Unenthusiastic review of Turkish Airlines soft product in Nine papers

[Flywithd]

Agree! Tragically, because of the appetite suppressant stuff I'm taking (and the good meals on board), I had zero interest in anything in the lounge on each of my recent visits - even the sweets.



My last 2 flights were 'mid-way'. A little more than you would 'expect'. On the SIN-MEL leg, they gave 15 mins warning that the SB sign would be on for maybe an hour, due to forecast turbulence. Toilets got rushed!! In the end nothing much happened and they turned off the SB sign after about 30 mins.



Yes, lesson learned! But its an annoying 'policy' - and seeming IS a policy, as many reports of it.



I suspect its not that they don't 'want' to converse, but they think their English isn't good enough - I noted above that this came across to me as 'reserved' rather than rude. I came across the exact same situation on LATAM transpac - crew would be happily conversing with Spanish-speakers, but barely engaged with Anglos.

On my SIN-IST, I didn't see or hear from the Purser. On the return, she introduced herself and we had a good chat - her English was very good.

The purser was the one laying out the bedding so she was present and most pleasant than the crew I've had on TK before.

The crew could speak very decent language as there wasn't much of a barrier when conversing with them for meals/requests.

I always have zero expections for flights but TK really disappointed after 2 weeks of 8 Asian airlines / Middle eastern airlines unfortunately

 

[33kft]

I've had a horrible experience with Turkish Airlines, and they are banned in this household - each to their own but I found them to be very, very unprofessional when things go awry.

Anyone who has experienced the service desk at IST with the sulking TK staff with crossed arms or just plain yelling at pax. I have always put people's like of TK down to luck, I used to fly them regularly for work and with tight connections and... IST being IST... It almost became ritualistic to deal with

For anyone who wonders what led me to ban them, I was travelling on my dime (leisure, family trip) and we had an issue with a family member's documentation during boarding. I asked them to validate something with the check in staff, the dismissive TK staff member picked up his phone, said he was calling a supervisor before pulling a rope in front so we were held back from boarding. I had the presence of mind to snap a photo of the name on the screen (I could tell he was lying to me, it was hardly a-list acting). We failed to board, I went to the service desk, I showed them the photo and they said "oh, he's a chef" (the supposed supervisor). I rebooked with Etihad and banned TK for life.

 

[Scash]

Recently flew HKG-IST-ATH withTK in J and pretty much agree with @RooFlyer. Crew were not very proactive but did respond when you asked for something. Trying to get a smile was difficult and they were quite perfunctory in their service delivery.

I thought the food was good and liked the trolley service and chefs in their hats.

HKG -IST was on a 777 with old 2-3-2 layout, but I found the seats to quite roomy with lots of leg room and the cabin felt quite open and spacious. Really like the storage compartment under the foot rest. Had good a chat with the guy beside me, only issue was he knocked over a glass of water on me (lucky it wasn’t red wine!) and staff were not very interested in helping me out.

Also noticed staff stuck to their sides. Crew on the right aisle didn’t want to venture to the left and vice versa.

 

[dajop]

Just a point of comparison, the food on SIN-MEL service.

Not quite the standard of SQ217 (roughly same departure time), nor EK404 when it used to do the route in its final incarnation (at around the same time as well) - which like TK 168 was a continuation flight.

Lunch (10:30am departure):





Pre-landing refreshment (landing around 8/9pm)

 

[Flywithd]

Just a point of comparison, the food on SIN-MEL service.

Not quite the standard of SQ217 (roughly same departure time), nor EK404 when it used to do the route in its final incarnation (at around the same time as well) - which like TK 168 was a continuation flight.

Lunch (10:30am departure):

View attachment 504828

View attachment 504829

Pre-landing refreshment (landing around 8/9pm)
View attachment 504830

I've had the same menu a few weeks ago.

The beef was nice but it's such a let down seeing how glamorous their other catering is vs this route.

