. They are polite but they are very much scripted robots for sure!
As an aside I don’t think middle names are necessary on the booking but I’d be interested in others feedback.
I often fly internationally with only first/last on the ticket while my middle is on my passport. It’s not required.
I don’t add my middle name either.
At some airports, frequently in SE Asia, (and some airline systems) an exact match of names in passport and reservation is required.
My passport has three first names, no middle name – this has caused all kinds of issues at airports in Asia…
I recommend to use your full names for international bookings – takes a lot less time than dealing with it later…
The TK website can be a mess. I tried to book a revenue biz class ticket AMS-IST-DXB online but kept getting error messages. My VISA card wouldn’t work. Called TK directly to book and ticket.
Just as I was about to give my credit card number, I was told “there is a $50 reservation fee since you called instead of booking online.” WTF? I explained that the problem was with TK, not me and thought my Star Gold status would help waive the fee. TK insisted on charging me.
I declined and told the agent, “you just lost a $3,500 sale. Well done!” I hung up and booked on Swiss.
Back in April of 2023 I flew from TLV-IST-EWR on Turkish. I was delayed 24 hours getting into EWR so, under the Israeli Air Services act I was entitled to around 900 dollars in compensation. After a good deal of back and forth, after 2 months I was still nowhere close to getting the money I was legally owed. Finally, after 2 months, I threatened to take Turkish Airlines to small claims court in NJ and a few days later I received a notification that my money was on the way.
On top of that, on my flight from IST-EWR they didn’t have my kosher meal and when I wrote them about it, I never heard back.
Turkish is a really confusing airline. Their onboard product, in my opinion, is really good. Transferring through IST is (at least from an AVgeek perspective) very pleasant as the airport is stunning but my gosh, everything else about them sucks.
I agree that their call center agents want to help, but my gosh, management at Turkish Airlines gives them the power to do virtually nothing. It seems like unless you want to switch your seat, they tell you that you need to open a ticket. Except they don’t even say that, instead, they tell you to submit feedback which is really confusing. It took me a few calls to Turkish to understand that “submit feedback” actually means just to submit a complaint type form.
Additionally, their app and website are virtually useless. The reason I was 24 hours delayed getting into EWR was because my flight from TLV-IST was delayed and I was going to miss my connecting flight in IST. When it became clear I would miss my connection in Istanbul, I tried to switch my flight to the next day on both the Turkish app and website but I was unable to do it on either. Then I tried calling up the call center and the agent on the phone couldn’t do it either. Eventually I had to leave the departures area at Ben Gurion (a whole process in of itself) and go an airside ticketing agent. It was a total mess.
Overall, Turkish is an enjoyable airline to fly if things go well. However, when things break down, things can quickly become infuriating.
Had a similar experience with my overbook situation. They failed to give me a seat and offered a reward in exchange, I took it but actually getting the money turned out to be a struggle. I tried to use my reward code for another flight but the site wouldn’t accept. I called customer service and they confirmed my code was eligible for such. Still it was not accepted online. I tried to book on the call center but they quoted me a much higher price, when I asked why, was told it was because of the call center surcharge. I then requested the amount to be transferred to my bank account. Which required another “feedback” to be opened via the website, then to follow up on the call center. They required all sorts of documents. I don’t understand how they could not simply refund my credit card which they charged me on to begin with. I provided everything they asked for updating the feedback several times and following up on call center yet after 2 months I still don’t have anything.
If you have any kind of problem with them, good luck solving it.
And yes they never get the special meals right. At least for me. I never managed to get what I asked for during booking.
So, if I have this right, the real price of that Oman air first class ticket could be 47k miles, $300 fees+taxes, 27 phone calls, an email, a Sunday AND Friday hope and prayer, and possibly a wasted rt to lax. Maybe you need to pledge allegiance to the AKP to get “good value”?
The sad thing is that unless this post goes viral, that time spent trying to rebook this ticket was worth so much more than the value of the ticket. A hard lesson.
I had a similar issue with the “call center”. After my wife became ill early on the day of departure, the call center could not rebook or make any changes. The flight leaves Tashkent at 0315 and I was told to go to the airline office to make the change. Oh yes, the office opens at 0100. I get to the airport, explain the situation, was taken to a back room to wait because the counter was mobbed with people checking in. After a wait, an employee called someone at TK and with a $6000 + charge to my credit card to delay the “J” class ticket 24 hrs, the change was complete. I was back to the hotel by 0300. Love the airline in general, but very frustrated with their policies and procedures.
Frequent Miler used my experience just trying to cancel and refund a TK ticket in a blog post. It’s a saga, and if you want the details read it there: https://frequentmiler.com/nick-cancelled-a-turkish-ticket-to-hawaii-today-heres-how-it-went/
Bottom line, they are a complete nightmare to deal with when things don’t go 100% according to plan.
Good luck Matthew, my saga ended at JFK… successfully, but they were reluctant to help, it took well over an hour, I had to supply ID for my travel companion who wasn’t with me (on a flight that was already canceled)… all for a simple refund.
Had a similar experience recently involving Turkish in which I booked a Star Alliance ticket on United.
United initiated a schedule change and flight cancellation and Turkish refused to reissue the ticket.
I was told to fill out a feedback form to get switched to a different flight. Unfortunately, they said there was no open award space (which there was) and told me I am eligible for a refund of the miles.
When processing the refund, they would only refund my ticket and not my partners ticket on the same record locator. They told me that the computer won’t allow it and that I need to fill out an additional feedback form.
