TURKISH AIRLINES   Passenger Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports an official 4-Star Airline   Add your Turkish Airlines review   Turkish Airlines official 4 Star ranking   Airline Reviews : A-Z Index   2009 Quality Approval Status ?

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  13 October 2009 by Raj Chotrani   (Singapore)

SIN-IST-MAN. The positive about this flight was cost: THY was offering one of the most competitive fares. But this doesn't give THY an excuse to stress out its passengers. Cabin crew on both sectors were not attentive. This is an observation shared by others at this Board. Cabin crew were not very polite. I think this is partly because their English-speaking skills are low. The toilets on the SIN-IST sector were filthy. Overall, I sense service standards on THY have deteriorated.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  13 October 2009 by Jesper Jensen   (Denmark)

Copenhagen to Singapore via Istanbul in business class. Check in a breeze at Copenhagen, and as a Star Alliance gold card holder I used the SAS Scandinavian lounge which is better and closer to the gate than the TK contract lounge. Champagne before takeoff, and a nice meal with 3 hot options for main course. 2 cabin attendants for the business class cabin. Lounge at Istanbul very nice, with good food options. Airborne from Istanbul I received a champagne cocktail, canapés, and a menu card with my name on it. There were two different starters, soup, four options for the main course, cheese, dessert, and coffee with profiterole. A very nice dinner, almost too much food. The menu card had a slip to order breakfast from. Breakfast was prepared for the passengers as they woke up, not a full service for the whole cabin at one time. Also very good. The only difference on the return flight was that check in was chaotic, all counters were business class, but mainly serving economy passengers. No Star Alliance gold counter and very slow service. Took more than 20 minutes to get checked in. Used the shower facilities in Istanbul during the stopover which could have been bigger with more showers and space. The seat on the A340 could be better, though plenty of legroom in seat 1D. I am disappointed that the 777 have been replaced on the Singapore run. Generally top notch service at an unbeatable price, but with room for improvement.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  10 October 2009 by Michael Stocking   (UK)

AMS-IST-FRU Business Class. If you need to get to Central Asia, there are not many options other than Aeroflot or TK. Both legs on B737-800s with Economy seats and (normally) the middle of three seats blocked off to give a semblance of space. These planes are not geared for longish night flights, as there is very little extra room and the seat reclines only slightly. Also beware, the 5-hour flight from Istanbul to Bishkek was overbooked and so at least five people were upgraded. By the time the service trolley got to me they had run out of Business meals - so it was an Economy meal in a little foil tray. FAs were OK; my compensation was an extra bottle of Turkish white wine - not the best. TK needs to get its act together and recognise that even discounted C-class fares are several times the price of Economy. It'll have to be Aeroflot next time.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  6 October 2009 by J Nassette   (Singapore)

Singapore-Jakarta return on A340. Found the service mediocre on this short haul flight. Food simple and tasteless, seat pitch good but a bit hard. FA's - one was friendly but the rest was uninterested.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  6 October 2009 by Paul Jones   (Egypt)

Ankara-Istanbul-Cairo. Be aware that Turkish airlines frequently depart late and you need plenty of time for layovers to make the connection. We left Ankara one hour late and you had to walk from domestic terminal in IST to the international terminal and check in all over again - they don't seem to have a mechanism to issue boarding passes all the way through. Luckily my flight to Cairo was also delayed. I was upgraded to Star Alliance gold during my time in Ankara but they refused to recognize this on check in as I hadn't gotten my gold card yet. Told me their computer wasn't working so they couldn't verify. Also, check in at Ankara they didn't seem to know Egyptair is also Star Alliance.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  29 September 2009 by Geoffrey Earl   (New Zealand)

