r/TurkishAirlines

Hey y'all, is Istanbul Airport open overnight? My flight would land at 2 am, and my connection is at 9-ish am. Am I allowed to stay there or security would kick me out?

So as questions, has anyone here saw empty business class seats, and after plane took off, politely asked flight attendants if you can go and take that seat? What are the chances of that?

Hi. I had a valid Turkish Airlines ticket from Atlanta → Istanbul → Cairo. Before booking/traveling, I called the U.S. Embassy, Egyptian Embassy, and Turkish Airlines directly to confirm I was eligible to travel, and everyone confirmed I was.

At check-in in Atlanta, the agent (seemingly a third-party contractor working the Turkish Airlines desk) refused to let me board, claiming I didn’t meet entry requirements. She showed the Timatic system message, but even that appeared to support that I was eligible if fully read. We repeatedly asked her to review it carefully, but she refused.

She then told us the only way I could travel that day was if we immediately purchased a second ticket for the Istanbul → Cairo leg, this time operated by EgyptAir instead of Turkish Airlines. Because I urgently needed to travel and was already at the airport, I had no practical choice and bought the second ticket on the spot.

When I arrived in Istanbul, we spoke with Turkish Airlines staff there, and they told us the Atlanta agent handled the situation incorrectly and that I should have been allowed to travel on the original ticket. We later called Turkish Airlines in the U.S., and they also indicated the denial seemed incorrect and told us to submit a feedback/refund request. However, despite multiple attempts, we’ve basically been ignored.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? Their feedback forms are useless. No one is helpful, including their call center and feedback forms.

Hello, how are you doing?

I'm going to fly with my pet on August, I have a short connection in Istanbul, but it's not the final destination. I have talked with the virtual agents and they sent the required documents to travel with a pet, the problem is because one of the documents is a Health Certificate issue by the Ministry of Turkey, but I won't go outside of the airport or stay at Turkey, do I really need this document? Has anyone else experienced this?

Thank you

URGENT HELP NEEDED PLEASE

Edit: they need wheelchair assistance at both IST and KHI (return flight)

My parents and I are flying to Istanbul via Turkish Airways. My parents have disabilities and cannot walk (we have a doctor's note as well). I booked the flights and requested wheelchairs for them months ago to make sure we could travel.

The airline changed their flight last week so I reached out the same day to make sure the request was still there. The agent informed me they put the request in. I reached out again today to double-check and make sure everything was good and was informed they don't have spots available and the wheelchair requests weren't approved.

The flight is this weekend. I'm very stressed out and don't know what to do. Everything is booked for our entire family. I put in an urgent feedback form regarding the situation as the chat agent guided but apart from that, the airline is not helping. I don't know what to do.

first time flying Turkish airlines (Frankfurt to Istanbul via Lufthansa, Istanbul to Bishkek via Turkish—same reservation) and it’s saying my flight isn’t available for online check in. Assuming it’s because of the mixed itinerary but want to confirm that I can check in at a desk during my transfer in IST (3h 50min). The “latest check in” time that the app says is after I land in Istanbul so I’m a little stressed. any advise is appreciated—thanks!

Hey everyone,

I recently won a legitimate credit card dispute/chargeback against Turkish Airlines. Today, I found out they completely terminated our Miles&Smiles loyalty accounts (myself, my wife, and my daughter) in retaliation.

I have a separate, unrelated flight coming up with them on June 6.

I called the customer service line, and the agent said the booking is "valid" and confirmed. However, I’m paranoid that the phone agent only sees surface-level data, while their backend fraud/billing department has flagged my passport for a denied boarding at the airport.

Really need to make this flight. Any advice or past experiences would be a massive help. Thanks!

Hi everybody,

I was able to find a lot of information on how to file a claim with SHGM but nothing on how to proceed in my case.

My flight was AKL-KUL-IST-EU. Due to very short IST-EU layover I could not make it to my last flight, had to spend night in Istanbul and only arrived next morning.

Turkish rejected my claim, citing operational reasons / adverse weather conditions for 29 minutes delay. There were no issues with a weather and all flights operated normally.

Thanks to other posts, I was able to submit a complaint to SHGM. They rejected my claim as well, just accepting airline's explanation of weather conditions.

Now, I wanted to give the case to some of the companies that take it over for a percentage and bring it to the court (which I guess would be needed in my case).

However, they are saying that neither SHY rights nor EU261 are applicable in my case.

My question is, SHGM did not mention anything about ineligibility. Is there any company that would take this case over? And furthermore, which country's passenger rights would be applicable in my case if SHY and EU261 are not?

Has anyone recently had Turkish Airlines deny boarding because they claimed a visa was “invalid”?

My mom was traveling from Istanbul to Canada with a Canadian immigrant visa. The immigration application originally started with her old passport, but before the immigrant visa was issued, we renewed her passport. She traveled with the new valid passport and did not have the old passport with her during check-in.

She was traveling with family members who all went through the exact same process and were all allowed to board. She was the only one denied boarding at Istanbul airport because Turkish Airlines said her visa was “invalid.”

I’ve now heard from a few people that Turkish Airlines can sometimes have issues with visa verification or be much stricter than other airlines, and that other airlines might have allowed boarding in the same situation.

Has anyone experienced something similar recently, especially involving renewed passports? Did switching airlines help? How can I have them give more information? My mom is stuck in Istanbul now.

Any advice would really be appreciated.

So we bought our seats months ago only to have mu daughter assigned to another row by herself 2 days before the flight.

I finally reached support just now after 2 days of waiting in queue and getting disconnected and they told me they cannot help me because we already have boarding passes.

Is there anyone else I can turn to about this? Gate personnel? Flight attendants?

I have been trying to speak w a human in customer service at TA about a flight that departs today since Sunday. Every road seems to lead to a bot or a dead end. Every number that has been provided to me is non functioning. Can anyone help?

Hi travelers, I just found out that TK business passengers can no longer access Polaris lounge 🙁So which lounge does TK send people to now? Hopefully somewhere a little better than UCs. Please share if you have experience with this at SFO. TIA. 

Hey there,

I had a connection in Instambul on my return from Tokyo to Porto (in October), but TKAirlines changed the flight from Instambul to Porto for early that day which means I will miss the connection. For now, the only options I have are flights for the following day which means I will have to spend more than 12h in Instambul Airport. Since the flight is in October and we're in May, am I entitled to ask for a accomodation since its change kinda screwed up my trip?

Thank you!

what should I do next

I was wondering if I need a visa to do the tour Istanbul

Hello everyone

I got stuck in a situation that airlines didn’t help with and I just wanted to see if there is something I can do about it because it’s just super frustrating.

I booked a ticket to Jordan months ago on Turkish Airlines. Because of the war they canceled the ticket and they said I can reschedule with a different airlines which was royal Jordanian but through Turkish because it was the cancelled ticket.

I get to the airport in Turkey and they say I can’t board the flight they can see my reservation but my name actually didn’t go through the system and I’m not on the list for the flight. It was 6 hours of going back and forth between both airlines each blaming the other airline until Turkish said we will send a message to royal Jordanian to rebook you. After an hour I’m told I was rebooked on a flight 6 hours from now total 12 hours wait.

I wasn’t even offered a hotel or a meal during all of this and not even now and Turkish is acting like they did me a favor with the rebooking since they’re still blaming it on royal Jordanian.

I’m just very frustrated with all of it and I feel like I’m owed something for this stress that was not my fault. Is there anything I can do?