Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

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Stij
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Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Stij »

Good afternoon,

does anybody have experiences flying TK on long haul? I'm considering flying them with my family BRU-IST-CPT-IST-BRU as the fares are very good.

LH would be a more expensive alternative by 600€ a person.
AF is as expensive as LH, but 10 abreast in a 777.
KL's prices are of the scale and 10 abreast in a 777.
BA's prices are of the scale.
Qatar has very good fares and connections as well, but detour is longer and 9 abreast in a 787.
Emirates doesn't have a good schedule and 10 abreast in a 777.

Kind regards,

Stij

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Established02
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Established02 »

In 2012 I had a good experience flying TK to the Far East with an A330.

I would not hesitate to fly with them again.

The only minor point was perhaps the transfer experience in IST. Everything went fine, but at that time IST was not necessarily the most exciting place to make a transfer.

Stij
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Stij »

Thank-you for your feedback!!!

When transferring with a 2,5 and a 4 year old, a bar of some sort and a toilet is enough for a 3 hour transfer! ;-)
We would fly Y.
IST-CPT would be non-stop and our transfer times would around 3:00.
We would fly their A330-200's.

Cheers,

Stij

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sn26567
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by sn26567 »

I share your reluctance to fly a 777 with 10-abreast seating. The A330 is by far a much better choice.

My experience with TK is limited to BRU-IST, and on both ways it was a nice experience (on A32S aircraft).
André
ex Sabena #26567

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cathay belgium
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by cathay belgium »

Hi,

Flew AMS-IST-KUL two years ago with A343...
Great food,legroom,super service... won't hesistate to fly them again anytime!
( BTW I do same thing again this summer in the same A333... )
Big minor thing is IST, easy transfer but two three hours are long ! when you are in a very very busy airport , airport is too small, too less seats so people on the floor everywhere,... even at night and disgusting toilets.... the TK service and flights are really good value but airport transfer is hell..
The fare and service will decide your options...
If LH is same price go LH ! FRA is much better with kids of that age for transfer, service is just a bit less... with children of that age and that fare I wouldn't hesistate...

CXB
New types flown 2022.. A339

b-west

Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by b-west »

I would personally go out of my way not to have to fly them. Ataturk is horribly over crowded, with frequent delays.

People rave about their food, but I don't find it all that special. More often than not I have experienced, in business as in economy, crews that are disinterested and dirty aircraft.

And there have been a bit too many incidents recently with their aircraft making me doubt their overall safety.

Their fleet is a hotchpotch of different seats. Sometimes you have great new cabins... And sometimes you get old seats with no IFE and limited legroom.

I've also noticed that you shouldn't hope for much support when things go wrong.

On the plus side, they offer very attractive fares and their lounge in Istanbul is top.

All in all, much bling bling.

Stij
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Stij »

And we'll testdrive TK tomorrow!

BRU-IST-ADB-SAW-BRU!

BRU-IST should be an A330-200!

Cheers,

Stij

b-west

Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by b-west »

Good luck...

OO-ITR
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by OO-ITR »

I flew with TK to SIN in Y class a couple of years ago. Service was nice and also received an amenity kit, legroom was insufficient...

Flew twice to IST, first time was horrible, both on in- and outbound flight. Crew with attitude and the flight was delayed several hours. The reason according to TK was bad weather conditions (other aircraft were arriving and leaving next to us...). Afterwards we found out (when we deboarded to wait for another crew because they were over duty time) that the aircraft had a technical problem...

Stij
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Stij »

I hope my experience will be better!

Cheers,

Stij

Homo Aeroportus
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Homo Aeroportus »

Hi Stij,

As you will travel with family I suppose you will prefer centre seats. I suggest you avoid Row 33 which is the last having four seats, the next is reduced to three, and Pax/crew coming from the back tend to bump into "your" seat which protrudes into the aisle.
During a +10h flight, it tends to become slightly annoying after a while...

