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Turkish Air

flare3192

By flare3192,
in Viking Ocean

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FlyerTalker Excellent Advice! Rare

FlyerTalker

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, shipboy said:

I was booked on Turkish Airlines for an Asian cruise last year, which was subsequently cancelled (the cruise that is). This was from the UK, so Viking definitely use it in this part of the world.

 

You meant to say "used it".

 

Whether or not a cruiseline has used an airline in the past has no relevance to what the current contracts are.  And also what routes and dates are covered by the current contract.  Further, someone else's particular itinerary might be under current contract, while the same airline may not be contracted for a different city pair.

 

Lionel Messi played for Barcelona.  But doesn't anymore.  Same thing with airline contracts.

 

 

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shipboy

shipboy

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

You meant to say "used it".

 

Whether or not a cruiseline has used an airline in the past has no relevance to what the current contracts are.  And also what routes and dates are covered by the current contract.  Further, someone else's particular itinerary might be under current contract, while the same airline may not be contracted for a different city pair.

 

Lionel Messi played for Barcelona.  But doesn't anymore.  Same thing with airline contracts.

 

 

No, I definitely meant to say ‘definitely’. I booked a flight only two months ago, with Turkish being one of the options.

However you are correct, what was valid one minute ago may be irrelevant one minute later.

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Paul73

Paul73

Posted
Posted

We're taking the Pharaohs and Pyramids River cruise in Oct.  After our post-cruise excursion in Jordan Viking booked us on Turkish Air out of Amman Jordan to Istanbul to change to another Turkish AIr flightd.  So yes, Viking books passengers on Turkish airlines..

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Twitchly

Twitchly

Posted
Posted
44 minutes ago, Mich3554 said:

Yes, it’s excellent and better than most US airlines.


That was very much not our experience. This past spring we flew Turkish Air to Tel Aviv, and then back from Amman, both times with stopovers in Istanbul. The flight out was dreadful. Uncomfortable seats, torn upholstery (I couldn’t put anything in the seat pocket because it had completely ripped out), filthy. The flight back, we were able to upgrade our seats and had a better experience. And all our flights were considerably delayed, more than two hours in one case. 
 

But the worst bit was dealing with their booking staff. I won’t go into all the gory details except to say their website is a malfunctioning mess and their staff was truly dreadful. We ended up having to file a dispute with our credit card company. 
 

TA has been around a very long time and is, I believe, one of the busiest airlines in the world. If you’re stuck with them, I strongly suggest upgrading your seat if possible. Their best reviews seem to come from folks who have done that.

 

As for us, we hope never to use them again.

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Mich3554

Mich3554

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, Twitchly said:


That was very much not our experience. This past spring we flew Turkish Air to Tel Aviv, and then back from Amman, both times with stopovers in Istanbul. The flight out was dreadful. Uncomfortable seats, torn upholstery (I couldn’t put anything in the seat pocket because it had completely ripped out), filthy. The flight back, we were able to upgrade our seats and had a better experience. And all our flights were considerably delayed, more than two hours in one case. 
 

But the worst bit was dealing with their booking staff. I won’t go into all the gory details except to say their website is a malfunctioning mess and their staff was truly dreadful. We ended up having to file a dispute with our credit card company. 
 

TA has been around a very long time and is, I believe, one of the busiest airlines in the world. If you’re stuck with them, I strongly suggest upgrading your seat if possible. Their best reviews seem to come from folks who have done that.

 

As for us, we hope never to use them again.

I’m sorry to hear that.  We flew them in 2019, on a trip to Turkey.  It wasn’t the first time we had flown with them, but the most recent.  They were fabulous and picked up the pieces, especially when we had to dispute with Pegasus Air.  
I’m sorry to hear they’ve deteriorated.

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Twitchly

Twitchly

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

I’m sorry to hear that.  We flew them in 2019, on a trip to Turkey.  It wasn’t the first time we had flown with them, but the most recent.  They were fabulous and picked up the pieces, especially when we had to dispute with Pegasus Air.  
I’m sorry to hear they’ve deteriorated.


From what I’ve seen, their reviews are all over the map. So it’s likely they haven’t deteriorated since 2019; they’re just wildly inconsistent.  That may be in part because, according to Wikipedia, they fly to more countries than any other commercial airline in the world. 

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marylovestotravel

marylovestotravel

Posted
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On 9/11/2023 at 3:59 PM, Vineyard View said:

Anyone have experience with Turkish air?

 

I think Turkish has one of the best business class products in the world (in my albeit limited experience). They use the same catering firm as Austrian and the cuisine and service is exceptional.

 

Mia

 

 

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Kentishincanada

Kentishincanada

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We used TAir last year from Heathrow to Istanbul.  The flight and food were both excellent but we have never flown with such grumpy air crew which seemed to extend even to the check in at Heathrow.  They certainly need a charm initiative.  Strange as we encountered only smiling faces in Istanbul and the hotel staff were lovely.

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wine-wine-wine Great Review Rare

wine-wine-wine

Posted
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Last year we flew business class from sfo to Istanbul. Onboard the food was excellent and flight attendants friendly and attentive. 
 

Their web site, however, is abysmal. Recorded wrong birthdates due to a bug and could not correct. Called service center who assured us that they had the correct dates. Could not check in properly online. 
 

But from the time we arrived at the airport onward, everything was perfect. 

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shmabbies

shmabbies

Posted
Posted

We used TK pre-Covid and loved their business product so much so we are using them again next year (United frequent flyer miles).  However, I agree their website IS beyond abysmal though one thing I learned is that using their app on a cell phone gets much better results than using a desktop (I read this advice on Flyertalk & it worked for me).  Don't know about a tablet.  I did call their customer service with an issue and a Turkish CSR called me back twice on their own initiative to follow up on it (albeit one call came at an ungodly hour as she did not account for time zone differences - I was still impressed).  

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scidee

scidee

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Flew Turkish air in Aug (booked by Viking) Chicago to Istanbul and  on to final destination of Basal Switzerland.  We felt that we had more leg room than some other economy international flights.  Food was plenty however more to the Turkish flavor and not always to our liking.  The crew was okay, however we have had friendlier.  Enjoyed the convenience pack of socks, slippers, toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion and sleep mask.  Also we were not thrilled that we had to fly all the way to Istanbul (10.5 hrs) wait 2.5 hours and back to Basal 3.5 hours when more direct flights would have cut 5-6 hours off the trip.

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  • 2 weeks later...
bluestocking7

bluestocking7

Posted
Posted

Flew JFK to Istanbul then transfer to Ankara.  Business class, with lots of room and sumptuous meals. 

 

While in Ankara there was a coup against Erdogan and the borders were closed and all flights were cancelled.  We did manage to fly out and back to Istanbul the next day and on to Bishkek, also Turkish.  Barely remember the flights as we were just grateful to get out of the country.  A couple of weeks later we flew back home Ashgabat-Istanbul-JFK, which was excellent.  OTOH my son flew economy Istanbul to JFK and was in a middle seat and miserably crowded.  

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