Turkish Airlines

KTM-IST-HEL 8/12/2014. KTM flight delayed by 3 hours no apology or reason for the delay was given. Upon arrival at IST I was sent to a hotel for the night as I had missed my connecting flight to Helsinki. I was re booked onto the flight the following morning. I arrived in Helsinki 19 hours late. Overall I found the food and aircraft its self to be good but the organisation and quality of the people working for Turkish airlines to be very poor. Do not book with Turkish airlines if you would like to receive any type of acceptable customer service.

Brussels to Istanbul. The plane was clean and smart and the staff were helpful and well turned out. Standards of English from staff were also very good. The food was very tasty. The inflight entertainment didn't appear to work in any seat on the inward flight though it was good on the outward flight with a decent choice of movies and TV shows. You are offered a piece of Turkish delight after take off which is a nice touch. Turkish Airlines is significantly better than its home airport.

Turkish Airlines staff are normally brusque and indifferent but when one of their flights is delayed they really excel themselves in terms of inscrutable disdain. Firstly TK0805 to Istanbul (5/11/14) the cabin crew didn't seem to think anyone had the right to know whether we were going or not. When we finally took off over an hour late they were affronted that passengers might want to know if we were going to meet the connecting Turkish flight to London. So not having an answer and not seeming to care they just blithely said 'yes it'll be held'. Everyone rushed to the gate. Low and behold it wasn't held. Sent from pillar to post to interact with various other stony-faced employees who frankly don't care. Not a single person ventured an apology.

TK60 from IST to KUL in economy. Food and beverage service was as good as the food itself definitely 4-star standard. However the crew had a new trick which I have not seen before: One of the two front lavatories was reserved for crew use. It was clearly visible from my seat that the crew locked the door from the outside after they were finished using it. Reducing the number of lavatories on a plane is not a good idea. To add insult to injury the crew never bothered to clean the passenger lavatory resulting in an abundance of overflowing sewage. Wrote to the airline and did not receive any type of response. I recommend taking rubber boots on your next TK flight.

Istanbul-London Heathrow. Bus to the aircraft – happens so often these days at Istanbul. The chicken meal had run out by the time the cart reached me. Meal I had was good and I relaxed for the rest of the flight. On descent they announced that they would come round for newspapers cups etc but they did not. During the taxi to the gate people started getting up all over the aircraft even though there had been an announcement not to do so but none of the crew attempted to stop them. Luggage was already on the carousel when we arrived. The flight itself was good but efficiency of the crew in my area was appalling.

I flew business Dublin to Bangkok via Istanbul. First leg of the trip was ok on par with premium economy but no business class. The leg from Istanbul to Bangkok was the worst flight I have had. We arrived late into Istanbul from Dublin and were running late to catch the connecting flight aircrew told us that ground staff were waiting to escort us once we had disembarked well once we had been dumped by the bus at the terminal gate there was no staff to help just the usual mess in Istanbul. We eventually found our gate which lucky for us was running late. So as business class we had priority boarding but in reality this was only onto to the bus which then with everyone else on the flight dumped us in the pouring rain at the rear of the aircraft and we had had to fight our way through to our seats at the front. We took our seats and after some time were offered some water or juice – same as economy. There were 5 airline staff looking after a full business class plus the 2 chefs. The service offered did not reflect. About half an hour after take off face wipes were offered however mine was cold and smelt -–not offered a replacement. We were offered a drink I chose champagne which when arrived hardly wet the glass with the quantity given and was warm. A short time later the meal was served which was ok and edible. I managed to get 2 glasses of wine from the crew during the meal. Crew were in a hurry to get your trays packed away and 2.5 hours into the flight all alcohol was locked away and never seen again. Crew took themselves of to hide behind their curtains and not to be seen until 2 hours before we landed when a miserable breakfast was served which I had not ordered. There was 1 business class toilet to service the crew and passengers and the crew seemed to have it in use 80% of the time in the last hour when most passengers were also trying to use it. There were no amenities in the toilet hard paper towels no small cups sink was filthy floor wet. Finally after disembarking in Bangkok getting through customs etc quickly through to the baggage carousel I expected that our bags would be out quickly as we had priority baggage no they came out last and after just about every one else had left the Airport. I have flown Turkish economy before and have found them to be very good and thought that business class would be good but it was awful.

Flew IAD-AMM and return from Malta to IAD in November. Flew Business Class round trip. Can't say enough good about the flights as everything from check in to landing went on-time smooth with excellent service both on the ground and in-flight. Considering that I saved over $1000 per person on this routing compared to BA LH and any of the domestic carriers - their in-flight service was far superior to the other transatlantic carriers I've flown over the past 25+ years. Would compare their service to Cathay Pacific. The meal service was outstanding. I've never had meals of this quality before on any airline in First or Business Class. You have to experience it to believe it. Great value for the price I paid and the wonderful service received. Any future business I have going that way - I'm sure to fly Turkish again.

Milan - Istanbul (Airbus A330) and Istanbul - Sao Paulo (Boeing 777-300). Both flights left and made it on time. Brand new A330 and nice 773. Amazing food as always. These are my 10th and 11th Turkish Airlines flights since August and I have nothing to complain about so far. I was a Lufthansa/SWISS frequent flyer but now always choose TK whenever possible.

We flew Frankfurt-Istanbul-Nevsehir return in Oct 2014. First legs were in time flight Cappadocia-IST started half an hour later arrival IST-FRA was 2 hours late. It would have been nice if they had offered water to the people who were boarded half an hour after the flight schedule time and had to wait on the plane another hour till the doors were closed. During the flight beverages were generously offered food (2 choices) was very pleasant. Cabin well cleaned and staff friendly. Only thing we did not enjoy was the entertainment. Program in general very mainstream few interesting movies. No German films not a single film with German audio or subtitles. Original English or American films hard to understand because of cheap earphones. English subtitles would have helped very much but there were none.

Avoid this airline and avoid any transit through Istanbul. Recently flew with Turkish Airlines LHR-IST-TLV-IST- LHR. Cabin crew are cold unfriendly and indifferent to passengers. I was on a scheduled connection home from TLV via Istanbul with a one hour connection time. By the time the aircraft parked offloaded passengers and we cleared security in the transfer lounge I arrived at the gate 10 min before he next departure time only to be told that the flight had closed and I couldn't board. I was given a seat on the next flight home to London (1 hour 40 mins later) only to arrive in LHR with no luggage! Turkish Airlines is chaotic and so is Istanbul airport. Terrible airline and terrible airport!