1 day prior to our return flight to San Francisco my wife and I began to feel poorly with COVID symptoms. I performed an at-home test and tested positive for COVID. I contacted Turkish Airlines through their specified process and channel both creating a feedback ticket and contacting the company through the customer service call center.
The purpose of contacting the company was to change my flight so as to not risk the infection of fellow passengers and staff. As per Turkish Airlines policy, it was my understanding I could change the ticket at no additional cost. I did not receive guidance or direction from either channel on how to change the ticket.
Instead, I was informed that my feedback was marked as "URGENT" and that someone would contact me as soon as possible. With the time getting close to my scheduled return flight, I made the decision that it was not the right or decent thing to do to travel knowing I was COVID-positive and could place both fellow passengers and staff at risk.
Therefore, I made the decision to change my flight to the same flight (time and layover) 10 days later. I paid the cost of changing the flight out of pocket under the assumption that I would later receive a refund once someone from the company had the chance to review my feedback ticket and request.
After making the change I updated my feedback request to let Turkish Airlines know I had changed the flight for this reason. The next day (October 4th), the day of the originally scheduled flight, both my wife and I had PCR COIVD Tests administered and received positive results.
I also updated my Feedback Ticket with Turkish Airlines to show them the positive test results. I paid for these tests out of pocket to show proof that we both were in fact COVID Positive and it was unsafe for us to travel on our original return date.
This morning (10/10), 6 days after the original return flight and after having to reschedule my flight I have been informed by Turkish Airlines that they will not be refunding the cost of changing my flight. I find this response wholly unfair and am left confused and frustrated as to what course of action they expected me to take. Hoping someone can help in getting my change fee refunded which was $1,807.
September 2015...lodged a complaint that my online access did not work. Called customer service tech support multiple times, one of which hung up the phone during our conversation. Neither fixed the problem and thus, I was unable to book my flight online.
December 2016...called Turkish airlines outsourced US call center multiple times. Was given false and inconsistent feedback by call center employees as to how I can book my flight. Some said I had to visit an airport, others said I had to go into a Turkish Airlines office while others said I needed to call the airport to book my flight.
December 31, 2016 1 PM PST. Spoke to call center who told me I had to call airline office to book a flight with partner airline, United. She said there was no hard deadline for booking expired miles and told me I did not need to hurry to book the flight.
December 31, 2016 3 PM, 5 PM, 7 PM PST...Called Turkish Airlines New York JFK, Chicago O'Hare, and LAX, none of which picked up their phones.
December 31, 2016 6 PM. Spoke to Turkish Airlines Washington DC member who told me I could only book flight within regional office as I was located in Seattle, I had to Book with San Francisco office. He told me to email the San Francisco office and that they would email me back before leaving at 7:30 PM.
December 31, 2016 6:10 PM. Emailed the San Francisco office. Did not receive a response back.
December 31, 2016 6:30 PM. Called San Francisco office. Attendant was very abrasive and accusational. Told me the previous information I was given was incorrect. Told me he would contact the main call center and call me back in 10 minutes.
December 31, 2016 7:00 PM. San Francisco agent never called or emailed back. I tried calling and he screened my call, refusing to pick up the phone.
December 31, 2016 7:01 PM. Called the San Francisco attendant from a different phone and he picked up right away. Found out he never contacted the call center and told me to call them before calling him back.
December 31, 2016. 7:05 PM. Spoke to the most apathetic, rude, disrespectful Turkish Airline employee yet at the Turkish Airlines outsourced call center for US accounts. The agent refused to listen to me or state my case or even speak to a manager. Told me my miles were expired and I had to pay to reactivate them (despite what the other agents told me). After several attempts, he vehemently refused to give me his name or forward me to a supervisor (I recorded the phone call and will release the call if need be to show the horrific customer service this man exuded).
December 31, 2016 7:25 PM. Called the San Francisco office from both phones. Agent screened the numbers and despite telling me to call back, refused to answer and allow me to book my award flights.
Complaint Department Experience
1. The customer service agent(s) at the Turkish Airlines Call Center were rude, disrespectful, and unwilling to book my award ticket. I have recordings of their calls and am not pleased to find that they omitted that as part of Turkish Airlines' alleged 'investigation'. One of the keys to my complaint was the inability for customers such as myself to book award travel through the online call center--what should be a seamless and simple process, but in reality is anything but.
