Turkish Airlines

Sorry to hear of this.... it may be obvious by now, but international airlines don't always have
levels of IT support that US airlines do (and US airlines leave a lot to be desired).

If you live near a city that is served by Turkish, I would suggest going to the airport in person
with record locator and printouts of your original reservation and see if someone can help
you there.

Also, check the T&C of your original purchase and make sure you can get a full refund if it
comes to it. This is probably not your preferred solution, but if you can get your money
back, at least you can pursue booking a different airline to get to where you want to go.
This may be the way to go no matter what.

It is possible that an inexperienced (phone) agent made a change to the itinerary and didn't
even realize it, or did something wrong and didn't realize it. Good news, there should be a
traceable record of what has been done to the reservation and, maybe, a recording of the call
so that someone can retrace and correct the damage. Bad news, this is obviously not necessarily
a quick fix.

I hope you get this worked out. Business Class on Turkish Airlines is amazing.

If you go to the Elliot Report (elliot.org) he has a list of company contact pages and there is one for Turkish Airlines. Page down on the home page and you will see where you can enter a company name and get their customer contact info.

He also has a page on ways to effectively reach out using those contacts. I found it helpful in the past when dealing with an airline customer service issue.

I had some problems with our reservation last summer (it started when our connecting flight was canceled and they scheduled us for the next day with a 24 hour layover in Istanbul airport) Every time I tried to fix it, something would go wrong and they said someone would call me back within 24 hours. No one ever did. However, when I would call back (after waiting 48 hours) it looked like they had fixed it. Then something else would go wrong and "They will call you back in 24 hours." No one ever did. I called back after 48 hours...My advice: Call back. I'm not sure I would even wait for 7 days. You need to be very proactive, very professional, and very firm.

I have to say that I am surprised. I used to fly Turkish Air a lot and that meant that in time I had to make a few changes and had to deal with their customer service. When I did, I was happy I was dealing with Turkish Air vs any of the American airlines as the Turkish Air customer service was quite remarkable. Things always got worked out fast, very professionally and with courtesy.

The last flight with them was a trip to Australia earlier this year. We missed our connection in Malaysa and Turkish knew that was going to be the case before we landed so had everything waiting for us. Everything meant 11 hours in a 5 Stary luxury hotel to sleep before the next available connection. Fortunately the 11 hours worked out well, instead of arriving very late at night we arrived at a decent time in the morning.

I hope things have not changed with their customer service as that was always a selling point for me.

I have been recently shopping for flights from the U.S. to Portugal (for next fall), and Turkish Airlines keeps coming up as the lowest-cost carrier in my search.

But after seeing the New York Times article today, "Passengers Say Turkish Airlines Flights Have Unwelcome Guests: Bedbugs," has me looking at every other airline alternative instead. Yech.

Its amazing that bed bugs managed to infest nearly 400 planes all at once. How many of the over 80 million passengers in 2024 complained? To be honest, I think you read click bait. Not to say it didnt happen once. I imagine it happens on every airline ................ once. Oh, better stay of Delta too: https://eyeoftheflyer.com/2024/02/23/what-is-up-with-all-these-bugs-on-delta-jets-roaches-in-delta-one-maggots-in-overheads-yikes/ and british air: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/british-airways-flight-grounded-bedbugs Air France? https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/super-bedbugs-trigger-air-travel-warning-for-the-uk

I too saw the NYT article which I am gifting here so it should be accessible to all. I don't consider NYT news to be clickbait. What most struck me in the article were the appalling responses by Turkish Airlines. In the past I've flown Turkish often and always enjoyed it (as much as I can enjoy anything involving air travel). And the few times I've had issues, they've been resolved relatively easily and to my complete satisfaction. That said, after reading this article I will seriously consider any other option (if and when Turkish Air becomes an option for me again, if this war ever ends).

Chani, I get it based on the war. But the article was dishonest in not mentioning that bedbug problem was one every airline has had to deal with at least once. If it were meant to be about poor customer service then an honest article would not have had the title "Passengers Say Turkish Airlines Flights Have Unwelcome Guests: Bedbug". When an article is deceptive I distrust it completely.

Maikeer and Funglin I want to apologize. You posted something in good faith, tring to be helpful and I hammered it. That wasnt necessary. My apologies. I need to take the time to be more constructive in discussions.