Turkish Airlines Offices in US Claimed

I’ve been trying to pay the taxes on a mileage ticket from my account for my sister. I’ve called repeatedly, flew on my own time and money to IAD to pay in person as advised, and was met by Yasser, a VERY rude manager who wouldn’t even try to help me but yet told me to email which I had already done. The email response was to pay at a sales office. He wouldn’t even LOOK at the email! I’ve called, submitted feedback, sent emails, sent DMs via Twitter, and no matter what, I keep getting the same information. The issue is not my credit card or bank, it’s the Turkish Airlines SYSTEM! The funny thing is that I can book and pay for a full cash fair, and it went right through! So TK is running a scam and basically doesn’t want me to be able to use my miles for a flight. This should be reported as fraudulent business practices.

I traveled on Turkish Airlines for work, arranged by a corporate client, and loved it. Then I bought our tickets to Europe from them, and had to go through an agonizing, frustrating, and unfair ordeal for over 10 days before sorting out our seat arrangement so that we can sit together. Their system is old and dysfunctional, and their staff, even though empathetic, are unable to correct the many mistakes of their system. They all keep repeating the same instruction that does not work. How could such a good airlines have such a bad customer service, I wonder. I spent more time as the price of the ticket, to simply let them know about their mistake. I could have bought Business at this price. In fact, if this was a progressive company, they would have compensated us by upgrading our tickets, knowing how many mistakes they had made!

We had a ticket booked on Turkish air with a checked bag for each of us – 2 passengers traveling together. Turkish Air changed the schedule of our first flight so that we could not make the connection of our second flight. We asked our travel agent to rebook which they did. When we got to the airport to leave, the gate agent said that our ticket now did not include luggage and we would have to pay by the kilo for our checked luggage. 30 minutes and two supervisors later we paid $533 and were assured that if we took this up with a ticket office we could get a refund. When we transferred in Istanbul that day I went to the Service Counter there in the International Transit area and was told that they do not do that ‘type of thing’. When we returned ti the USA we gave the receipt to our travel agent and they requested a refund. After two weeks, Turkish Air insisted that we had been billed for overweight luggage not the bag allowance itself, refused to grant a refund and finally provided a voucher for $305 that is only convertible into cash with an in-person visit to at Turkish Airlines office, which are all airport counters in the USA, like what we already tried and a long way from where we live. Then they said that they were done and the travel agent should stop talking to them about this claim. So, we are out the money for the bags; the travel agency is making us whole and we will never fly on Turkish Airlines again. Horrible, unimaginably incompetent and unhelpful. When this was going down I showed the Supervisor the original receipt for our tickets with the baggage allowance but she was unmoved and said it did not help as our tickets now did not show that!

Ive been trying to get a refund for my flexible ticket which I PAID extra for but they have been playing me for a whole week now. Spending 1 hour minumim on the line with them noone is doing their job.

Turkish Airlines is circumventing global consumer protection laws and is exercising unethical “bait and switch” activities with consumers who purchased their tickets from major travel websites such as Expedia. Furthermore, Turkish Airlines REFUSES to help you, and blame Expedia for their failures and then send you on a “wild goose chase” yo-yoing between Expedia and Turkish Airlines. The luggage cost was not disclosed at the time of ticket purchase. However, skyrocketing charges for luggage are disclosed only hours prior to the flight departure. If you refuse to pay, you will be asked to choose either to board the flight without your luggage or stay stranded in whatever international airport and country you are in and risk missing your connections. In August2022, I purchased my ticket which totaled $541.76 from the Expedia.com website for Turkish Airlines Flight # originating from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Brussels, Belgium. At the time of purchase, the ticket did not disclose how many bags each passenger is allowed to check in and carry on the plane. Turkish Airlines FAILED to communicate this information with or through Expedia. On 23Sep2022, the day of my departure, I arrived at Jeddah airport around 1am to catch my international Flight # 911 from Jeddah to Brussels. At the Turkish Airlines counter, I was informed that it costs Approximately $20 for each kilo of my checked bag, which ended up being approximately $400 to board (in addition to the $541.76 ticket price). I tried to resolve this issue with the Turkish Airline team at the airport, but I was treated very poorly and rudely. I filed a complaint with the airline but received no response. Furthermore, I was informed by the Turkish Airlines counter team that since my flight was not purchased directly from Turkish Airlines, that they had nothing to do with my ticket and were unable to assist and directed me to contact Expedia. While at the Jeddah airport, at risk of missing my flight, I contacted Expedia customer service who directed me back to Turkish Airlines stating that this was the information disclosed to Expedia by Turkish Airlines. Turkish Airlines FAILED to disclose complete information regarding the trip and consumers have to pay the price for their failure. In the end, I had to pay $400 for my luggage in excess of the ticket price to board my international flight and catch my connection from Brussels to the USA. I request that you fully investigate this incident and implement measures to protect consumers against these unethical practices. Finally, I am requesting a formal apology letter from Turkish Airlines for what I went through and want my $400 refunded in full.