Turkish Airlines

Traveling from St Petersburg to Istanbul in business class - very disappointed the business class on this ageing 757-800 was no better than economy class. The seats were economy did not recline more than 15 degrees. The centre seat of an economy row was made inactive by folding it down. Hence calling the two seat arrangement business class. Extra leg room was there but was of no use as the footrest was fixed. How can they be called the best airline in Europe when they do not provide the basic requirement for a business class seat. Reminded me of an airplane well past it's prime.

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.

My wife and I were booked on TK961 Kyrenia (Ercan)/Istanbul connection to TK1969 Istanbul/Birmingham UK 1st September. Checked in at Ercan baggage through to UK but no boarding/seating passes for Istanbul to Birmingham provided which we thought rather odd so had to go via Transit in Istanbul Airport. First flight delayed a little but as already booked in we assumed that Transit would have seats ready for us. Oh no given standby seat/pass ran to departure gate sent to aircraft only one seat (we heard staff had been given the seats available). Sent back to another Transit desk from there to the original one where we were re-booked for the next day fortunately checked in and boarding passes printed for us. 4 hours in airport at Istanbul (not a nice experience) before eventually got to hotel. Next day transfer from hotel was late arriving at hotel and little real expectancy of being on flight let alone where the luggage might be also found other UK passengers in same position. Through all check in etc to boarding gate chaos. Why say area A B C etc if not using it. Mad queue load of young kids and parents. On board kids seemed to go to wherever they wanted as did many adults. We got our seats Ok and stayed put. Nightmare for crew many passengers simply refusing to move to allocated seat even though plane was full. I cannot imagine a less organised operation and it seemed this was a regular occurrence and indeed whilst waiting in boarding queue met other UK passengers who had been given STBY cards even though they were at airport very early and had booked several months earlier - it seems the practice to overbook then bump off UK passengers. We will never again use them.

TK66M IST-SIN on 31/8/14 - The THY lounge at Istanbul Airport whilst impressive was very busy and noisy. It is not a place to relax. Already the lounge is starting to show signs of wear and tear despite opening only recently. The entry gates were mostly broken and barricaded off. On this visit the hot food had all but disappeared which was disappointing prior to taking a 1am flight to Singapore. Flight was OK cabin crew not very interested in passengers and disappeared for most of the flight. The flat beds on this aircraft seemed quite hard and was difficult to get comfortable and to sleep. The English spoken by the captain and flight attendants was below average for an international airline. Passengers were also wandering around the cabin whilst the aircraft was taxiing without any intervention from cabin crew.

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.