While at it, could you please see which of 33 or 34 (A or K) is the one with extra legroom? This is the bench that is rotated to cope with the stretch of the fuselage. Forgot to note which is the good pick on TK and I will fly with them next month.
Thanks and enjoy your flight !

H.A.

Stij
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Stij »

Homo Aeroportus wrote:Hi Stij,

While at it, could you please see which of 33 or 34 (A or K) is the one with extra legroom? This is the bench that is rotated to cope with the stretch of the fuselage. Forgot to note which is the good pick on TK and I will fly with them next month.
Thanks and enjoy your flight !

H.A.
Hi Homo Aeroportus,

My flight was 22/3... and of course... I never flew...
But tomorrow I will and I'll let you know whether it's 33 or 34.. it you haven't found out in the mean time..

Cheers,

Stij

eurojet
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by eurojet »

I fly TK regularly to Central Aia (Tbilis, Baku, Almaty, Tashkent). Now that they have a direct to LUX I do have a wide range of connections in the region I do business. I have flown nearly all their planes in Y and C. Onbaord service is a hit or miss. Their catering is very repititive and crew attitude on average is mediocre. Planes in general are new, comfortable and inflight entertainment ok (although with tablets why still give it so much importance). My biggest issue is istanul airport. As stated before: 24 hours overcrowded, no place to sit, very dirty toilets, too warm due to deficient airco, transport with buses, long queues at security. transfer shouldhave at least 2 hours to make it safe to get your tranfsfer. Catering at airport not appealing. Additionally, there is an inherent security issue with flying through IST. Alone I would do it, with 2 young children i would go for LH wihout any second thoughts.... Good luck ...

convair
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by convair »

Stij,

Not directly related to your flights but, if you have the opportunity, try their Business Lounge in Istambul; it's really gorgeous.

Stij
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Stij »

eurojet wrote:Alone I would do it, with 2 young children i would go for LH wihout any second thoughts.... Good luck ...
I know, but 600€ x 4 = 2400€...

Cheers,

Stij

Flanker2
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Flanker2 »

So how was your TK experience?

I've flown TK many times this year including a free upgrade to C, on error fares that I booked a while ago.

I'm not impressed by their economy offering and even less by their C offering (relatively speaking).
I officially don't understand people who pay tons of money to fly C, even less companies who let their staff travel C, regardless of what they're travelling for. At least, that's how TK's C class made me feel about their C class.
On my C-class seat, the tray table was stuck and couldn't be set up, so I had to sit in the empty seat next to mine to have my meals. The meals were served at inconvenient moments and the food was not of the kind that you'd expect in C. The cabin crew were ok but not exceptional.

I was lucky to have access to the showers in the TK lounge in IST on one of my lay-overs, because there's usually a 4 to 5 hour wait. The shower was not even well-cleaned nor well-designed and while resting in the massage area at 5am after asking permission, as it's the only place where you can lay flat in that huge lounge (given rooms ar ereserved for looooong lay-overs), I was forced to move by rude staff at the shift change, as they were going to start massaging.
It's easy to build a bling bling lounge that has a great appearance, because you only have to build it once. The hard part is to impress customers with the daily services in the lounge and there TK invests no efforts. Overall, I'd rather be in a lounge where no money was invested in the design, but the daily services are great.

TK and IST deserve credit though for restarting their operations just a day after the terrorists attacks in IST.
Were it not for that, I would have gotten stuck in Asia, my flight was the next day.
So a big bravo for that.

Stij
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Stij »

Flanker, I ll post my experiences when I m home again... it s difficult on a smartphone.

I should have been home by now but because IST deals better with terrorist attacks than with snow, we re stuck in
CPT untill Thursday... I admit there are worse places...

Stij

Stij
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Trip Report: BRU - IST - CPT - IST - BRU on TK

Post by Stij »

First of all, thanks for your support during our prolonged stay in South Africa.

