Turkish Airlines

Flew Nairobi-IST-Boston return. While aircraft and cabin were fine food definitely above average and a bird strike was professionally and safely handled by the pilot (take off aborted switch to new aircraft) I was not happy with the following: 1) Very difficult to get hold of Turkish Airlines office by phone. I wanted to inquire about changes to my ticket. In Nairobi I had to end up making the journey to their downtown office in person because no one answered the phone. In the US it was equally difficult to get hold of anyone who could help with ticket changes. You can also only pay any change fees in person at the airport (this alone took an hour prior to the actual check in and ended up being USD 80 higher than originally advised). In Boston there is also no on- line check in available. Turkish is just not equipped with the kind of services that makes this much easier with airlines like KLM BA Delta etc. 2) Horrible experience at Istanbul airport. Again wanted to go to a ticket office to inquire about changes during my layover. In the entire international transit area there is none! It was also incredibly difficult just to find someone who spoke adequate English! After going in circles I was finally told I need to get a visa exit the airport go to the ticket office outside then re-enter! It was also by far the dirtiest airport I have been to hardly saw cleaning crews and if I did they were standing around talking rather than working. Neither ground staff nor cabin crew particularly friendly on a four leg trip one flight attendant stood out for trying to be particularly helpful. I had chosen Turkish because at the time it was the cheapest option the few hundred dollars saved were not worth it because of the other hassles gained. The early morning departure and arrival times in Nairobi also make an already long trip even more painful.

TK1850 ATH-IST June 19. ATH airport check in procedures swift my luggage checked to my final destination boarding passes provided for my subsequent flights with another Star Alliance carrier. Aircraft A321 Business class seats 2-2 with more than adequate space (reclining seats dedicated cabin not the silly "leave middle seat unoccupied" solution). Cabin crew friendly linguistic skills more than adequate. Rather impressive food and wine service for a short flight smartly presented full hot meal left me with the curiosity of flying them long haul. A rather pleasant experience.

Travelled on TK 0069 with my wife on June 13 2014. We mentioned to the air hostess that our table trays could not be closed and were staying in the locked position as it was broken. The flight attendant could not assist us and were not willing to help. Plane was very old and in bad shape. Food was served late after 2-3 hours when everybody was sleeping. No smiles on the faces of the flight attendants and very poor service.

Flew IAH-IST in business. Cabin was nicely appointed and comfortable and the inflight entertainment works well. The food and drinks offered were high quality and plentiful except my fish entree was over cooked. The service was awkward. It was a full hour after takeoff before the in flight service was started. Food was prepared in the forward galley and plated in the rear galley which meant there was constant cabin staff traffic between the two galleys making the cabin environment frenetic. Beverages were only offered once at the beginning of the meal service. Any additional beverages including water required a direct request with an attendant who would then readily provide another beverage.

LHR - Istanbul - North Cyprus - Istanbul - LHR. Business class to Istanbul economy to North Cyprus. Flight to Istanbul departed on time. A321 seats not really business more economy plus as it's 3 seats across with the centre seat blocked off and a little more leg room. Very early AM flight breakfast good flight nearly full. Entertainment not that good. One hour transfer time at Istanbul was no problem at all in fact we did it in 10 minutes. Flight to North Cyprus B737-800 seat ok food surprisingly served on an hour flight entertainment system not fantastic. Flight from Istanbul to LHR was just fantastic mainly because of the Turkish business lounge which is as far as I am concerned is the best of the best. Food space comfort facilities all there in this brand new lounge all excellent. Flight on B737-800. Aircraft type changed at the last minute so passengers seated all over the place. Everyone seemed civilised onboard and just swapped seats onboard so couples could sit together. Chef onboard and food prepared by DoCo just sumptuous. Cabin crew all male in business were terrific. Aircraft full seats again more eco plus then business and no real entertainment system on this plane. Pilot informative flight smooth landed on time.

Venice-Istanbul-Beirut. Venice-Istanbul: brand new A321 with individual screens and IFE plus a full hot meal provided (with a printed menu distributed). Broad selection of beverages even fresh orange juice available. That's amazing for a 2 hours and 15 min flight. Flight attendants: most of them very friendly and professional apart from a young girl who seemed not to care at all. Smooth and easy transfer at Istanbul airport which by the way is a total mess and way over-crowded. Istanbul-Beirut: full flight. Again new A321 but this time with very small individual screens with no IFE. Super friendly and professional cabin crew. A cold meal offered. Luggage did make it to Beirut without any issues. Overall very impressed with Turkish. Do look forward to flying back with them.

TK604 Dar Es Saleem - Istanbul 8th August 14. Incoming flight delayed due to bad weather at Istanbul Airport. Check in staff at Dar Es Saleem seemed clueless about how to sort problems re prospect of missed connections. Eventually assured us that we were booked on later 19.10 hours flight to Heathrow and gave assurances our luggage would be transferred. On arrival at Istanbul received the worst customer service experience. Staff rude unhelpful and incompetent. No bookings for onward flight found initially told we would have to overnight in Istanbul only after continued insistence with staff were seats found for us. On boarding flight TK1983 we found over 30 empty seats on the aircraft we were told there were no seats available. Of course arriving back at Heathrow they had managed to loose 5 items of our hold baggage. I would never fly with Turkish Airlines again.

I flew Istanbul-Ercan (Cyprus) on Turkish A320. Both flights were great. New aircraft with interesting movies TV shows games. Friendly English-speaking staff. Was given a traditional Turkish breakfast. Both trip cost me not expensive i bought tickets in advance.

10th August 2014 Tokyo to Istanbul (TK0051) which connected to another Turkish Airlines flight (TK1357) from Istanbul to Madrid. Time for the connection was 1 hour 20 minutes. Unfortunately TK0051 departed delayed and landed more than 1 hour later than the previously scheduled arrival time. The TK0051 flight landed in Istanbul at about 19.10 h when the scheduled landing time was 18.00 h. Although I rushed to the gate where I arrived at 19.26 it was impossible for me to get the connecting flight which departed at 19.20 sharp. There were at least 6 more passengers in my same situation. Nobody was waiting for us at Istanbul airport to give us assistance no help was offered. We went to the "customer care counter" where a Turkish airlines worker simply gave us instructions to go to the transfer desk. After a very long queue a Turkish Airlines employee explained to us that there was no available flight to Madrid that day. We had to get flight TK1857 departing at 7.50 am next day. Turkish Airlines would provide us with a hotel dinner and breakfast. I am a Miles&Miles member my friend and I were planning to use this company again at Christmas but now we have bought a ticket on another airline instead.

TK71/TK1083 HKG-IST-BEG. I flew this route this week in comfort class and connect in economy. It is a real shame they are phasing out CC. The product is in a league of its own and deserves to be around. Y on the intra Europe flight was really good too. Both flights had a full meal service. The long haul as expected but the euro flight was a surprise. Flights departed about 10 minutes late but both arrived early.