[shantibaron]

Last year Turkish Airlines wrote quite a few emails informing that frequent flier miles accrued during the year would be 3 times as much, because they were celebrating their new airport and their anniversary. I flew 3 times that year, extra mileage was not given, and when I asked for it, received no reply whatsoever. I also flew that year with another Star Alliance company (Air India), miles were not credited, and when I asked for these miles was given a curt reply saying that this is not a Star Alliance company and therefore I was not entitled to miles on this flight. I insisted saying that Air India IS a member of Star Alliance, and received the same ready made curt message. This year, after a few years of making at least 3 long flights with Turkish Airlines, my time came that I wanted to redeem my accumulated miles, especially because I was bombarded by emails from them warning me that some of them were expiring, and that I should redeem them by 31st December (at least 2 emails a week, turning into more the closer the time of expiration). I wanted to buy a flight with another Star Alliance member, since flying with Turkish would have entailed quite a few more flights going totally out of the way. I tried getting the flight through the web site, and when unsuccessful, I tried phoning them several times over a period of one month. Customer service representatives kept passing me from one to another and in the end saying that in order to get such a flight I have to go personally to a Turkish Airline office. I explained that there is no such an office where I live (Mallorca), that I would need to fly to Barcelona to get to an office, but no one offered a solution.I kept insisting and complaining until in the end customer service wrote that now I can get the ticket by writing them an email. I wrote quite a few emails asking for different flights, every time was told I don't have enough miles. Shorter flights, still not enough miles. Even shorter flights: same response. To this day I didn't manage to get a flight redeeming my miles, the expiration time passed, no compensation was offered and no reply when I wrote to them asking for it. The overall experience with customer service was that they are not there to help but to pose difficulties on a service they publicize and keep inviting their customers to use.