Already a year ago, we knew we would spend our winter holidays in Cape town. We, that’s 3 families of 2 adults and 2 children. I kept a close eye on the options and the prices looked as follow, all with good connections:

BA 2356€
LH 1333€
TK 760€

Because of the major price difference TK was chosen and a befriended travel agent booked us a group ticket. A major advantage on TK was as well the 30kg baggage allowance and that golf bags travel for free as 3 people of our party wanted to take their golf clubs with them.

A couple of months ahead, a pre seating was done: so each family would have a row of 4 persons.

The evening before, I checked us in, without the passport details as TK’s system is not the easiest one.

We arrived 2:15 ahead of departure at Brussels Airport and went to the check-in counter. The queue was very long, but we had time, so no worries.

I think we waited for about 45 min before it was our turn and I gave the 12 passports + 6 birth certificates to the check-in agent. He was… a bit in shock by the number of pax. I could understand this:

12 pax on 2 flights
12 passports to check
6 birth certificates to check
11 pieces of normal luggage
3 golf bags
3 strollers of which 1 in 2 pieces

We were a nightmare… especially since he wasn’t very familiar with TK’s system or was new to the job, I don’t know.

Bit by bit he managed and we were on our way to security… 45min later we were done and TK’s station manager was already very nervous. He advised us to check in in smaller groups next time.

Of we went to security for the family line, all the children got a little booklet… nice thought! After that to border control, manual of course as we had children with us, then a nice long stroll thru the new shopping mall… all this with 6 children, strollers and hand luggage meant they were closing the gate as we arrived. No worries, we were still allowed on board: check the 12 passports and 6 birth certificates again and as we walked thru the aisle, the captain informed us we missed our slot but we would get a new one 15 min later.

Flight: Turkish Airlines TK1940
Date : 23 dec 2016
Aircraft: A321
From-To: Brussels – Istanbul (BRU-IST)
Seat: 22D
Scheduled Time of Departure: 18:25
Scheduled Time of Arrival: 23:55
Scheduled Duration of the flight: 3:30


We settled in for the flight and gave our son of 2.5 years his Ipad… without headphones of course.

We pushed back, a funny safety video was shown in English and Turkish.

As we were taxiing, a lady on row 21 (emergency exit) talked to a female cabin attendant. The cabin attendant approached as and asked if the Ipad could be switched of. Can be that it’s TK standard procedure, but I believe at the request of the lady of the row before us.

So I gently asked that lady to put her seat in the upright position for takeoff… as our cabin attendant didn’t bother about this, neither about the foldable in seat screens that were working during take-off on the exit row nor about arm rests or window blinds.

We took 25R for take-off and off we were to Istanbul.

There was a nice, working IFE system with a large selection of everything and then the meal service started. It’s unbelievable how slow it went. All the cabin attendants running around but nothing happened. Anyhow, my kids got a pasta and I the köftes and I must say: the food on TK is excellent.

Our approach into IST was pretty rough and as we approached the runway: you guessed it: Missed approach procedure and full power for a bonus flight. The captain explained it was due to windshear. 15 min later a second attempt: the good one.

We parked remotely and were to be bussed to the airport. Our strollers were waiting under the wing: nice thought as the rain was pouring down on us. There was no security check for us and we could go straight to the departure level. We went for a snack and a beer to kill the time, IST was nice: busy, but not overcrowded. They can however improve the signaling: it’s really not clear.

When boarding as announced we went to the gate. We were to be bussed again.

Flight: Turkish Airlines TK44
Date : 24 dec 2016
Aircraft: A333
From-To: Istanbul - Cape town(IST-CPT)
Seat: 26D
Scheduled Time of Departure: 2:45
Scheduled Time of Arrival: 13:00
Scheduled Duration of the flight: 11:15


All boarding passes, 12 passports and 6 birth certificates were checked again and surprise: 1 boarding pass didn’t work: they changed the seat of a 9 year old boy in our group and put him… alone… 6 rows behind our group! Of course his mother reacted and the gate agent’s response was “relax, they’ll fix it in the plane!”. When we arrived on board there was a lady sitting on the boy’s original seat and when we asked the lady if she would want to switch she immediately responded “with all pleaser, my family is sitting there, I don’t understand why they switched it.” I guess we’ll never know either.

