In reference to complaint #914591"Turkish Airlines ripped me off El Segundo, California, the same exact thing happened to us. It was a complete nightmare, I would like to share this with others so that a complete investigation into Turkish Airlines in Istanbul is made so that this does not happen to anyone else. On September 3 I was to return with 4 other family members to the US on a flight from Istanbul to New York (#1 for 11:25am flight).
I was there on time with the family, when I went the terminal to check in they told me the gate is closed, and since we were Amercian Citizens there was heavy sceurity and we would not be able to get on the plane in time, even though there was more than an hour before the plane was to take off. They took a woman with her kids in front of us, but would not let us go even though we went through security, and had our luggage scanned, and also our passorts marked with security checked. I had my two edlerly parents with me, and two young adult children who were going to miss school, and work if we did not make it on this flight.
I asked for help, and more than one person that I approached told me that they did not speak English and I had to go by ticket sales, which I did and had to wait 30 minutes before my number was called, when I went there they told me that they were all overbooked, and that I would havet to wait till Wednesday! I tried to get a supervisor, and they told me to go to a standby desk. Another 45 minutes later on line I was told that my passports would be put into the system, and that they will check on the flight for 7:25pm. We waited for the next several hours, I went back and watied for the flights, at the end when everone left, they told me that they are overbooked, and there were no flights available, either that day or the next.
Then I went to another desk, and a man told me they had availalbe 14 first class seats for Wednesday morning, and that was the only thing available. He advised me to go back to ticket sales for Turkish Airlines and check with them. When I got there after waiting another 30 minutes the woman behind the counter told me that she had five avialalbe seats all in a row for the next day Tuesday at 7:25am, and even though I showed her that I already paid for the tickets through Discover Turkey Travel she stated that I would have to pay $1066.00 for each ticket (asked for cash, which I did not carry that large sum, had to use a credit card). I was very lucky I had my credit card with me, otherwise I would be stuck in Istanbul for the next week with the family.
I am very upset, and very disgusted with the way everything was handled with this airline. I have traveled to many places, and have never been treated this way! When I spoke to my travel agent when I got back home, he told me that we should have been put on the next flight without any problems. It happened to his mom, and she was put on the next flight. My travel agent gave me a website for complaints so that I can send them an email, which I did right away, there answer is that they can not help me, which is crazy. I run my own business, and know that customer satisfaction is our number one priority in order to stay in business.
I also tried to reach out several times as per my travel agents request to Turkish Airlines Office in New York City at 212-261-0470 x49820 Neslihan who has not returned my phone calls. I hope that from writing this report I will get a full refund for tickets that I should never have been forced to pay for in order to get out of Turkey, and a full letter of apology. Hopefully by writing this in the rip off report there will be a full investigation into this scam. I am sure that there are a lot of people that this had been done to since waiting on those ticket sales lines there were more and more people waiting.
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