Turkish Airlines

DHK-IST then IST-JFK. This was my first time with Turkish airline. Cabin staff were rude. On my first leg I ordered a glass of water twice but it never came I had to walk to the galley to get my glass of water. The food was served after 1 hour. It was an 8.5 hrs flight so me and my wife slept a bit after the meal was done. I took beef biriyani and my wife took grilled chicken. The chicken was really tasty unfortunately I choose the wrong meal. Then before landing we were served a sandwich which was good. On our 2nd leg IST to JFK (10 hrs 30 mins) it was an early morning flight which was supposed to take off at 7.30 but got delayed 45 minutes. First meal (scrambled egg with mushroom) was served immediately after take off which was tasty but the cabin crews were again disappointing. Again I ordered a cocktail but it didn't come the first time I asked for it. I would recommend this flight as its cheap.

NRT - Istanbul - Barcelona. Plenty of food and snacks on the long haul flight - I love how they give out Turkish Delights just after take off and a meal menu on all flights. The only complaint was the friendliness of the crew who always looked grumpy and a few were falling asleep at their crew seats during taking off and landing on both sectors. Once they completed their meal service they disappeared and were chatting non stop at the back of the plane with other crew. Other than this a good 2 sectors with TK.

Geneva - Istanbul TK1918 19 Dec 2013. Istanbul - Dhaka 19 Dec 2013 TK0712. Dhaka - Istanbul 9 Jan 2014. Istanbul - Geneva 10 Jan 2014. No inflight entertainment on flight from Istanbul to Dhaka or from Dhaka to Istanbul. On January 9 flight from Dhaka to Istanbul was delayed 7 hours due to fog. When the flight finally took off on 9 Jan flight time from Dhaka to Istanbul (non-stop) was 8.5 hours due a ridiculously old plane being used. I was informed in Dhaka on 9 Jan that I would miss my connecting flight to Geneva and would have to travel the next morning and was thus issued a boarding pass for the next day. When we arrived in Istanbul no instructions were given by the cabin crew leaving passengers to figure things out on their own. It took another 2.5 hours for ground staff to issue us hotel vouchers. Some toilets were non-functional on the flight from Istanbul to Dhaka on 19 December. All crew members on the flight from Istanbul to Dhaka and back appeared to be Turkish and spoke very basic English. Plus points: Staff of Turkish airlines in Dhaka were most professional and courteous and did their best to attend to the needs of passengers. Food was decent. Overall - a very lousy experience. There is a major difference in the quality of service (old planes no in-flight entertainment rude/unprofessional service) on the flight to/from Dhaka-Istanbul compared to flights to/from Istanbul-Geneva.

TK34 from Houston to Istanbul with friends. First time with Turkish and we were very satisfied. Seats were comfortable and the service was good. This trip would have been perfect however on the return to Houston the last meal before landing was not fresh I got rock hard dried out pasta. The way they handled this was a disappointment.

JFK-Istanbul-Bangkok. While the crew were not overwhelmingly friendly they did their jobs efficiently and mostly with smiles. What sets Turkish Airlines apart besides their phenomenal lounge at the Istanbul Airport is the quality and quantity of the food that they serve on board. Whereas on most other airlines you get a choice of perhaps 3 different appetizers to choose from on Turkish Airlines they have a whole trolley filled with different Turkish appetizers from you to select. You can try as many as you want. The same logic holds true for desserts. You had perhaps 10 different options to choose from. The seats on both flights were not of the "lie flat" variety but were comfortable nonetheless. My only true complaint dealt with the cabin temperature. The crew kept the temperature fairly warm on both flights. I did ask one of the attendants to lower the temperature on the flight to Istanbul which she did. But in about an hour or two later the temperature was warm again. Offerings in the amenity kits provided were generous and the cabins and rest rooms were kept fairly clean throughout both flights. Lastly it really is a bit comical to see one or two of the flight attendants dressed up as chefs given that none of the food is prepared on board.

