[Anonymous]

[onajetplane]

So I have posted before about Turkish airlines and unfortunately I have had to fly them quite regularly in the last few months.

Today I was flying from Heathrow to Istanbul. Despite having to check-in and print your own baggage tag on the screen, it took 55minutes to drop the bag. The line ran through Terminal 3 due to their inability to properly rope off their line area. 55minutes!? Now granted I don’t often travel with checked luggage but this is surely ridiculous.

2hour delay – something which I have come to expect with their Heathrow flights.

Took over an hour and a half for any service on the flight. And both on this flight (and my previous IST – LHR) last week, they told me there was no menu choice left and I had to have the beef. Ironic that they even both to give out menus at the start of the flight. And the meal was completely cold.

I had no choice on this occasion but it seems to be seriously shocking service for supposedly “Europe’s best”?

[seasonedtraveller]

“””””””””””Took over an hour and a half for any service on the flight. And both on this flight (and my previous IST – LHR) last week, they told me there was no menu choice left and I had to have the beef. Ironic that they even both to give out menus at the start of the flight. And the meal was completely cold””””””””””””””

I took my final flight with them 4 weeks ago and the ‘service’ was exactly the same including the lack of choice and cold food.

[Charles-P]

I have documented on another thread my experience of the truly appalling attitude of Turkish Airlines. My frustration with dealing with them means I am now in litigation via the courts of Istanbul. Anecdotal evidence from business contacts in Turkey is that the airline is loathed by people and that domestically the big winner right now is Pegasus.

[canucklad]

I wonder what the star alliance management team make of it all…….

To update you all on what’s happened with my complaint,please see below…………..

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And there you have it. : (

[Charles-P]

‘canucklad’ – I have been copying Star Alliance on all my correspondence with Turkish Airlines. As a Gold member for the past four years I was hoping for some interest from them. Not a sausage !

[onajetplane]

It really is ridiculous. I guess they are just too over-ambitious with their expansion plans, and think that by spending huge sums on an advertising campaign that they can get away with such poor service. Shame really given they have so much potential to run a successful global airline out of Istanbul. I now dread having to fly them as it is just always the same. I remain absolutely baffled how they get the skytrax awards.

[SenatorGold]

In May I flew Turkish in business to JNB and return. Check in at Terminal 3 had the prospects of being a drawn out affair until a supervisor stepped in. I hadn’t flown on Turkish not since flying on them to Dushanbe seven years ago. At that point they were just about to join Star Alliance and I was far from persuaded they were ready to do. They didn’t make a move to stop people from getting out of their seats just after touch down at Dushanbe. With the assistance of Alex McWhirter I raised with Star Alliance Turkish’s readiness to join. Turkish’s defence to this woeful lack of adherence to safety standards was to refer to “cultural differences”. So with this past experience I was a little sceptical to say the least. However I was impressed on this occasion with the service on board. However having read the comments on here in the recent past and now I am not sure I would have any confidence in them should anything go wrong.

[Charles-P]

I’ve heard the “cultural differences” excuse used before not just on Turkish but on airlines from Pakistan and India. I’ve never understood how something is dangerous if you come from one culture but safe if you come from another !

[Tim2soza]

I flew last year on an internal flight IST-DLM and back 9 days later with my family on Turkish airlines. I have to say the flight in Y was perfect. We were able to choose seats weeks in advance on a very cheap fare, we had 34 inches of legroom because we were in the Business converter seats. We were served the most delicious meal in both directions despite the 50 minute sector time, and we landed early on both flights. From memory we paid £80 per head round trip including far too much baggage.

[JohnHarper]

Mrs JH and I are currently at our house in Cyprus. We flew LHR-IST-ECN in C with TK and the service was perfect. We did not expect to be offered an excellent hot lunch between IST-ECN with a choice of four wines.

I guess you love them or hate them.

[Charles-P]

Good to read above that others have had satisfactory experiences when flying with Turkish, they should expect nothing less.

The issue with all airlines is not when all goes swimmingly but when the wheels come off. The problems that I and others have experienced with Turkish are directly related to their inability to deal with the everyday problems that quality airlines take in their stride.

[JohnHarper]

Charles-P – 01/07/2014 14:59 GMT

I totally agree with you – it is when things go wrong that you see how well a company performs.

I’m sure there are many people out there who have been waiting for bags since Thursday and many more who checked them in in good faith on Friday when BA knew their system was not working and to quote them “some flights on each of the four days left with lower than expected numbers of baggage.”

Now it’s one thing implementing service recovery when things that are unforeseen go wrong but it’s another entirely adding to an already huge problem by deceiving people in to checking in their bags when you know the system is failing and then failing to provide any adequate information even on a premium rate phone number.

It makes Turkish look like an innocent bystander.

[Aljongr]

Could not have put it better, ” – It is when things go wrong that you see how well a company performs.”

Turkish Airlines seems unable to cope with minor problems. Maybe staff are not allowed to use any initiative.

Best of luck to anyone with mislaid baggage.

I flew Gatwick – Sabiha Gockgen(Istanbul) just before Christmas 2013, as a result my baggage was caught up in the Gatwick flooding debacle. Absolutely not Turkish Airlines fault.

Some days later and after numerous emails and phone calls I was told the bag had arrived, as it contained Christmas presents and perishables I made the trip to the airport to collect it. A wasted journey, it was not there.

A day or two later it arrived, a second journey to collect it. The bag was there but damaged and wet. Reported it and filled in the appropriate form before leaving the airport.

After many more emails,

They will give me a percentage of the cost of the bag (brand new first time used, and I had the receipt).

They will give me nothing towards the cost of my journeys to and from the airport, including the wasted journey which I only made, based on the information they gave me.

To add insult to injury, to get the compensation I have to make another trip to the airport to collect it from the baggage office.

In all their expansion plans customer service seems to be a very low priority.

One more letdown by Turkish Airlines

Just checked my statement on their “Miles and Smiles” scheme, the rules changed from June 1st and for my latest flight Heathrow – Istanbul I was credited just 389 miles.

At that rate it would take 34 return fights from London to Istanbul and back to qualify for their most basic card upgrade.

[onajetplane]

With them being awarded best European airline once again in Skytrax, I just don’t have any faith in such awards anymore. There is just no way they are the best in Europe. “Best at being inconsistent” would be a more befitting honour…

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