[IanFromHKG]

Charles-P, I seem to recall you promising us to let us know of the outcome of your legal action… Do tell!

[annahalkiadis]

We were traveling from Athens to New York, connecting at Istanbul. The time had changed in Greece, but not in Turkey. When we asked the air hostess what time it was when departing the plane in Istanbul she gave us the wrong time. We went straight to the gate, nevertheless and we asked the employee at the gate to reconfirm the time, and he again gave us the wrong time, telling us that we have another hour before the plane departs. I went to visit the bathroom, while my sister was waiting at the gate. 15 min late I was back, and apparently the plane had already boarded and left without us (????????). They had made no announcements and the employee didnt even call my sister in the gate. I know it seems crazy but this is exactly what happened. We spent the next 4 hours being tossed back and forth in the airport, directed to offices that didn’t even exist or were closed, talking to Turkish Airlines employees that couldnt even speak English, finally being told that our return ticket was cancelled too and that we would have to purchase a whole new ticket, $1000 each, and pay for our own hotel. Another lady was there, who had the same experience, she had no money to buy a new ticket, she was basically told that she would be stuck in the airport, and she was crying uncontrollably.
On the way to New York the next day the time on the plane was also wrong (we have proof and pictures of everything), we have been trying to contact Turkish Airlines ever since and we keep getting tossed to other people, complaint websites etc. they were supposed to answer to the complaint in 7 days, but it has been three weeks. After just speaking to an employee right now, he said that my case is closed, and he doesn’t know what the response was, and he doesn’t know why they didnt get back to me and he will contact them and see and that there’s nothing else he can do. I have to say that this is the most horrific experience I have had with any airline, and I travel a lot. They should at least refund the tickets, if not offer something extra for all the emotional distress of having 2 women in their 60s and 70s treated like ping pong balls. We were sick for a week when we got to New York from all the ordeal, and spent a week in bed. We demand a refund at the lease, and we will not let this go. My son works in the media sector, and she is going to talk to a lawyer if we do not hear back from them soon.They should be ashamed of themselves, this is disgusting

[AnthonyDunn]

Truly 5-star appalling service.

The first moral is not to book with Turkish ever again.

The second is to contact the THY Turkish representative office in the country where you reside. Then send everything to them by recorded delivery so that they cannot claim not to have received the letter and any supporting documents.

Depending upon where you live, are there consumer programmes on television or radio, do newspapers and consumer magazines handle complaints and do you have legal insurance to take out a court case against Turkish?

Be polite, extremely firm and prepared to have to spend months at this because, on the basis of personal experience and other people’s postings, THY’s default response is to ignore complaints and play the waiting game. Show them that you are fully up to this by, if needs be, turning up on their premises and refusing to leave unless and until your case has been dealt with to your satisfaction.

But, as has been shown elsewhere in this thread, TK are past masters in the fob-off and in ignoring customer complaints.

[Charles-P]

A story that will surprise few here on the boards. Many of us can relate similar experiences of Turkish Airlines. My advice is as follows:

Don’t bother with their customer care line. That basically exists to fob you off and encourage you to stop complaining.

Contact both your local Turkish Airlines office and the head office directly in Istanbul

Make clear you are willing to undertake legal action in Turkey to recover funds. Despite what might be thought their Courts are fair and reasonable and a good lawyer is not that expensive.

Follow up and keep at them.

This was the company I used when I sued the company and the CEO
http://www.kesikli.com

[MrMichael]

I am in no way condoning the actions of TY on this.

I can perhaps explain the confusement around the time though. For a while nobody in Turkey knew what the time was as the president had taken an arbitrary decision to change the clocks a few weeks later than the rest of Europe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34631326

I flew to Turkey for the weekend it did change, utter chaos.

[JohnHarper]

I know several people who were caught out by the presidential decision to delay the implementation of the autumn time change. It was a political decision linked to the pending election.

It did cause chaos and I think such a thing would be unlikely to be ever repeated as a result of the anger and confusion it caused.

Only yesterday I was sitting on a TK flight from LHR-IST and I chatted to the lady sitting next to me. She is a member of BA crew and she had been caught out and as a result of confusion she had bought additional tickets for a domestic flight in Turkey believing she would not be able to make her connection at IST either way. She was quite upset at the time and decided to approach TK staff personally at IST.