After about a month of calling in, using WhatsApp and their feeedback form, they processed the refund for my partner.
A lot of wasted time and frustration for a 7.5K economy mileage ticket. Never again
Another saga with Truckish Airlines. Pleasantries only on board. No employee empowered to make a decision,afraid of loosing their jobs if daring to help someone not related to a political figure.
Had a similar experience: award ticket in business class; schedule change on their end resulted in downgrade to economy.
This is a systemic issue: the call centers are friendly, but have no authority to do anything. You are required to fill in a feedback form that goes to some HQ office, which refuses to take direct calls.
So, you are send into this endless loop of incompetence & unwillingness, in the hopes you give up eventually…
It took us 2 weeks of heated calls to resolve….
I like the services on board TK and they offer the most connections between secondary cities in Europe & Asia, often the only one-step service…
TK saver awards are much cheaper than anything else on those routes – sometimes a great deal, sometimes you get what you paid for…
As others have said, I also did have a better service experience with a TK airport office (by email) in another case. They seem to have more skills and more authority than the call centers, If it is time critical and you are getting the run around from the call center, I’d file a feedback form online and I’d try an airport office as a plan B…
Good luck with getting this resolved…
Yes, the same. I had never booked directly with The Turkish program…always opting for Aeroplan or United. One day I saw a really cheap business class ex SEA to VIE via IST that only showed up with TK. This was for a friend actually, not me. Transferred the miles to Smiles (such an ironic name) and went to book. It stated it was booked but I needed to call the service center to pay the taxes. I called. They could not get my credit card to go through, eventually saying that because it’s a different traveler they have to use their card. Ok? So my friend called and after three agents no one could get it through. They then told me we had to go the airport to have it ticketed but in the next 12 hours or it will be canceled. We ran to SEA to actually do this, lol. Spent an hour working with an agent who said, “Ah, I see the problem….this is your first booking of an award through TK. Your first award booking must be only for yourself. After you can book for another.” I was astounded. Why? “Fraud prevention.” When I explained we are both standing here in front of him so how could this be fraud, he just said that these are the rules and walked away.
It’s a disaster of a program. And other than the food and decent service it is a no go for me anymore, even booking through other programs or paying outright for J, unless there is absolutely no other option. And even then I go into it knowing this may not end well.
Lol, they make this stuff up as they go along. And as I experienced (and Matthew has now as well), the airport does NOT want to help. I get the sense that the call center pawns customers off to them, but unless you live in IST, everyone at the airport is solely concerned with getting the current day flights out. So they are going to resist helping when doing anything non-standard requires them to spend at least an hour coordinating with HO to resolve,
Also, not sure if the TK agents know this, but Amex cards do not work on their phone processing system. After a couple of tries they’ll tell you to call back another time. But an Amex will never work, and they don’t tell you.
“There is no service mindset, accountability, or empowerment ” is so accurate. I love the airplane once I’m on board but what an absolute nightmare of customer service. My mom had a flight DELAY which caused the business upgrade we got her with miles to go away, and after nightmare 5 phone calls I was able to get her upgraded again. Horrible horrible experience.
You’re far more persistent than me. After call #5, I would have thrown in the towel and resigned myself to flushing the miles as a sunk cost.
It appears that’s exactly what Turkish airlines management wants.
I’m a TK*G, and I basically try to avoid dealing with the call centre; the only thing the agents can do is book simple itineraries or award tickets that the (not great) online search engine stumbles upon but can’t complete, and cancel uncomplicated, currently-valid tickets. Anything outside of that, it’s always some version of “computer says no” or “file a feedback form” (the latter of which is typically its own journey into various circles of hell — one gets fast replies but slow resolutions).
For anything other than the above transactions, the best bet is always a visit to a booking office. The agents there are better trained, have access to better systems, and can generally make things right/happen.
Fully agree. The problem though is many customers don’t have easy access to a Turkish airlines sales office.
I also forgot to mention that many Turkish airlines sales offices located at airports don’t actually staff Turkish airlines employees. They are run by an outsourced to a third party and in most cases, the staff also do not have the authority or knowledge to resolve issues.
I’ve never trusted the Turks since seeing “Midnight Express” as a teenager.
Your original travel date, the ticket expiration date, and the miles expiration date are all approaching, and you decided to ask them to open additional space? Given how horrible they are to deal with for even simple tasks, you were way too optimistic.
Hope it works out, though. Good luck!
True, but it’s not like I have reason to visit KSA every week.
Any updates?
Dear Mr. Klint,
I kindly ask you to contact me directly via my e-mail to get your itinerary resolved.
Kind regards
C. Kaya
Ah, I was thinking more “settle for booking any Saver space to anywhere, just get it wholly resolved in one call.”
Looking forward to Part 2!
So, uh, what, uh, what happened at the airport?
Hopefully there will be a part 2 to this story…
I totally agree that Turkish Airlines sucks. My flight was delayed more than 16 hours @ the Istanbul airport. They refused to provide accommodation because they said it’s not their fault. Unforgivable and unbelievable!
Al
I’ve dealt with a very similar saga with a Turkish-issued United award. Actually it was even worse because Turkish kept insisting I was ticketed and even provided me a ticket number for my United flight, which United insisted was not a valid ticket number and that there was no record I was booked on the flight at all. Call center was entirely unable to fix this no matter how many times I called; it took multiple emails with their customer support (each with a two week turnaround time) to actually get it fixed. Good thing I caught the issue two months before departure.