Turkish award availability discrepancies

[Moishebatchy]

Is there some kind of "known issue" with TK availability that I'm missing?

According to UA (and ExpertFlyer), Turkish uses the X and I fare classes for economy and business, respectively (like all *A airline awards). Yet I'm constantly seeing flights where EF (and Sabre, interestingly enough) shows X and I availability... yet United (or any other *A program for that matter) can't seem to find any seats, online and by phone. Am I missing something? Is this like M&M availability, where there is some other mysterious metric involved besides the fare classes?

Interestingly enough, I can't even seem to find this issue discussed anywhere online... anybody have any insight? Kinda makes EF alerts useless.

[chff]

Amadeus also shows full X availability on TK

[jaywhy]

Did you call TK and see if it's available to their own program?

[Moishebatchy]

Did you call TK and see if it's available to their own program?

http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/miles-and-smiles/awards/awards-tickets

There are two types of award tickets issued on Turkish Airlines flights that are ‘’Capacity Controlled Award Tickets’’ and ‘’ Seat Guaranteed Award Tickets’’.
There are a limited seat capacity for ‘’Capacity Controlled Award Tickets’’ and the reservation can only be made in case the respective class is available. The booking classes are X (for Economy Class) , I (for Business Class)  for the ‘’Capacity Controlled Award Tickets’. The required miles for ''Capacity Controlled Award Tickets'' are lower than the required miles for ''Seat Guaranteed Award Tickets''.
There is no seat limitation for ’’ Seat Guaranteed Award Tickets’’, as long as the flight is open to revenue sales. For Seat Guaranteed Award Tickets, required mileage amounts will be considered depending on the travel dates either in high or low season.
The booking classes are X (for Economy Class) and I (for Business Class) for the Seat Guaranteed Award Tickets.

Way to go, TK. Way to go. 👏

So... how can one tell the difference?!