[FormerBA]

In 2019 I flew with TK ex Cairo to DPS with the family in business. The flights were outstanding and TK have family sharing of miles.

Little did I know they would be my last long haul flight before Covid and, as it turned out, my first after covid.

On Friday I flew JFK IST LHR in J with my better half using the miles gained on the Bali trip and $350.

Aside from the rather austere and poorly staffed and equipped Lufthansa Lounge at JFK(what is it about LH that attracts people) TK did not put a foot wrong. Every aspect of the flight was as it should have been. Great crew, beautifully served, tasty food and a comfortable lie flat (albeit 2x3x2 layout)

While it’s a long way round to travel between JFK LHR, the bonus was a good nights sleep and a lie flat to LHR from IST. Again very good food albeit without the bling and candles.

Istanbul Airport helps, stunning building, and the TK lounge is excellent.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Iseste, K1ngston, sparkyflier

[K1ngston]

I have to agree with you, we just flew SIN-IST-TLV return and the service was excellent and we had a bot of luck both longer sectors. We looked at flying the whole way in J but the on line price was $6K USD which was steep so we booked in Y. Upon arriving at Changi they offered us an upgrade on the SIN-IST leg for $800SGD which we gladly accepted and as FormerBA states the service and food was very good, albeit in an old 2-3-2 config.

The only issues were at IST the security for getting on the flight was very busy and with flights coming in from JFK, JNB and MEL and people trying to get to Israel for the Passover holidays there was Chaos and not of TKs making albeit the Turkish security agents dont have the finesse of the Israelis.

On return to SIN I went on line to check in and was offered upgrades on the IST-SIN leg for $500 SGD which effectively meant the bulk of the travel was done in J and the cost was less than half of the original quote of 6K. In both directions TK service was excellent and I have to say the staff were friendly and helpful to people with children.

I will definitely fly them again and as stated the new airport is very good even at 1am when we were there

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MIODRAG, Bullfrog, FormerBA, cwoodward

[TominScotland]

I fully agree with the positive comments about TK. As noted elsewhere, I recently flew EDI-IST-KUL-IST-MAN in Business on a variety of aircraft (321neo, 777 and 330). The soft service was very good and the food outstanding. The hard product was variable – good for the shorter hops but dated and not that comfortable on the 777, especially when very full oin the return leg from KUL. This was also my first time through IST and the airport is impressive. The TK lounges are spacious and the catering OK but not very exciting. I would certainly travel with them again, especially at the price on offer.

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Bullfrog, FormerBA, tomwjsimpson

[MartinJ]

As long as you don’t mind supporting the tyranny that is Erdogan’s regime and manage to forget how many people died building that shiny new airport I’m sure Turkish Airlines are a great choice.

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Bullfrog, cosmoB2012, LHRSENflyer, Frederic, DannyBoy, sparkyflier

[K1ngston]

Its funny you should mention that, when I was booking my flights, I wondered how I would be supporting Erdogan’s regime!!!!!!!!!! If we looked at things with that level of cynicism I guess we wouldn’t leave the cocoon of our houses and sit there on our sofas (making sure they weren’t made in some sweatshop in Bangladesh of course) and we would all be model citizens of the world……

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Greg, FormerBA, Bullfrog, Johnnyg, GivingupBA, Jacob

[MartynSinclair]

Pre Pandemic there were always lots of good reviews about Turkish, until there was a need to contact their customer services department. Wasn’t there a poster who took Turkish to court about some shocking service…. (I may be mistaken)…

As far as K1ngston’s comment is concerned, I do love giant salted pistachio nuts from certain parts of Iran and I have zero guilt when my supplies arrive. Neither do I have any guilt when using certain M/E airlines where human rights are also questionable…

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FormerBA, Bullfrog, K1ngston

[TominScotland]

Very valid point, MartinJ – indeed, I did think of that but where do you stop? Don’t fly Singapore because of that country’s human rights record – executing a man with an IQ of just 68 a couple of weeks ago, as Martin rightly points out, all the ME airlines, Hong Kong and Chinese airlines for similar reasons, BA and Virgin because the British Government is threatening to deport Ukranian refugees to Rwanda?????