Basel - Istanbul on a B737-800. A pleasant three hour flight. Seated in Row 4 right behind an empty business class. At check in I asked what the additional cost would be to move up to business class and was told it would be 845 Swiss francs. I am glad I declined this offer as when I boarded the plane I noticed the business class seats were 3 abreast and the same seats as economy class with no separate cabin! They did serve a small meal. One or two of the female staff carried on as if they were super models and did very little work during the flight. However one male flight attendant seemed to handle everything in a smooth and efficient manner. Flight arrived on time and the only blemish was it took too long to receive your baggage after clearing immigration.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  18 September 2009 by A Andersson   (Sweden)

ARN-IST-DEL return Economy Class. Very cheap ticket but I have difficult time accepting TK as a 4-star airline. Very nice Airbus aircraft on all sectors, average food service but slow. On flight departing Mumbai at 0450, passengers served breakfast two hours after take off. Most declined. Nothing more served for the whole flight (7 hrs). Crew nice but they all seemed to be inexperienced. Very low cabin presence of crew and call bells not answered (I can partly understand due to all Indian passengers pressing every two minutes). First three flights with over 1 hour delay without any apology from crew. Tried contacting TK in India but only offered a number in Turkey. Turkish Airlines was OK as it was the cheapest ticket around but IST airport is like a Turkish Bazaar with very little organisation. Gates changed three or four times and not very helpful staff. Maybe TK should have some own ground crew visible to passengers at IST?

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  17 September 2009 by Calvin Dsouza   (Singapore)

Mumbai-Istanbul, Istanbul-Belgrade and same route back to Mumbai. MUM-IST leg and return were both average - airlines save their worst aircraft, service for their Indian routes. The cabin crew were not very friendly, there was no entertainment on the flight save for a battered pair of headphones and 5 music channels to listen to. The Turkish food was actually pretty decent. And the crew in India were friendly. IST-BEG and BEG-IST leg was fine although the ground staff are just so aloof and not very friendly. On balance, Turkish airlines was cheap, and I had a great trip in both cities I visited, so I would recommend it for value for money.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  15 September 2009 by P Mccracken   (Ireland)

DUB-IST-AYT return. Apart from a late departure from Dublin (1 hour) all flights on time and easy connections in Istanbul from international to domestic terminals. One comment about Istanbul airport is the outrageous cost of drinks (wanted 3.75 euro for regular can of soft drink). Inflight service very good. Good food and free drinks on all legs even the 1 hour flight to Antalya. Like other comments the flight attendants efficient but could smile a little more. Felt good to treated like a paying customer rather than usual low cost cattle truck experience. Check in staff in Dublin though rude and brusque. Gave away our seats booked on-line and ended up sitting apart. Attitude of supervisor was less than helpful, very much take it or leave it. Check in at Antalya smooth and efficient and seats booked honoured. All aircraft clean and well maintained.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  14 September 2009 by I Lafferty   (UK)

DLM-IST-LHR. The first leg of the flight was on a B737-800 which was comfortable and with good legroom, the onboard service was quick and carried out with a smile. The second leg was an A321. Totally opposite experience to the first flight, very littleleg room, seats uncomfortable. The service was so slow it was almost two hours into the flight before we were offered anything to eat or drink, the general attitude was one of indifference, the first flight was possibly that of a 4 star airline, but would struggle to reach 2 stars on the second.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  15 September 2009 by F Frank   (UAE)

My wife and I had originally booked tickets to Vienna from Dubai, via Istanbul with Turkish. At the airport in Dubai we were notified the plane to IST was overbooked. The staff in DXB was rude and despondent; there were only two Turkish employees handling the whole flight check-in (aided by DNATA, Dubai airport, staff). They sent us to Vienna via Emirates on business class -which was excellent. A properly handled overbooking has made me more satisfied and loyal to other carriers. But the incompetence and lack of sensitivity of Turkish was such that I cannot recommend it to any one.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  11 September 2009 by T Merter   (Turkey)

IST-HKG-IST on B777-300ER leased from Jet Airways. Average flight experience with good food and poor service. IFE seems to have the same content over several months. I fly regularly with Turkish Airlines domestically and internationally. The problem is that they started to lag behind in customer service. Poor communication skills and sometimes even rude staff do not justify the 4-star rating.