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.