Turkish Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Mumbai to Houston via Istanbul. My bag was misplaced/lost by Turkish Airlines and it took more than one month to get my bag. The airline was not even interested in contacting me or updating me. I repeatedly explained to them that more than anything else, my important medications which I needed to take on a daily basis were in the bag. Fortunately, some of the medications, which my husband had in his possession, were couriered to me from New York. To cut a long story short, finally after my bag reached its destination, instead of the airline delivering the bag, I had to collect it from La Guardia airport. Turkish Airlines boasts of being the best airline in Europe but I do not agree to this. I am sure there are more passengers who must have faced similar problems that I went through.

✅ Trip Verified | Don't be fooled by good food and new aircraft. Only when you face a problem you can see the quality of services. And I (Business class traveller and Elite Gold member) have a very long list of stories of very poor services. 1) 8 days today and I am without my only checked in bag during my flight to Houston and Turkish Airlines simply not doing anything except sending a message every few days saying they are investigating. I have no clothes for 8 days and Turkish Airlines are refusing even to compensate me for the lost bag. 2) When we changed our travel date due to a medical emergency supported by a letter from the hospital, Turkish Airlines charged me and my wife 1200 extra dollars per ticket and refused to waive any fees due to the medical emergency like all other reputable airlines. 3) On a number of occasions I missed my connections due to late arrival to Istanbul (on Turkish Airlines) and Turkish Airlines refused to take any resposibility for missing my meetings by flying me on a different airlines flight. This is happening to business class travellers, imagine if you fly economy. Very poor Airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Moscow to Manila via Istanbul. Good flight from Moscow to Istanbul. Comfortable seats with reasonable recline. Flight left and landed on time. Cabin staff functioned well with announcements in Turkish, Russian and English. A good lunch was served with appropriate sized portions. IFE had a fair selection of films available. Istanbul to Manila a fair flight. Dinner was served at the beginning of the flight and chef did not present any alternatives when the main course that I wanted was not available so I slept and woke up relatively early. I had an early breakfast (this was quite adequate, although I would have liked a little more given no dinner the previous night). No further food was offered. I think that the airline would be better off allowing passengers going straight to sleep and then having breakfast and lunch as the two meals on this long flight. Overall the quality of the service from Istanbul to Manila was a little lower than previous long haul flights in business class.

✅ Trip Verified | Istanbul to Tel Aviv return. Ground staff very helpful in boarding the flight. Both flights left and arrived on time. The planes were clean and modern and the flights uneventful. The seats were comfortable and with adequate leg room and recline. Food was reasonable and the portions were satisfactory. Cabin staff were efficient and the meal was served early on both flights. On the return flight the check in worked well. I was given priority because I was transferring to Business Class for the second leg. Overall I was happy with the standard of service and the flights.

✅ Trip Verified | Houston to Dubai via Istanbul. My nightmare started when I missed my connecting flight from Istanbul going to Dubai. I was sent from one person to another there after and subsequently had a buy a visa ($30) at the airport in other to get to their ticket counter. At the ticket counter, the guy at the booth told me I had to pay $600 penalty for missing my flight and then another $2000 for a new ticket because I bought my ticket from an agent. There was no talking to him after that as he dismissed me when I told him there was no way I could pay him $2600. With the help of a very kind gentleman at the airport, I purchased another ticket to Dubai with Air Arabia. I had to leave Ataturk airport via taxi ($60) to another airport called Sabiha to catch the flight to get to Sharjah International and then subsequently to Dubai. When I went online to check, I was told my return was valid and secured and I even called the customer service line twice and was informed that I was checked in for my return. I was able to check in online and even change my seat for the return flight. I arrived at DXB airport at 4am February 22nd morning, waited for the check in counter to open at 5:20am to check in, only to be told by the agent at the desk that I could not fly out with them. He told me that since I broke the sequence and did not pay the $2600 in Turkey, my ticket was no longer valid. He also told me that they had neither a customer service counter nor a ticket counter in Dubai so my only option was to call the same customer service that previously assured me that I was confirmed to fly back to Houston with their airline. I had to be back in Houston so I had no choice but to purchase another ticket with Emirates. I had to take a shuttle to terminal 3, bought a one way business class ticket for $5440 just to make it back to Houston. Telling a passenger to pay $2600 for missing a connection is unconscionable. The staff are rude and inhumane, Ataturk airport is chaotic and Turkish Airlines does not care about its passengers regardless of if you're flying business class or economy.

