Better to book a TK direct or with a ticket selling agent

[JonathanC]

Hi all

I’m looking at buying a ticket with Turkish Airlines to travel in March.

The issue I’m half pondering over is whether or not to book directly with them (or Amex Travel), both cost roughly the same, although Amex Travel gives up to triple MR points for booking with them, and I’d get double MR points for booking with TK directly.

The problem is that after looking on Skyscanner, the same seat is on sale for about £27 cheaper. Even if I were to book with Amex Travel and get triple MR points, the additional points wouldn’t offset the extra I’d pay in fare premium.
The other problem is how you’d get treated, and how fair the options are given if the flight gets cancelled and how flexible your options are if going for the cheapest flight, ie how willing are they to rebook you onto your desired flight choice.

The other frustrating thing about the ticket selling agent is that they hide the booking code, it’s probably the same as buying direct from TK / Amex travel, although when the booking code gets obscured, it’s very frustrating for the a lot of us HfP readers, since it can make a bit of a difference in what you’ll get back…

Any help and or advice on booking TK tickets other than with themselves or Amex directly, please say below, thank you

[drdan]

Direct… If things go not to plan, you will find out the hard way

[Aston100]

There needs to be a very significant price difference to get me to book indirectly.

[BBbetter]

Always direct.
The cheaper price on Skyscanner would be a dodgy website who may not even send a proper ticket (instead just sending a receipt). They then try to book you in a category you wouldn’t normally be eligible. If we learnt one thing from covid, it’s avoid the OTAs.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

I wouldn’t quite avoid all OTAs – after all Amex Travel is one!

The point is to stick to reputable ones – so I wouldn’t have a problem using Amex Travel or Expedia for example.

It’s the ones you’ve never heard of who seem to cause the most difficulties.

Check the reviews of the OTA skyscanner who is offering the fare to see how good they are.

Between now and next March there could be numerous TK schedule changes and if you book via an OTA you need to go through them to get rebooked or refunded and that is where the most problems arise with the ones you’ve never heard of. And many of the. Will charge you a fee to make those changes or process a refund.