Mijn Klacht:

To Turkish Airlines

Subject: Complaint.

Booking ref. 4U4A68
E- Ticket nr. 235-8945166388
Airline Booking reference: TK/TIYF4G
Reservation made by : IFDC Rwanda, at Satguru Travel and Tours Services, BP2111, KIGALI, Rwanda, Tel: +250 788 528347/ +250 788 308 528

The Hague, 13 January 2016

Regards: Flight nr. TK 1952, from Amsterdam to Istanbul (Turkey) with connection flight nr. TK 606 to Kigali (Rwanda) scheduled for the 21st of October 2015.

Motive for travel: business assignment by IFDC Rwanda.

Scheduled Departure from Amsterdam to Istanbul : 12:15h, Scheduled arrival at 16:45 on the 21st of October 2015
Scheduled departure from Istanbul to Kigali: 18:20h., Scheduled arrival at 23:55 on the 21st of October 2015

After having checked in and boarded with some delay it was announced that because of security reasons the flight was delayed, which announcement was repeated ½ an hour later so the departure was about 2 hours later.
Transfer passengers got the assurance from the pilot and the cabin crew that because connection flights would be with Turkish Airlines too, they had been advised about the delay and connection would be available still at Istanbul airport.
I arrived at Istanbul to learn that the connection flight hat departed just before my plane’s arrival and obviously information about delay had not passed or not been considered. The next direct flight to Kigali would be 24 hours later. This disrupted my planning completely costing me a whole day, contractually agreed with IFDC Rwanda.

Together with a passenger to Entebbe (same flight as to Kigali) I waited for some solution that came in the form of a rerouting via Doha that would bring me at our destinations the next day by 14:00 h. local time.
Flight Istanbul – Doha nr. TK 0782/ and from Doha to Kigali flight nr. QR 1387
Time of departure would be 22 October 00:30 h, boarding to be starting at gate on 21 October at 23:30h.
We arrived at the gate at 23:15h.
It took until 24.13 that a first announcement was made saying that “boarding will be announced in 5 minutes”. This was 17 minutes before scheduled departure at 00.30 hrs.

So we waited for the boarding announcement which never came to my ears or several fellow passengers for Doha, including the passenger for Entebbe.
Because there were passengers for other flights too there was continuous movement of passengers and the whole situation was rather chaotic.
After some time I watched again (as I did regularly) if there had been a change of gates but that was not the case. To my astonishment an officer at the next desk told that gate was closed and plane had departed. There had been no boarding announcement, nor had there been, last calls for passengers in English as is international procedure.

At the transfer desk the Turkish Airlines ground officers told us that it was our own fault that we missed the plane (me and at least 5 other passengers) and that they could do nothing for us and that we had to refer to the ticket office.
The Turkish Airlines ground officers discarded the fact that there had been no boarding calls and no last call and even told us that these were not made because of security reasons. This was proven false (of course) when later on as we were stuck at the airport, we heard boarding calls for many flights and also last calls for boarding.

The way of treatment of this problem by the Turkish Airlines ground officers in general was rude, uninterested and utterly unfriendly. The situation was complicated more by the fact that it was hardly possible to communicate because of their insufficient level of the English language, which allowed them only to repeat endlessly the same message.
After having been sent around the airport at least 3 times and having questioned around we finally found the way to the ticket office only to find out that we had to pass the police border control and to leave the international zone to get there. So we had to buy an entry visa for Turkey at € 20.= (respectively €50.= for my fellow victim).

At the ticket office we had hard time to explain the situation and after many discussion we found ourselves in the situation to have to be rerouted again and pay a penalty!!!! which costed me € 530.= (my fellow victim over € 700.=). Feeling blackmailed into this infernal situation we paid reluctantly, to get our flight out of the airport after having been grounded there for more than 24 hours and after 34 hours without sleep since leaving home and more than 6 hours to go.

The problems arisen are the responsibility of Turkish Airlines because the delay in Amsterdam and the misconnection with corresponding flights was not handled adequately. The misconnection to Doha was caused by extreme insufficient communication to and information of the passengers. This was confirmed later by a situation that we witnessed, when waiting for our departure to Kigali: boarding calls for another flight were made without using the microphone, and by an officer speaking in Turkish only. Visibly for us 2 non-Turkish people found themselves left behind like us 24 hrs before.

Furthermore to my experience the shown disrespect for international passengers, the absence of empathy and the lack of sufficient knowledge of the English language and lack of professionalism of ground personnel have aggravated an already complicated and costly problem.
This series of for me (us) unfortunate events are not consistent with to Turkish Airlines’ image and pretenses to be the best performing INTERNATIONAL airline in Europe.
Therefore I expect to be fully compensated for the costs incurred due to this situation which I have specified hereunder.

It is obligatory to report any circumstance and its causes, which prevented me from respecting my responsibilities, to my contractual employer. So I have copied this complaint to International Fertilizer Development Center, in Musscle Shoals, Alabama (USA).
For her convenience I shall also copy to my fellow victim at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Done at IFDC office, Kigali, Rwanda, the 27 of October 2015

Johannes J. Groenendijk
Andrej Sacharowstraat 19
2552HK Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands

Gewenste Oplossing:

Reimbursement of the extra costs for tickt and visa made.
Plus compensation for lost working days @ USD 1280.=