Sharing some (bad) experiences flying Turkish Airlines MEL-IST-MUC (Y and J)

[muehli3]

The Mrs and Me travelled to Europe with Turkish Airlines (MEL-IST-MUC) and here is a summary of our experiences that will make us avoid TK in the future on long haul flights:

I flew Economy:

• Return fare was only 2.6 and almost 1k less than Emirates, Qatar, or Singapore, which was one reason to fly TK - I had budget constraints on my ticket.
• So I treated myself with an exit row seat for a bargain of 300 AUD (sarcasm)
• Check-in as Star Alliance Gold was good, friendly staff, a bit clueless about the lounge situation but they managed.
• Great food at the Air New Zealand lounge.
• Boarding was a huge mess and chaos, you could think it's their first time, and it took me two agents to get priority boarding.
• They messed up the menu on the first leg from MEL-SIN so they served other food than advertised. It was average, nothing compared to Emirates Economy we flew a few weeks before.
• Friendliness was absent during both legs, MEL-SIN and SIN-IST, I cannot remember the last time I felt so unwelcome on a plane.
• The most annoying part was the automatic announcement in both Turkish and English to fasten your seatbelt when they turned the signs on due to turbulences.
• Transit in Istanbul was short and the airport is huge, so I had to walk fast.
• IST-MUC leg was pretty nice, friendly flight attendants, even IFE, and the food was better than on the long haul flights.

Mrs flew 2 weeks later:

• As a treat, she got a cash upgrade for 4k for the MEL-IST
• Even though she was flying business, she confirmed by experience, especially the absence of friendliness and the quality of food.
• Several of her orders got lost, such as her Turkish coffee or water. Flying Business!
• She definitely enjoyed the lie-flat bed which was the main reason for getting her the upgrade, and apparently she was not annoyed and woken up by the announcements.

Let's change our plans and have fun with their support hotline:

• The return ticket was semi-flexible so we could cancel it for a small fee, which was an option I actively chose to be able to get maybe a rewards ticket.
• After both our experiences it was clear that we wanted to avoid TK on our way back and after finding rewards tickets, it was about to cancel them.
• When I checked the refund amount weeks before the flights, this was not possible, so I had to call them. Whatever magic they did, 2h later it worked, and I could cancel my flights via the website.
• Well, Mrs was not so lucky, for her it never worked via the website, so we had to call the hotline.
• We both spent in total 6h calling Turkish over the course of 3 days.
  • I was once transferred from their German hotline to the international back to another German and again to an International to have them hang up on me after I politely requested to speak to someone in charge.
  • Nobody was able to cancel the ticket except of the feedback team who only replies to the feedback form. One agent told me just to wait, they will answer in 3-4h, and our flight was in 24h. The feedback team replied almost a week later.
  • Thanks to one agent, we got her ticket cancelled after sending an email to the Munich sales office, who gave us a PDF to fill out, send back to them and the money was refunded to our German bank account.

Last but not least, instead of Turkish Economy, we flew Emirates First Class to Singapore as a real treat for both of us!

I did not want to just rant about Turkish, apparently their service to the US is much better, therefore, it was independent of the price a conscious decision to fly Turkish. Maybe this will be helpful to somebody, as I am very grateful about the information I could gather her.

 

[Scarlett]

This is in parts the opposite and in parts mirrors my experience for the many times I’ve flown TK.
Meals - excellent. Especially in J.
Crew - sometimes friendly but generally fairly stand-offish. I don’t speak Turkish so can’t blame them if they are more reticent to engage me in English. They are however always professional.
Helpline (calling) - like having painful dental work. Maybe 3/10 will achieve what I need.
Feedback form - generally gets what I need in a couple of days.
*G experience (as TK E or E+ since I first status matched to them about 10 years ago) - always fine for what TK can control.
IRROPS - have been dealt with well IN PERSON (lounge or service desk).

Most of my flying has been Asia-IST-Europe, or Europe-IST-Europe and a couple of domestic flights.

 

[muehli3]

This is in parts the opposite and in parts mirrors my experience for the many times I’ve flown TK.
Meals - excellent. Especially in J.

I'm sure your experiences are statistically more significant than our 2 flights, and it is good to hear they do live up to their reputation, at least sometimes

 

[clifford]

I'm sure your experiences are statistically more significant than our 2 flights, and it is good to hear they do live up to their reputation, at least sometimes

I'm not sure what their reputation is, but TK is anything but perfect. In my experience, intra-Europe they are OK, but long-haul to Asia I'm not so sure. I've had pretty average cabin crews from Asia, the female flight attendants tend to be much nicer than the males, as is reflected in Turkey itself.

I flew MLA-IST-VIE in TK business class last week and it was fine, but don't expect the kind of service you might receive on the ME airlines. It's just not the Turkish way, despite the hype.

 

[RooFlyer]

I've been looking forward to doing TK through to Europe (J), but have been a bit put off by some of the experiences recounted here. I've done them IST to various point sin Europe, and their 'EuroBiz' is probably the best of the lot.

Hoping that with time they'll get their act to Oz together - the stand offish attitude I can fully recognise. Their pricing via SIN is really good!

The only issue for us was the airport in Istanbul, it was ok once we found the right lounge, but prior to that, it was a zoo….. and is too big, imo.

Yes. They have finally hit the "too large" mark. My watch gave me several lounge to gate walks of 1km or more - and no travellators. The biz check-in is terrific, as is the lounge, but everything in between is pretty average. Oh, the Yotels land and airside aren't bad.

 

[33kft]

I've had to fly TK for work regularly in the past to TLV via IST and refuse to fly them anymore. I imagine that many people get by without having to see aggressive ground staff at IST yelling at female passengers (funnily enough they are gutless bullies and backed right down when I stepped in) or gate agents straight up lying to passengers but I have had enough bad experiences with them to bin them permanently.

I still have vivid memories of a service desk at the old IST with 3 surly looking (self redaction to save the mods from doing it)s from TK sat down behind it slumped so low in their chairs that you couldn't see their heads behind the counter, sat with their arms crossed waiting to hear what exactly I wanted (which was rerouting, because the connection was missed 100/100 times due to late inbound flight and that zoo of an airport).

Anyway, rant over. Tell me again how amazing it is that some dude wears a chefs hat on the flight so the food must be amazing. TK gets way too much credit in my book, at best they are a budget airline but the budget part is the experience, not the product.

 

[jase05]

Gee, that’s disappointing.
My limited long haul experiences with them was Pre Covid and found them to be excellent in all areas. The service and food was a highlight on all flights

 

[clifford]

Gee, that’s disappointing.
My limited long haul experiences with them was Pre Covid and found them to be excellent in all areas. The service and food was a highlight on all flights

Must have been a different TK from the one I have flown many times. They can be good (apart from the LH hard product) but, by golly, they can also be quite awful. And yes, you mightn't see it as a male (I'm assuming).

I guess I've just had too many poor experiences on TK long haul, and will avoid them in the the future. SH is relatively fine as a general rule. But watch out for the preference given to friends, relatives and Government enforcers and the like.

 

[Melburnian1]

I'm not sure what their reputation is, but TK is anything but perfect. In my experience, intra-Europe they are OK, but long-haul to Asia I'm not so sure. I've had pretty average cabin crews from Asia, the female flight attendants tend to be much nicer than the males, as is reflected in Turkey itself.

I flew MLA-IST-VIE in TK business class last week and it was fine, but don't expect the kind of service you might receive on the ME airlines. It's just not the Turkish way, despite the hype.

@clifford did you fly from Malta, or Manila (MNL)?