Turkish Airlines for Australia

[Berlin]

I just couldn't resist posting this here

 

[prozac]

I flew J on Turkish recently IST-AMS on a non-discount ticket. Seating was standard economy with economy pitch, service was so-so. Toilet (that's right just one) was not cleaned the entire flight and could best be described as tired. I chose to fly TK in conjunction with SIA because as a Star Alliance partner I expected a minimum standard. I was greatly disappointed.
Would not recommend Turkish for any aspect of the flight.

 

[brads92]

Calm down prozac - before you left, did you ever do any research on what the 'Euro Business' product is? Fly practically any carrier intra-Europe in J and you'll be experiencing the same thing as what you did on TK.

 

[prozac]

Lol. ok. Did not realise I needed to lower the bar. Are you saying I shouldn't expect any different legroom to economy as well?

 

[brads92]

Agree it's ridiculous, but 'Eurobusiness' is a fairly standard phenomenom across most Euro carriers unfortunately.

 

[yohy?!]

Lol. ok. Did not realise I needed to lower the bar. Are you saying I shouldn't expect any different legroom to economy as well?

no - same legroom just get the middle seat blocked and enhanced catering.

the seat information by route is available here from the TK website (surprisingly in xls format!)

http://wwwdownload.thy.com/download/2011_new_site/business_class_en.zip

 

[prozac]

Sigh.....then it looks like it is back to whY for these journeys.

 

[JessicaTam]

I have only flown TK J intra-europe twice, but found them very attentive with great food. I wouldn't hesitate flying them again.

[end fanboi speech]

 

[MacBH]

How about MEL-BOM-IST? Would seem to make sense from a great circle point of view.
TK already have daily IST-BOM flights and we'd finally get a direct connection to India.

 

[whatmeworry]

This would be good for redemptions on USDM and Mileage Plus.

I have noticed Croatia Airlines recently had some good deals from ZAG and SPU to IST. If TK had good connection times to eastern European nations, you they might have a viable routing.

However I see this as more of a vanity route for TK.

 

[gypsyinabigtown]

I have only flown TK J intra-europe twice, but found them very attentive with great food. I wouldn't hesitate flying them again.

[end fanboi speech]

I agree that food seems to be one of their main drawcards:

* They won pretty much every best airline food award there is, Skyscanner, AirTrax, etc. you name it.
* They have an inflight chef greeting you into the plane, in proper chef attire
* A friend of mine flying Switzerland-Turkey (~2 hour flight) in economy took this photo of their food offering. To be frank, it beats some of the J food I've eaten at United's 4-hr. domestic routes.

 

[Robert Qld]

How about MEL-BOM-IST? Would seem to make sense from a great circle point of view.
TK already have daily IST-BOM flights and we'd finally get a direct connection to India.

In theory it sounds good, but then again communism does as well... ;-)

No airline in their right mind would try to use BOM as a transit hub. Having been there I can say the airport is ugly, bare boned, verging on dirty and has a ridiculous amount of redundant security (whether it is creating jobs for jobs sake or genuine paranoia I don't know).

Plus India requires pre-arranged Visas, even for transit (at least for Australians - though only a tiny handful of countries can get visas on arrival anyway). And they can be a pain to organise if you don't live/work near a consulate (though granted the visa does look rather fancy in my passport) ;-)

basically why go to BOM when you have KUL & SIN close by and so much better a thousand times over.

 

[browski]

FWIW, I have flown a few times using BOM as a International transit. It is really good; no India visa required (although the last time I did this was in 2010.)
I particularly like that they personally ask you to view your baggage to make sure it is correctly transferred.
IMO Turkish Airlines will go the whole journey non-stop from IST-Oz or not at all.

 

[Danger]

Turkish Airlines gears up for Kuala Lumpur return - Business Traveller

Perhaps an opportunity to continue on Down Under.

 

[elbarto]

Looks like TK are entering into a codeshare arrangement with NZ that might put an end to plans TK has to fly to Australia in the near future.

Air New Zealand / Turkish Airlines Issues Codeshare Application with US DoT :: Routesonline

 

[Kaldemir]

Pet theory of mine but i wonder whether PER is the obvious destination for airlines like TK. I really think that when Virgin co-locate to the international terminal in Perth they should heavily target the "seamless transfers to other Australian ports" market. Perth massive under-utilises its potential as a gateway due the coughpiness of Int-Dom connections but i can really see that changing with new developments coming online.

With no domestic *A carrier Perth seems to be an unlikely destination for TK. Maybe NZ codesharing on VA metal in Australia and TK to IST and beyond? I think Sydney would be the obvious first destination for any overseas airline due to the passenger numbers..

 

[Baysider]

I flew J on Turkish recently IST-AMS on a non-discount ticket. Seating was standard economy with economy pitch, service was so-so. Toilet (that's right just one) was not cleaned the entire flight and could best be described as tired. I chose to fly TK in conjunction with SIA because as a Star Alliance partner I expected a minimum standard. I was greatly disappointed.
Would not recommend Turkish for any aspect of the flight.

I have flown TK 4 times between Istanbul and Izmir (a mere 50 min flight) in the last 9 weeks and their domestic J is much better than QF.

 

[Danger]

Australia to Europe non-stop flights coming in 2014 | Turkish Airlines

 

[lovestotravel]

So initially starting with a 777-300ER with a stop in Asia, then changing to non-stop

But where/when has Turkish actually ordered the 777-200LR ?

 

[anat0l]

Australia to Europe non-stop flights coming in 2014 | Turkish Airlines

I never knew QF harboured a long term "cherished" goal of Australia to Europe non-stop. Sounds more like a journalistic dig to me.

Let alone they were talking to Boeing about possible 777 variants that will allow such a flight.

19 hours in the metal tube is a long time indeed, especially in Y. There'd need to be at least 3 meal services to make sure everyone doesn't go bat crazy, let alone the hydration load.

Anyway... bit of a digression. IST isn't too far from DXB (another 3 hours?), so perhaps SYD/IST non-stop isn't unreasonable. Bit of a stretch to class IST in Europe (though, I suppose it technically is on the edge), but anything for fame, right?

Of course, the commentary has once again resurfaced all the anti-QF and anti-DXB sentiment, rather than actually talking about the article itself.