Anyhow, we settled in again for the night. Our children got books and a nice amenity kit, we only got the amenity kit. Very nice though.

Next dinner was served, and a very large one as well for a 2:40 departure. The chicken was well very good, the little salads and cheeses as well…

The service however wasn’t friendly at all, and when you asked something… they just forgot…

We tried to get some sleep, in spite of our 2.5 and 4 year old. The seta pitch at TK isn’t generous, but OK. I don’t get why they install a foot support: it further limits the space for my legs. IFE was excellent, however the front view camera’s didn’t work.

In the morning we received a very nice breakfast with an omelet, fruit, vegetables and cheeses.

It was a rather uneventful flight, but as we approached CPT, I noticed the passengers on the exit row were still watching their unfolded IFE screens… This time however the cabin attendant told them to fold it. Then the purser (I think) came along and pointed out to the cabin attendant that there were still blankets in the exit row. He unbuckled, the purser left and he rebuckled. Problem solved.

We touched down a few minutes late in CPT, parked at a gate. The strollers to be found on the belt GRRRRRRRRRRRR. Oh well, 2 weeks of holidays in the sun, what can go wrong?

A lot!

Forrest fires around the estate! Huey’s Puma’s and Air tractors were flying in and out for 7 days when the wind wasn’t to powerful.

And a snow storm in IST. The evening before I had checked us in. The incoming flight was announced to depart and arrive with a 3 hour delay. This was OK as it stayed on the ground in CPT for 5 hours, so without too much worries I went to bed.

In the morning I checked immediately and you guessed it: the flight never left, so our flight was canceled as well.

The situation was as follows:
- 12 people in 1 booking
- The first weekend after New-Year’s eve, so all flights are fully booked
- TK isn’t an EU airline and nor CPT nor IST, so the EU regulations are very hard to enforce.
- A snow storm isn’t TK’s fault.
In short: TK would not rebook us on other companies.

I called my travel agent who said he couldn’t reach anyone at TK nor had he received a rebooking, he advised me to call TK in CPT.

I did… and to my surprise, they picked up the phone within 5 seconds, I guess not many knew already they were stuck.

First the lady told me there were no options with other airliners (true, but also not as they didn’t have the intention to do so anyway), she said as well that they didn’t know how long the situation would last in IST and finally she said I had to call my travel agent.

I responded that I did and that he couldn’t reach TK in Belgium nor Turkey.

She answered that she couldn’t do anything before Monday.

I responded that by Monday all options would be gone and that we would stuck in CPT for a long time.

Miracle, all of a sudden she could rebook us for Thursday. I accepted this to have “something”. We received new tickets by mail. However, I noted our booking was now in 2 bookings: 7 persons on the original and 5 on a new.

My travel agent and I agreed that on Monday we would try to improve this. It turned out this was impossible, so a new seating was asked and obtained for these flights.

Well, being stuck for 5 days isn’t fun and a of of arrangements had to be made for school and work, but there are worse places to be stuck in then in Paradise.

The evening before I try to check us in online and… one of the bookings can’t be checked in as it was “cancelled”. I alerted my travel agent, he tried to reach TK in Belgium: no answer, he called TK in IST and received a confirmation that indeed the booking was cancelled, she couldn’t tell why, nor could she reinstate it. He mailed TK in Belgium and took an option on Emirates (650€ one way last minute) to be sure we could depart the next day. I swear, I didn’t sleep well that night.
Next morning our booking was reinstated, but the seating arrangements were gone of course and in the meantime a lot of seats were already taken. I checked us in and the only I could get was 2 time 2 middle seat.. in the middle 10 rows apart.

Normally this wouldn’t be a major problem, but my 2.5 year old son has a major heart problem and we always have a defibrillator with us. If something goes wrong… his chances are better when both parents are around.

