I'm sitting at Changi airport, still really peeved at the service I just received from Turkish Airlines ("TA"). In a nutshell, I've been added to the list of people that have been downgraded from business to economy. We booked our flights ages ago through Singapore Airlines ("SA") using AMEX points. Two of the legs were with Turkish Airlines (Casablanca to Istanbul and Istanbul to Singapore). There were 6 business class legs in total.
I've flown with TA a number of times previously and all experiences have been generally positive. We had a minor hiccup when checking in this time at Casablanca, as our seats were at opposite ends of business class (in an almost empty business class section on the flight). Not a biggie, but an indication that the care factor of the check-in attendant was roughly zero (and we'd certainly done nothing that might have annoyed her). We got to the airport in Istanbul last night 3 hours before take-off and heard the dreaded "overbooked" word uttered by the check-in attendant. We were then taken to the supervisor, who advised that one of us (me) would be downgraded to economy due to the business class sector being overbooked. They advised that I would be on standby for business but would only get a seat if someone didn't turn up. I then asked about compensation and was told that we would get the points difference refunded (by SA, not TA). I then asked if I would need anything from TA to substantiate the claim with SA and was told that we wouldn't need anything from TA. In hindsight, I realized that SA is unlikely to give us any points back, as the awards itinerary allows "up to" 6 legs. I was instructed to turn up at the gate at least an hour before take-off to see if I had been put back in the business section. If I did have to travel in economy then they would block out an extra seat for me. I turned up at the gate as required and was then told that I'd have to wait until boarding had been completed before it could be finalized. Subsequently, my 2 economy seats were right at the back of the plane.
When I boarded, the plane wasn't the designated 777 (49 business class seats and 300 economy seats according to SeatGuru) but was an A330 (28 business class seats and 261 economy seats). The flight was pretty full. So it dawned on me that they'd realized that they could squeeze all of the passengers onto an A330 and probably (?) save a few dollars running the slightly smaller plane (someone please correct me if I am wrong here). So TA saves a bit on costs and shoves me down the back, with no offer of compensation. I checked on FlightRadar24 and the previous 6 days had a 777 running the route and our flight was the only A330 during the last 7 days.
This post is partly a bit of a rant and a bit of venting, but I'm interested in seeing if anyone has any suggestions for what I should do now (if anything), or what I might have done differently (if anything). I realise that the T's and C's will almost certainly allow the airlines to do what they did, but these are just weasel words. In my opinion, what they did was unethical. I'm frankly surprised that the regulators allow this sort of behaviour to continue. Are there any airlines that are better or worse than the bunch in this regard?
TL;DR - I got screwed by Turkish Airlines.
I've flown with TA a number of times previously and all experiences have been generally positive. We had a minor hiccup when checking in this time at Casablanca, as our seats were at opposite ends of business class (in an almost empty business class section on the flight). Not a biggie, but an indication that the care factor of the check-in attendant was roughly zero (and we'd certainly done nothing that might have annoyed her). We got to the airport in Istanbul last night 3 hours before take-off and heard the dreaded "overbooked" word uttered by the check-in attendant. We were then taken to the supervisor, who advised that one of us (me) would be downgraded to economy due to the business class sector being overbooked. They advised that I would be on standby for business but would only get a seat if someone didn't turn up. I then asked about compensation and was told that we would get the points difference refunded (by SA, not TA). I then asked if I would need anything from TA to substantiate the claim with SA and was told that we wouldn't need anything from TA. In hindsight, I realized that SA is unlikely to give us any points back, as the awards itinerary allows "up to" 6 legs. I was instructed to turn up at the gate at least an hour before take-off to see if I had been put back in the business section. If I did have to travel in economy then they would block out an extra seat for me. I turned up at the gate as required and was then told that I'd have to wait until boarding had been completed before it could be finalized. Subsequently, my 2 economy seats were right at the back of the plane.
When I boarded, the plane wasn't the designated 777 (49 business class seats and 300 economy seats according to SeatGuru) but was an A330 (28 business class seats and 261 economy seats). The flight was pretty full. So it dawned on me that they'd realized that they could squeeze all of the passengers onto an A330 and probably (?) save a few dollars running the slightly smaller plane (someone please correct me if I am wrong here). So TA saves a bit on costs and shoves me down the back, with no offer of compensation. I checked on FlightRadar24 and the previous 6 days had a 777 running the route and our flight was the only A330 during the last 7 days.
This post is partly a bit of a rant and a bit of venting, but I'm interested in seeing if anyone has any suggestions for what I should do now (if anything), or what I might have done differently (if anything). I realise that the T's and C's will almost certainly allow the airlines to do what they did, but these are just weasel words. In my opinion, what they did was unethical. I'm frankly surprised that the regulators allow this sort of behaviour to continue. Are there any airlines that are better or worse than the bunch in this regard?
TL;DR - I got screwed by Turkish Airlines.
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