I booked a United domestic flight for myself and 3 others using Turkish airline miles and smiles program to fly from Newark to Las Vegas. It was booked over the phone. Initially, I booked Newark to Los Angeles I then called up Turkish airlines and requested a change from Newark to Las Vegas on the same date. They told me that my flight has been changed to Las Vegas and "I should head down to the airport where I should go to the united counter and have them print us out the tickets". I wanted to check in for my flight online, however the agent advised me that the only way to check in was to go to the airport as we booked and requested to change destinations less then 24 hours to the flight . When we got to the airport we went straight to the united counter the agent looked up our reservation and told us that she sees that we have a reservation that was switched from Los Angeles to los Vegas but unfortunately because the flight was not ticketed I could not get onto the flight I needed to call Turkish airlines directly. I then got on the phone to call Turkish airlines however the agent over the phone at Turkish airlines kept insisting that there was nothing she could do to help and that I should just "fill out a comment/ complaint form on their website" I then asked united airlines to please ticket this reservation for me and let me on the flight but they told me that "under no circumstances could they do so as it was booked by Turkish airlines and I would not be allowed on this flight" instead they put me on the original flight I booked instead to las Angeles, so after weeks of back and forth upset about what happened I filed a dot complaint form and after another back and forth got this response :"records indicate that you were suggested to go to United Airlines counters in order to complete the reissue procedures as EWRLAS instead of EWRLAX. Unfortunately, as they have stated, this could not be processed by United Airlines. We would like to extend our apologies for the inconvenience we might have caused. even though it was not the itinerary you preferred, tickets have been utilized voluntarily that we would not be able to refund the miles but having said this please inform us how you traveled to LAS from LAX? (*if you traveled please provide us the invoice for the transfer between LAX-LAS) if you had to pay no show penalty or cancellation fee for the hotel accommodations in LAS please inform us and provide us the invoice accordingly for evaluation."
they then wrote back a few days later " while we were waiting the documents from you my colleagues did retrieve and reinvestigated your file again and we would like to share the most recent information we obtained Our records indicate that 5 hours prior to your flight, you have placed a call to our call center to find out the status of your EWRLAS reservation. Our colleagues informed you that EWRLAS flight is still on waitlist that it had not been confirmed . Mr, you have traveled EWRLAX voluntarily as EWRLAS reservation had not been confirmed . This information was conveyed to you prior to the travel and knowingly, upon reaching to EWR airport, you have inquired with United Airlines representative if there is any possibility of cancellation on their EWRLAS flight so that you could fly to LAS last minute. But even though they had space available, tickets would have to be reissued by Turkish Airlines and that is why they could not assist you. You traveled to EWRLAX as originally planned. With this new information we would have to inform that we follow a consistent policy to ensure that Turkish Airlines is fair to everyone who travels with us. Accordingly, we must respectfully decline your request for reimbursement for the above mentioned expenses". "As our representative stated, your reservation in that specific class of service required specifically for the frequent flyer service had not been cleared nor confirmed. It was waitlisted that my colleagues could not reissue the tickets. This information was provided 5 hours prior to your flight from EWR to LAX. In our industry, there is always no show factor that passengers change their plans at last minute that space could become available at the airport, it is a normal practice for the airline to accept passengers last minute at the airport but given the fact that your ticket had to be reissued specifically by Turkish Airlines due to special handling, United Airlines representative could not assist you in changing the ticket from EWRLAX to EWRLAS as the reservation was still waitlisted. Our records indicate that you and your family utilized the tickets." is there anything I can answer back to them , if someone can give any advice
is it worthwhile to post complaint on regulations. gov i Just dont want my name publicized? it was hard to understand edelmans article that Dan posted a link about about on how to keep your name redacted from the part that publicizes you