Turkish Airlines

✅ Verified Review | Houston to Dammam via Istanbul. Turkish Airlines would be passable flying as a student at ultra-economy prices, but its business class is quite poor in comparison to some of the Gulf airlines. Staff were not overly interested in client service and spoke little English. There were long lines for everyone including those who had paid for business class. Overseas seats are not private and small. The land facilities were crowded, disorganized, and fairly dirty. A very low-end business class with fairly poor treatment.

✅ Verified Review | This is the first time I have flown Turkish Airlines and I had high expectations after seeing their commercials on TV and reading about them on various internet sites. I was flying business class from New York JFK to Bangkok via Istanbul (3 hour lay-over). My first leg was on a B777-300ER. The flight was 1 hour late departing JFK due to late arrival of the aircraft. The business class, flat bed configuration was 2x3x2, so even if you were seated in an aisle, you got disturbed by the other person wanting aisle access. I see this as a major draw-back on long flights (9 hours) when you are trying to sleep and someone is crawling over you multiple times to use the bathrooms. My second leg from Istanbul to Bangkok (also 9 hours) was on a A330 with a 2x2x2 business class configuration. On this plane you definitely want the middle seats as each person has direct aisle access. With that being said, the flat beds on both flights were spacious, comfortable and functional with lots of storage. The in-flight entertainment system was very good with an extensive and up-to-date selection of movies, TV shows, live sports etc. The food service was very good with the onboard chefs serving you. I did not use the WiFi, but it seemed it was difficult to connect to as many of the passengers in business class both flights were asking the flight attendants for assistance. The cabin staff were well trained, professional and attentive. Overall I would give them 4 stars, mostly due to the dual business class seat configuration when most of the Asian and Middle East carriers have individual pods and the one hour late departure from JFK.

✅ Verified Review | Night flight from Athens to Istanbul. Departed on time. Efficient check in and security procedures. Flight duration of one hour and 40 minutes, during which some light meal was served - consisted of a sandwich and croissant stuffed with cheese and halal meat. Salad and desert were given, as well as refreshments, tea and coffee. All foodstuff was of excellent taste and quality! Very fast and efficient cabin crew, the only minus was their limited ability to speak English. Ear phones were handed out - inflight entertainment was very good considering the time limitation.

✅ Verified Review | Flew Athens to Istanbul. Flight was a late night arriving at IST 30 min after midnight. Ground service at ATH were good. Departed on time. Inflight service was quick and efficient - only drawback was that flight attendants did not speak english. Food was a sandwich and a croissant with cheese and non-pork ham, some salad and a dessert. All of excellent quality and very tasty! Seat comfort was good, considering it was a short flight. The cabin was clean, as well as the toilets. A non-eventful and pleasant flight. Handed out to keep headphones, useful for listening to music, because the flight took less than two hours, which is most movies last for.

✅ Verified Review | Turkish Airlines offered a great service on this late night route from Bangkok to Istanbul. The aircraft wasn't very new, but it was clean and the flight attendants made an effort to offer quality service. Meal service was very good and the in-flight chef ensured that all went according to plan. Despite a fully booked cabin, flight attendants were courteous and pleasant.

✅ Verified Review | Turkish Airlines did not disappoint on this route. Despite a fully booked cabin, flight attendants offered a quality and attentive service. The newness of the aircraft offered comfort and amenities. The in-flight service was top notch with good meals and a good quality IFE system. Good job, Turkish Airlines!

✅ Verified Review | Istanbul to Barcelona. We missed our flight in Istanbul. We asked for help we even pleaded for help and was ignored by everyone behind counter. We called the customer service and received no help because of lack of English. Finally about 2 hours after our flight had left we were able to talk with someone at the counter and told we had to buy a full priced ticket for $700 per passenger. We called our son back in the states and he was able to get us on the same flight that they were trying to sell us for $700 for only $270 from an online travel site.

