If you’re flying Turkish Airlines, especially as a couple, your seat assignments are not safe. Turkish may think it is trying to help, but it should immediately cease and desist from poaching seats couples have deliberately chosen.
Watch Out For Your Seat Assignments On Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines currently offers three different longhaul business class seats:
The 777s have a 2-3-2 configuration while the 787s and A350s have a 1-2-1 configuration.
Many couples (including my wife and me) prefer to sit one behind the other in a window seat when we travel since we both like having control of the window shade and enjoy the natural light and looking out the window. We are hardly alone.
Recently, married Award Expert clients had me book them travel from San Francisco to Cape Town via Istanbul in business class on Turkish Airlines. Their tickets were $4,670 each and they booked three months in advance.
Very deliberately, they chose two single seats, one behind the other, in the center of the forward cabin of their 787-9 jet, which operated both flights. Those seat assignments held up until at least 72 hours before departure, when I always confirm reservations in case of previously uncommunicated schedule changes.
Fast-forward to check-in at SFO. For the San Francisco – Istanbul leg, they received center seats in the last row. There was no equipment change. When asked why, they were told, “We were able to get you seats together.” When it was explained they did not want seats together, they were told it was too late and there were no window seats available.
The problem is seats 8E/F are directly in front of the galley and the noise from the galley kept them up for much of the flight.
So they got to Istanbul and had a long layover ahead of them. They found the lounge enjoyable and were looking forward to the connecting flight to Cape Town in their window seats…
BUT THE SAME THING HAPPENED. THEIR SEATS WERE CHANGED AGAIN!
This time they protested more vocally, but were met with utter indifference and eventually hostility that “seats assignments were not guaranteed.”
This time they flew in the first row, which also has a galley and lavatory nearby. They again struggled to sleep.
So what gives? Did Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles Elites want their seats? Did Turkish Airlines genuinely think that it was doing them a favor?
If you’re flying Turkish Airlines, monitor your seat assignments closely, especially if traveling with a companion.
To Turkish Airlines: you should respect the seat assignments that customers have chosen, especially months in advance on paid business class tickets.
These people spent over $9,000 on a one-way ticket with you…but will never do so again. In fact, they’ve already booked the next trip…on Qatar Airways instead. I have a feeling they won’t ever be going back…
Have you experienced this issue on Turkish Airlines?
Baksheesh would have gotten them the business window seats . It’s the Middle East , gov .
I likely would have chosen a western European airline , because I don’t wish to be sweated for Baksheesh .
I’m not sure that Turkish Airlines agents can be bought off that easily…
In Manila , a local told me his goal is to purchase two homes side by side , open the wall between them , and have a “compound” for his extended family . When I asked him where he will get the ‘dosh’ ? , he answered “well , you know” .
In California , a county has sent a “demand letter” to a “non-profit” which received money to provide meals for the elderly during covid , because the “non-profit” cannot account for the money . “well , you know” ,
In Hawaii and Washington , elected officials somehow become wealthy on government salaries . “well , you know” .
Where there is a want , there is a “well , you know” : especially rumored in Chicago and the Middle East .
@Matthew … Rodney Dangerfield had a movie about going back to college with his son . In the business class , Rodney told the instructor the tried and true method of dealing . The business teacher was offended by the tried and true method of dealing . In Cairo , everyone knows the tried and true method of dealing .
So you’ve seen nature’s credit card at work.
Exact same thing happened to me and my wife EVERY time we flew Turkish – four occasions to be exact. When I protested, the same couldn’t care less attitude was displayed.
Was this on a single PNR? I wonder if separate PNRs would have made a difference. I’ve never flown TK, as IST has never made sense as a connection for any of my trips, but it seems to have a reputation for not being user friendly. I like their IAD lounge, though.
Frequently, My single seat will change on Turkish due to “Seat malfunction” and I am switched to another single seat.
Recently, I was flying with my 88 year old mother. We had single seats booked – same last name and same PNR. At Boarding we were informed that my seat had a seat malfunction and because there were two of us with same name – they had put us in the center 8 E/F seats.
I have to say it was my first time in those middle seats and It was not bad. Earlier comment here that 8 E/F is very noisy – was not what we found to be.
Also travel frequently with my same-sex spouse (male partner different last name) on same PNR. We’ve never been reseated together due to seat malfunctions.
Yup. A days ago I noticed that TK moved me over and back from 3 to 4. Have no idea why as my wife and I were already sitting next to one another. Tried calling. Utter waste of time. Strange.
What kind of incompetent award expert agency results in their clients spending $9000 cash on one way tickets.
It may be news to you, but rich people don’t give a you know what about price. They want the most direct routing and don’t care if there is not any “saver” award space.
Upcoming trip with a long haul and short haul flight had seats on both legs change from side by side to seats rows apart and not adjacent in any way. No rhyme or reason to it. Same name and locator. Received email notification of one change but not the other.
My wife and I have upcoming TK J flights and I’ll f’ing livid if they switch out seats. The problem is that every time I try to access the PNR on TK, it errors out, whether via the website or the app.
Yet more proof for me that Turkish is just vastly overrated. I’ve had horrid customer service experiences with them pre and post trips, and my business class flights on them from Doha to Dulles via IST last year were just not good. I did not find the biz class seats on the 787 comfortable, and the service was just slow and uncaring, food not really good at all. The attitudes discussed here do not surprise me one bit.
Agree 100%. Bad tech. Bad customer service. Long long taxi times on the tarmac at IST. Lounges that are packed to the gills with a terrible drink selection. All for an in-air product that is “a little above average” at best.
