Turkish Airlines

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.

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.

12 August (Istanbul - Barcelona) flight TK 1855. Checked-in the day before to get the seats I wanted on the plane performed this operation and I get an email from the airline confirming assigned seats. The next day at the airport I was given different seats to the ones I requested the previous day these (3 seats) were separated from each other. Also told there was a time delay in departure. I'm disappointed with the airline and do not recommend it.

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.

Istanbul-Lagos had terribly worn out Business Class seats. USB plug did not charge my phone only neighbouring seat did so. Headset cable was broken only one side could be heard. Way back it was worse: Checked in but was not offered an invitation to the lounge so I had to bribe someone to get me that instead of again going through security. Then 75 min departure delay without any notice information etc. which made me miss my connection in Istanbul. The onboard entertainment system was completely off apologies for the technical defect. Not to mention the USB plug for charging the phone. After the 7hr night flight no breakfast or simply a coffee was offered. Never again if I can avoid it somehow.

We have flown Turkish Airlines several times in the last year and always with a little hesitance connecting through Istanbul-an airport that's always a bit chaotic. While the flights we've had over the years have been good in terms of food price in-flight service and entertainment etc today was quite the opposite. My wife and kids flew to Istanbul from Macedonia intending to get on a flight to Chicago. Instead they were told at the gate that the boarding passes they had received for the flight were not adequate and there were no seats for them. They were turned away and sent to a "help desk" that was a nightmare. It took hours to rebook them on tomorrow's flight and they were denied hotel accommodation even though it was the airline's fault. Next time we'll book with a proper European carrier likely spending a little more but saving ourselves the headache and worry.

TK12 and TK571 JFK-IST-JRO departing July 3rd 2014. Had multiple terrible experiences with TK in the last year the most recent of them in July 2014 on the first flight of our honeymoon! Every time I have flown with TK from JFK or BRU the flight was late by more than 90min without any explanation. Leading to a missed connection and being stranded against our will in Istanbul. Each time the in-flight crew assured us the connecting flight would be informed and wait for us. Each time there was no one upon landing to direct us and help us find our connection gate. Each time we missed the connecting by less than 10min after desperately running across the airport to try and make it. Each time the ground staff for luggage collection and transfer/hotel arrangements were unduly rude and totally unhelpful. And the hotel provided for the night was very sub-standard. And each time we had to pay an entry visa that we would otherwise not have had to pay. I have flown a lot of different airlines and this is by far the worst experience I've ever had. In the latest occurrence they would not even make a nice gesture to acknowledge the fact they were ruining the first 2 days of our honeymoon. Needless to say we will never fly Turkish airlines again if we can avoid it.