Excellent overall. Boarding was a mess. Queue up too early, takes too long for them to start boarding but they want everyone to queue up and wait and wait.
The boarding process was a disaster. I was comfortably seated in the lounge at Athens when I got a notice the flight was boarding so I rushed to the gate. When I arrived, it was NOT boarding and we waited an additional 10 minutes before boarding started. There were no announcements regarding the order in which passengers should board and it was a bums’ rush. A total mess.
Turkish Airlines changed our business class seats at the last minute and said it was a computer glitch. No other airlines has had this glitch. The steak was like leather and nobody could eat it. The boarding process was extremely slow and we had to stand and wait in line for over an hour in EWR and almost as long in IST. Again while coming back our seats were changed from row 3 to row 6 for no reason. The food was a lot better from IST to EWR. The service was poor from EWR to IST and good coming back.
Boardings in Newark and Istanbul were kind of chaos. Dedicated lines for assigned seats seems to be a smart idea, but most of the people were getting confused and were going back and forth. The agents were yelling where to go. The food was limited. Whatever we asked, they were out of it. For example, I would imagine that most of the people would prefer chicken over pasta. By the time they reached us, only pasta was available. For a long flight, in our case almost 11 hours, it’s very uncomfortable to remain put in the seat where not enough space to stretch the legs. But this is the another story about economy and upgraded flights.
The quality of Turkish Airlines has definitely diminished. The planes are older and the 2x2x2 business class is antiquated and not in keeping with the prices. The food onboard is not as good as it used to be. Cold dishes, flavor not very good and weird selections and accompaniments. Our flight ran out of champagne before dinner. How is that even possible! Cocktails were served without Nuys. The nuts were presented 1/2 hour later. Poor selection of liquor with inferior cheap brands. Gordons gin is unacceptable. Over all I wouldn't choose them again. The end of an era!
When getting to our seats a blanket, headphones and pillow where there already. The food was very good and plentiful. I liked when they came around w/hot towels to freshen up with. Slippers, socks and an eye mask was a nice surprise. My husband and I have mobility issues and the transporters were absolutely wonderful and helpful w/the wheelchairs at each stop. Getting from one gate to the next they were a blessing.
Alright. I don’t like the boarding process. Gate staff shout out in Turkish where to line up etc. no microphone used. You can’t hear it. No English translation. It’s a bit archaic!
Boarding started too early stuck standing in the security corral for 1 hour with no update on when to board
As usual. The perfect flight. Keep it like it is
Although we had booked seats months in advance, we arrived at the airport with only three seat assignments for our group of eleven because we had not checked in online and the airline had overbooked the flight. The rest of us had to fly standby, which was a pretty tense situation for a while. Ultimately, we were all very grateful to be on the same flight from Istanbul to Izmir.
