Turkish Airlines

We are a family of four. I travelled with Turkish Airlines Doha-Istanbul-Doha and booked seats online on row 6 on both flights. On check-in for the return flight TK-0782 on Sept. 2nd I was given seats on row 21! I talked to the check-in supervisor and she told me that the plane had been changed and the seat numbers are rearranged by the system and she can not do any thing about this. On boarding I was surprised to find that row 21 is a 4-seats row beside the exit with smaller tight and uncomfortable seats. There were some other passengers complaining about their seating as well. I talked to the flight dependant in-charge and he responded in an impolite way and giving instructions to return to our seats. I told him that I will report this online. He responded: "Please do" in a way that reflects "I don't care"! It was a 4-hour flight and one of my terrible experiences in air travel. It was my first with Turkish Airlines and will be the last.

Flight TK 69 / September 3 from Bangkok to Istanbul in First Class (Seat 2D). The worst experience I've ever made and I fly apprx. 450000 miles/year. The cabin was not cleaned staff and the service very rude. We were asked to fill in a form for the choice of breakfast before take off but the breakfast was not served for whatever reasons. The staff were sitting in the galley laughing and chatting instead. I asked for a coffee one hour before landing and the answer from the FA was: the coffee machine is already switched off. I will definitely avoid flying Turkish Airlines in the future.

IST-KUL and SIN-IST. Both flights were a nightmare. 2 hour delay for technical problems for both flights. Bad management at the gate with no one providing useful information. The crew were absent during both flights. On a 10 hour flight you should expect to have some basic services on board. Nothing at all apart from dinner after takeoff and breakfast before landing. Food quality was pretty poor. I expected more. Great business lounge in Ataturk airport.

Traveling from Boston on August 22 the flight was scheduled for 11.45 we waited several hours without knowing what was going on until. At 3 am they told us the flight was cancelled and we had to recollect our baggage. They sent passengers to different hotels some as far as state of New Hampshire. Crammed us to the bus while some passengers did not have a seat and there was not enough luggage space. On August 23 they told us the flight will leave at 6 pm. After we got back to the terminal at 3 o’clock the flight was delayed again with no clear reason given. We were waiting not knowing if we are actually going to fly. While complaining to them they would respond that there was going to be somebody at Istanbul airport waiting for us to take care of all complaints but when we arrived in Istanbul we could not find anybody. When calling the airline regarding the issue the representatives would say“our system shows that there was no flight cancellation on August 22”and we had to convince them that the flight was actually cancelled and there were hundreds of people on that flight and some missed the collecting flights and hotel reservations. On my way back to Boston although I purchased my ticket 5 months earlier they changed my status to Standby without notifying me and I had to wait until all the passengers get on board and hope for open seat. This was the worst travel experience I have had I would not travel with them again.

I was a passenger on flight TK 1049 from Varna to Istanbul on 12th August 2014. This same flight had been delayed by two hours causing me to miss my subsequent Emirates flights to Dubai and Singapore. This was my third flight with this company and I wouldn't go for TA again. The most uncomfortable seats ever. Awful customer service zero co-operation poor English! Turkish left me stranded at Ataturk Airport for more than 12 hours.

September 3rd 2014 I had a trip from Lyon-France to Beirut-Lebanon via Istanbul. We landed in Ataturk airport - Istanbul at 10 pm and our flight to Beirut was supposed to take off at 1.45 am. At 12.10 am people were waiting at gate 208 that showed on the screen for boarding. After 10 minutes the gate number changed to 307 so all travelers took their luggage and changed gates. Shortly after on the screen they put that the flight was delayed 4.5 hrs and it would take off at 6.15am. No one from the airline came to talk to us to apologize to explain the delay. Nothing. At 4 am the gate number appeared on the screen. There were people with children and babies old people and tired people who were running from one gate to another. Furthermore the plane was supposed to leave at 6.15 am but boarding started at 6.10. The flight took off at 7. The captain and the cabin crew didn't even apologize for the long delay. We arrived to Beirut at 8.30 am. I don't recommend Turkish Airlines.

LAX-IST-DNZ-IST-LAX. Another wonderful journey with TK. The food continues to be astounding and the service level is excellent. At first I thought the "candlelight" service using small battery powered flickering candles on the tray was a bit hokey. But is produces a very nice effect and my seatmate asked if he could have mine as he uses them on his boat. The difference between US carriers and TK is especially evident on the short flights were a full hot breakfast was served and the seat had multiple adjustments for comfort-far from the US offerings in F domestically. And the Istanbul lounge continues to be a delight.

IST-BHX. I have flown on Turkish Airlines about 60 times over the last 18 months. I have noticed a general decline in the quality of service. This was very marked on my last flight from Istanbul to Birmingham. The seat I has was almost worn out and very uncomfortable. The cabin service was poor. They offer a choice of meals but do carry enough of the options to provide choice to all. On this occasion they had given all the meals out of my preferred option after only 4 or 5 rows of passengers. They did not offer any option. During the 4.5 hour flight I was offered one drink and my calls for another were ignored.

HKG-IST-OSL-IST-PEK. Economy Comfort on the long-haul legs are superb and did actually not cost much more than a standard economy ticket when you book 5-6 months in advance. TK are superb and in many ways in a different league when it comes to their food. Every meal I ate everything something which happens rarely for me. The entertainment system is excellent and the FAs are good. The only negative thing is information flow; their IT systems and definitely not up-to-date and it was very frustrating flying OSL-IST not knowing if we would make the PEK flight. Luckily we did and I was even upgraded to 1A on a beautiful B77W. Still I would enjoy not having concerns the 9 hours previously.

BUD-IST-KIX (Istanbul-Osaka) and return. Short range A320 and B737-800 were a bit tighter seated but the A332 on IST-KIX and back was very spacious. We took row 32 or so (do your online check-in 24 hrs in advance) where config is only 2x3x2 - legroom was great. Seat comfort for my 90 kgs also acceptable but a bit high armrests. Food was plentiful and excellent in quality with metal cutlery (long gone since the '90-s from most fights unfortunately) even trilingual menu cards were provided on all legs with 2 choices on the long range ones. Both long ranges being (mostly) night fights cabin attendants got all window blinds closed after service so all pax could sleep rather well - even on the backwards leg where plane was 90% loaded. Cabin crew were very attentive and thorough - what I rate the most is that they checked all seat belts and seat tray window blind etc. before landing and got everything arranged right. Toilets were kept clean in the aft cabin all the way through free beverages and snack stocks were kept available constantly. Inflight entertainment runs (obviously) on some Android old op.sys tablets integrated into seat backs and mine was stuck somehow though but did not ask for assistance. Flights were punctual (no delays) and crew were smiling.