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FormerBA, Bullfrog, MartynSinclair, K1ngston

[DannyBoy]

TominScotland, you have raised some very valid points. Where UK airlines are concerned on human rights, Virgin have previously stated they will never remove anyone again and BA have been criticised for such involvement in the past. However BA doesn’t have the manpower to do this today and in the past they have only been involved in removing ILLEGAL immigrants and routes they serve. You will find the Ukrainians are less of a risk and going straight into homes compared to those in the dinghies coming across from Calais as they are basically all undocumented young men. I don’t see Easyjet getting involved but Ryanair is a maybe as you never know.

[CathayLoyalist2]

[postquote quote=1213371]

Yes MartynSinclair, there have been posts lauding there inflight service but castigating them if things went wrong i.e. lost baggage.In my opinion the real measure of any brand is not how they perform when things go well but how do they step up when things do go wrong. By that measure sadly BA, not exclusively, is having a dreadful time at the moment. To make it worse, Doyle got the dreaded vote of confidence from the Board!!

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Frederic, cosmoB2012

[cosmoB2012]

TK is all around dandy as long as no cancellations, bad weather, heavy delays are involved. The seats in biz are also not the best if you have
someone praying next to you throughout the night, which happened to me twice. Russian groups drinking and shouting on a long distance flight all night
and constantly being supplied with Vodka and other alcohol by the crew were also not my highlights with TK in C.
Food is cute once or twice, but basically it is always the same with
not much finesse to it.
Let there be fog in Istanbul and your flight from Hong Kong is delayed by 5 hours better get rebooked on another airline
as the crisis management of TK in Istanbul is beyond atrocious.

The pros are cheap prices and comfortable seats even to/from Europe, for me the cons do outnumber these pros and after
horrible experiences with TK I have never set a foot onto their planes. Not supporting Erdogan (for the same reason I will not fly with
Emirates, Etihad and Qatar) comes on top of it.

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Frederic

[MartinJ]

Just to clarify, it was not my intention to lecture anyone here. Rather, I wanted to remind everyone of the power we hold as consumers to help make this world a better place by making ethical choices. Where we draw the line is everyone’s own judgement. Personally, I avoid wherever possible businesses that have made the mistreatment of staff a business model (think Ryanair or Qatar Airways). Istanbul airport is a particularly shocking enterprise with an official construction death toll of 50, union figures standing at 200+.

[jwak_hkg]

[postquote quote=1213298]

I am assuming MEL is a typo?

[maxgeorge]

If we’re going to book based on governmental behavior that’ll cut out everyone from Saudia and El Al to Thai and United.

Icelandic or Air Botswana then?

[KSHaggag]

I do agree that standards on Turkish Airlines ( inflight and lounges in IST ) have seen a dramatic revamp and upgrade ,surpassing what is on offer by its European rivals ( LH,BA,AF,KL,..etc ) putting to shame the standards on the major European airlines especially when it comes to catering and seat comfort in ALL cabins .
Sadly enough ,it is becoming shameful and humiliating to fly Economy Class on European airlines when you compare flying to 20-30 years ago .Flying Business Class is nowadays the only solution for many air travellers to guarantee a minimum of decency and comfort on many international routes ;and this is where Turkish has jumped on the opportunity to up the game and satisfy a big majority of travellers ,seeking better ,( decent ) standards with a lot of nostalgia to what flying was like till the mid nineties ,especially on the European scene .
Politics apart ,many travellers are nowadays switching to TK ,expecting higher standards ,better service ,punctuality ,and nevertheless better value-for-money from an airline covering every single small regional airport on the planet ..

Just be hopeful no irregularities will occur as on that front they are not yet always as sophisticated as you would wish .

[DavidSmith2]

Earlier today, my wife said that she would need to amend her upcoming booking (Accra-Venice-Accra) to extend her trip for family reasons. The flights are with Turkish Airlines but booked through ebookers….. I metaphorically groaned at the potential effort and aggro this could involve.

But the ebookers website took me very clearly through the steps needed and then the phone no. (in the US) to call. All done within an hour, from initial checking to receipt of the updated booking. Usually I would still be in a phone queue with BA at that stage!

So hats off to ebookers as well. an unexpectedly straightforward process.

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K1ngston, MartynSinclair

[Author]

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