2. I requested six times for a supervisor to contact me, as I possessed additional, very relevant information related to my case that best conveyed to a supervisor over the phone. Turkish Airlines telling a customer that they will be contacted only after completing their investigation does not answer my numerous requests and I is a tactic Turkish Airlines does try and 'silence' any of their critics. Thus, after patiently waiting all this time, I feel at minimal it was their obligation to have a supervisor contact me before the investigation was completed and a decision made, but apparently that was an order too tall to ask.
3. The length of time to respond to my initial complaint was unconscionably long. Over one month and six complaints later, no one had contacted me to follow up on details surrounding my case. No supervisor reached me despite numerous requests , only a short incoherent vague rejection letter was sent as a reply without any acknowledgment of having read my initial inquiry/complaint.
This was a simple matter that if addressed promptly, professionally, and by the appropriate people, could be fixed in minutes, not months.
I never received an appropriate response about my complaint as the few replies I received did not attempt to address the primary focal matters of my complaint as it became clear that the agents looking at my case only skimmed through my complaint, as indicated by their incomplete replies to a small fraction of my complaints.
This is an extremely unethical company who prides itself upon ignoring customers and skimming on customer service. It is mind-boggling to me that a company could spend millions of dollars to hire Morgan Freeman for a Super Bowl ad, but take 1.5+ months to respond to six+ complaints with no supervisors accessible by phone in their customer service department. This is egregiously negligent on Turkish Airline's end and they should be punished for having such untimely, unethical customer service practices. I will never fly this company again and will urge others to do the same.
On june 20, 2016 I bought ticket from Turkish Airlines desk in Soekarno Hatta Jakarta International Airport Indonesia. The ticket is from Paris CDG to Jakarta CGK on August 20,2016.
On july 12, 2016 I emailed Turkish Airlines in Jakarta to cancel my ticket and refunded my money back.
They responded and told me that they will process the refund and it won't be a full refund. They also told me the refund will be received in 10 days.
The amount of refund is IDR 6.530.500
I did contacted them asking about my refund process and they told me they would check on it and contacted me back. But in fact they never contacted me back. They just gave me false hope.
Finally I called their worldwide customer service and they told me to file a complaint through their online form.
They replied and they said that they already refunded my money and the problem is with the bank. And so I contacted the bank. And the bank told me that they never received the refund.
I am truly dissapointed by how Turkish Airlines reacted on their customer. They have been delaying my refund for 9 weeks now.
I hope with this complaint file I would received my money back immediately.
Turkish Airlines Reviews
1 day prior to our return flight to San Francisco my wife and I began to feel poorly with COVID symptoms. I performed an at-home test and tested positive for COVID. I contacted Turkish Airlines through their specified process and channel both creating a feedback ticket and contacting the company through the customer service call center.
The purpose of contacting the company was to change my flight so as to not risk the infection of fellow passengers and staff. As per Turkish Airlines policy, it was my understanding I could change the ticket at no additional cost. I did not receive guidance or direction from either channel on how to change the ticket.
Instead, I was informed that my feedback was marked as "URGENT" and that someone would contact me as soon as possible. With the time getting close to my scheduled return flight, I made the decision that it was not the right or decent thing to do to travel knowing I was COVID-positive and could place both fellow passengers and staff at risk.
Therefore, I made the decision to change my flight to the same flight (time and layover) 10 days later. I paid the cost of changing the flight out of pocket under the assumption that I would later receive a refund once someone from the company had the chance to review my feedback ticket and request.
After making the change I updated my feedback request to let Turkish Airlines know I had changed the flight for this reason. The next day (October 4th), the day of the originally scheduled flight, both my wife and I had PCR COIVD Tests administered and received positive results.
I also updated my Feedback Ticket with Turkish Airlines to show them the positive test results. I paid for these tests out of pocket to show proof that we both were in fact COVID Positive and it was unsafe for us to travel on our original return date.
This morning (10/10), 6 days after the original return flight and after having to reschedule my flight I have been informed by Turkish Airlines that they will not be refunding the cost of changing my flight. I find this response wholly unfair and am left confused and frustrated as to what course of action they expected me to take. Hoping someone can help in getting my change fee refunded which was $1,807.
September 2015...lodged a complaint that my online access did not work. Called customer service tech support multiple times, one of which hung up the phone during our conversation. Neither fixed the problem and thus, I was unable to book my flight online.
December 2016...called Turkish airlines outsourced US call center multiple times. Was given false and inconsistent feedback by call center employees as to how I can book my flight. Some said I had to visit an airport, others said I had to go into a Turkish Airlines office while others said I needed to call the airport to book my flight.
December 31, 2016 1 PM PST. Spoke to call center who told me I had to call airline office to book a flight with partner airline, United. She said there was no hard deadline for booking expired miles and told me I did not need to hurry to book the flight.
