I know this post will not be read by a lot of people, given that most people will not use Turkish Airlines to fly to Europe, but some will, and some will review these forums even if they are traveling to other places. So, I post the following: Turkish Airlines does not care about its customers. It cares about money. Here's why I know that: I booked business class tickets in November 2023 for flights in August 2024. When I booked the tickets, I of course chose my seats, as my wife and I were traveling together. When I booked, it was far enough in advance that very few seats had been booked in business class. Well, 48 hours before our flight from Toronto to Istanbul, I get a text and an email from TA stating that for "operational reasons," my seats were being changed. However, not only did we lose our seats that I booked 9 months before, but we were not allowed to choose new seats; we were blocked from doing so on TA's website. I even called their useless customer service department a number of times and was told I couldn't choose new seats at that time, and that I'd have to do so at the airport before the flight left. Since this all occurred 48 hours before our flight, seats at that time were more expensive than they were when I booked, so I know someone paid more for my original seats and was given them (I guess that qualifies as an "operational reason" to Turkish Airlines). I also know that TA was trying to fill the few remaining empty business class seats with the then higher prices, so I wasn't allowed to pick new seats. And I know if they had filled the seats, we'd have been bumped to coach seats. Apparently, they weren't able to fill the seats because when I printed our boarding passes before leaving for the airport, we had business class seats, just not the ones I had booked 9 months before. And as bad as that was, what TA did on our return flight was even worse. This time, I printed our boarding passes the day before our flight and they showed we had the seats we had booked. However, when we were actually boarding the plane, my wife's boarding pass wouldn't scan and the person at the gate told her that her seat had been changed (but not mine), and she was in a different row. She was also now in a middle seat because on this plane the business class seat rows are 2-3-2. Of course, when I booked 9 months earlier I booked the outside two seats together. What happened this time was that someone that was either in coach or that didn't have the seats they wanted offered to pay more at the gate counter before the flight, and one of them (it was a family) was given my wife's seat. We refused to have my wife move, although a couple of TA representatives talked to us and tried to get my wife to move, including by "offering" us seats together in another row that were in the middle 3 seat area. We said no. They ended up asking another woman that was traveling alone to move and she did, so the husband and wife in this family could sit together, although the husband was in a middle seat and he grumbled the entire way from Istanbul to Toronto. The bottom line is, we will never fly Turkish Airlines again, and I advise others not to, as well. Again, they don't care about their customers. They care only about money. Shameful.
Posted by
Chicago
645 posts
While I empathize with your experience, it may be a bit of a leap to attribute this
to airline greed.....
Lots of others also complaning
At the same time, your contract of carriage does not guarantee the exact seat you
purchased/selected. But if you paid for a seat and they moved you, you should get
a refund.
Posted by
Chicago
1135 posts
I have made at least 6 international flights in the past 12 - 18 months to Europe and Asia with several different carriers both foreign and US owned. In over half of those, my seat was changed. Classes booked were from Economy to Premium Economy to Business.
I am about to fly to Europe tomorrow - a US carrier. My seat has been changed twice already. We'll see in a few hours when I go to do online check-in if the most recent seat is still assigned.
In one of the above cases, there was a change of plane which resulted not only in a change of seat, but change of class, PE eliminated. Many reasons for seat changes.
The circumstances you describe are very common - especially with tickets booked as far out as you booked.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20164 posts
Buy your tickets 9 months in advance, and I think the odds of this goes up. I like them. One of the reasons is because their customer service help number always worked so well. But it has been a while, maybe something changed.
Posted by
Houston, Texas
975 posts
First time poster! He also has posted the same comments on TripAdvisor! Time to move on.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
717 posts
You would’ve gotten more sympathy by sticking to facts and not making up these “reasons”. I can tell you that most of your reasoning is not what happens. No, the airline doesn’t take money from people to give them better seats and take yours away, etc
And sadly for you. This can happen on any airline. It just happened to me yesterday on Delta. So if you’re not going to fly airlines where there’s a risk your seat could change your listing of available carriers is going to be incredibly short.
Posted by
Los Angeles
1171 posts
Troy Traveler doth protest too much, methinks
..."offering" us seats together in another row that were in the middle 3 seat area.
You would think that OP had been put back in steerage. Looking at seat maps and pix online of TA biz class on the 777, there appears to be a small barrier between those three-across seats - although perhaps not my first choice if I was paying the fare, it still looked quite comfortable, and segregated from adjacent seat mates.
There was most likely an equipment change, as the A350 and 787 maps don't show any three across biz seats.
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8876 posts
I had an extremely positive experience with Turkish Airlines and will cheerfully fly them again.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20164 posts
Community Guidelines
Be unfailingly polite. Comments that contain inappropriate language, harshly criticize, or disrespect others' opinions are not allowed. New travelers should be shown extra patience. If you can't write politely, this forum is not for you.
Posted by
1044 posts
It is aggravating. And common to aĺl airlines. Methinks that if you pay for a seat, you get that seat. What's the problem?
