luvnz

Thank you for your suggestion. We did try that but the Turkish website would not take the UA ticket number even though we had the Turkish confirmation number. It would have made things a lot easier, but unfortunately did not work.

FlyerTalker, thank you for your answer and your expertise! It has been frustrating and yes our UA ticket number has been the only one we have had the entire time. It does start with 016 and the UA supervisor was on phone with Turkish multiple times trying to get seat assignments. She could see available seats, but could not get them. She told us we would have to keep trying Turkish. I called Turkish and was told every time that we needed a Turkish ticket number for seat assignment or else we would have to wait until the day of travel at the airport. They could see my UA ticket number, but not be able to assign a seat. I learned to say thank you and call back for another person because they can email their support department with the United ticket number and my request. Finally I was able to get the ORD-IST segment assigned. It did take multiple e-mails from Cust Serv to Support Dept. The customer service reps were always friendly, and several told me to install Turkish App on my phone and go to "Manage Booking" and ask for seats. This did not work for us, but some people have reported that they were successful doing it this way. We did not have this problem using our miles for an award ticket the previous time we travelled. Friends of ours just used their UA miles in May on Turkish and did not have trouble getting seats assigned. They also took advantage of the offers you mentioned above and had an overnight stay and toured IST. They thoroughly enjoyed using the lounge as well.

We love to fly with Turkish Air and have arranged our own flights with them. We agree, best food in the air. That being said, everyone has a different experience with getting seat assignments. I have never had such a hard time getting seat assignments as I have had with our upcoming flights. Our first time flying them 8 years ago was a breeze. Not so this time. If you google Turkish seat assignment issues, you will see many, many people have had a very hard time and can't figure out why. Your TA is probably hitting the wall that we have hit for months, but he should communicate this to you. We finally got assignments for our first and most important flight, but not able to get the European connection. We have spent many hours on this and will address the second leg of the trip at the airport since it is a short connection. Some have said if you install a mobile Turkish App on your phone and then submit a customer report of issue, that will get you what you need. There are also helpful blogs from various frequent flyer sites that at least let you know you are not alone in dealing with issues and give some helpful advice. One very important thing you need is the Turkish ticket number. Our flights start with a United flight and even United was unsuccessful in getting our Turkish ticket number. Our situation is different because we are using Frequent Flyer miles for our flights so United is the one who booked our flights. The supervisor for United even tried for days to get Turkish ticked number and couldn't. I hope you get resolution because even with all of these problems, we are still looking forward to our Turkish flights.

Hank, We just booked our first O cruise as well and are really looking forward to it. We haven't cruised for a while so looked at all of our old favorites, but decided to give O a try. I just wanted to thank you for all of your informative posts, especially about European ports. You have helped many of us for a long time. If you decide to take the O cruise, I know your review will be fair and informative. In fact, I was hoping to see a review from you when we were looking into Oceania. 🙂