I Experienced Inconvenience With Turkish Airlines Due To Flight Cancellation on Election Day
On March 31, 2024, at 09:05 AM, we were scheduled to fly from Tivat Airport to Istanbul Airport, and then to Ankara Esenboga Airport. We learned through an email received at 4:10 PM on March 30, 2024, that our Tivat-Istanbul flight was canceled due to 'operational reasons.' At that time, my wife, my 8-month-old son, and I were on vacation in Tivat. Following the email, my wife called the Turkish Airlines call center. During these conversations, the call center staff claimed that the cancellation was due to a strike at Tivat Airport, thus absolving Turkish Airlines of any responsibility. They insisted that we had to pay again and purchase new tickets, charging my wife's credit card ₺9,168.56 for the only available Turkish Airlines flight from Tivat to Istanbul at 6:30 PM on March 31.
On the morning of the flight, at 8:00 AM, when we went to the airport to return our rental car, we discovered that there was no strike. In fact, we found out that Air Montenegro had a Tivat-Istanbul flight at 10:30 AM, for which we purchased tickets for €311.96 and flew to Istanbul. Had we not taken this flight, we would have been forced to wait for the 6:30 PM flight with our 8-month-old baby after checking out of our hotel and returning our rental car. Despite the 7 hours and 25 minutes waiting period, we were not provided with our legal rights such as hot and cold beverages, breakfast, snacks, meals, free communication, ticket refunds, or free transfer to the travel starting point. Instead, we were charged ₺9,168.56 for the next flight and the subsequent connecting flight.
The information given by the call center staff was clearly incorrect, and the process was unlawful. Additionally, when we informed the Turkish Airlines ticket sales office that we wanted to fly to Ankara immediately after arriving in Istanbul with Air Montenegro, they said that our connecting flight ticket from Istanbul to Ankara could not be rescheduled. They issued new tickets for three people and charged us ₺4,764.56.
The tickets and payment information for this flight are attached. Due to all these delays, we were also deprived of our right to vote.
