Turkish Airlines

IAH to TLV - great flights on time. Layover in IST too long in this small airport but bearable. They served the signature Turkish Rahat Lokum (Turkish Delight) at IAH to all passengers in the lobby and gate areas. Free alcohol in economy during the flights and very nice crew - talking to customers with respect.

Dalaman to LHR no problems with the 5 am flight until IST passport control. 1 and 2 had at least 500 people queuing but because I was economy class got barred from business class fast track check so had to push in or miss the 7.55 to LHR. Got to plane with 5 mins to spare got seated and had 3 seats to myself. Just before take off captain announces a big delay and everyone had to get off. He said LHR was fog bound so a 2 hrs delay so back to departure lounge where 3 members of staff proceeded to shout out passenger names to the 200+ passengers so we could retrieve our boarding passes. This was chaos and very unprofessional. 2.5 hr wait then back on the plane where another 150 passengers appeared from nowhere to fill all seats then another 1 hour wait on the tarmac with no explanations before take off - total 3.5 hours delay with no food or drinks. It looks to me that I and the original passengers were held up for 3.5 hours waiting for the plane to fill up.

LOS-IST-TLV. One word: Terrible. B737-900 LOS-IST. No air conditioning at LOS airport and drinks are not allowed into gate. By the time you board most passengers are very thirsty. Requests for water were shrugged off with the response "later". How can you refuse water to thirsty passengers. After take off painfully slow dinner service and a small plastic cup with water served. Of course it's not enough. Again FA would not supply more water. I even went to the galley pointed at a full bottle of water and asked for some. Again I was told to return to my seat water will come later. I approached the inflight manager to complain and situation improved. Poor English by pilots and FA's couldn't understand any announcements. No soap in toilets with nothing to dry wet hands on. Smiles from the crew were out of the question. Food was ordinary can't understand where all the fuss about their food in Economy class comes from. Maybe from flights outside Africa. Flight to TLV slightly better crew all in all cant judge all flights they operate but for me it was the last time on TK.

We flew Paris to Kayseri on 30th September. Totally full flight from Paris to Istanbul. However good service and an uneventful flight. Had to move quickly to get to the domestic terminal for the flight to Kayseri. Luggage fortunately had been checked through. This flight not full and was uneventful. Quick service of a light meal as flight time just over an hour. All in all good flights.

YYZ-IST-YYZ. Turkish is inconsistent. Business class should be perfect from start to finish. Flight to IST was almost that. Return flight had rough edges. Turkish communication between lounge and gate had us waiting in the sweatbox gate long before we needed to be there. No separate boarding for Bus Class in fact we went through security after we had already cleared it-Twice! On board staff demand that blinds must be closed on a day flight. Food good wines not so great. Entertainment mediocre. Poor selection of music.

LAX to Istanbul. No problem except leg room which is rather uncomfortable if you are somewhat tall (5' 8" and my husband is 6'0") and it was very warm on the plane. Coming back what really bothered me was that going to the restroom early on in the flight the trash was full and the pump soap was empty. Someone had thrown bars of soap onto the counter. A 13 hour flight with guessing 300 people. Not very sanitary. Staff were polite and courteous. Good entertainment choices. Food average but I'm not the best judge for that. I'm not sure I would like to fly this airline again given a choice.

Toronto-Istanbul-Sarajevo. September 16th 2013. This was the first time taking Turkish Airlines and it definitely wont be the last. I was impressed with the aircraft cleanliness service food and especially free wifi on board.

Sep 25 to fly from Houston to Istanbul. We had about a 20 minute delay but we arrived on time to Istanbul. We flew using Economy and our legs were pretty cramped in there because the guy in front of us who had an exit row leaned his seat back. The food was good and also the movies they had for us to watch were fine. On the flight from Istanbul to Berlin there is a 3 hour flight and once again we are provided with food and movies. This flight is fine. On the return flight on Oct 2 going from Berlin to Istanbul was fine they served breakfast on this flight but no TV was in our seat but that was fine because we were exhausted anyway and just slept. Once we arrived at Istanbul our flight to Houston was on time as far as us getting on the plane however we then had complications. There was a 3 hour delay while on the plane before we took off. We sat in exit row this time with comfortable leg room. Our flight landed about 3 hours late but I was ok with it because it was my final destination.

Geneva-Istanbul (A319) - Istanbul-Kuala Lumpur (A340-300) on August 6th-7th 2013. Flight from Geneva to Istanbul was smooth nothing special. Flight from Istanbul to KL service-wise was flawless and seamless. Very attentive service needs were taken care of before you asked and very good food although I have had even better food on other THY flights. My real issue is with the business class seat sleeping comfort on the A340-300.I am not sure at what angle the seat reclines but it is pretty nasty I was annoyed because the ticket price was pretty high. I wonder why Turkish a forward looking airline as using the A340-300 on the IST-KL run with this seating arrangement in business class. I just hope that Turkish will either change the planes on the IST-KL run or do something about the seating in their A340-300.

I flew business class from CGK-IST-AMS overall it was a great experience but unfortunately it was not very memorable. The seat itself was great and comfortable the cabin layout was modern and clean however I found out that the cabin crew seemed to be inconsistent. They did not really interact with the passengers less smiles and seemed to lack manners. On the other side indeed there were the dedicated cabin crew who were willing to care and serve the passengers. My verdict is THY is still great airline to fly but it is not really that consistent compared to other airlines.