December 31, 2016 3 PM, 5 PM, 7 PM PST...Called Turkish Airlines New York JFK, Chicago O'Hare, and LAX, none of which picked up their phones.
December 31, 2016 6 PM. Spoke to Turkish Airlines Washington DC member who told me I could only book flight within regional office as I was located in Seattle, I had to Book with San Francisco office. He told me to email the San Francisco office and that they would email me back before leaving at 7:30 PM.
December 31, 2016 6:10 PM. Emailed the San Francisco office. Did not receive a response back.
December 31, 2016 6:30 PM. Called San Francisco office. Attendant was very abrasive and accusational. Told me the previous information I was given was incorrect. Told me he would contact the main call center and call me back in 10 minutes.
December 31, 2016 7:00 PM. San Francisco agent never called or emailed back. I tried calling and he screened my call, refusing to pick up the phone.
December 31, 2016 7:01 PM. Called the San Francisco attendant from a different phone and he picked up right away. Found out he never contacted the call center and told me to call them before calling him back.
December 31, 2016. 7:05 PM. Spoke to the most apathetic, rude, disrespectful Turkish Airline employee yet at the Turkish Airlines outsourced call center for US accounts. The agent refused to listen to me or state my case or even speak to a manager. Told me my miles were expired and I had to pay to reactivate them (despite what the other agents told me). After several attempts, he vehemently refused to give me his name or forward me to a supervisor (I recorded the phone call and will release the call if need be to show the horrific customer service this man exuded).
December 31, 2016 7:25 PM. Called the San Francisco office from both phones. Agent screened the numbers and despite telling me to call back, refused to answer and allow me to book my award flights.
Complaint Department Experience
1. The customer service agent(s) at the Turkish Airlines Call Center were rude, disrespectful, and unwilling to book my award ticket. I have recordings of their calls and am not pleased to find that they omitted that as part of Turkish Airlines' alleged 'investigation'. One of the keys to my complaint was the inability for customers such as myself to book award travel through the online call center--what should be a seamless and simple process, but in reality is anything but.
2. I requested six times for a supervisor to contact me, as I possessed additional, very relevant information related to my case that best conveyed to a supervisor over the phone. Turkish Airlines telling a customer that they will be contacted only after completing their investigation does not answer my numerous requests and I is a tactic Turkish Airlines does try and 'silence' any of their critics. Thus, after patiently waiting all this time, I feel at minimal it was their obligation to have a supervisor contact me before the investigation was completed and a decision made, but apparently that was an order too tall to ask.
3. The length of time to respond to my initial complaint was unconscionably long. Over one month and six complaints later, no one had contacted me to follow up on details surrounding my case. No supervisor reached me despite numerous requests , only a short incoherent vague rejection letter was sent as a reply without any acknowledgment of having read my initial inquiry/complaint.
This was a simple matter that if addressed promptly, professionally, and by the appropriate people, could be fixed in minutes, not months.
I never received an appropriate response about my complaint as the few replies I received did not attempt to address the primary focal matters of my complaint as it became clear that the agents looking at my case only skimmed through my complaint, as indicated by their incomplete replies to a small fraction of my complaints.
This is an extremely unethical company who prides itself upon ignoring customers and skimming on customer service. It is mind-boggling to me that a company could spend millions of dollars to hire Morgan Freeman for a Super Bowl ad, but take 1.5+ months to respond to six+ complaints with no supervisors accessible by phone in their customer service department. This is egregiously negligent on Turkish Airline's end and they should be punished for having such untimely, unethical customer service practices. I will never fly this company again and will urge others to do the same.
On june 20, 2016 I bought ticket from Turkish Airlines desk in Soekarno Hatta Jakarta International Airport Indonesia. The ticket is from Paris CDG to Jakarta CGK on August 20,2016.
On july 12, 2016 I emailed Turkish Airlines in Jakarta to cancel my ticket and refunded my money back.
They responded and told me that they will process the refund and it won't be a full refund. They also told me the refund will be received in 10 days.
The amount of refund is IDR 6.530.500
I did contacted them asking about my refund process and they told me they would check on it and contacted me back. But in fact they never contacted me back. They just gave me false hope.
Finally I called their worldwide customer service and they told me to file a complaint through their online form.
They replied and they said that they already refunded my money and the problem is with the bank. And so I contacted the bank. And the bank told me that they never received the refund.
I am truly dissapointed by how Turkish Airlines reacted on their customer. They have been delaying my refund for 9 weeks now.
I hope with this complaint file I would received my money back immediately.