She explained what had happened and her confusion. She reported that they could not have been more helpful and a supervisor was called and an immediate refund of her additional costs was authorised which she said was back on her card inside 48 hours. She was most impressed and said it was a level of service and understanding that would never happen at BA and she fully expected to get nothing.

I know several others who were caught out too, in all cases they were dealt with with absolute understanding and the situation rectified with a new booking on the next available flight at no cost.

As ever of course what you get can depend on the approach you take in the first place. My hunch is there’s rather more to the post made by annahalkiadis – 01/12/2015 17:06 GMT than we are being told.

Just to add, I asked the BA crew member I sat with why she wasn’t on BA, she looked with incredulity and asked had I tried their C service between London and Istanbul and I said I hadn’t. She told me not to under any circumstances (I wouldn’t anyway) and why would you pay for C to fly in Y when you could pay for C and fly in C.

[RonBrown]

I am trying to get a reply from Air Berlin re a cancelled flight, three emails so far and no reply!

[annahalkiadis]

I know it sounds insane, but believe me this is exactly what happened,and I am even more upset that we were treated this was when other people were treated differently. I guess it depends on who the employe is and if they are willing to help. Ofcourse we talked to several employees and were tossed from one office to another, and since then I have talked to several people on the phone that seem to be impartial and not want to help. Most recently they said they closed the case, and we didnt even get a response. We asked for a supervisor at the airport, and they said that there was no one. I have no reason to lie, this is exaclty what happened and I have proof.

[HRTraveling]

After reading these postings I won’t be taking Turkish airlines anytime in the future. However, if I had flown them and there was unresloved complaint, you would find me in Small Claims Court. Yes it will take some of your time at court, however they have to show up as well. Serve the highest ranking TK member in your country. I believe you will have a better “customer service” outcome with the court. Good luck to all!

[WillieWelsh]

I had first hand experience of this time change routing from EDI-IST-SIN and return.

The problem occurred on the return journey and within minutes I was routed SIN-IST-AMS-EDI with no problems at all in fact the staff could not have been more helpful. I arrived home only ninety minutes later than I would have done so absolutely no problem.

Considering the chaos this change caused I think TK dealt with it exceptionally well. I just wish they would increase the frequencies between EDI and IST so I could make more use of them.

[LuganoPirate]

TK, like most airlines, have a budget for legal costs and usually retain lawyers to act on their behalf, so as wrong as it may be, it is your time in court, rarely theirs.

[JulietTanner]

Last year, when I was traveling back from Istanbul to Manchester, my flight was delayed by 3 hours and I was not able to get the proper response from the authorities, meanwhile I missed my daughter 7th Birthday. It is not restricted to Turkey Airlines, but many others like US Airways and Easy-Jet. As they are cheap, they started thinking their monopoly as a exploiting tool . Airlines bad experiences result in time loss, and mental frustration. Further passengers have joint their efforts for stronger laws. As, Delayed flight regulations are still not in the favor of general public, and we have to go hard on government.

[mhassanx]

My family were supposed to be flying from Mogadishu (MGQ) to Djibouti (JIB) to Istanbul (IST) to New York (JFK) on 03/15/2016 and the flight was cancelled last minute without any notice. I went to check my family in and noticed that the flight was cancelled. I called the customer service number and the rep on the phone told me that they could not help me and I would need to go to the closest sales office which is almost 2 hours away. I got to the airport in New York and was told by Turkish Airlines Rep that all they could do was reschedule my family’s flight to 03/25/2016 which was more than 1 one week away, I did not find this acceptable but had no choice. I booked new hotels for my family so they may have somewhere to stay in the mean time. It is now 03/25/2016 and my family once again went to the airport and the flight was once again cancelled without any notice. I called customer service and was told sorry we have to reschedule you to 03/31/2016. I find this to be very ridiculous. I’ve asked the airline about being putting on another airline and I have been told no. Please help. Not sure where to go from here

[SimonS1]

I was going to suggest posting in the Turkish form on FT but I see you have already got there.

There seems something odd about this. TK flights are 3x a day from JFK and they are selling tickets today and over the next few days.

What was the flight number that was cancelled?

[seasonedtraveller]

Unless I am missing something here….. TK don’t operate between MGQ and JIB.

Today’s flights between MGQ and JIB to IST are all scheduled to operate. All of the 3 TK flights between IST to JFK are either en route or scheduled on time today?

[Author]

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