Turkish Airlines

This was the second time I flew Turkish Airlines. The first time which was a coule of years ago was not great but no complains. This time it was bad. The seat did not recline and the movie I was watching was cut off mid-viewing. By the time they were able to rectify it, we were ready to land. Upon arrival, the luggage took forever to come out. Customarily, first and business class luggages should come out earlier. There were no difference on the domestic leg between Isranbul and Kayseri. Turkish Arlines need to renew their fleet.

I had heard a lot of good things about Turkish Airlines but was very disappointed. The plane was old and the cabin and seat area shabby and poorly maintained. The cabin staff spoke no German (on a route from Germany to Turkey) and little English, misunderstanding simple requests. Attendant call buttons went unanswered on several occasions. The food was of poor quality and only Turkish wine or French wine was offered. What the lady dressed as a chef was doing I really don't know.

The Turkish Airlines counter staff are not knowledgeable about being able to do anything. I've asked if it was possible to change to an earlier flight and was told she didn't know how to do that. I have to travel with a 30kg box of test equipment and they do not know what to do with it. I had to go to the Turkish Airlines sales counter and check in counter 4 times before they got it right. If you ever have to call them, be sure to block off half your day to be on the phone and the other half to go to the sales office and half the next day to get it right. Terrible airline!

From boarding to deplaning, this is a very good airline. From reservations to boarding however, this is a poor airline. Shortcomings include a very weak online reservation system in that I could not select seats. I had to call three times to select seats - unacceptable! When you arrive or depart from IST, you may be transported to/from your plane via a bus. Upon arrival or deplaning of your aircraft, you have to navigate a flight of stairs exposed to the weather. Despite what airline staff tell you, if you are connecting through IST, you must leave yourself a bare minimum of 90 minutes to make your flight. Due to the possible great distance from one gate to another, at least 15 minutes transit time from your plane to the gate via their bus system, the lack of people movers, and the overcrowding of the airport itself, you risk missing your flight if you allow less than 90 minutes between flights. TK does not use a rope system similar to the one you encounter passing through security, at their check in desk and you can wait a very long time for what should be a quick process. Personal experience with connecting from arrival until I reached Gate 226 for my connecting flight (very last gate in the airport) took 50 minutes and I was allotted 60 minutes. Thus, I had difficulty finding a place for my one carry on piece.

We have been travelling Turkish Airlines business class from New York/Boston to Dhaka via Istanbul for the last three years. The timing suits us, and service had also been reasonably good. But the service had been going downhill for the last year. You don’t get a boarding bridge at Istanbul, the airport is so chaotic. On June 4, 2015 we were scheduled to fly from Boston. We had fully confirmed business class tickets. When we arrived at the airport, we saw an incredible scene. The passengers and check in crew were shouting at each other, very close to an all out fight. Apparently, the airline had overbooked the business class and was unable to provide seats to us all. It got very ugly and the Turkish Airlines supervisor was trying to persuade passengers to either fly economy class or fly the next day. Very ugly situation because so many people were involved. They offer discount online and overbook, hoping there will be some last minute cancellation. When there are no cancellations, people are asked to fly economy or fly next day. Apparently, these happen quite frequently in Boston. Anyway, to get to my experience, we did not get our seat. They offered us hotel and flew us the next day. Faced with no alternative, we had to accept their offer and we flew the next day. Turkish Airlines also promised token compensation of money back, and double mileage earned. If overselling is truly their business model, obviously we need to look for alternative airline.

We flew Turkish Airlines from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt with a layover in Istanbul. First the service on the flight was terrible, I accidentally spilled hot coffee on my wife, the stewardess noticed it but couldnt care less (although it was burning hot, and my wife yelled), when I asked her for a napkin to clean the spilled coffee, she handed me 1 napkin without even asking if there is anything else she could do to help. That was only the beginning, due to late departure from Tel Aviv, we arrived late to Istnbul just to see our connecting flight push out of the gate (15 minutes earlier to take off time), we went to the Turkish Airlines desk, who told us we need to go to the transfer desk. When we got to the transfer desk, the clerk told us that we have been rebooked to a flight at 04:10, which meat that we had 9 hours wait. when I asked if they will give us a hotel room till the flight, we were informed that only if the delay is over 10 hours do they supply a hotel room. I asked to speak to a manager on duty to explain that the wait is 9 hours at night, we went to speak to a staff member but after letting us wait for 10 minutes he informed us that he is not a manager, and if we want to speak to one we need to go through immigration to the Turkish Airlines desk they will help us. We did so only to realize that there was nothing there. We needed to go back through immigration and went again to the desk to try to understand what we are expected to do in the 9 hours wait. The clerk informed us that we will be able to go to the Millennium lounge but only from 22:00 and until then we can get a complimentary meal from any restaurant in the terminal - which turned out to be false, only Burger king accepted the voucher for a lousy restricted basic meal. I can understand delays and re-booking, but I expect the airline will take responsibility for the delay and supply passengers a reasonable solution for their malfunction.

The Doha to Istanbul flight was delayed and we missed our connecting Paris flight. No proper guidance for transit passengers, we all were left on God mercy. At last we managed to get to the Turkish Airlines counter, but was shocked to see many victims already fighting for their missed flights. We got boarding for next flight after 3 hours, travelling with kids and aged mom it was very bad experience. We will never use Turkish Airlines again. While returning from Geneve to Istanbul we were issued boarding without checking our visa, which resulted in spending one night in airport before returning to Doha.

The product onboard Turkish Airlines flights is second to none. Pre-take off chocolate, menus and a hot meal with metal cutlery. The outbound meal was certainly better than the hot breakfast on the inbound, which was up there with the worst airline meal I have had. What I think really lets Turkish Airlines down is the cabin crew - while impeccably groomed, they are very robotic and lack personality which is a shame as its a great airline.

Travelled Turkish Airlines from Lisbon to Washington via Istanbul. Check in was smooth. Smiles welcome you as you enter the aircraft. The seats are comfortable and inflight entertainment has a great selection. Food was great on both flights. The Turkish Airlines lounge in Istanbul was a continuation of the great service onboard the flight. Lie-flat beds in business class were very comfortable. Crew friendly. Definitely recommend Turkish Airlines.

Turkish Airlines flight from Stockholm to Taipei via Istanbul. Turkish has a great lounge in Istanbul. Meals and drinks included on every flight in economy class, but I found the food quite boring. On the second leg my seat was broken and I could not recline it. My bag was also damaged, and received awful service in both cases. Regarding the seat, they said that I simply was wrong even though the flight attendant nor I could recline the seat.