This actually is why I never book two seats on one booking with foreign carriers. Do them separately. There is no advantage to the same booking and this is just one example of the issues that can happen.
To each their own, but I don’t understand people’s love of TK. I fly 100K – 150K miles a year on Star Alliance and will only use TK as a very last resort, using a non-SA carrier before them. I’ve had too much BS and apathy from them over the years.
Turkish people can be quick to take offense when TK is criticised. For them, TK is an ambassador for their country rather than just an airline. Not all are like that ofc I have met Turkish people who would never fly TK.
Funny thing, recently I was flying TK WAW-IST (after the T.S. concert!) and my partner and I were in different rows (different PNRs too). We asked at check-in to be seated together, and they unfortunately couldn’t accommodate us. As we boarded, my BP beeped, and I was told my seat had changed… Next to my partner. It appeared they had moved someone, as the cabin went out full and my old seat was occupied.
It worked out for me, and the moved passenger was traveling alone, so wile I’m glad I benefited, I would always respect someone’s pre-chosen seat. TK should too.
JAL has done this to my wife and I a few times, It’s incredibly frustrating and makes it difficult to get her to agree to fly them even when first class space is available.
I’ve had the same thing happen to me a few times I flew to Turkiye. I am a Turkish citizen who flies to Turkiye several times a year. Turkish airlines is one of the few airlines where you can get an agent on a call without waiting. Their service and food is pretty good – much better than the American or European airlines. However, it is government owned, so government officials or other people with conections in the airlines will get priority including bumping you from your seats and other. Also, heir prices which used to be competitive is no longer competitive. I now fly mostly American, Lufthansa and United.
TKs careless attitude can not make up for their otherwise nice amenities and decent meals. Even for North American flights they charge for seat assignments up until 6 hours prior to departure but by then all remaining seats are blocked. They even changed our aircraft from a A333 to A332 with no heads up of the seating change until I checked myself. For an airline that has such a posh front end image their back end service is atrocious.
Just flew back from Athens yesterday and on our way there and back they changed out seat from next to each other to random seats on all 4 flights (long haul from IAH to IST, short flight out from IST to Athens and back). On the way there we changed seats around with a few people and all the couples were able to figure out sitting next to our significant others. Being the fact that we had to do this in the first place when tickets were initially booked together was odd. We were lucky that upon checkin on the website on the way back we saw that the seats we had originally booked were magically open again so we changed our back to those seat and it worked out for both flights back.
They (Turkish) definitely need to figure this out as it’s annoying.
I will say that the service though was stellar and way better than all the Polaris flights I have taken. For some reason u ited cannot get the catering right for the last 4 years (post COVID especially. It’s off since you have Turkish here with an insane menu and great services (snacks, meal service, turndown service, etc (hell they have a bidet on the toilet!)
Obviously single window seats are premium, TK will not let party of 2’s game the system and force single travelers all sit next to a stranger
Are you trying to make the case that TK is not allowing couples to choose single seats? That’s not what’s happening, read the rest of the comments. People are getting moved to random seat assignments regardless of what they booked. To think that TK, of all airlines, would put the tech in place to block couples from booking single seats is laughable.
I have TK flights coming up in Sep, LAX-IST-DBV, with my husband and I seated together in the same PNR. On IST-DBV we were originally 3A/B until last week when I received a note that my seat assignment had been cancelled “due to operational reasons”. When I looked up the reservation my husband was still in 3B, I had no seat assignment, and the only seat left was in row 1.
So JUST NOW, I pulled up my reservation again, and now on our return flight DBV-IST, where we were originally 1E/F, my husband is now in 3B. No notice, no rhyme or reason as to why. 1F is still available, so I just moved him back there.
Something weird is going on with their seat assignments, and it’s really frustrating. In the meantime, I guess you need to monitor these regularly.
Almost exact thing happened to me: we are scheduled (same PNR) on award tickets IST-SFO and we had the 2 middle seats in row 3. I look on the TK site weekly to make sure things are good, and I found my wife was moved to a window and I am now seated next to a stranger. There were no other middle seats together so i booked window seats in front of each other. Now we are together in row 1 in the middle. Go figure.
Note: i never received an email or any notice that something had changed with our seat assignments … I just check weekly myself
They just did this to me and my husband. Changed my seat for no reason on a half empty business class cabin
Just looked on FlyerTalk, this is happening regularly. Here’s a quote I found that may give some insight into what is happening. It appears seat assignments are dropping and being made available to other customers, while the original occupant of the seat still sees their seat as assigned. At some point I assume TKs systems catch up to the fact that two people are assigned to the same seat, and resolve it by kicking one person out of the seat.
From FlyerTalk, excerpted, author had set Expert Flyer alerts to notify them when their currently assigned seats showed as free:
“my partner and I are traveling on separate PNRs, I received an alert from EF that my seat 2A became available (partner is in 2B, no alert generated). When I checked my reservation (app) it still showed me as assigned to 2A. When I checked the graphical seat map on the website, it also still showed me in 2A. Now, here is the interesting part, when I checked the seat map on the TK website using my partner’s PNR (same flight), lo and behold, 2A was actually available (as per EF map)! I even ran a test to see if he could be moved to 2A and it worked. So at this point, there were two people assigned to the same seat 2A in TKs IT system! I go back into my original reservation and now choose 2B (essentially we swapped seats at this point). For now, TK and EF once again agree…. but for how long?”
So yeah, TK seat assignments are messed up right now. Who knows how long it will take them to fix it. Knowing TK, don’t hold your breath. I guess for now think of them as “seat suggestions”.