Older plane with finicky seats. Crew often seem to focus on "pet" clients and over extend services to some over others. I get less attention since I'm not a regular business class client. Regardless, I've paid the money and would expect equal attention.
After arriving in Istanbul, the transit information on the electronic board showed a tight departure time, and the gate changed in the middle, making it difficult to make it on time.
What I did not like was that the airline changed my seat in Bodrum to one that was not in business class. Up until that moment I was in seat 1A. Then suddenly they told me I was in seat 1K and my "tablet was not working". - meaning my tv screen. I said that was not ok and they said go tell them in Istanbul. Each Turkish Air rep that I consulted told me there were no available seats in Business class. Finally I talked to the 4 airline representatives outside the lounge. When I talked to a woman and explained I wanted to change my seat back to what I had, A lady consulted something, asked me if I signed anything, then turned to a man nearby and spoke in Turkish. The man consulted someone and spoke in Turkish to the woman. Then she said my seat was now A1. Why was my seat changed out of business class in the first place? What would have happened if I had not talked to someone at the lounge? I am totally confused.
Their weakness is in boarding. Business class rarely boards first and there are no announcements explaining delays, so customers are always left waiting and wondering why boarding has paused.
I did not like the quality of the food and there was no snacks offered between meals.
Inflight wi-fi is below par and difficult to access.
I ended up paying $170 Euros for luggage for a 4 hour flight. Ridiculous. On top of the delay.
It was a nightmare. I booked business class ticket from Ediburgh to Beirut via Istanbul to attend a funeral. I had a wonderful experience flying to Istanbul from Edinburgh. Then I could not get a boarding pass issued to Beirut. It seems that although they booked me and I had a reservation number, I had no seat allocated and the flight was full. I was asked to go from one desk to another and made to wait for 2 hours. I missed my flight as I did not have a seat assigned and it was full. The only option was to put me on the next flight, 6 hours later, for a fee of over $400. They said that was the best they can do to 'help me' and to 'take it or leave it'. Well, I was not about to be bullied; I stood my ground. I booked and paid premium for the journey, which was confirmed. The eventually accepted to not charge me extra and i waited a total of over 8 hours in the airport with no compensation. On top of my grief with the risk of missing the funeral service, I had to put up with their indifference and condescending attitude. They spoke about me in Turkish thinking I would not understand (I hold a British passport) in front of me. When they eventually handed my passport and boarding pass back to me, I showed them I was born in Istanbul and that I understood everything and said a condescending 'thank you' back to them in Turkish. You should have seen their faces. I said that consumers have rights and it is a shame that Turkish Airlines does not have good customer service to at least acknowledge and apologize for errors committed by the airline. Blaming the me, the client, for such an error and placing unreasonable ultimatums, rudeness and dismissiveness to be rid of me, particularly when I was vulnerable and visibly grieving was really shocking... The airline taints the city of Istanbul and the people of Türkiye. Such a shame.
I’m unclear why I had to pay extra for assigned seats as Turkish airlines did not honor the seating. We were placed across the aisle from each other on TK 34, and were seated behind one another on TK 694. Because my name was misspelled on e-ticket (Klawiter, instead of Klawitter) I could not log onto website to get the connection gate number in Istanbul. The monitors in the airport were a jumbled mess 1/2 Arabic and 1/2 English.
The seat in the 787 was broken and did not keep us in the upright position. Also the entertainment system was broken for some channels and only had audio and no visual display.