It is very low bar nowadays and if your plane is on time that is the best you can expect. All other glitches are far too common.
Why this continues is because the traveler has no power whatsoever. Even if you are first class in regards to delays.
It is pitiful and would/ should be embarrassing if the airlines had any sense of even being embarrassed.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20164 posts
I think the airline industry as a whole does a pertty good job.
The deal with 4.5 billion passengers a year. If 1% complained that would be 45 million complaints.
And they do their business on a 5% profit margin.
My first interentational trip was 1979, but I didnt start traveling with any great frequency until 1994.
Since then maybe 300 flights.
- Canceled flight: 1 on United. They had me rebooked before I knew it was canceled and before I got to the airport.
- Missed connection due to a late flight: 1 on Turkish Air. Spent the night in a 5 star hotel and arrived fresh at my destination in the morning, Actually better than the original plan.
- Lost luggage: 1 on Air France. Was delivered to the hotel within hours.
- Changed Seats: Twice, once on Czech Air they moved me to Business
free of charge. Once on Malev they moved me from the window to the
asile then felt so bad for doing it i drank free on the trip.
Truth is i prefer asile, but when I booked one was not available
(change of plane type caused the problem). Maybe some other times
but i didnt notice.
And the traveler does have power. The power to take his business to the provider that best meets the needs of the traveler. Enough do it and things change. Its a low profit business so they can not afford to loose too much business.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
717 posts
I’m a former road warrior and these things just happen but I also know people who work in the industry and no, they don’t happen for the reasons the OP made up
A couple of years ago I was flying to London and the plane died. My business class seat became a coach seat. (I had a choice of applying for the mandated. UK reimbursement are accepting the free round-trip business seat that virgin offered as compensation. )
I’ve had seats rearranged and most often when look I realize it’s not the same type of plane I was on originally. This is especially true if your booking months in advance. That kind of thing happens all the time.
Posted by
Portland, OR
272 posts
"That kind of thing happens all the time."
And with the recent shortage in planes (Boeing, others) and huge surge in tourism (more demand) would expect these incidents to get more common, not less. At least for a while.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
717 posts
Well, I’d like to believe that the things are happening all the time because of the aircraft shortage, etc. But considering i was a road warrior for 30 something years flying every week I don’t really think that’s the problem. It’s been that way for decades
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20164 posts
And I would like to believe that the employees of Turkish Air are like you and me. Just a bunch of good willed working stiffs trying to the best they can with the circumstances delt by nature.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7882 posts
I had the same experience on Emirates, only the shorter-haul Business Class was 2-5-2. I suspect they gave our window pair to a high-status customer. Nairobi-Dubai.
NYC Mayor Adams can't say enough good things about Turkish Airlines!
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33811 posts
the OP posted this last Thursday as their one and only post - I am not sure that they stuck around to see the responses.
They posted the identical rant on TripAdvisor and on Skytrax, as well as similar on others.
Didn't return to them either.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20164 posts
Nigel, most of the negativity is the same. They look for every conceivable board to trash who they are mad at. If they were sucessful in their goal, and thats nearly imporssible, a lot of good folks would be out of work.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
717 posts
Actually, if you avoid all the airlines that posters on various message boards rant about you really won’t be able to go anywhere. I mean, perfection rarely exists in the airline industry. And of course, some issues are self inflicted
I’m always reminded of a man who I heard screaming about how he was never going to Fly Delta again. He told off everybody he could because the airline was run by incompetent people. His problem? We were in Atlanta and there was a thunderstorm. You could look out the window of the airport and see lightning hitting the ground, but apparently the gate agent had a direct line to God and she was going to fix the problem. He gets up there and proceeds to tell her she’s incompetent the airline is run by idiots etc. etc. etc. and she basically tells him to sit down and shut up and be quiet. She was very polite about it but that’s what she said. I just ask if there’s any chance I’m getting out or do i go stay with a friend. I’m very nice, I smile and apologize that she has to deal with jerks. . She smiles at me and hands me a new boarding pass for a flight that will leave before the flight we are all waiting on. She puts me in first class and tells me that as soon as the ground stop is lifted in about five minutes that plane will be boarding at gate X. Meanwhile, the jerk is still sitting in the area, screaming at everybody that the airline is horrible and he’s never flying them again. Oh well.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20164 posts
Turkish Airlines sent me a birthday card. I guess I gotta use them now.
Posted by
Bainbridge Island
3287 posts
Amazing how much the OP “knows”. Like he knows they were bumped from the seats because someone else paid more to get them. And they know that if more people wanted seats in business class, they would have been bumped down to Economy. Right.
There was an interesting story about last night’s Turkish Airlines flight from Seattle. on this morning’s news. The plane made an emergency landing in New York because one of the pilots suddenly died. Glad they were able to land before the lane head d out over ocean. Of course the remaining pilot could fly the plane safely but it would have been very stressful.