Turkish Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Cape Town to Sao Paulo via Istanbul. We applied and was granted "free accommodation" and stay over in Istanbul - never issued. This was a major reason we decided to use them they were not cheaper than SAA (direct flight) and the price we paid was to fly twice longer in and out. I contacted them many times over 9 months and just got promises, 4 days before our departure they still could not issue the vouchers and had to pay all ourselves. No feedback, no communication, nothing.

✅ Trip Verified | New York to Istanbul via Skopje. No care for being on time, worst airline ever to being on time. My first flight was 35 mins late for unknown reasons, I spent 9 hours waiting for the next available flight. As I was waiting I watched almost every Turkish Airlines that landed had passengers running off to malke it to their next flight. Then my next flight did not have us board till departure time, when it came to loading on the buses they had us wait 20 mins on a cramped bus without opening the doors. Some passengers had to use the emergency latch to open the doors so we can get some air. Then boarding the plane the captain notifies us that we are delayed and no reason with it. Late again to my final destination. Don't fly with Turkish Airlines!

✅ Trip Verified | Riyadh to Manila via Istanbul. Both flights were excellent especially Istanbul to Manila. Food was plentiful & delicious. Generous seat pitch with 3x3x3 configuration on B777 which is necessary for this 12 hour flight. Average inflight entertainment which for me, who doesn't use it much is OK. This flight is full but the crew did excellent in their job.

✅ Trip Verified | Belgrade to Kiev via Istanbul. Worst customer support service ever. They respond with automatically generated replies that has nothing to do with my questions and complaints. Also Miles&Smiles program is made for fools. I have been flying with Turkish airlines for 10 years, collecting miles and now there is no way I can use them before they expire! Can’t buy reward ticket, can’t upgrade my flying class, nor my bonus card class, can’t shop in the aircraft and online. My bonuses are blocked and soon will expire for nothing. And this is the way they say Thank you for being their faithful customer for a decade!

✅ Trip Verified | London to Bangkok via Istanbul. London to Istanbul on A330, excellent in every way. Superb selection of videos which all worked well with no delays and annoying adverts at onset. Aircraft clean; excellent service from friendly crew and tasty food. Plane only 25% full hence 3-4 seats each. Transfer at Istanbul not good due to having to take a Cobis 3000 bus driven erratically. Boeing 777 to Bangkok, food excellent and same decent IFE selections. Crew not as friendly as leg one and smiles were at a premium. Economy cabin 100% and I was very squashed and uncomfortable in a middle seat.

✅ Trip Verified | At check-in in Johannesburg, I was told we could not board unless my wife and children had return tickets. They have EU Family visas and no return ticket is required. We were forced to purchase 3 tickets that were not needed at a cost of R27,000. The flight was delayed almost one hour due to a technical problem. Due to this delay we missed the connecting flight to Toulouse. Turkish Airlines staff were incredibly unhelpful and uncaring. The sales desk demanded I buy new tickets at a price of R40,000 ($2,800) and I refused. Customer service was pathetic. The helpline from the sales desk needed a Turkish speaker to understand the process. I was on the phone for over 30 minutes twice explaining what had happened, and was told to to wait a few hours. They would call or email me; but there is no free WiFi or cell phone signal in the arrival terminals. I checked in every couple hours for 12 hours. The sales desk said they could not give me free connecting flights as the flight was full and the cost was R40,000 ($2,800). They could give me next day tickets to Paris, which is at least 8 hours drive from my destination. Istanbul airport staff in general were a nightmare to speak to in English, with an attitude of indifference. They were callous and rude at every encounter even though I was friendly, polite and upbeat. From 6 am until 2pm we had no access to proper food or drinks, except pretzels and sweets from a kiosk. We slept in the airport on the benches - my wife and I with two hyper active kids aged 6 and 8. It was a nightmare. Waited 24 hours before the next flight, and 12 of those hours we were anxious and traumatized by the situation and staff. Arrived in Paris next day, only to find baggage had not been forwarded. This after I had discussed how the baggage worked. I saw the consultant print the new baggage tags and make changes on the system. Filled in the missing baggage report at the airport. Baggage arrived 5 days later by courier. Broken. The telescopic handle was broken off and the hard case was cracked about 15 cm. A soft case had holes in from friction. I've reported this to customer service and received no response except an automated message. I've attempted to claim compensation on the baggage delay, but the website form doesn't work. We came from super hot summer in South Africa to - 2 degree winter and needed to buy new shoes, jackets and other basics for 4 people at a cost of $800. The airline has made no attempt to contact me or to redress the damages. When things go wrong in Istanbul, you might as well be on another planet where nobody cares at all about you or your family's well-being, and put profit before customer service. I will never fly Turkish Airlines again.

✅ Trip Verified | Atlanta to Addis Ababa via Istanbul. Turkish Airlines delays bags for all passengers up 2 days and when you arrive you have to come back a day or two later to claim your bag. Worst airline I have ever flown. Bad customer service. I will never fly again. Avoid if possible.

✅ Trip Verified | Washington to Addis Ababa via Istanbul . Although the flight and flight crew on my trip from DC to Addis were lovely the crew, plane, food, and customer service on my return trip were horrendous. The food served between Istanbul and DC (return flight) was obviously spoiled and several people were sick as a result. The flight crew did nothing to reduce the impact (mess, smell) from this. The plane itself was dirty and several of the seats damaged in the economy class area. The restrooms (within the first 2-3 hours of the flight) ran out of toilet paper and the floors became covered in urine and worse. Upon arrival in DC my checked luggage was returned badly damaged (hard sided suitcase with a giant crack in the hard case). Turkish Airlines has refused to compensate me for the damage despite filing all the appropriate documents.

Not Verified | Khartoum to Amsterdam via Istanbul. I was very disappointed with the airport service at Istanbul. The employee told me to go the transfer desk when arriving at Istanbul to get my boarding ticket for Amsterdam and when I went to the transfer desk an employee told me to go to the Denied boarding office because there weren't any seats. I went to the Denied boarding office when it was the last call for my flight due to the excessive delay in the security control. The security control was packed with more than hundreds of people and some even climbed over the fences and it was very chaotic. Anyways when I went to the office the employee then told me that I missed my flight and asked why I came here. I explained everything to him but the only response I got was to go back to the transfer desk. Then when I went back to the transfer desk, the other employee told me to go to the ticket sales desk. I was expecting them to arrange a seat in a flight today but when i went to the ticket sales desk, the employee said that there were no remaining seats and booked me a seat in the next day’s flight and charged me 500 dollars when it was the airline’s fault. The service was awful and the employees did not even know how to swiftly deal with such situations.

✅ Trip Verified | Berlin to Erbil via Istanbul. Over two hours into the flight to Erbil when I thought we were already descending, it was announced that we couldn't land and were heading back to Istanbul on account of fog. This meant a 24 hour wait in the airport until the next flight which then was delayed another 90min. Then after everyone had boarded, two buses pull up, "flight is cancelled". At this point I could no longer wait, and had to fly back to Berlin. My original return would have been the day before. I spent two hours at the Turkish Airlines transfer desk with a lot of insisting and nerves to finally get this changed at the last minute to the next plane on the same day. The services there was just awful (around 1300 on Dec. 19). Initially I was told, "everything's ok, just sit there, and we will deliver the ticket to you." But as time went on and no one came, I had to go back to the desk and basically start from scratch, dealing with altogether 5 or six officials who spoke hardly any English and were disorganised to the point of reminding one of headless chickens. Also 2 hours of free airport wifi per week (!) is just not enough for a traveler under these circumstances. And there was no option to buy more with a credit card.