There's also a heap load of service items that are stowed in the overhead locker SIN-MEL so it's interesting sometimes trying to find locker space.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

I've been a bit wary of TK ever since I flew BKK-IST with them over a decade ago and they didn't bother doing a safety demo... one and only time I've ever seen that

 

[tradingup]

I flew from Sofia to Sydney on TK in J as my Plan B home from Europe early April. Happy to have travelled home safely on TK, but add the following comments to those above:

No lounge access was available at SOF as TK had not yet signed the new lounge agreement and the plane had not even arrived at SOF at the originally scheduled departure time. Not a good start after arriving at the airport at 6.30am!

For the IST-KUL sector, I requested Dine-on-Demand but later during the flight I was provided only the plated main and cutlery. None of the usual accompaniments or service.

On the KUL-SYD sector, the Before Landing Menu offered two options, and the business cabin was not full. When meal orders were being taken directly after take-off, the crewmember advised that my choice was no longer available and I declined the other option. Later when the meals were being provided as people awoke, another crewmember brought me the declined option, saying that was what I had ordered! It went back to the galley.

Overall, the experience from KUL-SYD was below the IST-KUL sector and IMHO the TK product and service is not up to the standards of QR and EK. As always, YMMV.

 

[Daveller]

I’m not gonna lie as I had the dramatic inflight experience I have ever had. That was many years ago.
- It was a short flight… When the pilots said that we were going to land soon, I saw some flight attendant felt so much pressure as they didn’t have time to give the meals to the pax. But they did try their best to give the meals to all pax as soon as possible. They had achieved a goal.
- saw flight attendant running around the aisles and tried their best to get it done.
- first time in my life that the plane landed while eating food - tray opened.
- They picked up the meals (all recycled plastic)into the trash while taxing to the terminal.
- omg I had the best sandwiches and so yummy! Lol

 

[dajop]

Overall, the experience from KUL-SYD was below the IST-KUL sector and IMHO the TK product and service is not up to the standards of QR and EK. As always, YMMV.

Seems to be consistent with SIN-MEL/vv. The soft product on these flights feel more like a short haul offering than the true long haul product.

 

[Flywithd]

I believe they classify flights under 8 hours as short haul hence why the sub standard offering from SIN/KUL to MEL/SYD

 

[RooFlyer]

I believe they classify flights under 8 hours as short haul hence why the sub standard offering from SIN/KUL to MEL/SYD

I've done plenty of TK 'short haul' and none of them have been 'sub standard'. Not intra-Asia/Pacific short haul though, - seems like the 5th Freedom flights are a gap in their offering? Are the crews locally based? The catering would be.

IST to/from Chisinau, Madrid, Milan, Malta, Athens - all very good and of course you get proper business seats, not Euro-business. That's a huge plus for TK.

 

[Flywithd]

I've done plenty of TK 'short haul' and none of them have been 'sub standard'. Not intra-Asia/Pacific short haul though, - seems like the 5th Freedom flights are a gap in their offering? Are the crews locally based? The catering would be.

IST to/from Chisinau, Madrid, Milan, Malta, Athens - all very good and of course you get proper business seats, not Euro-business. That's a huge plus for TK.

Get onto the Aussie flights ex SIN and you'll see what we're all talking about.

Crew are IST based as they layover in SIN and continue to Aus and back.

Catering locally based but that's never stopped any other airline from offering a decent service. You pretty much don't see the crew after the first service until the pre arrival unless you press your call bell.

 

[RooFlyer]

Seems just to be on the 5th freedom ones then. I'll happily avoid them then!

Catering locally based but that's never stopped any other airline from offering a decent service.

Sure it has! Most of the time, compared to catering from an airline's home base.

 

[dajop]

IST to/from Chisinau, Madrid, Milan, Malta, Athens - all very good and of course you get proper business seats, not Euro-business. That's a huge plus for TK.

The same catering on these 2-4 hr sectors in a narrow body, would probably be very good. It just seems disappointing on 7-8 hr sectors vs SQ/QF. It's like the SQ supper service in some ways - but SQ doesn't offer a supper service on day time flights (and of course has BTC for extra choice even on supper service).