Turkish Air to VCE June 2014

[jmgriffin]

My only complaint was it was very difficult to book seats. We had to call several times; 30 days out for the IAD-IST legs and 7 days out for the IST-TLV legs, and even then, they ended up changing aircrafts and we got totally different seats.

 

I'm running into the same problem on a flight we have booked for December. We were able to select our seats for the Business Class legs at 3 months from departure but was told that the seats for the Economy legs can only be reserved 7 days from departure.

 

The bad: we'll be in the middle of our trip and likely won't think to call TK to select seats.

 

The good: it sounds like all passengers are required to follow these rules so it's not like you're at a disadvantage

[headhunterke]

You'd think that, but TK staff 'know a lot of people'. The way it works in Brussels, if you speak Turkish, you can get pretty much everything done. And believe me, on TK flight, the majority speak Turkish. So a lot of passengers of Turkish origin book their seats via a TA, and in a lot of cases, they get preassigned seats, leaving the other customers in the cold.

When we create our flights for TK in the office (so when no people are checked in yet), we often have less then half of the aircraft available as the seats are already reserved (before a regular pax can do that, that's it)

[l1222]

Mineau, could you post a review of your flight in 2013, including the free hotel issue? I know this is an old thread - sorry, hope you are still out and about on CC. We are facing the same situation coming up shortly. Thanks -

[jmgriffin]

Mineau, could you post a review of your flight in 2013, including the free hotel issue? I know this is an old thread - sorry, hope you are still out and about on CC. We are facing the same situation coming up shortly. Thanks -

 

l1222,

 

Unfortunately I don't have any first hand info on the free hotel deal but I just realized that I posted my photo gallery months ago but forgot to post my full review of our Turkish Airlines flight.

You can view the full trip report here: Turkish Air Flight TK 8 – Washington-IAD to Istanbul-IST

 

[l1222]

You are awesome! Thank you so much! Still trying to make contact with a real person who has actually taken advantage of the free hotel during a forced layover. Will keep looking~

[jmgriffin]

You are awesome! Thank you so much! Still trying to make contact with a real person who has actually taken advantage of the free hotel during a forced layover. Will keep looking~

 

Read through this thread, it's loaded with info on the free hotel in IST: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/turkish-airlines-miles-smiles/1429423-faq-8-free-hotel-tour-when-connecting-ist.html

[Mineu]

We're flying in June. I'll post a review when we return. Hoping it works out as we hope to book them again next summer!

[suekay]

We landed in Singapore 7 hours ago after flying from Manchester via Istanbul . Didn't need the hotel as our layover was only 2 hours 15 mins. Would fly them again for the savings over other airlines. The only downsides were the food which others have praised, but was not to our taste, and maybe the movies which although plentiful, were old. The seat comfort, service and cleanliness was fine although the toilet became "splashed" towards the end of the flight (Ugh!! why don't people check and wipe after themselves?) Even Istanbul airport was well organised although there was a shortage of seats at the gate

[thechicagoans]

I've flown 4 long-haul sectors with Turkish in Economy and am continually impressed.

 

POSITIVES

+ Good legroom

+ Reasonably wide seat on their Airbus 330s (vs. the super narrow seats American has on the 777-300ERs or United has on its 787s)

+ Good food

+ Good IFE

+ Amenity kit - no US airlines do this for Economy travelers, Airberlin does it in Economy too

 

NEGATIVES

- Awful English skills if you have to call the call center. I've lived in many countries, speak a variety of languages, and still have a really hard time understanding them

- Istanbul airport often requires bus transit to planes and it gets quite cold in the winters - much nicer to have skybridges like most airports in the US and Asia but a lot of Middle Eastern (AUH is a particularly bad offender) and European airports (IST, TXL, CDG for many flights, etc.) seem to not have such passenger comfort amenities