Poor service from Turkish Airlines

[GRstrawb]

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.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The issue is we have no idea why the aircraft was substituted. You’re taking a guess that they just wanted to downgrade the aircraft... but why and for what purpose? They would have had freight, catering, passenger loads and crew all ready for a 777, so to downgrade would not be a light decision. Plus upsetting passengers who were downgraded, which would be on the return sector as well.

The 777 could have needed urgent maintenance, could have been needed as a substitute for service recovery elsewhere (for example a long haul transatlantic which the a330 might not have had the range).

The alternative is that the flight was cancelled outright. Leaving you with a substantial delay.

In terms of your choices, you could have requested to be accommodated in business class on a later flight.

Unfortunately almost all airline terms and conditions are the same... coming from the days when IATA governed just about everything from the price of headphones in economy to the maximum number of vegetables that were allowed to be served on a meal tray (again, for economy).

The differences these days are countries with a scheme like EU261. Unfortunately very few.

 

[GRstrawb]

Thanks for the comments. I did consider that there might have been other reasons for replacing the aircraft, and there may indeed have been a valid reason. I think it still could well have been done for economic reasons though. In terms of upsetting passengers who were downgraded, I think I was the only one. There may have been one other who was on standby and did manage to get a place in business? I'm very confident that I was the only one that was actually downgraded. In the end, rather than the service being overbooked, I'd argue that it was under-provisioned. The actual passenger load was almost a perfect fit for the A330, except for one too many business class passengers in the end.

I was offered a seat in business on the same flight the next day, but I had to reject that offer because of a connecting flight and the fact that I had to be back for work. The Turkish Airlines staff told me that I should contact Singapore Airlines for a points reimbursal. I have thought about that and decided that I won't be doing it. Firstly, I don't think that Singapore Airlines will give back any points (the bookings were for multiple flights in a package, not just one flight). Secondly, Turkish Airlines failed to provide the service that they were engaged to provide, so in my opinion it should be up to them to rectify any shortfalls in the outcome (rather than being up to me). I will send an email to Turkish Airlines stating my case and see what response I receive. I'm not hopeful of a satisfactory outcome.

 

[jb747]

I wouldn’t have thought that there would be a huge difference in cost between running a triple vs a 330 on that sort of route. It would have to have been planned a little way out though, as you’d need to position crew. To be honest, economy would be my last guess as to the reason for the change. There are a million others, that are never obvious to the passengers.

 

[docjames]

I think having accepted the Y seat and travelled you're going to struggle to now get any compensation out of Turkish or Singapore (sorry).

One option would have been to explore alternative routings to your final destination and see if Turkish would have been able to seat you in J one one of those (perhaps IST-BKK-SIN would have been an option? Or switching to SQ metal for the IST-SIN leg?)

The other alternative would have been to contact the Travel Agency (in this case Amex) to see if they could release "award" seats on another option having explained the situation. But again needed to be done in IST before departure.

 

[GRstrawb]

Thanks for the comments. Checking again on FlightRadar24, our flight was the only one in 10 days that used the A330. It seems like it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time for us. I'm still not happy with Turkish Airlines but given the low chance of getting something from them, I'm reluctant to put any more time or effort into the issue. I'll just let it go and put it all down to experience.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

There are a million others, that are never obvious to the passengers.

Unfortuinately that's part of the problem. Airlines assume passengers 'won't understand' or 'can't appreciate' issues, so there's a huge gap in communication. Perhaps airlines should try it (communication) some day!

If Turkish had been upfront explaining why there was a substitution it might have at least stopped some of the frustration.

 

[JohnK]

There are a million others, that are never obvious to the passengers.

How about telling the truth instead of saying nothing or recycling the same excuses? That'd be a good start.

 

[blaz]

I would be writing to both Singapore air and to Turkish air...don't rule out any possibility. At the very least I would expect to receive the difference in points.

 

[Mattg]

I would be writing to both Singapore air and to Turkish air...don't rule out any possibility. At the very least I would expect to receive the difference in points.

The trouble is, in this case there is no difference in points.

Although, I guess the OP could argue for the difference that would normally apply if booking a IST-SIN award? In this case, that's 30,000 KrisFlyer miles.

 

[blaz]

The trouble is, in this case there is no difference in points.

Although, I guess the OP could argue for the difference that would normally apply if booking a IST-SIN award? In this case, that's 30,000 KrisFlyer miles.

Yes, I think that would be fair....good PR and actually costs them very little in real terms.