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 Reviews = 230

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  6 November 2009 by D Cassius   (Netherlands)

FCO-DXB-AMS through Istanbul in C class. Pretty mediocre experience overall. No separate boarding on any leg. Boarding in DXB more like cattle hoarding. Seats on A320 do not recline, and on A321 insufficiently for a 5hr flight. They managed to cancel my return flights. Reinstated after last minute alert by agency but with last leg in Economy with a promise to recheck with transfer desk in Istanbul. Transfer desk a horrifying experience. No separate desk for C class. Agent incompetent. Took 30 mins to reinstate me in C class, only to discover on boarding that only 5 out of 12 seats in C class are occupied (including mine)! Conclusion: first and last time with THY.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  26 October 2009 by C Finkles   (USA)

Economy Class JFK-IST-FRU (multiple times). JFK to IST acceptable, nothing too fancy, but IST to FRU is where they mess things up. It's a 5hr overnight flight on a small B737, usually a full flight. Service takes forever, partially due to the lack of lavatories (just 2 in the back for the whole economy class) so people have to constantly get across the service carts. The crews did not smile once. I am very disappointed in THY, especially from their constantly advertised "it's easy to feel like a star with Turkish Airlines." - that might refer to first class from IST to major capitals, but that's it.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  24 October 2009 by Larissa Meixner-Adam   (Germany)

MUC-IST. No priority of boarding was given to families with small children, only to disabled and old people. Boarding was late but no explanation given. Plane arrived on time in Istanbul. The plane was pretty new and clean. Service was good, which is not normally the case. Even the stewardesses were friendly and smiling. Normally they behave like spoiled models. The toilets were ok but it was only a short flight. Our daughter was given toys from a smiling stewardess. The food was very tasty! This time they also served foreign wine which is definitely better than the Turkish wine they normally serve. All in all it was a very positive experience. THY should make sure that passengers have more of those positive experiences!

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  22 October 2009 by Jan Willems   (Luxembourg)

Frankfurt-Istanbul-Tashkent in C-class: very mediocre experience: flight to Istanbul and to Tashkent in the Boeing 737-800, which is far too small for a 5 hour long-haul overnight flight. In C-class, you only get a minimum of extra pitch, and the middle seat is blocked. Meal service not very well coordinated, and took very long to be served. Cabin crew also not overly friendly. On the return, we had an hour delay in Tashkent, however no excuses nor explanation given. No onward boarding passes could be issued in Tashkent, which meant a mad dash for many connecting passengers upon arrival in Istanbul. Last leg to Frankfurt was in the Airbus A340, so at least I could stretch out on the flat bed (which wasn't very comfortable). Good points: food was of a decent quality and portions were adequate. Unfortunately, as mentioned before in this forum, Turkish Airlines has a quasi monopoly on a lot of Central Asian routes and there prices are reasonable, otherwise I would have chosen another option. I don't get where there 4-star status is coming from. Their omnipresent publicity on international media does not correspond with their real quality as self proclaimed "premium airline".

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  22 October 2009 by N Waughlock   (Sweden)

ARN-IST-PVG Economy. The prices are very low but there are indirect prices to pay for. Lots of it. The first flight was no problem, nothing remarkable either. Very short leg space. In Istanbul the flight to Shanghai was supposed to leave at 22.50. It was announced as one hour late, no explanation given in the English announcement. At midnight another hour delay was announced, no reasons given. Suddenly, boarding was announced, everyone was urged to rush to the gate. There more waiting, no announcements. The flight left two hours late. After 30 minutes into the flight a difficult to understand announcement was made that due to technical problems the flight had to return to Istanbul. This would cause one hour further delay. No reasons or explanations given. After a further hour of flight time, I thought, I had misunderstood and the pilot was explaining why they HAD been late in the first place. Two hours after departure (!) the plane landed again in Istanbul. We were told another aircraft was available 3 hours later (7 am) to take us to Shanghai. We were guided to a large business lounge where dry sandwiches and beverages were provided. Again no explanation of what actually had happened. At 6.30 boarding was announced. By this time I had not slept in 24 hours. Arriving at the gate a huge line formed for a last security check, this took one hour of waiting, only to be hoarded into a tiny waiting area with minimum sitting available. No one boarded at 7.30. Now a further delay of 1.5 hours was announced. I saw three engineers rushing into the aircraft and turning up in the cockpit. By this time I had already missed my first appointment in Shanghai and was near collapse after not having slept and not having been offered a sleeping opportunity. With further security issues I became scared and decided to cancel my trip and return to Stockholm. It took one more hour of screaming and shouting to barely English speaking ‘supervisors’ to be booked on the next available flight to Sweden. There is only one transfer desk at Istanbul airport, totally overcrowded. So just speaking to a Turkish Airways employee takes 30-40 minutes waiting time. I will never again fly with Turkish Airways. I realize the delays where necessary due to aircraft security and certainly better than flying with a questionable plane. But the handling of these delays where horrifically deficient. By the time I left Istanbul the Shanghai flight still had not left after 9.5 hours of delay. I would like to warn potential future customers that Turkey is not in the European Union. Thus the 261/2004 directive about delays and compensation etc does not apply for flight OUT of Istanbul.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  14 October 2009 by Alexandre Burnat   (Switzerland)

GVA-IST-GVA, fairly new Boeing 737-800 with enough space for a 3 hours flight, printed menu in Economy class, food excellent. FA attentive though could be more smiley, overall a good experience with Turkish Airlines.

TURKISH AIRLINES customer review :  14 October 2009 by F Plona   (Cayman Island)

Venice to Singapore via Istanbul in Economy. VCE to IST a full lunch was served inclusive of alcohol beverage, plane clean, seat confortable with lots of recline. Easy transfer in IST. IST-SIN on an A340 - plane clean, seat configuration 2-4-2, lots of knee space, recline and comfortable seat. PTV screen and sufficient variety of entertainment.

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.