Category Archives: Travel

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles: not inside the security area of the Istanbul airport

Posted on by

The Ataturk airport is Turkish Airlines’ hub and I expected my intermediate stop to be a good opportunity to get a face to face conversation with a service representative and get my issues with my account fixed.

I was wrong: inside the security area there it is not a single place where I could get the problem sorted out.

I was required to go trough immigration to get in the ticketing area and then back trough immigration again to take my flight and I really did not feel like it was appropriate to take the risk of having to provide a long explanation with the customs and losing my flight.

Sometimes companies can make the life so much difficult for their customer that they push customers away,

Turkish Airlines: great in-flight food, not-so-great customer care

Posted on by

In the last 12 month I’ve had 20 flights with Turkish Airlines.
The food was always nice and I’d say that it’s the best available in any airline at least as far as economy class is concerned.

It’s more than 15 years that I don’t fly business hence I can’t comment on the current food level: in the past Iberia was great while Alitalia and Lufthansa were nothing to write home about.

Too bad that the customer care for the frequent flyer program is not at the level of the food.
I’ve compiled the module in the in-flight magazine several months ago, taken the tear off card and started to register the related number at check-in time.
Given the long time without news from the program I tried to register the card on the website, but it’s not possible: I only can get a new card number when registering.
I wrote an email to milesandsmiles@thy.com asking for support 1 month ago: no answer at all.

Today I’ve tried dialing the customer care: there it is no way to register the card I’ve used so far.
Nor to get the flight moved to the number I already got from the web.
A new account was created and the flights have to be added one at a time; and some of them appears to be already registered but it’s not clear if this is referring to the paper-only number or to the Miles&More account that I also have.

After 35 minutes we were only at flight #2 and the rep asked me to send in the boarding cards.
Guess what? I have not kept them after the flights.
Line dropped.
Morale dropped.
No smiles.

Live concert in Prague @ Rudolfinum

Posted on by

I’m just back from the Dvořák Hall at the Rudolfinum in Prague.

I discovered by chance in the airplane magazine that at this time of the year Prague hosts an international music festival so I decided to spend the evening away from the work email.

And it was a good decision even if I was not familiar with the selection of music (from Strauss, Beethoven and Brahms) of the concert.
Live performances are a different and better world than what even the most audiophile stereo system money can buy could ever reproduce.
The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra performance was really enjoyable.

If you happen to be in Prague at this time of the year in 2013 you should take the opportunity.

I’ll do for sure.

If you never went to a live classical music concert give it a try at the first opportunity.
There it is only one golden rule: arrive on time don’t make any noise or chatting during the performance.

Booking online was easy and doable until the day before the concert.
There it is one important caveat!
In the balcony (the most affordable place) there are columns that may completely block your vision: if you don’t see seats directly in front of the one you’re selecting while reserving then you have the column in front of you.
While this can be acceptable for a pure instrumental execution you really don’t want it.

I was unlucky in the seat selection, but then lucky as just in front of me there were 3 free seats and I was able to move from the 790 crowns column-seat in row 5 to the 1490 crowns central seat in row 4.

Airline looking for a ticket price integration 4 months after the flight

Posted on by

I don’t know if it’s because I fly very often, but I’m surprised by some of the strange things that happen to me with airlines.

This time is the request for an integration for the ticket of a flight that I did more than 4 months ago.

Due to change in plans I had the travel agency adding an intermediate stop to my roundtrip.
It looks like some confusion was made by the agency at the time and that I paid less than I should have.
Now the airline wants the integration and the agency says that this is normal and right.

It really sound absurd to me, like if my car dealer was asking me additional money months after I paid the amount indicated in the signed contract.
Is this really normal?

Crazy waiting time to get an airport tax reimbursed

Posted on by

In january I had one of my frequent trips across Europe and when I arrived at the checkin desk to fly back home it turned out that the travel agency had my ticket wrong.
I paid for a new one.

Once home I checked my written request to the travel agency and it was for the correct day.
I started asking back to the travel agency the extra money I paid.

After 8 months I finally got reimbursed, but only the airport taxes from the airline: 34.95€
No surcharges, no actual ticket reimbursed.
I wonder if this is common practice.