✅ Verified Review | Istanbul to Montreal on Turkish Airlines. Check-in was relatively quick and efficient. Enjoyed the lounge and its vast amenities ahead of boarding. On board, the hard product looked in decent shape with comfortable seating in both upright and lie-flat positions. My request to be relocated to another seat was honoured allowing me to travel with a vacant neighbouring seat. Catering was once again below the standard I had previously experienced on this carrier and definitely below business class catering on the Asian and Middle Eastern carriers. There is clear evidence they are cutting corners with catering which is unfortunate as it used to be their main differentiator. The FA's were attentive and promptly responded to requests. The biggest issue in flight was the cabin temperature which was uncomfortably hot and took a long time to regulate after many passengers complained. Also the toilets could have used more attention which I had to point out on two occasions. The IFE was OK and had a decent selection of movies and a great music library. The free wifi worked well throughout the journey. We were late departing but arrived on schedule. Upon landing, we disembarked via the stairs as we did the last time I traveled on this route. This was despite vacant air bridges. Overall it was a good experience but TK has to reverse the downward trend in their catering quality and return to the high standards they used to have.

✅ Verified Review | Ordu–Giresun to Istanbul. Excellent service for a short flight. It was the first flight of the day taking off at 4:50 am. Though full, it was on time and all procedures, check in and boarding were performed swiftly. The cabin was nice though no individual screens, just overheards for safety demonstrations and maps, along with a few commercials. Very professional crew, elegant and efficient and amazingly cheerful, captain announcements was very pleasant. Although planned for 1h 45 duration, the flight lasted a short 1h20 minutes. During this time, economy service was performed with tea, coffee, juices served in elegant paper cups along with hot salty pastries. Excellent landing. Very pleasant.

✅ Verified Review | Amsterdam to Mauritius, with a stopover in Istanbul. That part of the journey went well, without any problems, good service. The return trip was badly organized. On September 30th, flight TK161 (Mauritius-Istanbul) was scheduled for 20.05. First we received the announcement that the flight was delayed until 21:30. At 20:30 we had to go to another gate and then we heard that the flight was canceled. We had to go to another gate, were listed, had to pick up the luggage, went thru the passport check and after 1 hour we were transported by bus to hotels. Our hotel: Palms Hotel, Quatre Bornes, Mauritius, a 45-minute drive. Room was reasonable but did not seemed to be used recently, because all the lamps were still disconnected and we had no hot water. Dinner consisted of rice, red pepper potatoes, lettuce and a meat sauce. We have been able to rest for 3 hours because sleep was not possible due to the noise of a disco / nightclub. We were told that breakfast was served at 4pm at night, at the reception. But there was nobody, we had to switch on the lights ourselves. At 04:50 a few crackers, butter, slices of sausage, pineapple and yogurt were placed on a table. No coffee, tea, water, etc. Another group was lucky because they were transferred to a luxury hotel, where they could sleep and have a real breakfast. At 5:00pm the buses went to the airport. At 6:00 pm check-in, including luggage, but the staff was very chaotic, there was no supervision. We were promised that they were already arranging the transition stopover in Istanbul. At 8:30 the plane left for Istanbul where we arrived more than 9 hours later. Some people who also had a transfer flight, received a boarding pass at the exit of the gate, but most had to go to the Transfer Desk very quickly. There we were totally hopeless when we saw a queue of 80, perhaps 100 people. A hard-working employee selected 20 persons. Fortunately, we belonged to that group (entirely random) that was brought to a Business Transfer Desk after a 2nd quick 10 minute walk. At first, they wanted or could not handle anything for us. Eventually they gave the Amsterdam people of that group, new boarding passes, TK1955 Istanbul-Amsterdam from 19:30. We were lucky because we arrived at 22:05 in Amsterdam. When we got there, we missed 1 of our 2 suitcases. And we were not the only victims, because the entire handling and registration cost us 2 hours extra time. Sunday night at 2:00 we were at home, at last. Monday afternoon we were told that the suitcase was found and was kept behind in Istanbul. End well, all right, we would like to say, but not in this case, definitely not. We still do not know what the reason for the flight cancellation was. We wondered ourselves, again and again why everything went so extremely wrong. A technical defect can happen and that they do not want to take any risks, we all understand that. However, during our hotel stay and flight to Istanbul, Turkish Airlines had 22 hours to arrange a connecting flight + boarding passes for all, but nothing seemed to be arranged. Why were we dragged from one place to another, had to watch desperate and exhausted how their employees had heated discussions and everything was so organized badly?