✅ Trip Verified | Houston to Istanbul. Very poor staff interaction, in both the aircraft and Istanbul airport, it’s quite unenjoyable to be in such hostile environment. If you want to have proper communication with the staff, you better learn Turkish. I does appear that Turkish Airlines employees are not getting paid enough to treat people with respect. I believe they used to be the best airlines in Europe, now I am confident to say they are the worst in Europe.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Istanbul. I am a frequent flyer who always travels with excess baggage up to 10 times a year internationally. As a result of the ultra punitive charges for excess baggage on the low cost carriers like Ryanair and EasyJet I prefer to travel with the normal carriers and was very keen to try Turkish Airlines as they have a good reputation and being a gold Emirates flyer I wanted to check the experience. How sad that they have such a horrific extra baggage policy. After battling to find anything on there site after booking my ticket I presumed that I would pay per piece and saw that there looked to be an $80 price on some flights. As I had already paid and unable to navigate there confusing baggage policy on line and unable to pay on line either I made my way to the airport. My ticket cost me approx £120 I went with 1 extra bag weighing exactly 23kg. I know how strict airlines are about this. I was horrified to be charged approx £230 for my extra bag. £110 more than my ticket and resulted in an increase in my costs by over 200%. I could have bought 2 extra tickets. How can this be justified? I immediately realized why there extra luggage policy on there website is difficult to navigate. Extra profits. Ryanair and Easyjet get such a bad rap for these sort of charges and they are open and upfront about them. To get stung with these at the airport and have them being double the cost of a ticket is truly blackmailing your customers. I learnt my lesson and will never travel this airline. Companies that force unjustified charges on unsuspecting customers should be held to account. Why is it so much? How can one bag cost double a ticket price? Shame on them.

✅ Trip Verified | Jakarta to Istanbul. First impression is not so good when I saw rapid seat configuration, but when Chef on Board provide me food that I choose suddenly everything’s changed. The foods are really good. I will choose this airline again for flight of more than 3 hours and less than 8 hours.

✅ Trip Verified | Istanbul to Guangzhou. One of the nicer things about Turkish Airlines is the free possibility to reserve a flight for a couple of days before booking it. We did, because we had our 3 month old daughter with us and desperately wanted her to be able to sleep in a baby bassinet and were ready to book any airline that could offer that. After reserving the flight we contacted Turkish Airlines helpdesk on Twitter (@TK_HelpDesk) to ask if they could reserve a bassinet for us and confirmed the ticket and paid after we were assured that would not be a problem. All fell apart 40 days later when we actually got on the plane and there were no bassinet seats available and the plane looked like it was fully booked. The crew asked a couple of people of they would want to change, but all refused. Later we learned they paid extra for the seats with the bassinets. A 10 hour night flight turned into a sleepless horror story trying to keep the baby balanced on our laps for hours. The space was so limited we had no possibility to eat a thing and without any possibility for air to flow things got really sweaty. After recovery at home we contacted the complaints department and quickly learned that they were only there for empty apologies. Turkish Airlines apparently decided to start selling the seats with the bassinets and decided not to bother with any of its previous commitments, just deleted them all without message or warning. Kind of baffled I inquired a few times again but somehow this multi-billion company kept insisting that breaching the contract with their customers was business as usual for them. Can't really do anything else then to warn as many people as possible not to trust this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Manchester to Kuala Lumpur via Istanbul. The first time I flew with Turkish Airlines and it was a disappointment. My flight from Manchester to Istanbul was delayed for an hour as some of the passengers could not follow simple instructions ie. seating at their assigned seats. This caused ruckus as some of them insisted on sitting on other people's seats which I found utterly ridiculous. The staff handled this poorly and kept shouting at everyone. The seat has narrow legroom and was uncomfortable. Even though it was a 4 hour flight to Istanbul, the plane was small and does not offer much space. There is only 2 toilets for economy class passengers and with people lining up to use the bathroom and staff trying to serve meals with the trolley, it was not a nice experiencel. The staff's English proficiency has room for improvement as I could not understand much from the announcements made and at one point I was given tomato juice after asking for mango juice. The in-flight meals and entertainment are satisfactory. I was lucky as even though the first flight was delayed for an hour, I managed to continue with the second flight to Kuala Lumpur. I however was not happy about the transit as the gate for my connecting flight was really far and then I had to ride the bus which took almost half an hour to reach the plane and was left to wait in the bus with the doors open (which was not a good idea as it was cold and windy early that morning) for another 15-20 mins before we were allowed to enter the plane. In conclusion, this was really a bad experience.