Turkish Airlines delay causes loss - Need answers
Regarding: Unscheduled delay in Turkish Airlines flight(s) causing loss Dear Turkish Airlines
I flew into Malta on Turkish Airlines TK1369 Ataturk Istanbul Turkey / Luqa 08:05 - 08:35 | Trip *** on 25 November for business and was scheduled to return to Johannesburg, South Africa on Wednesday 28 November on TK1372 Luqa / Ataturk Istanbul Turkey 20:10 - 00:30 to connect to Johannesburg via Turkish Airlines only connecting flight TK42 Ataturk Istanbul Turkey / OR Tambo International on 29 November 02:15 - 11:05 | Trip ***.
I was scheduled to land at OR Tambo INT Johannesburg on Thursday morning 29 November 2018 at 11: am, where my wife was to join me from Cape Town for a bucket list item: Golden circle tickets to the rock band Guns & Roses’ only show in South Africa at the FNB stadium, spend the evening in Johannesburg and drive to Sun City resort for the weekend, returning to Cape Town on Sunday 2 December. I arrived at Malta airport 2 hours before the 20h10 departure on 28 November. Without explanation, boarding for TK1372 only commenced over 45 minutes later around 21h00. Once the plane was boarded, the staff announced that there would be a further delay, still no explanation regarding the reason. The plane departed over 2 hours late and landed in Istanbul after 02:30 on Thursday morning. After traversing baggage check I was told that TK42 had already departed and that I would need to report to the Turkish Airlines desk for rescheduling. I stood in a queue waiting for service at Turkish Airlines for almost one hour before being told that the earliest I could be rescheduled to Johannesburg was via Accra, Ghana TK0629 arriving on Friday 30 December at 06h00. This already meant missing the Guns & Roses show and I contacted my wife via WiFi to inform her of the situation.
After being herded with around 30 other stranded passengers for almost 3 hours, I was informed that I would be booked into a hotel and left the airport at 05h30 for a 40 minute drive to the “12 Tulip Palas” hotel where I was checked in and arrived at my room at 06h30, to be picked up by 12h00 for the drive back. These timelines meant I was unable to have meals and only had around 3 hours of sleep. The hotel was situated in an area that resembled a nuclear landfall – view from my hotel window . I was only collected at 13h00 from the Hotel, and not 12h00, as prescribed, which meant missing lunch also, taken to the airport where I departed on time on TK0629 to Accra, Ghana and was issued with my luggage receipt for my suitcase, which had been booked to Johannesburg on SA0055. I was told that I needed to collect my boarding pass to Johannesburg at Accra SA Airways counter.
The flight arrived on time and with no SAA counter available in Accra, I went to the transfer desk at arrivals in Ghana to enquire about my transfer. After a lot of confusion and 40 minutes of waiting, I was issued a boarding pass by the one lady on duty at the airport transfer desk and routed to the transfer gate for SA 0057, due to depart 22h35 local time. This flight was delayed for over an hour and eventually departed after midnight. On arrival at Johannesburg on 30 November at 07h45, I waited at the baggage collection for 30 minutes with my luggage not appearing. I then enquired at the SAA baggage desk and was told that there was no tracking of my suitcase and that they would log a ticket and contact me if/when it was located. I left OR Tambo Airport at 09h30 after needing to buy basic clothing items to get me through the weekend. As at Saturday 1 December 12h00 I have not heard from SAA / Turkish regarding my missing bag.
The delay that Turkish airlines caused has cost me the following:
2 x Guns and Roses Golden circle tickets (unusable) R3080 1 x nonrefundable hotel booking 29 November in Johannesburg R1071 Expenses for basic clothing for weekend due to luggage not delivered R2000
Missing a never to be repeated bucket list concert Priceless Ruining a long weekend getaway planned 6 months ago Priceless Spending 38 hours in transit with less than 6 hours sleep n/a I hereby request to Turkish Airlines to compensate me for the financial and emotional distress caused by this by issuing me with 2 open Turkish Airways tickets valid till December 2020 in order for me to replace this disappointment with another bucket list item, namely attending a Formula 1 Grand prix – preferably the inaugural Vietnam Grand Prix in 2020.
Your favorable consideration will be appreciated.
Regards
Hewan McCann