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Turkish airline denying boarding and not fly us to final destination

Turkish airline denying boarding and not fly us to final destination

Old Sep 11th, 2014, 11:17 AM
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Turkish airline denying boarding and not fly us to final destination

Here is our experiences. We booked confirmed fly on 22 August 2014 for 4 people (including a 3 year old kid). The fly was on 8:35am from Istanbul to Oslo. We arrived IST around 6:20am, more than 2 hours before departure and the agent gave us STD tickets. We asked him why their is no seat assign, he didn't explain to us those were standby tickets, just told us everybody would get their seat assign at gate. Then we went to gate, and ask again, the agent told us that we just bought a right to fly and it is same to everybody, and asked us to wait. Then we asked another agent at gate, he told us that our tickets are standby tickets, even we had a 3 year old kid and has international connection, he can't do anything and they told us the system assign stand by ticket randomly. Now somebody finally told us the truth. Then we waited at gate for more than 1 hour, and was denied boarding. Notice they never asking for volunteers fly on later fly? There are plenty of people who willing to take compensation to arrive 6 hour late.

After that we were directed to about 4 places (gate 15, custom care, transit office, transfer line) in airport, and need to wait in line for all those place. After running around in airport for 1.5 hour, we were sent to denying office. Notice on the way, they told me they will fly us to our final destination (US). Then in denying office, they told us because our connection tickets were not on 1 ticket, they will only fly us to Oslo instead of US. They didn't give us any help. The agent even told us "Did I let you buy those connection tickets?" They ask us to call turkish airline custom help line from their office and we hold for 45 minutes and nobody pick up the phone. They didn't even try to get us on an early fly, so we can catch our connecting fly. They didn't help us found a manager, they said the managers are walking around in airport and we need to find them ourselves. We ended up paid for $2800 for changing our connection tickets and $400 for hotel for stay extra 2 days in Oslo by ourselves. The money (400 euro) they paid to us can't even cover the amount we paid for changing fly. Not to mention I need to stay 2 more days, and all food and other expenses.

They said "You just bought a right to fly." So if you are counting on the fly will be arrive on time, that is wrong expectation . Also don't believe any of their agent's words, most of them are not true. They think they paid you some money, so it is their right to treat you like that.

We did wrote to turkish airline after we are back to us. There is an automatic reply email, then nothing afterwards.
wei408 is offline  
Old Sep 11th, 2014, 02:44 PM
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I am so sorry to hear about your experience. It sounds horrible. It is a good reminder to others to be sure to book connecting flights on one ticket. As you found out, any airline only will be responsible to get you to the ticketed destination. If you buy separate tickets then it is a risk.

Another option for others/future travel is to buy travel insurance. It probably would have been a big help in this case.
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Old Sep 11th, 2014, 11:05 PM
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I have a feeling that you are leaving out important details because you mention offhandedly as if it didn't matter that the trip was not on a single ticket.
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Old Sep 12th, 2014, 09:27 AM
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We had travel insurance through credit card, but it didn't cover airline denying boarding.

It was my mistake for not buying the connecting flights on 1 tickets, I left more than 6 hours between the flights.

If they told us the truth that those were standby tickets at beginning instead of lying to us that everybody would get their seat assign at gate. Since that was our first time fly from Turkey and with turkish airline, we thought they may have a different policy. We won't wait at the gate, we would go to buy another tickets which are much cheaper than change my international fly from Europe to US.

Also, when we asked all the agent on the way, and told them we were on 2 separate tickets, they all told us, no problem, they will fly us to final destination. Until the final agent in denying boarding office, they start to tell that they can't do it. If we were not spend almost 2 hours to running around in all different offices they point to us, we would be able to catch an early fly. Notice, it wasn't we get lost in airport, they sent all denying boarding custom those way.

The thing is that they just didn't tell you the truth and give minimal help to their custom. They think they have the right to treat you like that. They said "We have the right to over sold the tickets". No apology, it was their right.
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Old Sep 16th, 2014, 08:59 AM
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I would investigate your passenger rights as set out by the EU

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/passen...-boarding.html
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Old Sep 16th, 2014, 09:08 AM
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Since neither Turkey or Norway is in the EU I am not sure how EU regs will help.
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Old Sep 16th, 2014, 11:35 AM
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Apologies, you should be entitled to financial compensation under EU rules. Of course being entitled and actually getting it are two very different matters Airlines are really bad at paying the compensation.
There are sites online which will help, for a fee, or you can claim yourself with the correct forms.
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