I remain convinced our reservation was deleted on purpose as the flight was overbooked. If I wouldn’t have checked-in, I would have arrived at the airport, done the queue, the check-in agent would have said he couldn’t find my booking, I would have to go to TK’s office, they would look into it, explain it was not their fault, that somebody else did it, but that it wasn’t a problem as they had seats the next day…

We arrived 3 hours ahead of departure at CPT airport, and because of the complexity in BRU and BRU’s TK’s station manager, we decided to check in by family. It didn’t help much for the complexity as we were in 2 bookings and the gate agents couldn’t understand were the other passenger from the booking was.

Anyhow I asked to be seated together with my family and explained my son’s medical condition. Of course the normal excuse came that the flight was full. Now I will spare you the whole conversation. It ended with a phone call to TK in which I explained my son’s condition and that if we were seated apart and something would go wrong, I would sue Turkish over this. Immediately after we were reseated together.

Flight: Turkish Airlines TK45
Date : 12 JAN 2017
Aircraft: A333
From-To: Cape town – Istanbul (CPT-IST)
Seat: 29G
Scheduled Time of Departure: 17:50
Scheduled Time of Arrival: 5:50
Scheduled Duration of the flight: 11:00


Punctual boarding and departure, front view camera’s working on the IFE. Again, a lovely dinner: grilled chicken this time, with two salads.

3 hours before landing (ETA 5:50) they started serving breakfast, so t 3:00am Istanbul time. It was a good breakfast, same as outbound, but why so early??? After this, they even dimmed the cabin lights again, but sleep was over. Fortunately not my children’s.

I must say the cabin crew was more strict security wise, more friendly and remembered what we asked.

We landed punctual in IST, docked at a gate and disembarked.

This time we had to pass security, followed the signs and ended up in a looooong queue. After waiting for 5 min a security agent came and told us to go the other way. We did and found a much larger checkpoint without a queue… Strange…

After giving our children breakfast we went to the gate area for our last flight.

Flight: Turkish Airlines TK1937
Date : 13 JAN 2017
Aircraft: A321
From-To: Istanbul – Brussels (IST-BRU)
Seat: 27D
Scheduled Time of Departure: 9:05
Scheduled Time of Arrival: 10:45
Scheduled Duration of the flight: 3:40


Again: punctual, nice IFE and food (scrambled eggs instead of an omelette this time) and also a better crew than outbound.

We touched down on 25L and parked at the B pier. Some strollers made it at the gate, ours would show up at the belt… GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR…

Our bags were on the belt when we arrived there and the strollers and golf clubs shortly after.

Conclusion:

Yes, the food is delicious, yes IFE is excellent, yeas, the planes are recent, yes the fares are good…

However, never ever again will I fly TK again with my family. I don’t care about the 5 day delay: this can happen.

But the fact that my reservation got cancelled without any (official) reason, the switching of the seats of a 9 year old boy without any reason and the non-enforcement of safety rules by certain crews made me decide I’ll pay 600€ extra per person to LH for lesser good food and IFE.

Edit: 25L to 25R

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sn26567
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Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by sn26567 »

What an gruelling experience! Thanks for all the details. I guess that long-lasting snow falls in IST have completely disorganised the TK system for many days. Good that you could take that with a grain of philosophy.

Just one question (all the rest was very clear): did your first flight really take off from 25L in BRU? That's not very common!
André
ex Sabena #26567

Stij
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Location: Belgium

Re: Experiences on Turkish Airlines long haul?

Post by Stij »

sn26567 wrote: 16 Jan 2017, 12:51 What an gruelling experience! Thanks for all the details. I guess that long-lasting snow falls in IST have completely disorganised the TK system for many days. Good that you could take that with a grain of philosophy.

Just one question (all the rest was very clear): did your first flight really take off from 25L in BRU? That's not very common!
Thanks Andre!

Oops... 25R of course... typo! ;-)

As I wrote I understand the snow disrupts the system and I understand a delay of 5 days, inconvenient, but it happens, fine... It's how it was handled that bothers me a lot...

Cheers,

Stij

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