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 review :  9 September 2009 by Iain Williamson   (Saudi Arabia)

BAH-IST-HEL. The usual difficult departure time at 2 am with check-in opening later than other airlines. No through tickets issued for the connection at Istanbul meaning another annoying queue to book the next leg of the journey. Flight a cramped 737-800 despite advertised use of more spacious A321 on web page. I think all passengers have covered how I feel in every single comment I have read about Turkish Airlines below. They are usually cheaper than many airlines from the Gulf - but not always, and the service one gets from all the other airlines leaving to Europe is always better. I would really re-think my strategy if I was Turkish Airlines, and concentrate on upgrading the professional hospitality in the cabin. Their route network is excellent, but that is not enough.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  1 September 2009 by S Arnold   (USA)

GVA-IST-KHI in Business class. I would not hurry to fly Turkish again given other options. The six-hour IST-KHI legs are operated by 737-800s, which are unfit for the task. Seats vary from aircraft to aircraft but at best only a modest improvement in width, pitch and comfort from what one could expect from a widebody Y class. FAs did seem to make an effort, but the service was generally inconsiderate if not nonsensical. THY staff insists on speaking Turkish (and will often have poor command of English) even when not a single passenger on board can understand the language. Business class passengers were served a full dinner after a delayed 4am scheduled departure out of KHI (the scheduling being a pain in itself), which prevented everybody from sleeping, but not much in the way of breakfast before our morning arrival in IST - the connecting morning flight to GVA did, however, offer a full selection of alcohols with breakfast. All flights were delayed by at least an hour, a fact made much worse by the disingenuous excuses the staff came up with to blame anybody but THY. The airline's redeeming factor is its IST lounge, which is pretty good. THY also, I believe, has quite low business class fares, so you do perhaps get what you're paying for?

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  31 August 2009 by Brett Watson   (Australia)

IST-SIN Business A330. Provided pre take off drink. Head FA took meal orders in advance and addressed passengers by name. Food reasonable with range of options available, with fair range of drinks. Service was different to my previous TK experience as this crew seemed to want to provide a decent service to passengers; they were helpful and polite. IFE had limited and dated choices. One annoying practice across TK long haul flights is that the lights were turned on and off several times two hours before landing, assuming to wake all passengers for breakfast. A little odd to serve breakfast when the flight arrived into SIN at 4.00pm. Breakfast option virtually inedible apart from fresh fruit. Entertainment was okay with limited options. For the price of the J tickets good value overall and would fly again if the level of service on this flight is maintained

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  30 August 2009 by M Costa   (Italy)

IST-ASR-IST-AYT-IST. Turkish provides a good service on its domestic routes. The planes are modern A320/321, seats are comfortable and the complimentary sandwiches are great. Moreover they offer great fares, also to popular beach destinations in mid-August, with discounted fares for students and senior passengers. The only negative issue was that 3 flights out of 4 were delayed (from 30 to 90 minutes) and the crew gave little or no apologizes for the inconveniences.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  18 August 2009 by Khalid Barwani   (Oman)

Muscat-Istanbul-Budapest. Muscat to Istanbul was terrible, a 6 hour-flight, the seats were very uncomfortable and no PTV's. Food was terrible, only one option - a rude flight attendant. Its really worth the extra money to pay for another airline.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  17 August 2009 by Georgios Vrontos   (Greece)

ATH-IST-ATH, good and clean 737-800 with leather seats, service average and food nothing to write about. Both flights on time, but during both landings the attendants did not check tables and seats. They were acting after serving the food and collecting the trays, lets get over with this flight. On the return flight, 3 THY employees were traveling and were shouting to each other acting like they owned the aircraft. The aircraft was half empty and we moved from row 24 to row 18. Check in at IST very friendly.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  13 August 2009 by Peter Petersen   (Turkey)

I am regular customer with Turkish Airlines being based in Istanbul. Technically, Turkish Airlines is great - good food, new planes and good prices. However the service from staff is going from average to poor to terrible. Rude check in counters, arrogant stewardesses and not a smile from anybody. Once in a while, I get great service from individuals - but on the whole staff do not seem a happy lot.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  13 August 2009 by N Thomas   (Czech Republic)

PRG-IST-CPT return. PRG-IST legs excellent, great service and food (especially IST-PRG). IST-CPT leg pretty good - CPT-IST leg the service was terrible and slow. Food served late into the flight and was without any sort of system. Some PAX actually began helping themselves to food and drinks from the trolleys as no attendants around. Would travel Turkish Airlines short-haul, but long-haul never again!

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  10 August 2009 by G Treger   (Israel)

TLV-IST-CPT and return with three children. We requested one bulkhead seat since our baby was 14 months old, we had to fight to get it even though there were two other babies on the plane and plenty of bulkhead seats available. The staff were not especially friendly. Food was served early for the kids. We enjoyed the cockpit view on the video screens so we could see the terrain as we flew. The bulkhead seats were comfortable, especially since I have long legs. The transfer in Istanbul went smoothly, the only problem being the distance between gates in the airport.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  10 August 2009 by Søren Rasmussen   (Denmark)

CPH-IST. This 3½ hour flight was a treat. Cabin crew service minded, smiling and efficient. Even in economy, there were two options for 3-course dinner which was tasteful and filling. Seats comfortable with enough legroom. In-flight entertainment could be improved, but it was only a 3½ hour flight. In these days of rip-off low-cost none-service airlines, it's great to experience that Turkish still knows what service is all about!

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  8 August 2009 by J Gutin   (Kenya)

NBO-IST-JFK return in business class. The check in at Nairobi was total chaos, with people still being checked in when the flight was scheduled to depart. Flight departed over one hour late. Aircraft from Nairobi is a 737 with a domestic business class configuration for a 6.5 hour overnight flight, which is not great. However, connection at istanbul was fast and the flight to JFK was good, with good food, nice flat bed seats, and on-time arrival. Return flight very efficient and pleasant. Main issues are cabin crew's stern attitudes and lack of adequate English skills. Would take TK again, especially given the very competitive pricing.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  8 August 2009 by S Held   (Germany)

I am accord to Brett Watson dated 02.Aug.09. I flew LHR-IST-SIN early this year, but beside the A340, TK used B777-300 leased from Jet Airways. The set is full flat and this differs from the lieflat seats of TK on their A330 and A340. I just hope the ordered B777 of TK will be full flat like the leased ones. Otherwise the whole good impression of TK will be restricted to good food and average seats. Sadly as it seems they are withdrawing the B777 from SIN routing. Inflight entertainment on the B777 was mediocre, only few films and music channels are available. I asked one F/A on board which was a Jet Airways staff about it and she said because of the "leasing thing" TK has not got all full entertainment system. Headphones are good noise cancelling ones and really useable amenity kit with proper brands(L'Occitane) which you can use and not smell like trash. About the Turkish F/A during my flights-they were very young and spoke very basic English. But they tried hard to communicate with me and gave their best to meet my expectations. Luckily there were no Turkish pax, so I have no problems of getting the F/A' s attention.

TURKISH AIRLINES review :  2 August 2009 by Annie Millard   (Thailand)

Shocking. Four international flights and three left late, one 1.5hrs late. No explanation and no apology. Several seats were double booked. FA at best ambivalent and at worse down right rude. Food ran out of one option almost immediately on the last flight. Previous flights had good food but both meals on the final flight were cold and inedible. Also served at 3.30 am because of late departure. On the short flights, the seats were so packed in that the brace position would have been impossible.