My horrible experience with Turkish Airline

 It was the first and last time I will fly Turkish Airlines

It took me over 5 months to get a refund from them! 

I booked last year a trip to Europe via Istanbul, flying Turkish Airlines!  What a mistake and a horrible experience with their customer service I had.

Because of that horrible experience I used them only for half of my trip, and I purchased a different ticket with Lufthansa on the way back. Yea, Turkish flights are cheaper but not worth the terrible experience. 

Last October I purchased an airline ticket to Romania. Turkish Airlines had a great price and they were also offering an extra luggage at no additional cost. I booked up the dates and purchased the ticket. It was a trip from Chicago to Istanbul then from there to Cluj-Napoca. I choose carefully the connection flights so I don’t spend too many hours in the airport. A week after I purchased the ticket I get an email telling me that the connecting departure flight has changed and now I have to wait over 24h in Istanbul, but they will offer me free of charge accommodation there. I thought about it, I didn’t like it in the beginning but in the end I was, ok, I’ll spend a night there, maybe I’ll go visit the city. 

A few days later another email was informing me that the return flight was changed and now instead of flying the same day I’ll have to stay overnight in Istanbul. From around midnight when I’ll arrive until 6am when my new flight leaves. Extremely disappointed and frustrated of the change, but I was accepting the situation. 

Few days before the departure a medical condition prevented me from leaving on the initial date. I started to call their customer service number and I stared to have the first negative experiences. Their customer service is terrible when it comes with getting hold of somebody, like a real person. On top of that the English proficiency of the representatives was very poor and in one instance, without asking me, I was transferred to a different department, that was in Romanian, without even asking me if I spoke the language, nor did I wanted to. 

When I complained at a later day to another customer support representative he burst out laughing about the situation. After that I was told to submit my request of the flight change on their website. I did that. After days of no answer I had to call back their phone number where I spent hours in total waiting to talk to their representatives.

In the end I was told to go to one of their branches in Chicago to pay the flight change fee. I first went to the airport but I couldn’t find anyone to help me. I had to go to their office near by Ohare, because at the location nobody was answering the phone, so I had to drove there. Paid the fee and changed the flight choosing the same connection with the overnight stay because the same day connection flight was more expensive. 

Finally at the beginning of December I was able to fly to Europe. Everything was good until I arrived in Istanbul. When I tried to claim my hotel room for the night as they were promising I was told that I can not get one. Their explanation was that the next day I had a same day connection and I should have chosen that option. I asked to speak with a manager, no one was available as it was already late in the afternoon and apparently they were already gone home!  I was told to call some customers service number from their phone in the airport. After long walks and frustrating searches I was able to locate their phone.  Unfortunately nobody was to be found because the phones were not working. Some were even broken physically. 

Tired and frustrated I had to find a hotel for the night. That in itself it’s a whole different experience. In the airport there are a lot of so called tourist agencies who are harassing you the minute you walk by them. After some online searches I called a few hotels just to realize very few spoke English. Finally I found one in the airport and they offered also transportation. Because of the overnight stay I had to take all my luggage and walk around with them. The next day back to the airport, without any desire to visit anything in the city as I was originally planning. I was obviously forced to go through security again. Now they realized that I had 5 packs of about 20 batteries each that I was carrying them in my luggage. I was told to just split them and put them in separate baggage. I did, went through and checked them in. When I got home they were gone. Someone else took them out and left a ticket in Turkish language that I had to Google translate to find out that I could get them back from them within the next few weeks. Probably they expect me to travel back to Istanbul and then drive with them as they didn’t allow me to fly them, although everything was fine from Chicago to Istanbul. 

After a few days I filled an online complaint about the hotel situation. After weeks of waiting I was told the same thing about a flight the next day that would have not required me to stay overnight. Regardless of the fact that they were the one who changed my original flight and told me I would be getting a free hotel, they kept denying my refund of $100.  After searching their website I found their own promo about the FREE hotel in Istanbul if the connection flight was more than 24h apart. After submitting that and threatening them with contacting state attorney’s office for false advertising they immediately told me they will pay me back for both hotel and also ticket exchange fees, about 325 dollars. 

Finally happy that I will get the check refund. Well not so quick. 

After weeks and weeks of waiting no check in the mail. I contacted them to ask how I will get my check, but no answer.  I purchased my new ticket with Lufthansa on the way back extremely disappointed of their customer service, and after few more weeks of waiting I decided to go back to their office here in Chicago. I explained my situation and the lady there refunded the money on my credit card in 5 minutes. I even got some $45 back in airport fees. 

Trying to figure out why I did not get a check in the mail or a direct credit to my credit card, I was told that in order to get that I would have to file more paperwork online. 

So the idea is to make your life miserable and the process so complicated that along the way you may give up on getting back your money. 

That convinced me that it was a great idea to make another reservation with a European airline and come back that way, avoiding extra hassle and frustration. 

I will definitely not recommend flying with them, unless you have no other options. Their customer service sucks! 

Hopefully this story will help other people out and convince them that paying a little more will make a difference in a long run.