TK 713 Dhaka - Istanbul Dec 13 2013 and TK 712 Istanbul - Dhaka Jan 9 2014. The airline is turning from slight above average to a complete disaster on their Dhaka bound flights. Now they are using their oldest A330-203 with no inflight entertainment at all. Seats are sometimes broken. Even the last resort of comfort the reading lights are not working or wrongly wired and therefore useless or really annoying. FAs are trying to cope with it but you can see that it even annoys them to work on a plane like this. They will even wake you up in the middle of the night to serve breakfast when everybody was sleeping. When I got shook awake despite having a sleeping mask on and questioned them they said it is normal for them to serve at this time as it was morning in Istanbul (5 hours away). Dhaka is not an easy destination but Turkish is doing everything to make it the worst for the average passenger. In winter when there is morning fog in Dhaka Turkish is the only carrier that does not dare to change their flight schedule like Emirates or Qatar but prefers to have their flights delayed by 5 hours without prior notification. It had now happened 3 times travelling from Dhaka or Istanbul. Only positive thing is the quality of the food which is usually good and tasty and drinks policy. Nevertheless this was my last flight with them after I was a loyal traveller due to affordable price.

BKK-SGN. Very disappointed upon a first good impression that did not last: Aircraft 777-300 were old and worn. Staff pretend to be kind but were just assuming they could speak English. Basically no food on board and a very very poor cold sandwiched was made from remnants from the previous leg flown. Horrible. The 2 staff dressed as cooks were a joke: apart from clothes not clean they were just pretending and no foods were ever cooked or made for the flight. Could not get additional food. They told me that the cheese was spoiled by heat from the previous trip. An FA agreed to offer me anyway but never came to me again. The mayonnaise in the sandwich were not good and too much. After hard negotiations got a glass of champagne but no info of provenance. Menu cards were wishful thinking. Seats worn and torn arranged in herring pattern poorly arranged and most provided no view. No earphones provided. No travel kit no magazines no papers nothing of anything! Seat pockets were empty except for air-sick bags and safety/emergency info card. Staff kept away from cabin as they had nothing to offer. At least they admitted that they had ran short of supplies. We were then forced seated as they announced we were to land soon. That gave them excuse for further denials of drinks and snacks and food. I was allowed to try their ancient 1st class and was impressed by the very old design and spacious cabin with 4 windows at a seat. The cabin was closed for service however as only business class is sold. Give only score 3 out of 10: two for being on time and one for an FA for being honest enough to admit food crises on board.

Flight from MUC to IST. We left on time but when we reached IST we had to wait about 25 mins on the airfield. The crew were very unfriendly without saying 'hello' on entering the plane. Shortly after take off we got Turkish Delights then nothing more for 1.5 hrs. According to the menu we had the choice of two meals but when staff arrived at my row there was no choice. The meal was cold drinks and meal served together.

KTM-IST-LHR 28/12/2013. A330-300 flight from KTM was delayed around 5 hours. Not much information given apart from aircraft was circling above probably due to fog but other flights although smaller jets landed up to 2 hours earlier. On board aircraft had no personal screens and on take off the Captain announced there would be no IFE with no reason given. Transit at IST should have been 6 hours but due to the delay we had a 1 hour transfer so a rush to the departure gate. Flight to LHR arrived a half hour early but checked in baggage was left in IST. This was delivered on the next flight and delivered by courier the next day.

On Jan 17th we went from DXB to IST. This flight was awful. Normally they have quite a lot space in economy class but not in this Boeing we really had to squeeze ourselves between the seat rows! Also they had no control over the hand luggage. Passengers came with really large bags and cases which that were not at all suitable to be stored in the cabin. When the lockers were full some passengers started arguing. This was chaos! Until this point we had always been satisfied with THY but this time we were disappointed. The connecting flight from IST to LEJ as well as the onward flights some days ago were much better.